With focus on Latin America, “Buyer’s Briefing: acquisitions vectors in the Americas” was one of the top panels of LAVS weekend, involving key players of the region such as TV Azteca, Banijay, Gersh Agency and Paramount South Cone: they offered their impressions as programmers for linear TV, but also as producers for their own signals and third parties.
Organized and produced by Prensario Internacional and NATPE at LA Virtual Screenings, the session featured Mercedes Feu, Senior Director Paramount Southern Cone, Telefe/Chilevision (Argentina); Sandra Smester, EVP and COO, TV Azteca (Mexico); Jerry Rodríguez, SVP Head of Scripted, Banijay (USA); and Roy Ashton, Partner, Gersh Agency (USA), who explained their content needs. The session was conducted by Nicolás Smirnoff, director of Prensario.
The first to speak was Smester, who began the session: ‘Content is still the king on TV: The first thing we value about a product is its life beyond a screen and under this precept we acquire and develop our stories and shows’.
She highlighted that since leading her position, the company is focusing on live programs and formats, moving away from fiction a bit: ‘Our steps this year is to strengthen our stories and it is That is why we are already in several conversations to develop productions in alliance with important names in fiction’.
Meanwhile, Rodríguez, who leads the fiction and scripted content area at EndemolShine Boomdog/Banijay, assured that he is always ‘paying attention’ to the most innovative IPs and the most original stories. We are working on several titles simultaneously, and these they are being worked on so that they can work both linearly and on VOD, because we are also providers of great stories with our label for third parties’.
The executive explained that he highly value production quality, which is why they team up with the most outstanding professionals in photography, scriptwriting and editing. ‘An example of this is the series that we created together with Kate del Castillo and her producer, where we gave the classic story of Anna Karenina a spin’.
Meanwhile, Feu, who leads the strategies of Paramount’s signals in the southern cone (Chilevisión and Telefe), said: ‘We always think about the potential opportunities that can be developed with a specific story: from content derived from these, talent involved , additional content that can live on other screens’, she underlined.
The executive commented on the strategy they are carrying out after acquiring the rights for The Voice in Chile and Argentina: ‘In both territories we are carrying out a program strategy that includes live presentations after the programs, tours with the participants, additional content on other screens, all of these, very different from the foreign versions of The Voice’.
Likewise, she expressed that the company continues with a strategy that includes a first-line alliance with industry leaders to make these contents available on the screens of Chile and Argentina.
Lasly, Ashton spoke about his role in front of Gersh Agency, which includes locating and linking those he represents with the most interesting content and projects on the market: At Gersh we represent actors, directors, writers and creatives from the industry and we look for those synergies with the products that we feel fit with them’.
The executive highlighted that one of his recent successes was named after the Argentine format La Chica que Limpia, whose US-version on FOX successfully selected several of his clients, and is returning on a second season. ‘In addition to La Chica que Limpia, we are working on new projects for the Hispanic market and for different highly relevant players, such as Disney’.
