Buyer Profile: Televisa

June 4, 2012 World Screen Top Stories
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MEXICO CITY: Grupo Televisa’s VP of programming, Alberto Ciurana, attended the L.A. Screenings and was pleased with this year’s crop of pilots from the Hollywood majors.

As the largest Spanish-language broadcaster in the world and market leader in Mexico, with four free-TV channels and a bouquet of pay-TV offerings, Televisa has output or volume deals with all the studios.

 

“The content presented at the L.A. Screenings always meets our expectations,” he commented. “This year was not the exception. The studios delighted us with great productions that include memorable characters, interesting plots and high production values. Pilots such as Warner Bros. International Television Distribution’s The Following and The Arrow, NBCUniversal’s Chicago Fire and Infamous, and Sony Picture Television’s Mob Doctor will be very attractive to our audience.
Most studios presented more comedies than they have in the past, but this was not a problem for Ciurana. “It is always good to have different kinds of content,” he said. “Although comedies [sometimes don’t travel well], we’ve had great experiences with some shows, such as The Big Bang Theory. It has always been important for us to provide our viewers with new, smart and family-oriented content. Some of the comedies presented at the L.A. Screenings meet these requirements.”
Ciurana was not in L.A. looking to fill any specific time slots, rather, like many other programming executives, he was on the lookout for something new. “We are not looking for a particular show or genre; we are mainly looking for innovating proposals,” he said. “It is proven that action, drama and criminal investigation work great for us. However, our audience continuously demands [avant-garde] content; new shows to engage with, new characters to identify with. It is not a matter of genre, it is a matter of content.”
And finding quality content is a key goal for Ciurana as the Mexican market continues to evolve and new technologies provide new options for viewers.
 

“In recent years, the Mexican free-TV audience has gained access to more diverse types of content, through both pay TV and digital media,” explains Ciurana. “Pay-TV systems continue to enhance their penetration while digital media is constantly evolving. In order to remain competitive, we need to provide high-quality content and keep up with the audience’s growing demands.
 In addition, when selecting our content we need to keep in mind that Televisa, as a multimedia company, constantly searches for content which not only serves our free-TV viewers but can also be exploited on our different platforms. However, distributors must very careful with the windows. We are not willing to pay for content that is being exploited on other platforms simultaneously.”