HBO Spain’s head of original content Miguel Salvat exits post under restructure

Miguel Salvat, VP commissioning editor of original content at HBO Spain, will leave Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) as part of an organisational restructuring of the local production team in Spain and Italy.

Miguel Salvat

Laura Carafoli, senior VP of content networks and streaming local productions for Italy and Iberia at WBD, said in an internal memo that a new individual will lead original production in Italy and Spain for fiction and non-fiction projects in a new, expanded role.

“For some time now, we have been looking for a person to take charge of local production in Italy, while Spain operated with different teams for scripted and unscripted production,” she said.

The original HBO Spain production team will report to Carafoli in the interim until that new person is named who will supervise the scripted and unscripted projects in Spain and Italy.

Salvat started in his role at HBO Europe in 2017, where he was responsible for launching the Spanish original production strategy for HBO and HBO Max. During his tenure, the platform gave the green light to: fiction series such as Patria, 30 Coins, Por H o por B or García!; documentaries such as El Pionero, Salvar al Rey and Se Busca Millonario; and entertainment formats such as Traitors Spain and Time Zone.

Previously, Salvat served for six years as director of premium channels at Movistar, was director of Content at Canal+ and general director of Paramount Comedy Channel.

WBD will replace HBO Max with the new combined Max platform in Spain, Portugal, the Nordic countries, the Netherlands and the CEE region during the second quarter of 2024.

Salvat’s departure follows multiple executive moves at WBD in the last year-and-a-half, as part of a strong restructuring undertaken by CEO David Zaslav.

Last year, HBO Max Europe carried out a wave of almost 30 lay-offs in the areas of commissioning, programming and acquisitions, but Salvat was not among them.