{"id":3493,"date":"2017-11-17T08:00:27","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T13:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvlatina\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2017-11-20T10:03:27","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T15:03:27","slug":"mip-cancun-panel-offers-global-view-on-latam-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvlatina\/mip-cancun-panel-offers-global-view-on-latam-business\/","title":{"rendered":"MIP Cancun Panel Offers Global View on LatAm Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

MarVista Entertainment\u2019s Kenneth Christmas, MGM\u2019s Matt Vassallo and Keshet International\u2019s Kelly Wright discussed business opportunities in Latin America at a MIP Cancun panel moderated by World Screen<\/em>\u2019s Anna Carugati.<\/p>\n

Keshet International\u2019s (KI) recent deals in the region include BOOM!<\/em> being adapted by Caracol in Colombia and several sales in Brazil, Wright, VP of distribution and new business, told delegates. \u201cBrazil has always been a great market for our content,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

MarVista Entertainment has produced three films with Caracol, said Christmas, executive VP of business and legal affairs, and it has a number of co-pro partners. \u201cWe\u2019re looking to expand and take advantage of what we see as a pretty significant opportunity to tell stories in this region that have global distribution capabilities. We\u2019ll be looking to do movies and series throughout LatAm.\u201d The company also distributes to platforms across the region via its partner Snap.<\/p>\n

Vassallo, senior VP of international television distribution, free TV sales and strategy and Latin America at MGM, cited a recent deal with Viacom\u2019s Paramount Channel for The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em>. MGM is also shopping formats to LatAm, with Vassallo expressing optimism about the prospects for Funderdome<\/em>. \u201cThe new business venture we\u2019re entering is a Luis Miguel series\u201d focused on the famous Mexican singer. The Spanish-language drama is being produced for Telemundo, with Netflix taking the first window for LatAm, Vassallo said, and Televisa taking Mexican free-TV rights.<\/p>\n

Carugati asked the panelists about the biggest changes in the region. Vassallo said that for MGM, it\u2019s been the weakening of the free-TV feature-film business. \u201cTraditionally a lot of the studios would have full-slate deals for all of their features and all of their series in many free-TV territories around the world. It\u2019s not quite that way anymore. Clients are being more selective in selecting properties from each studio that they think will work for them rather than the big slate deals. It\u2019s made us have to think about how we are going to reach a free-TV audience. Our feature films and series are thriving in basic and pay TV, and that\u2019s fine, but we need to figure out a way to reach free TV and reach a mass audience. That\u2019s what we’re doing with the Luis Miguel series. That\u2019s the biggest change, movies migrating up the windowing scheme, more viewing in SVOD and pay and basic and less in free TV.\u201d<\/p>\n

KI\u2019s Wright cited \u201cbrand identification,\u201d noting that free-TV broadcasters have had to move away from the traditional forms of programming that sustained them for decades. \u201cThey\u2019ve had to become more distinctive in a market with many more players, and of course that\u2019s a result of the OTT entrants in the market, which are starting to usurp a lot of those viewers, particularly the younger viewers. We\u2019ve really seen a stronger upping of the ante in terms of the risks they\u2019re taking. Televisa is producing a 13-episode comedy series, who would have thought that would happen five years ago? We see a real shift and a real willingness to evolve, quickly and effectively, towards a permanent new reality and not just to experiment. There\u2019s a real push, financially and creatively, to bring in a lot of new talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

For MarVista, \u201cWe\u2019ve found there\u2019s a lot of opportunity [in LatAm] because of OTT,\u201d Christmas said. \u201cWe will continue to exploit it, maybe with a little more flexibility than some of the larger U.S. studios.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lines between TV movie and feature and series are blurring, Christmas added. \u201cGood movies are good movies, good stories are good stories. Our movies generally don\u2019t get a wide theatrical release, but they do travel well in a variety of windows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carugati asked the panelists how their companies are responding to market changes. KI\u2019s Wright discussed the upending of the traditional distribution market, with sellers now having to decide to take their wares to individual free-TV players first or lock up a global first-window deal with an OTT service. \u201cYou have to think about what would be the best outlet for this type of content. And also, what\u2019s fair to the buyers? It isn\u2019t fair for everything to go to one global super-brand. A lot of buyers in Europe are fighting back against that model. That will happen in Latin America, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

MarVista\u2019s Christmas said the digital platforms reflect an \u201cenlargement of the pie. It creates more opportunities. In LatAm and the Caribbean, the number of households that get services digitally has doubled in the last five years. That trend will continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

MGM\u2019s Vassallo said the biggest move the studio has made to help boost its free-TV business was the creation of the Gato Grande joint venture with Mexican entrepreneurs Miguel Aleman and Antonio Cu\u00e9. \u201cThe purpose is to produce Spanish-language series. That\u2019s our play to get into free TV in the manner we used to with our feature films.\u201d<\/p>\n

KI, meanwhile, has opened a production company in Mexico. Keshet MX aims to be a \u201clocal, boutique production company with organic roots and a team who is really local, with an international sensibility and a powerful international business and distribution arm behind it.\u201d That enables both import and export businesses. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen so many amazing broadcasters in Latin America, like Globo, Televisa, Telefe, who have successful telenovelas and series that can air all over the world, but they don\u2019t have adaptations in the U.S. market. Why is that? It should be a natural migration towards that market, which is so accepting of formats from other territories. Mexico is a natural gateway between North America and South America, where there are so many ideas and such a fertile ground for this kind of content, especially in the scripted world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carugati asked Christmas about MarVista\u2019s experience with co-pros. \u201cBy partnering, you get authenticity. That\u2019s the beauty of today\u2019s marketplace. Good stories will travel and that\u2019s important for us as we look at partnerships. In the coming years we\u2019ll announce a number of partnerships with large entities that have a presence in Latin America, because we want that authenticity. Hopefully we can curate what we produce so it has global appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n

On partnerships, Vassallo said MGM is keeping an eye out for IP-based projects, be it a book, movie or life story. \u201cIt\u2019s a response to broadcasters who, when they launch something, want some inherent marketing within the IP, so people already know what it is. That helps us sell.\u201d<\/p>\n

The panel wrapped with a discussion of the challenges and opportunities they expect in the region in the next 12 months.<\/p>\n

KI\u2019s Wright said, \u201cThe trend I keep seeing that I think is having an adverse effect on our business in Latin America is the jumping on the bandwagon. \u2018Telemundo picked this up? I\u2019ll co-produce too.\u2019 And then five other countries are all airing the same content, the same show. That\u2019s really preventing creators and producers from doing their thing. People don\u2019t want to see the same content in Colombia as Mexico. This needs to stop. I keep hearing broadcasters say, we need something different, we want our own Game of Thrones<\/em>, we want to own it and fully finance it if we can. You see TV Azteca opening up Dopamine. So it\u2019s happening, it needs to happen and the Latin American viewers deserve for it to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vassallo said MGM aims to continue to expand and develop Gato Grande, delivering more Spanish-language fare. \u201cThere are a lot of production companies and studios out there. It\u2019s getting to be a better time for independents, because they\u2019re nimble. Rules and regulations are changing [in terms of local content quotas]. That\u2019s going to lead to more creativity and more opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

MarVista\u2019s Christmas said that digital platforms are making \u201cthe pie bigger. We\u2019re excited for that activity. We want to be part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MarVista Entertainment\u2019s Kenneth Christmas, MGM\u2019s Matt Vassallo and Keshet International\u2019s Kelly Wright discussed business opportunities in Latin America at a MIP Cancun panel moderated by World Screen\u2019s Anna Carugati.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":3494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,69],"tags":[256,561,562,491],"class_list":["post-3493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-analysis","category-top-stories","tag-keshet-international","tag-marvista-entertainment","tag-mgm","tag-mip-cancun-2017"],"yoast_head":"\nMIP Cancun Panel Offers Global View on LatAm Business - TVLATINA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvlatina\/mip-cancun-panel-offers-global-view-on-latam-business\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MIP Cancun Panel Offers Global View on LatAm Business - TVLATINA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MarVista Entertainment\u2019s Kenneth Christmas, MGM\u2019s Matt Vassallo and Keshet International\u2019s Kelly Wright discussed business opportunities in Latin America at a MIP Cancun panel moderated by World Screen\u2019s Anna Carugati.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvlatina\/mip-cancun-panel-offers-global-view-on-latam-business\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVLATINA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-11-17T13:00:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-11-20T15:03:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvlatina\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/07\/MIPCancunPanel-1117.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"319\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvlatina\/mip-cancun-panel-offers-global-view-on-latam-business\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvlatina\/mip-cancun-panel-offers-global-view-on-latam-business\/\",\"name\":\"MIP Cancun Panel Offers Global View on LatAm Business - TVLATINA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvlatina\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-11-17T13:00:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-11-20T15:03:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvlatina\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvlatina\/mip-cancun-panel-offers-global-view-on-latam-business\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvlatina\/mip-cancun-panel-offers-global-view-on-latam-business\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvlatina\/mip-cancun-panel-offers-global-view-on-latam-business\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvlatina\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MIP Cancun Panel Offers Global View on LatAm Business\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvlatina\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvlatina\/\",\"name\":\"TVLATINA\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvlatina\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvlatina\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\",\"name\":\"Mansha Daswani\",\"description\":\"Mansha Daswani is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of World Screen. 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