Former HBO, Starz and Legendary TV chief Chris Albrecht discusses the formation of Rubicon Global Media, the IP and content firm he launched with Jorge Granier last summer. 

Chris Albrecht

Veteran programming boss Chris Albrecht has been at the forefront of taking the US television business global for more than 30 years.

During his tenure as chairman and CEO of HBO, he greenlit and worked on titles including Second World War miniseries Band of Brothers (2001) and historical drama Rome (2005), both of which were filmed in locations throughout Europe, and he more recently worked on the Japanese manga adaptation Drops of God.

But it wasn’t until 2020, during a stint as president of Legendary Television, that he began to fully recognize the power, talent and potential of the Spanish-language content ecosystem.

That year, Legendary TV forged a partnership with Spain’s ESPotlight, the content arm of Spanish talent agency Alter Ego, to develop and produce at least 10 titles a year. “I was immediately struck by how deep the talent market was there, and how interesting the stuff they were doing was,” he says.

“I started to be much more aware of Spanish-language television – not necessarily things that were created in the US, but things created in Spain, Mexico and Latin America. I have always been drawn to talent and this was a whole new pool of not just people but thinking and approach to making content that really appealed to me.”

After leaving Legendary at the end of 2022, Albrecht began to strategise around what his next content venture might look like. While the specifics had not yet come into focus, his overall vision was to build a nimble independent studio that could buy up IP libraries and use that to lure high-level international talent.

Years earlier, during his 10-year spell at the helm of Starz, Albrecht had been introduced to Jorge Granier, the Venezuelan-born producer who had cemented his reputation when he brought the Venezuelan telenovela Juana la Virgen to the US, with the subsequent American adaptation, Jane the Virgin, finding popularity on The CW during a five-season run between 2014 and 2019.

Venezuelan telenovela Juana la Virgen, or Jane the Virgin the US

Friend and longtime agent and producer Steve Waterman (Stuart Little, Alvin & the Chipmunks), who had introduced the duo initially, encouraged Albrecht to reconnect with Granier after his departure from Legendary.

As they got talking, Albrecht and Granier quickly discovered two things. First, that they had similar visions for building a start-up that could use existing IP as a foundation to attract talent. Second, they had very separate industry relationships that, if combined, could form a formidable Rolodex of collaborators.

Those conversations planted the seed for the formation of Rubicon Global Media, a language-agnostic independent content studio with a mission to unite talent and IP from across Latin America, Spain and Hollywood.

Its overarching business strategy is twofold, says Albrecht: to acquire IP libraries rooted in Hispanic heritage and, separately, to develop a pipeline of original content.

“We’ve certainly seen Spanish-language directors and actors cross over into the English-language market, but it hasn’t really been done purposefully by a company before,” argues Albrecht.

LA-based Rubicon Global officially launched in August with a strategic partnership in place with Secuoya Studios, part of Madrid-based production studio and distributor Secuoya Content Group. Through that partnership, Secuoya Studios is providing Rubicon Global with development funding and deficit financing for series and films.

Jorge Granier

Rubicon Global also signed a development partnership through which Mexico- and US-based prodco BTF Media is providing it with development funding for select projects.

Albrecht says these deals will get the original content part of the strategy moving while he and Granier size up acquisitions of several IP libraries. Rubicon Global has been having “very productive conversations with potential investors,” he says.

A key message from Albrecht is that the company is not focused solely on Spanish-language content. Rather, it will use Spanish and Latin American IP as the building blocks to produce content in all languages, with talent from across the globe.

In addition to the deals with Secuoya Studios and BTF Media, Rubicon Global inked a deal with Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson’s G-Unit Film & Television to coproduce Prey Before You Eat (working title), a hybrid English-Spanish crime drama. The project reunites Jackson and Albrecht, who collaborated previously on the Power franchise during the latter’s time at Starz.

The company’s primary focus is on premium drama, drawing on stories, storytellers and talent from across the world, says Albrecht.

While at Legendary, he worked on Drops of God, an eight-part drama set in the world of fine wine that was ordered by pubcaster France Télévisions and streamer Hulu Japan and streamed globally on Apple TV+.

The series is an example of a show that is “considered high-end drama in terms of its execution and appeal but not necessarily in terms of its cost,” he says. Given the strained industry backdrop, with streamers and studios eyeing budgets, the plan is to lean into coproductions and co-financing, he says.

Drops of God was set in the world of fine wine

As well as premium drama, Rubicon Global’s content plans include unscripted formats. “What we hope to do is use some of the IP and have it reinvented or rebooted by creative people,” he says. “So yes, we’re looking at a broad spectrum of programming that we think will give us the best opportunities to be involved with a broad spectrum of talent.”

Given the levels of consolidation in both the Spanish- and English-language media markets, the opportunities for well-connected and nimble indie studios with access to high-level talent are plentiful, he says.

Those opportunities are particularly evident in Spanish-language entertainment, which Albrecht says is “becoming more sophisticated on the creative side and more powerful as a financial consumer force.”

Like almost every company operating in LA, the dual strikes in the US in 2023 had an impact on Rubicon Global’s progress, with Albrecht noting that some of the company’s prospective financial partners paused to see how the market looked post-strike before making commitments. The effects were not severe though, he adds, calling the strike “just one of the factors in our launch and our early evolution.”

As for how the post-strike commissioning landscape will look for English-language projects, Albrecht says he expects the buying contraction that began prior to the labour stoppages will continue, particularly with US writer and actor costs increasing.

Power, a collaboration between Albrecht and Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson’s G-Unit Film & Television

“Before the strike, there was already a contraction in the number of shows made and a reduction in what [studios and streamers] were willing to pay for shows,” he says. “The increased costs are going to be factored in by the content buyers as costs of production, so that will put more downward pressure on what they’re willing to spend up front.”

In some ways, the shift toward lower-budgeted programming will level the playing field and create opportunities for small and mid-sized independent studios.

“Certainly, there will always be exceptions to the rules and things people will be willing to pay for, but I think they are going to be fewer and those additional costs are going to have downward pressure,” says Albrecht.

“That will create a need for lower-cost programming, which I think can be supplied much better by a nimble independent – nimble not only in terms of how we can do business in our own markets, but nimble in terms of finding partnerships, business models, working with talent from around the world and in creating new content forms that help transition or evolve the whole market.”