Javier González Núñez, director of RTVE’s International Sales Department, spoke with ttvnews in Cannes about the group’s latest developments in production, content distribution in the current market, and his perspective on the industry’s current landscape.
*Produced by Luis Cabrera and Ana Paula Carreira, from Cannes, France
RTVE’s international sales team, led by Javier González, made its way to a new edition of Mipcom Cannes to showcase the corporation’s latest productions, including the fiction series Sin Gluten and La Frontera.
As part of the event, the executive spoke with ttvnews about the success of these series being presented in the international market, and the challenges and opportunities presented by the Ibero-American audiovisual industry.
To begin, tell me about the products you would like to highlight from this current shift in Spain and internationally.
The series we’ve primarily brought to this market, which is Gluten Free, which we aired the other day, has been the best fiction premiere by far. I mean, we’re talking about a 17.3% audience, which is a number for a sporting event at the level of football. A fiction series never reaches that level.
We’ve also premiered La Frontera, a controversial series about ETA, the beginnings of ETA, which were especially tough, and it’s brutal, brutal. I mean, one of those series where you watch it and say, damn, well done, well produced, what we talked about before, well scripted, all the details, because the sum of the details is when you see the level.
In the case of Gluten Free, what do you consider so successful in Spain?
I think it’s successful in Spain and abroad. We all like to see when someone is very successful, but they’re a real jerk. We like to see how that successful jerk falls. In the end, these people are on the internet telling you how well they live, what an ideal life they have, but they’re arrogant. You see them and say, I don’t identify with that. But then you see him fall. And then there’s another step: you start to feel empathy for him because you see him fall. And you end up empathizing with the character because he’s fallen into a situation beyond his control that he’d never even considered. And how he then, little by little, accepts that situation and recovers.
With such powerful titles, how do you see the sales of scripted formats today?
Selling the format is probably the hardest sale to make. All the stars have to come together. Someone has to fall in love with the series. It has to be an idea that can take off around the world. It can’t be any harder if you’re making it for just one country.
For example, La caza. Monteperdido. When I saw that series, my mind was blown. It was spectacular. France made it its own way, with its actors, and it was a huge success. Or Estoy Vivo, which we were working on until yesterday, was about to be brought to the United States with its scripts, with its actors.
These are series that can travel. But they have to have the time slot to air it, the budget. It’s a long-term project. Because you keep saying, hey, I love this, but I have to start working on scripts. So you have to be clear that in about a year, a year and a half, that’s when you’ll be able to air it. I mean, everything has to be incredibly clear. Therefore, I think it’s probably the most complex selling point. Because there are so many factors involved.
And if we’re talking about non-scripted formats, how is that business idea working today?
These are more daily programs and such. There are very fresh programs. I think each country has its own unique flavor. I think that selling point is more complicated. I think each one has its own idiosyncrasies. There, we have less experience selling those scripts, those formats. These are products that can succeed here. They often succeed because of the personality of the host.
How is the US Hispanic doing today? In particular, the growth. How do you see it as a region?
In the US Hispanic, above all, we’ve noticed that what used to be the immigrant family that perhaps despised Spanish a bit is now starting to take pride in its roots. That aspect has been noticeable. “I am Spanish and I speak Spanish.” That’s perceptible, the love for all things Spanish.
Is that noticeable in the slots you find for content?
More than in the slots, it’s noticeable in the perception. We’re seeing more interest. Before, they said, “Our content isn’t particularly welcome.” And now it is. Now they’re asking about it. Then it will be closed, it won’t be closed, but you sense that there is interest.
How do you see the different parts of Latin America today and their eagerness for Spanish content and growth?
There isn’t a global response. We’re noticing, for example, in Chile, a rapprochement, a greater interest. We also have a lot of information based on the platform. We have the payment platform, and that’s when you see the level of subscriptions. Because that’s where you’re accessing our catalog. So, although we can’t link it 100% to the response, it really gives you a perception.
When we started, the largest partner, the number with the highest subscriptions was the United States. Then Mexico started to rise. And interestingly, Argentina, which started very strongly, and yet, Chile is now the one that has reached a brutal cruising speed.
Latin American buyers, you might ask, is this the first thing they evaluate today? How did it do in the local broadcast?
There’s no rule. We presented La frontera here last year, we haven’t aired it yet, and it’s already sold. But it’s already sold in a lot of countries. And wherever it’s aired, it’s been a success.
And yet there are other series that are hugely successful. I think they don’t perceive, they don’t recognize that success in Spain equals success today. Because sometimes, for example, we have a series, La ley del mar, about immigrants. And what the buyers told us is that that seems very distant to us. These are themes that may be of great interest here, but not there. That’s why there’s no rule. Each case is a rule.
There are already many people waiting for its broadcast…
In fact, it’s going to be broadcast soon; they just confirmed it to us now. That’s why it’s the perfect example. Sometimes you say, a show that no one believes in and it works like a charm. Another one where everyone is going crazy about the hate they’re going to give, but that’s not the case. Be humble and look at the data the next day.
