Adrián Ortega, Director General of Content at TV Azteca, spoke with ttvnews at LA Screenings, where the group announced the launch of a new production hub and showcased its catalog of successful productions for the international market.
Produced by Luis Cabrera, from Los Angeles
As a major highlight on this second day of LA Screenings, TV Azteca once again demonstrated its ongoing commitment to evolving and adapting to market needs, announcing the launch of a production hub for the U.S. Hispanic market.
This hub focuses on offering 360° solutions, encompassing the creation, operation, optimization, and marketing of audiovisual content and channels for broadcast television, digital platforms, and streaming services.
The new initiative is led by TV Azteca’s Director of Production, Julián Antuñano, and represents a key step in consolidating TV Azteca International’s vision and strategy, integrating creative expertise, operational leadership, and a deep understanding of large-scale production processes.
In the following interview with ttvnews, Adrián Ortega, TV Azteca’s Chief Content Officer, shares details about the hub’s launch and highlights the offering of fiction, telenovelas, series, entertainment formats, and multiplatform content that the Mexican giant is presenting at the event in Los Angeles.
What are the benefits and strengths that this new TV Azteca production hub will bring?
First, we have the experience. It’s been 33 years since TV Azteca, where the company’s strategy was to experiment from scratch. We experimented with everything: we created La Academia, we have news programs, entertainment shows, telenovelas. We have extensive experience in all areas, and we have incredible production facilities to leverage.
We have campuses and studios, many studios, and a lot of technology. We have the machinery, the tools to develop anything, the implementation. But the most valuable asset is the team and, above all, a leader like Julián Antuñano, who has an extraordinary career.
The truth is, there’s nothing more important than leadership. What he’ll bring is all of this to strengthen the needs of the Hispanic market. We’re going to have productions that are, obviously, competitive and cost-effective.
We can act immediately; the world is changing. Immediacy will be a priority in this 360-degree world. Julián understands this. That’s what we’re celebrating today.
Furthermore, the center of the world is Mexico; we’re in the public eye. With the experience of TV Azteca Internacional, we’re obviously happy to be able to meet the needs of this highly competitive world. We have many years of experience to support this pace and the technology that the market demands. I believe we’re going to solve a great many needs for many, many clients.
What needs do you see in the market that motivated you to launch this new hub?
The goal is to leverage our existing structure. The key is Mexico, the environment we have now, as the meeting point for Mexico. We have locations, we have soundstages, we have studios, and we also have outdoor locations. With the resources of Azteca Internacional, we can cover all of that.
But above all, the market niche is what’s important—our clients. What we’re seeing is an impressive need among our partners, meaning foreigners in the United States, for the Hispanic audience. This communication, the way we speak, the way we communicate with Hispanics, is very strong; we’ve been doing it for many years. Our content has been traveling to the United States for a long time.
Now what we want to do is implement this tool wherever you want; it’s remote. And above all, so that our clients can have interaction and this close connection with the audience in the United States, with the Hispanic market. An immediate connection from any location, any local station. We can produce whatever we want, from any point we want. Behind it all is experience and a powerful engine, a brilliant technique. Very modern, very simple technologies, but in the end, it’s about creating television in a new era.
What we saw was that we obviously have a huge opportunity. To be able to offer the client an immersive experience, to be able to do whatever they want, wherever they want, at a very different cost than it might cost elsewhere.
Why is content flexibility so valuable?
It translates into a new, remote hub. Flexibility is everything, because it’s the immediacy of the news, the immediacy of the entertainment, the immediacy of how the world of streaming, the FAST channel, and the entire multiplatform experience are unfolding—the ability to do whatever you want, instantly. Everything changes with a single phone call; you connect to a central master control room and can give instructions. What used to take days now takes no time at all. That’s what we’re talking about. That’s the core idea.
Another advantage is cost. The price is obviously much more beneficial. Immediacy and cost are crucial variables.
Let’s talk about content. What’s new in the TV Azteca Internacional catalog?
We’re operating at a high production level. We’re bringing you series with important writers, with great talent, that have a global reach. Our strategy is to distribute them worldwide. We own the rights; they’re original productions, written and created by TV Azteca. As we’ve said, we already have experience with this, with series, telenovelas, everything. But these are major productions with very, very strong talent.
We have Marimar Vega in Doctora Lucía. It has a spectacular director, Carlos Carrera, for the new season. The cast also includes Itatí Cantoral, Cristian de la Fuente… It’s a super production with huge outdoor locations. Cinematically, it’s a brutal medical emergency, but with storylines and emergencies and everything.
Then, we also have our blockbuster, Un día para vivir, with the renowned actress María José Magán, who is spectacular. Technically, it’s a series, an educational one-off for the audience, where a case is solved each day, and it’s resolved within that same hour. It deals with death and it deals with life. It’s a phenomenon, because it’s been incredibly successful for us on Azteca 7. It’s been running for many years. We have a fifth season. It’s on the air permanently. It’s been very successful. It supports prime time.
And then, finally, we’re also bringing you our fifth season of Lotería del Crimen, which is another cinematic gem, also directed by Carlos Carrera, and which obviously delivers all the Mexican police procedural values: action, adventure, and crime, right down to the Mexican DNA. It has great actors like Sara Maldonado and a fantastic overall cast. We have this content, which is what we’re bringing and presenting to the world.
And in addition to that, it’s complemented by all our productions from the historical catalog. All of our legacy.
In unscripted programming, we have La Granja, which is a super mega-production. And we’re kicking things off this Sunday with MasterChef, but MasterChef 24/7, live, for the first time ever, with our partner Disney. It’s the first time it’s being done anywhere in the world, and obviously in partnership with Endemol. It’s an adventure; we’re the first country to do it.
It’s a new challenge. We’re going to cross borders. We’re certainly going to open up new markets, we’re going to move forward, we’re going to evolve. Just as we’ve done business with MasterChef, with our partners, and just as Disney ventured into this, we have other partners who are going to venture into this as well.
We bring live content to all of Mexico. We have an emotional and educational connection with Mexico. That’s what we want. At TV Azteca, we want a multiplatform connection. Now, that’s aligned with multiplatform programming. The environment of what we sell and what we program are connected. It’s a complete ecosystem adapted to the new multiplatform era. Content is designed from the moment of acquisition to its sale.
It’s a new era for TV Azteca. These 33 years have been valuable, but at TV Azteca, we always know we must transform, and that’s what we’re doing. A total transformation to the new era, to new audiences, to the second screen.
