Spanish Sales Insights: RTVE’s int’l sales director, María Jesús Pérez

Operación Barrio Inglés

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.

Here, we speak to RTVE’s international sales director, María Jesús Pérez, about the growth of female-driven drama, demand from Eastern Europe and the global appeal of its Spain-based World War II series Operación Barrio Inglés.

Maria Jesús Pérez

What has been the stand-out trend around scripted series so far this year?

Miniseries of different genres with strong female characters.

Which types of buyers are you seeing most demand from?

Asian and Eastern Europe buyers are especially active.

Are there particular regions that are buying more Spanish fiction than before?

US, Asia and Eastern Europe are more focused on Spanish fiction than before.

Spanish fiction is hugely diverse, but which genres are proving most popular?

Demand for thrillers and historical and period dramas.

How do you expect the market to change next year?

Fewer but more more selected productions.

What are your key three shows at the moment?

Operación Barrio Inglés is a thriller with spies, Nazis, British and a risky love story set in Huelva in 1940, a city where the conflicts of the Second World War are reproduced on a smaller scale. Also, 4 Estrellas, a contemporary, romantic and family-oriented comedy in which, as in life, everything happens at the worst possible moment, and La Moderna, a recently premièred daily series that explores the weaving plot lines between employees and customers of a distinguished tea room in the 1930’s Madrid.