BBC Studios has renewed and expanded its long-standing partnership with Movistar Plus+ in Spain, where the BBC Player VOD service will now launch.
The new agreement will see BBC Studios increase its content offering in the market with the introduction of BBC Player, the launch of additional FAST channels and a recommitment to premium natural history and BBC Earth content acquisitions.
The multi-genre BBC-branded VOD product will feature up to 1,000 hours of curated content from the BBC Studios catalog. Curated specifically for the Spanish audience, BBC Player will feature a mixture of scripted and unscripted titles, including The Louis Theroux Interviews, Simon Reeve’s South America and Amanda & Alan’s Italian Job, and, upon launch, will premiere future commissions of Father Brown and Paradise brand titles Death in Paradise, Beyond Paradise and Return to Paradise. The service will be available to all subscribers to Paquete Movistar+.
Movistar Plus+ will also act as BBC Studios’ advertising sales partner exclusively for the FAST channels inventory on Movistar Plus+ as well as for Player’s VOD advertising when the service launches.
Regarding natural history and factual programming, the extended agreement will see a continuation of a dedicated BBC Earth branded block, premiering the reimagined Kingdom and Blue Planet III.
Arran Tindall, chief commercial officer and executive VP for EMEA key markets at BBC Studios, said: “This expansion of our decade-long relationship demonstrates how BBC Studios is able to respond and adapt to our key partners’ needs and benefit their customers. The growth of BBC Player and FAST channels in EMEA is a core part of our strategy, offering complementary products that utilize our broad and high-quality content catalog and provide opportunities to find new audiences in new markets. I’m thrilled that Movistar Plus+ has come on board as a launch partner for BBC Player in Spain alongside their long-established content relationship with us.”
Janet Brown, president of global content sales at BBC Studios, said: “Our partnership with Movistar Plus+ continues to thrive because we share a commitment to delivering entertaining stories that spark conversations. Our homegrown content, including crime dramas, natural history, science and high-end documentaries, resonates strongly with Spanish audiences. This expanded agreement offers even more ways to connect and entertain audiences in the region with the content they love and deserve.”
Ismael Calleja, partnerships director at Movistar Plus+, said: “The expansion of our partnership with BBC Studios demonstrates Movistar Plus+’s commitment to quality content that is valuable to our customers. In addition to premium content from the likes of BBC Earth and new series such as Blue Lights, we are incorporating up to six new BBC channels and launching the BBC Player service with its on-demand catalog in Spain for the first time, which all our customers will be able to enjoy. In a market saturated with audiovisual offerings, Movistar Plus+ continues to be committed to excellence as a differentiating factor, and in this sense, we are very satisfied to have BBC Studios as a strategic partner.”
