Spain Steps Up its Format Sales II

The second in a two-part series, TV Formats Weekly continues to explore the many reasons why Spanish companies have been thriving in the format arena.

While there’s no magic formula for ensuring a format’s international success, having the know-how of one of the biggest audiovisual groups in Spain behind the concept certainly instills confidence. Such is the case with the catalogue from Imagina International Sales.

Imagina International Sales is owned by the Imagina Group, a holding company of the two largest Spanish content producers: Grupo Globomedia and Mediapro. Imagina has a number of series and programs in its catalogue that have been audience hits in Spain, including Red Eagle and The Boat, and its formats have been licensed in countries worldwide.

The dramedy The Serranos has been airing in Italy since 2007 with much success. The thriller Countdown was formatted for RTL in Germany and the first two seasons aired in prime time to solid audience shares. France’s TF1 is airing RTL’s German adaptation of Countdown, following the success it had with the original Spanish version. The mystery The Boarding School was recently adapted by A.Media Productions for CTC Network to air in prime time in Russia. And FremantleMedia recently went for a worldwide option deal on the docu-reality series Hotel Stories.

Géraldine Gonard, the sales director for Imagina, says a key strength of the company’s is its ability to "produce long series and shows, doing easily two or more seasons each year, making the Spanish product very attractive for the buyers or producers to adapt them locally."

Meanwhile, Zed TV has given its formats an innovative hook by incorporating multiplatform elements. Daniel Maza, the general manager of Zed, says the group has embraced the idea to "revolutionize the format landscape by combining the use of TV, web and mobile platforms to build visibility and momentum for the competition and its contestants on every single platform."

An example of this is Zed’s Instantly Rich, which combines live TV, SMS and social networking. The show aired in Spain with two different seasons on Antena 3, in addition to airing in Argentina on Telefé, Colombia on RCN and Poland on Polsat.

Banijay International recently reached an agreement with Spain’s Plural Entertainment to distribute the format Spoiled Kids in the U.S. and a number of territories across Europe, including France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. The format, which originally aired on Cuatro in Spain, features a group of superficial youngsters who must confront their fears and deal with life on their own for the first time. "The industry has shown great interest in this format," said José Manuel Rey-Cabarcos, the content and production manager at Plural Entertainment, in presenting the title.           

The wide-reaching deal for Spoiled Kids is a further testament to the international legs many of these Spanish productions have. Ana Maria Gonzalez, sales executive at ZZJ, believes that opportunities will continue to open up in new territories as well. "Traditionally, the natural market for Spanish products has been Latin America, although lately the market has begun to open up in European territories; particularly emerging markets in Eastern Europe and Asia are becoming increasingly important," she says.

ZZJ has a catalogue of more than 7,000 hours of entertainment programming produced for regional, national and international broadcasters. Among its most popular formats is Last Date?, which has been produced in Turkey for Kanal D, and was optioned by Endemol for France and by Turkish production company V-Yapim. In Scandinavia, the format has been optioned by Nordisk Films, a member of the Banijay Group. The kids’ format Children’s Night Show has aired on Canal Sur, Telemadrid and Canal 9 in Spain and on Telemundo in Argentina. The Spanish version was broadcast in Mexico by TV Azteca. The series has also been produced in Turkey for Show TV, along with options in Poland and Romania.

With sales opportunities continuing to expand their borders, the market has opened up for new entrants in the Spanish format game. A relatively young company, at just two and a half years old, Phileas Productions has already sold several of its formats into the international market, notes Sergio Sancho, the founder and managing director at Phileas.

Catalogue highlights include the game shows The 20 Little Piggy Banks, The ATM, The Next Generation Game Show and Involution as well as the reality series The Facegroup Band. The 20 Little Piggy Banks was acquired by TF1 Production for France and for the rest of the world Endemol International has the rights; the show is currently in production in Indonesia to be called 10 Little Chicks. Involution just hit the air in Spain on Antena 3; Zodiak Rights has the global rights. The ATM has been sold in France and Belgium and conversations are ongoing with different companies for other territories. The Facegroup Band has been optioned in France and Belgium and is in negotiation for Spain. While The Next Generation Game Show hasn’t been sold yet, Sancho says there is "lots of interest from different countries. We have great expectations from this show!"

Given the momentum the country already has behind it, Sancho believes that Spain will continue to flex its creative muscle in the format space. "I really think that this is only the beginning, because there are so many great ideas around, that unfortunately they haven’t been produced because the broadcasters couldn’t take risks on new formats (due to the economic crisis). Now, it looks like the industry is recovering and there are more broadcasters willing to try new things."