Ben Silverman and Isabel San Vargas reveal why now is the time to launch Propagate Fuego, how its first-look deal with ViX+ sets it up for future success and why streaming players with global aspirations have no choice but to invest in Spanish-language programming.

Netflix’s Mexican drama series Rebelde

The Spanish-language content market has long been an area of interest for LA-based Propagate Content and its executive team.

Ever since the company was founded in 2015, it has been producing unscripted series in Mexico, and prior to that, co-CEO and chairman Ben Silverman was involved with high-profile English-language adaptations of Hispanic series such as Ugly Betty and Jane the Virgin.

But shifts in the market over the past two years – primarily an infusion of capital into premium Spanish-language scripted programming from deep-pocketed streaming players – has prompted Propagate to ramp up its activities on the scripted side. Its credits include Mexican drama Rebelde for Netflix and horror-comedy Pinches Momias for TelevisaUnivision’s upcoming SVoD platform ViX+.

Sensing the timing was right, Propagate made its Spanish-language aspirations official in January with the launch of its new division, Propagate Fuego, spearheaded by Silverman and Propagate’s president of global productions, Isabel San Vargas, who was elevated to equity partner in 2021.

The overarching goal is simple, says Silverman: tap into the wealth of new opportunities being created as global streaming outlets look beyond English-language programming to attract new subscribers.

Ben Silverman

“We’re now organising because the market is getting organised,” he tells C21, adding that Propagate’s existing relationships with Latin American talent in LA and Miami, where the company has offices, have allowed it to hit the ground running.

San Vargas adds: “The market is right for it. I feel like the market has actually been right for it for a long time, so we’re capitalising on the fact there are now so many streamers and people who are focused on this specific market.”

A+E Networks-backed Propagate is putting significant resources behind the new endeavour, with Catalina Ramirez (VP of Propagate International), Rodney Ferrell (executive VP of scripted content), Cyrus Farrokh (president of Propagate International) and recent scripted hire Audrey Cilento, formerly of Jennifer Lopez’s Nuyorican Productions, also involved in the division.

New financial and creative possibilities have made the launch of a dedicated division viable in 2022, says Silverman.

“The big difference from today compared to years ago is that the budgets are now rising to a point where we can really pursue subjects that weren’t pursued before. We can expand into genres and stories that were [previously] limited by the money that local broadcasters could invest,” he says.

“There’s a lot of interesting stories that have just not been told, limited by the fact the budgets were so small. [In the past], you couldn’t do a Latin superhero because you couldn’t afford to have him fly.”

That is no longer the case, as the likes of Netflix and Amazon, which were the first global streamers to invest significantly in Spanish-language content, continue to bolster their investments, and the likes of HBO Max, Paramount+, Disney+, Apple TV+, Starzplay and others follow suit.

Another compelling entrant is ViX, the AVoD and SVoD offering from recently formed Spanish-language media giant TelevisaUnivision. The company launched its AVoD offering, ViX, last month while its SVoD tier ViX+ will launch in the second half of the year.

ViX+ signed an exclusive first-look deal with Propagate Fuego for both scripted and unscripted content, with the agreement giving TelevisaUnivision exclusive first-look rights to all content developed by Propagate Fuego. The deal also includes a development fund for options, writers, formats and scripts.

Isabel San Vargas

Asked why the first-look agreement with ViX+ made sense, Silverman says: “We felt that with the team that was assembled at ViX, they were not only going to carry through with their vision, but they had a real marketplace leadership opportunity.

“We believed, based on our first project together [Pinches Momias], they had the ability to grow quickly, and they were committed to this market in a real way.

“They were of the market, for the market, by the market, and no one had done that yet. [Spanish-language content] has always been an add-on to an Anglo platform – it was stage two or three to the other players, whereas this is their primary focus. We really felt this was a great opportunity for both of us.”

While the goal is to focus equally on scripted and unscripted content, San Vargas says Propagate Fuego currently has more scripted titles sold and in development with networks.

Aside from Rebelde, which was greenlit for a second season recently, Pinches Momias and music competition series Oye Mi Canto for Netflix, San Vargas says Propagate has recently gone into production on two other scripted series that have not yet been announced.

Silverman attributes the fact the slate is skewing slightly towards scripted at this early stage to the reality that many streaming players tend to focus on premium scripted content when they branch into new markets.

“As the streamers launch and define themselves in new markets, they tend to want scripted to be their defining programming, and [later] they want to fill the hours and time slots and capacity with unscripted, which is a slightly lower-cost opportunity for them,” he says.

“Netflix is already the most mature player in this marketplace and they have migrated from premium scripted to filling out with premium non-scripted as well, because of the budgets and because [they] want a mix of content.”

As it stands, Propagate Fuego is looking to produce between six and eight projects annually, with a view to growing that number as its development slate expands and as streaming services up their own investment in Spanish-language content.

Propagate Fuego is adapting BBC comedy-drama My Left Nut

Silverman says the English- and Spanish-language sides of the business will not be siloed, citing a planned English-language adaptation of the BBC Three comedy-drama My Left Nut as a primary example.

“We went through a process of development, and then realised that it really worked well when connected to Latin culture, so we’re going to adapt it into the Spanish language. For us, it’s really about where the underlying IP or idea lives best,” he says.

Despite the significant push Propagate is putting behind Spanish-language content, Silverman doesn’t expect it to outpace the production volume of its English-language series – not in the near term, at least.

“Propagate’s mix of foreign-language or international content is going to start to creep up and match our scale in English-language content. It’s going to take a little while though; we’re in the early days of this.

“We’re going to see more examples like Casa de Papel and Rebelde that deliver across multiple markets. As people start to see that, they’re going to want to greenlight more.”

The likes of Disney+, HBO Max and Apple TV+ are keen to expand their offerings beyond English-language series but exactly which languages they will choose to focus on remains an open question.

Given the scale of the addressable market, on top of the breadth of undiscovered talent across the Hispanic market, Silverman says it will become increasingly important, and perhaps imperative, that they invest more heavily in Spanish-language content.

“They have to. If they really want to be global streamers, they don’t have a choice,” he says.