Discovery seeks third-party Spanish content for distribution

Discovery Communications’s programme sales team is ramping up efforts to acquire Spanish-language content that it can distribute throughout Latin America.

“We are actively setting out to acquire Spanish content,” said Elliot Wagner, vice president, international programme sales and North America partnerships at Discovery.

“One challenge we face at Discovery is that the networks business drives the company so there is certain content [from the Discovery channels] we won’t sell. Acquiring content is a good way to supplement what we have.”

Wagner said that with programme sales now within the Discovery Studios Group, content sales are now part of a full-service production and distribution unit that can better exploit IP across multiple windows and categories.

The company has been selectively buying content for distribution, but will accelerate this initiative this year.

“We have acquired in the past on a limited basis, but will start to be more aggressive,” Wagner said. “We want to buy content in the genres we are familiar with, and we will give our own networks the first look. If they don’t take it, we will take it to market.”