Latin focus: Televisa Internacional

Five new TV entertainment formats, upcoming Mexican telenovela Por Siempre mi Amor and the market premiere of RTI-produced series La Madame represent Televisa International highlights in Cannes this year.

Created by Madrid-based production house La Competencia, hidden camera show Los González, talent contests Playback and Ale Hop and entertainment program Sing It Sell It are among Televisa International’s newest TV formats.

Televisa and La Competencia have inked a five-year exclusive joint venture, which includes the development, financing, production and sales of formats and kicked off this year. “La Competencia has magnificent ideas; Televisa, a strong distribution arm. Together, both partners could be a formidable combination,” says Claudia Sahab, Televisa Internacional’s director for Europe.

La Competencia’s entertainment format Everybody and Their Brother has been licensed to 28 territories and is being adapted by Televisa’s Canal 5 in Mexico and RAI in Italy.

“We want to expand our offer and open new markets. Many TV primetime slots in Europe are taken by big entertainment formats. Because of the economic crisis, [demand for] TV fiction, which is now more expensive, has been reduced slightly, so we have tried to respond quickly to these market demands,” Sahab says.

Broadcast by Unimas in the US, La Madame leads a new line of internationally-friendly series. The 50-parter is produced by Patricio Wills’ Bogotá-based RTI.

At MIPCOM, Televisa will also show a trailer of La Viuda Negra, the second project out of the Televisa-RTI long-term TV production deal. Two classic telenovelas, Mentir para Vivir and De que te Quiero te Quiero complete Televisa Internacional’s new offer at MIPCOM.