SPI of Portugal teams up with Spain’s CTV for international drama move

CONTENT AMERICAS: Portuguese producer SPI and Galician company CTV have signed an agreement to jointly develop scripted programmes for the international market.

Jorge Marecos

The deal follows several collaborations between the pair, including dramas Back Home, broadcast by RTP and Galician broadcaster TVG, and the yet-to-be-released Motel Valkirias, for RTP, TVG and HBO.

“The objective is to expand beyond the borders of the Iberian peninsula and enter the international market with productions of all kinds and genres,” said Jaber Ibrahim, president of CTV.

“Together we can build something even bigger than what we do individually,” added Jorge Marecos, director of Grupo SP Televisão, of which SPI is a part. “We can generate projects for international channels and distributors, making programmes with realistic budgets that tell interesting stories through a universal language.”

Manuel Claro, director of content at SPI, said the plan is to find “organic” stories that unite Portugal and Galicia. As per the announcement, both companies will work together on the creation, development and production of the projects.

In addition to the two projects already mentioned with CTV, SPI has previously worked in Spain with Coruna-based prodco Portocabo TV on the two seasons of Auga Seca and is coproducing drama series Codex 632 with Globo of Brazil.

CTV, meanwhile, is best known for its series El Sabor de las Margaritas, produced for TVG and taken worldwide by Netflix. It stars María Mera, Nerea Barros, Miguel Insua, Ricardo de Barreiro and Toni Salgado.