Lat Am: who dares to lift the lid on Pandora’s box?

By Siobhan Crawford 23-01-2025

C21’s formats correspondent offers advice to Latin American producers looking to work with the international formats business.

I could say my eyes were opened to Latin America 18 years ago when I worked with a Uruguayan colleague, or 12 years ago when I worked with Canal 13 to launch the first Chilean format. But really it was September 2024, when I started working with my favourite Argentinian, Nico. And what did my European unscripted format eyes see? How little belief anyone has in the potential of Lat Am beyond production hubs.

So let’s talk about the potential magic waiting, if only we just thought bigger.

Where we are today
Economic struggles: These are hard times across Latin America. Telefe waiting to be sold, Televisa losing up to 9% of its workforce, with ViX making notable redundancies too. We have Endemol and Boxfish propping up formats for Brazil, but it is still very quiet.

Testing content: Multiple channels are considering how to ‘sell’ slots to test new IP if there is investment and a share of the IP attached. But this seems to have, like many decisions in Lat Am, a domino effect: when one does it, more follow.

Channels creating studios: Caracol most recently announced this, but internal studios mean 100% IP ownership, using those expensive studios but it also means cutting out producers, IP that is too local to export and splitting focus as they attempt the ‘service provider’ business.

Inability to create formats: There is little revenue coming in from developing formats and fewer than 10 channels in Lat Am really acquiring third-party formats (and the big global brands don’t seem to work as well in the region). It feels like we are stuck in limbo.

Aspirations to be English: Mediapro said it, now Secuoya has said it: the drive to develop and produce English-language content brings the ability to coproduce with the US. But with the US and UK markets in the toilet, why do so? We have never been more dubbing/subtitle-friendly than today.

Service providing: Certainly, there is a rich history of production hubs. That started with the incredible Wipeout, which set the trend for what is possible. But today every country and producer is chasing that elusive magic solo.

Physical gameshow Wipeout blazed a trail in the use of production hubs

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
The size of Lat Am means how it does things when it comes to unscripted formats is very different from Europe. The region is not as mature as Europe in unscripted formats while channel and prodco ownership is more traditional, residing in the hands of individuals and families, and that makes things feel more solo. So how can we super-size Lat Am growth?

Cooperation: We know a Sparks-style network doesn’t work but cooperation does, and this is the biggest area for improvement in Lat Am. Within Europe we have the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the Euro Pitch broadcaster group and the RTL group, plus a much denser prodco network (e.g. Fremantle and Banijay everywhere). The aim of these groups is to share knowledge and try to be more competitive, with earlier access to content and the sharing of resources for development.

Within the EBU we also have Nordvision, the Nordics union of pubcasters that co-commission and have first right of refusals to acquire each other’s content, so IP can be collectively owned with one broadcaster airing it and the others contributing to the budget.

Additionally, in 2022, the EBU launched the Collective Pre-Buy Network of seven members, allowing them to group together to fund budget deficits in scripted content to prevent US streamers from acquiring all rights. Imagine applying this across Lat Am! The benefits go beyond knowledge but also coproductions so copy the Collective Pre-Buy and improve the access to content by filling deficits and not paying larger licence fees later.

Fastest way to screen: Talpa famously launched this project years ago, and content poured into the company with very little effort – all because Talpa had a channel and could test content and co-own IP with the creators while retaining distribution rights. We know multiple channels in Lat Am are looking at testing content in this way but they are not maximising this Talpa model – consider that the market is short of new IP and in 2024 the best-selling formats had high numbers of episodes – something Lat Am does well.

Proactive Lat Am: While I love my Spanish clients, they are taking advantage of your slow speed. Yes, I said it. Why? Because they are taking rights to formats in your region, with European fees, purely because 1) they are opportunists and 2) their connections to distributors are better. They believe they can expand their footprint due to shared languages. But we know Lat Am is more particular than that. So be more proactive in raising your head and voice. Europe is desperate to know Lat Am and the results will be immediate.

Recently, I said to Nico that the Lat Am industry clearly wants to take bold steps (unfortunately people keep announcing the same steps). Imagine the potential if they connected the strategic dots. We – all of us – can’t keep saying, “Maybe Televisa.” What if instead we said, “Maybe me?”

A music anthem always sets the tone. I thought about this a lot and in the end it hit me: the tax incentives, the new studios… How about Colombia, Mi Encanto, performed by Carlos Vives for the Disney film. Turn up the volume and start connecting the dots.