Antonio Antón: Last News

Atresplayer, which ambitiously re-launches July 5.  Just until a few years ago, European TV giants treated their streaming operations to bedrock linear lineups. Those days have gone. At Annecy, BBC and France Télévisions were talking up their streaming services as their future. ITV and Germany’s RTL are bowing their biggest plays on OTT operations, ITVX and RTL+, respectively, powering up strong subscriptions’ hikes.  Belgium’s VRT currently estimates “almost a 50/50 split” in its acquisitions budget as it focusing on “finding unique series that viewers wouldn’t expect from a public broadcaster for its streaming service,” Sven Van Lokeren, head of international fiction series acquisition at Belgium’s VRT told Variety at February’s London TV Screenings. 

Emiliano De Pablos Spain’s TV market saw 82 new fiction series commissions over September 2022 to August 2023, 61% of them aimed at exclusive online release, compared to 52% the year before, according to TV research firm The Wit. A few years ago, online was an afterthought.

Mipcom, “Rapa” weighs in as a classic rural murder mystery which then tears up that sub-genre’s rule book. “Offworld,” another Movistar+ original, is a collective series written by some of Spain’s most talented screenwriters, with each episode, set in a world after a massive power outage, helmed by a different director.  Given its pedigree, you’d expect something different from “The Route,” however.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Atresplayer Premium, the burgeoning OTT service behind HBO Max hit “Veneno,” has renewed “The Gypsy Bride” (“La novia gitana”), whose Season 1, from “Penny Dreadful” director Paco Cabezas, world premieres at the San Sebastian Film Festival.  Atresmedia Television will produce with Banijay Iberia’s Diagonal TV, producer of Netflix hit “Heirs to the Land.”Produced by VIS with the participation of Atresmedia Television and the collaboration of the Diagonal TV, the first season of “The Gypsy Bride” will bow on Atresplayer Premium on Sept. 25.  Directed in its totality by Cabezas, whose credits also include “American Gods,” Season 1 is set in a gypsy community on Madrid’s humble outskirts as homicide inspector Elena Blanco, (Nerea Barros, “Marshland”) is called in to investigate the torture and assassination of a young woman just before her wedding.

Atresmedia, owner of the OTT service Atresplayer Premium, is finding the sweet spot between auteur and broad audience shows.Launched two years ago, Atresplayer Premium boasts fast growth in terms of subscriptions – reaching 400,000 users in Spain alone –  and content production volume, readying some 20 new TV projects for this year.Promoting original voices, the platform is winning international visibility. Iconic original series “Veneno,” created by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, “Los Javis,” successfully launched on HBO Max in the U.S.