Having found great success for its renowned documentaries and new drama series in Europe, ORF-Enterprise is now looking to expand its footprint across on the other side of the ocean, finding new screens for its vast catalog across Latin America and the US Hispanic markets.

*By Rodrigo Ros, from Cannes

Owners of a strong reputation as high-end content distributors in Europe thanks to their blue chip documentaries and factual titles, ORF-Enterprise is on a mission to extend its footprint to farther corners of the continent, and even grow its connections across the Atlantic.

“We are trying to have a super strong network that can deal around the world”, Armin Luttenberger, Head of International Content Sales, ORF-Enterprise, said to ttv at the last edition of Mipcom, where the Austrian distributor was celebrating 35 years of its Universum Nature brand, its main ticket to being able to travel around the world.

“Universum Nature, our blue chip documentary brand has always been the type of content that works worldwide, because there is no cultural limitations for wildlife programming. It works around the world,” he explained.

During the event in Cannes, the company premiered five new titles to the Universum Nature slate from the wildlife section, adding up to 10+ hours to the total that they had premiering at the markets in 2022.

And while documentaries have really been the core of the distributor’s catalog, ORF Enterprise is also betting strongly on fiction, mainly drama series.

“In regards to drama and TV series, we’ve been starting to work in neighboring territories and we are trying to expand our footprint with them as well,” the executive explained. “We’ve been very successful with that in Italy, France, German speaking territories for sure.”

Having already found great success in Europe, and most recently in Spanish-speaking markets like Spain, these series and dramas are now ready to find new screens worldwide, especially in Latin territories.

“We recently had our first significant sale to Spain. Based on the success of our drama series in Europe and Latin communities there, we see a great asset for the Latin American market. Documentaries have always been the core of our catalog but now, with other language versions that give Latin American buyers an understanding about our programming and drama series, it’s a great asset and huge potential for series and movies in that market”, he said.

The newest additions to this drama catalog were also presented at the recent Mipcom, where ORF-Enterprise unveiled two brand new series, Days that never were and Lights Out – Survival for Beginners. Plus, a new season of Soko Linz, the successor of Soko Kitzbuehel, which just had its final season 20. “It’s been super successful in seven markets, especially Italy, France and Spain, it’s been the best selling series in our catalog”.

“We are really looking forward to expanding our journey across the Atlantic, bringing drama and original series and movies to Latin American territories and US Hispanic territories,” he concluded.