ICEX Organizes Visits to Spanish Production & Distribution Outfits

MADRID/SEGOVIA/BARCELONA: The Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX) organized a visit to Madrid, Segovia and Barcelona for a select group of international trade press publications, including World Screen and TV Latina, to showcase the innovative work of Spanish production and distribution companies.

The event, which took place from November 7 to 11, kicked off with a keynote address on behalf of ICEX’s executives, led by Juan Miguel Márquez Pérez, the director of the promotion and service division, as well as Isabel Espuelas Peñalva, the director of the content industry department, who thanked the attendance of foreign press and presented the activities for the week.

The program began with a visit to Televisión Española, where it’s director, Santiago González, held a press conference highlighting the company’s activities and how the landscape has evolved since January 2010, when the channel began airing without advertising. The executive highlighted channel La1’s leadership in the Spanish market. “It’s the most competitive,” he said. “It’s the leading channel.”

González later talked about the rest of the company’s channels, like La2, a cultural and social content feed; 24 Horas; Clan TV, the preschool channel; Teledeportes; Canal Internacional, as well as highlighting RTVE’s online achievements.

As a company, González stated, “it has built a model of social profitability in Spain, without falling in crisis or pitfalls.” In regards to end-of-year results in 2011, González mentioned a revenue increase of about 14 percent.

The trip followed with a visit to the set of Amar en tiempos revueltos, airing on TVE and currently producing the seventh season.

Veralia Group, owned by Vocento, was the next stop. The company includes production outfits Europroducciones, BocaBoca and Hillvalley. The press conference included Stefano Torrisi, the director of the international division at Europroducciones, and Marco Fernández de Araoz, the director of international sales and acquisitions at Veralia. The company announced it was working on a new version of El gran juego de la oca, a famous game show airing in the ’90s that will be on four channels in Latin America.

Zed showcased its videogames and productions, as well as the famous film Planet 51 and their educational initiative U-TAD, a tech-based university looking to train new generations of digital producers, who will later continue collaborating with the company.

Tuesday, November 8, began with a visit to the Imagina offices, including a short tour of some of the most important production sets, where Aída for Telecinco and Águila roja for TVE are shot. The press conference was led by Daniel Écija, the CEO of Globomedia; Laura Miñarro, the sales manager at Imagina International Sales; and Alfonso Mardones, also an executive at Globomedia. Écija announced, among other projects, that the company will co-produce with Antena 3, Luna, el misterio de Calenda, which has already begun production and will air on Spanish-TV in prime time.

The visit to Vértice 360 was led by the company’s director of operations, Daniel Rubio; the general director of development and content production, Nathalie García; and Gonzalo Sagardía, the general director of Vértice Sales. The company announced it is co-producing, together with Powwow, El líder de la manada, for Cuatro in Spain. The show stars César Millán and will run 10 episodes.

The day ended with a visit to Boomerang TV International and a presentation by María García-Castrillón, responsible for fiction sales and acquisition; and Chiara Pallais Jimeno, production coordinator. García-Castrillón said that the company, producer of Física o química, made originally for Antena 3, will also be produced for Telemundo in the U.S., becoming “the first Spanish producer to sell a fiction Spanish format to that country.”