The first day of Content Americas 2024 provided an excellent opportunity to analyze industry trends from experts in the field, with a large number of participants – almost 2,000 delegates – which was represented by busy agendas for the companies present.

* By Luis Cabrera, with production by Ana Paula Carreira, Fernando Moreno and Agustín Aguiar, from Miami, USA

The second edition of Content Americas, which is taking place these days at the Hilton Downtown Miami, is registering excellent numbers – almost 2,000 delegates and 1,000 buyers, according to the organization – whose presence has been felt in what is being an exceptional event for the companies present, with full agendas, as well as for those interested in learning first-hand the vision of experts and senior executives on the future of the audiovisual industry in Latin America and the world.

In the panel titled Future Content Trends Report, specialists in the field shared their vision on the present and future of the industry, with emphasis on the monetization opportunities that arise in the universe of video games, as an ally for audiovisual content.

“Studios and production companies have to look for cross-promotion with video games because 300 million people in the world play video games and it is a very high number in Latin America as well,” said Arlene Wszalek, EVP, strategy and innovation at Allied Global Marketing, who exemplified with what was recently done by Disney+ and the NFL, among others.

Maria Rua Aguete, senior research director, Media and Entertainment at Omdia, shared that 70% of the advertising pie in the world of entertainment will be in online videos by 2024, with video games in second place. “By 2028, online video advertising will be ahead of everything else, followed by video game advertising,” she said.

Aguete also shared that the trend of subscription to different audiovisual content providers is falling – “The maximum number of subscriptions seems to be three,” she said – while the FAST channel business is growing. Although Latin America is still far from the US, she pointed to Brazil as a territory that is showing enormous potential in the matter.

There was also room for comments about Artificial Intelligence, whose usefulness in reducing production costs and work times is very present these days.

In other panels, production trends in Latin America were also discussed, as well as formats in Spain and Latam.

The growth of Turkish production

Izzet Pinto, CEO of Global Agency, and actor Boris Kilic, with a long career and today in the successful drama One Love, led a discussion that focused on Turkish production and the impact of its success internationally.

“Three years ago we were filming 40 minutes a week and they were very local stories, today they are international stories of much longer duration,” said Kilic. “Production is growing and improving and in the future it will be even better.”

“A few years ago Turkish productions cost 100,000 dollars per episode, today they cost 300,000 and the cake is distributed very differently,” explained Pinto, who considered that, although the international success has had a gigantic positive impact on the Turkish industry, the times of production have suffered in the process: “I hope that in the future the length of the episodes will be reduced; today we are making a movie a week and that is very difficult to achieve.”

Of course there was room to highlight One Love, one of the most powerful titles of the new season in Turkey and part of the Global Agency catalog: “We believe that One Love will easily reach more than a hundred territories because it is that good.”

For Turkish companies in general, it was a special morning following the tribute organized by Universal Sinergia in the form of the Turkish Drama Gala on Monday night.

Like Global Agency, other companies have taken advantage of the opportunity to bring Turkish talent to Miami. In the case of ATV it is two of the stars of For My Family, the young actors Yigit Kocak and Lizge Comert, who spoke with the press today.

The Turkish delegation, led by the Chamber of Commerce, includes companies that are protagonists of the international success of Turkish titles, including MISTCO, Kanal D, Calinos, OGM, Inter Medya and Madd, whose suites at the Hilton did not stop receiving clients interested in their latest titles.

Globo showed off with two panels

The Brazilian giant Globo had two spaces during this first day, one dedicated to Globoplay and its content strategy, and another, accompanied by a lunch, which presented everything the company has for 2024.

With the leadership of Cauã Reymond and the presence of its main executives, Globo showed the power of its production, while extending their open arms calling for potential new partners to come forward to continue the path of co-production that they are already taking with Sony and Ay Yapim, and to which Disney has joined, with four films over the next four years, which will be released in cinemas and then they will move to Globoplay and Disney platforms.

As if that were not enough, Wednesday’s day will begin with the exclusive premiere of the Globoplay original, Justice: Misconduct.

Along the same lines, TV Azteca opened the day with a breakfast in which Fernando Muñiz and Adrian Ortega offered a complete look at the current situation of the Mexican giant.

The Latin American view

Companies from the region attended the event in large numbers, with a clear vision that the growth of the industry depends on working together.

“Never has so much content been consumed as today. The industry has to prosper. We have to adapt to new businesses, know how to respond financially to challenges. But the message is optimistic. The industry is growing,” explained Patricia Jasin, SVP of Distribution for LatAm and Country Manager in Colombia at WBD, during Content Americas.

A company that demonstrates this growth and need for transformation is Latina TV, which is evolving into Latina Media: “We are transforming our business model and making a digital transformation, with the idea of ceasing to be what we traditionally were, a television channel, to be an ecosystem of content that we distribute through different platforms: traditional, analog, digital, social networks, web, OTT, FAST channels, and all the forms of consumption that exist today,” said Patricio Hernández, its CEO.

Co-production continues to be a fundamental pillar on which to build the future: “At Mediacrest we come to present our projects that we have in development to co-produce with American partners, as well as to explore opportunities with other projects that may travel to Spain,” said Berta Orozco, Director of International Sales and Co-productions at Mediacrest Entertainment.

The volume of people and companies present also provides enormous opportunities for young companies, or those very well established but seeking to expand their reach in the region.

These are the cases of Haciyamatz and its producer Yesil Yapim, responsible for titles such as The Girl of the Green Valley and now involved in the new production that will emerge from the agreement between Inter Medya and MGE, as well as the Canadian company Casting Workbook, a leader in its area and here presenting a complete casting solution for talents and production companies.

The first day of the event ended with the first edition of the Rose D’Or Latinos, which includes awards for productions from Spain, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, among others.