Image: Vis a vis (Globomedia)
Spanish productions are increasingly finding audiences all over the world.
During the last six quarters, Spanish shows have found demand in at least 90 countries around the world. The global rollout of Casa de Papel (Money Heist) on Netflix drove the average consumer demand for the top ten Spanish titles to increase over 50% between the last quarter of 2017 and the first quarter of 2018.
Transcending the success of Casa de Papel, Spanish content is continuing to find its way into consumers’ homes beyond Spain. Other titles such as La Verdad (season 1 was first broadcast 21st May 2018) and Vis a vis (now in its fourth season) have capitalized on this stronger international appeal.
The global demand for Spanish productions
La Verdad is seeing a 25% increase in global demand since the third quarter of 2018 while demand for Vis a vis has shot up to a level that is three times as high as the one it reached during the last quarter of 2017.
In the latter’s case it must be noted that Prime Video acquired the first two seasons for the United States, and in 2018, Hulu acquired the first four seasons for Japan.
Analyzing this global demand in further detail, we find that in non-Spanish speaking markets, over 70 countries where Spanish is not the main language, audiences are increasingly demanding content originating from Spain.
Global demand for Spanish productions in foreign language markets
The average demand for the top ten Spanish titles has increased from 0.08 Demand Expressions per 100 capita (DEx/c) in the fourth quarter of 2017 to 0.19 DEx/c a year later, more than doubling over the course of 12 months (+137.5% YoY growth).
Both, La Verdad and Vis a vis, are growing at an accelerated pace in non-Spanish speaking countries: The average demand for La Verdad in these markets for the first two months of 2019, compared with Q3 2018, has now increased by a third.
In the case of Vis a vis, the growth has been even more staggering: Current demand for this TV show in non-Spanish speaking markets is now ten times as big as it was only six quarters ago.
These trends paint a rosy picture for new Spanish content that is being created today. Spanish storytellers are touching on universal themes that no longer seem to require cultural and language proximity to land audiences across the world.
