Televisa pulls shows from Netflix

Mexican broadcaster has pulled its programming from Netflix as it positions its own SVOD platform, Blim.

“Televisa content will be exclusively for Blim; that’s our strategy,” said Blim’s director general, Carlos Sandoval in an interview with Forbes Mexico.

This means strong performing local shows such as soaps Rebelde and Teresa will come off Netflix and move in-house at Televisa.

Blim was announced last month as the latest OTT player in the Mexican TV market, with its key rivals being Netflix, American Movil’s Clarovideo and HBO Go.

According to Dataxis stats cited in the Forbes report, Mexico’s video-on-demand market is worth US$3.17 billion.

Blim is being launched across Latin America, except in Brazil, where Netflix has been since 2011 and has some four million customers. Sandoval said priority markets included Colombia, Chile, Peru and Argentina.

It offers exclusive, first-run films such as James Bond movie Spectre and US series such as Wayward Pines.

Blim will have around 20,000 hours of content by year-end, with around 13,000 currently offered. It costs MXN109 (US$6.15) per month, with the first offered for free.