Televisa, Lionsgate Announce New Production Venture

MIAMI: During a Thought Leadership: In Conversation With session at NATPE, Jon Feltheimer, the co-chairman and CEO at Lionsgate, and Emilio Azcárraga, Grupo Televisa’s president and CEO, announced a new joint venture for the development and programming of television content in English for the U.S. market.

The deal comes after both companies signed an agreement in 2010 to establish Pantelion, a joint venture geared toward Hispanic movie-goers in the U.S. “The agreement is quite simple,” said Feltheimer. “We’ve put together a venture to co-finance, develop and produce English-language television product for the U.S. market. We think it’s a great opportunity for partners who’ve been in business a long time to create things that will be successful in the marketplace using both formats and original programming from new writers.”

Azcárraga added: “The relationship we’ve developed with Jon and his team has helped this idea of working initially on the theatrical side, and now, on the television side to develop new ideas together and create quality content for the general market, with an opportunity to reach Latins that speak English.”

He explained that one of the reasons for reaching this agreement is based on Pantelion’s success, “and that relationship has evolved to television. With Lionsgate’s experience, power and quality, I think we can turn this into a great business."

For Feltheimer, one of the key reasons is the fast-growing U.S. Hispanic population, which has grown four times faster than the rest of the population. “It’s a voracious consumer of entertainment, two times more in theaters than the general population, devours more DVDs, watches four and half hours of television. Clearly, it’s an audience we want to reach,” he said.

In the last year, Pantelion has made six movies in English and Spanish, and two more will launch in the next three months. One is La casa de mi padre, starring Will Ferrell, and A Girl in Progress, with Eva Mendes.

The conversation turned toward the qualities and characteristics of the productions they look to develop with the new alliance. “We’ll have everything," said Azcárraga. "There’s a production called La dueña, which is more a daily show, a love story, drama. On the other hand we have Terminales, which is a series. Both are in preproduction.” La dueña is being developed as Badlands for ABC in partnership with ABC Studios, while Terminales is for ABC Family. Also in the works is Teresa, based on the hit Televisa novela of the same name. From Prada to Nada, Pantelion’s first film, is being made into a comedy series and a broadcaster will be announced soon.

The alliance aims to fund six to eight projects a year, both original ideas and those adapted from Televisa novelas. The slate aims to encompass both scripted and unscripted fare. 

In regards to network- and pay-TV opportunities, Azcárraga commented that in the Hispanic segment, there are more people speaking English, but are watching more television in Spanish. This, he said, is an opportunity for the channels to acquire quality content from this new venture that can provide for this segment.

Speaking on the general strategy for the alliance, Feltheimer declared that “establishing partnerships is difficult. It’s necessary to have excellent relationships with the people you work with because no two companies have the same exact agenda."

The two also discussed the scholarship program they developed for USC, “because we thought it was important to develop talent not only in front of the camera, but behind it as well. Every year we offer two scholarships at USC at the Film School.” said Feltheimer. “We’re working on being a complete service partnership for the community.”