Grand Hotel


LatAm scripted: The end of telenovelas?

For decades, the telenovela has been Latin America’s flagship TV genre, seducing audiences around the world. But shifts in the landscape have pushed the region’s TV giants to usher in a new generation that targets international markets and streaming platforms. Emiliano de Pablos reports. A powerhouse of creative TV talent in Latin America is re-defining […]

CBC opening local Grand Hotel in Egypt

Egyptian channel CBC is today launching a remake of Spanish period drama Grand Hotel following a deal with German distributor Beta Films. The show will debut today in the Ramadan ‘super-primetime’ period – when fasting Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa region deliver networks massive ratings spikes. It will also launch on other […]

Drama, Italian style

Italy has emerged from the doldrums to become a leading European drama producer in recent years, largely down to investment from the pay TV sector. New developments look set to take things a step further, reports Jesse Whittock. The idea that Italy would give birth what is set to be one of the biggest international […]

NATPE Europe: Welbers exiting Beta Film

Eric Welbers will leave Beta Film in the next few weeks, after almost twenty years at the Munich-based producer and distributor. Welbers was speaking at NATPE yesterday on a coproduction panel moderated by TBI. He confirmed he is leaving Beta, where he is managing director. The seasoned TV exec will remain in the international business […]

Holding out for Hierro

Galician thriller Hierro was named best project at the Berlinale’s first CoPro Series pitching competition in February. TBI reports on what the award means for its international prospects. Galician-created drama Hierro competed at Berlinale’s CoPro Series 2015 and beat four other finalists, in the process winning an invitation to participate this month at Series Mania, […]

Three to watch from Spain

A trio of Spanish primetime dramas are set to make international headlines. Spain’s TV advertising slump has hit local fiction budgets hard, but with US imports banished from the primetime schedules of the main broadcasters, local drama continues to connect strongly with audiences. In the cutthroat world of Spanish free TV primetime, three new series […]

Spain’s drama producers look to go global

Spain’s crisis has forced TV producers to seek international business. Local fiction continues to dominate Spanish primetime, but the dramatic fall in investment in TV advertising has obliged broadcasters to cut their budgets for originals. Creating virtue out of necessity, an increasing number of drama producers are looking beyond Spanish border and beginning to reap […]

Hulu checks in to Grand Hotel

US VOD service Hulu is among the latest buyers of Spanish period drama Grand Hotel, TBI can reveal. Austria’s ORF and Sony’s new German pay TV channel Sony Entertainment Television have also acquired the show, which has been described by sources here in Cannes as a cross between ITV’s Downtown Abbey and Danish mystery drama The Killing. Furthermore, Italian prodco […]