Spanish Sales Insights: Movistar Plus+ International’s general manager, María Valenzuela

La Mesias

TBI has partnered with Audiovisual From Spain to get the low-down from some of the biggest names in Spanish distribution on the latest sales trends and areas of growing interest in the country.

In our latest instalment, Movistar Plus+ International’s general manager María Valenzuela talks to TBI about risk, the surging demand from Latin America-based buyers and why her company’s unique drama La Mesías is travelling globally.

Maria Valenzuela

What has been the stand-out trend around scripted series so far this year?
The stand-out trend for me is nowadays more about quality and innovation than about genres. The series need to be different, risky, really high quality and they should come with the strongest talent, both behind and in front of the cameras.

Which types of buyers are you seeing most demand from?
Among our buyers, we can find all nationalities and all types of services and channels, from pay-TV to free-to-air and VOD. If we look for the most demand, we should talk about VOD platforms in Europe and Lat Am.

Are there particular regions that are buying more Spanish fiction than before?
It’s fair to say Spanish content has a great impact in the international audiovisual market. Our creativity together with the high level of production have made the Spanish audiovisual industry its way all over the world, conquering in some cases very important territories. A good story can make viewers fall in love with it globally even if its local. In our case, stories like those of Rapa or Hierro have conquered audiences in multiple territories. But again, I would say Europe and Lat Am are the biggest markets for Spanish productions, as well as US Hispanic.

Spanish fiction is hugely diverse, but which genres are proving most popular?
From our experience, thriller is a win-win genre. Our thrillers are strong stories and are told in an original way that goes away from the genre standards. We could speak again about Rapa and Hierro as examples. Nevertheless, drama is also a genre that travels well, high concept series like The Left-Handed Son, Best Short Form Series at CanneSeries 2023, get a lot of interest from the international market.

Galgos

How do you expect the market to change next year?
The market is always evolving and every few years there is a bigger change. This is not new to the industry. We think adapting to new realities is very positive. We see our flexibility and independence to be a key aspect nowadays, as it makes us a good partner during these changing times.

What are your key three shows at the moment?

La Mesías is the new fiction series by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo. It is a shocking season of seven episodes that tells us the peculiar story of a mother who, in her delirium, rise her daughters to save the world. It has been selected in the Official Selection of San Sebastian International Film Festival and is a very special and original series that will surprise everyone. It is a unique universe, very different from what we are used to and an exceptional product.

We also have The Other Side, a six x 30-minute show that has been created and directed by Berto Romero, which for the first time in Spanish fiction unites horror and comedy. It tells the story of a journalist specialised in paranormal events who is going through his worst professional and personal moment when he starts experiencing himself strange events in his personal life.

Finally, we have Galgos. This is a 6 x 50-minute family saga drama set in the business world, full of ambition, power, loyalty and deception.