Image: Money Heist, Netflix
The Spanish language holds a significant presence in the U.S. streaming landscape. As of the first quarter of 2024, Spanish was the foreign language with the highest number of movies available on SVOD platforms in the U.S. and the No. 3 language when it comes to the number of shows available, following Korean and Japanese.
This prominence is not surprising when you consider that Spanish is the second most-spoken language in the U.S., as well as the substantial investment by streaming platforms in Spanish content over recent years. Global successes like “Money Heist” and “Elite” have solidified Spain’s position as one of the top streaming content-producing countries in the world.
Even though the most popular Spanish language-hit shows came from Spain itself, Mexican shows outnumber their Spanish counterparts by more than two to one on U.S. SVOD platforms.
This is largely due to platforms focused on Mexican audiences in the U.S., such as Pantaya and Vix. In addition to Mexico and Spain, a relevant number of shows in Spanish come from Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina and the United States. Most of these American shows in Spanish are from Telemundo, a network focused on Spanish-language content owned by NBCUniversal, and these shows are largely available on Peacock and Hulu.
Parrot Analytics’ Content Panorama, reveals that, among the main SVOD platforms, Netflix is the one that relies the most on Spanish-language content. They made up 8.7% of shows available on the platform and 7.7% of the movies. Peacock follows with almost 5% of its TV catalog being originally in Spanish.
Netflix and Peacock, besides having the highest Spanish TV shares, have a different approach when regarding this type of content. Netflix has focused on producing and acquiring content originally from Spanish-speaking countries, especially Spain, through partnerships with studios in these countries and making them available for global audiences. This strategy has resulted in global hits that cater not only to Spanish-speaking audiences such as the aforementioned “Money Heist,” its prequel “Berlin,” and the prison drama “Vis A Vis.”
In contrast, Peacock’s Spanish-language catalog consists primarily of U.S. productions targeting Spanish-speaking audiences, mostly from Telemundo. These shows, often soap operas and dramas, cater to an audience that traditionally is already familiar with this kind of content. Some examples are “El Señor De Los Cielos” and “Yo Soy Betty, La Fea.”
This shows the diversity of Spanish-language content and its broad appeal to US and global audiences, which makes it one of the main languages of the streaming landscape.
