Latina TV of Peru is transforming into Latina Media, an ecosystem of original content for export.
*By ttvnews, from Miami, USA
The evolution in the development of original content is increasingly noticeable for Latina TV of Peru, which has arrived this 2024 to Content Americas, not only as a buyer of audiovisual products but also to offer its content produced by Peruvian talent and has achieved success, both in its country and in other territories.
In this regard, ttvnews spoke with Patricio Hernández, CEO of Latina TV, who commented that the most crucial change is that instead of coming to the markets only to buy cans of telenovelas, they now come to offer their products and formats. “We started to develop our IP, and we aspire that our novela Papá en apuros will be an opportunity in this market so that it can reach different screens.”
They have also brought their reality format, Tierra brava, and the El gran chef format to Content Americas. “We are expanding our line of business, extending the invitation to produce in Latina’s hub, located in the outskirts of Lima, suitable for 24/7 recordings,” said Hernandez.
The CEO of Latina TV highlighted that they are in a transformation process to move from being Latina Televisión. This channel celebrated 41 years of life in Peru, becoming 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 forms of consumption that exist today,” he said.
Of the total hours of programming that Latina broadcasts, 70% is its own local programming, news, entertainment magazine programs, and, as of 2023, it has added the production of its content created by Latina’s talent, according to Hernández.
This is the case of El Gran Chef, a show that showcases Peruvian culinary culture. In it, chefs are challenged and become an audience phenomenon.
“At the end of October 2023, we returned to the production of our telenovela fiction in alliance with Mega Media of Chile. They provide us with the know-how and the script, and Peruvian artists and professionals take that story, make it Creole, and bring it closer. We have premiered the Turkish telenovela, which has doubled its audience. Another format of our creation is Sábado de familia, a family show”, said the executive.
Latina’s flagship novela, Papá en apuros, is an original Mega Media script from 10 years ago named Papá a la deriva. “A very familiar story that incorporates all socioeconomic groups and all ages in its stories. We took the story from that novel, and a group of Peruvian writers took it and created Papá en apuros, the international version of Papá a la deriva, and it has worked very well,” said Hernández.
A production hub in Lima
One of the most ambitious projects that Latina TV of Peru is carrying out is the production hub that they have created together with Jukin Media to develop coexistence reality shows with a 24/7 recording model located in the outskirts of the capital city of Lima.
According to Hernández, their creation is called Tierra de famosos, a format they sold to Chile’s Canal 13, which premiered under Tierra brava. “This has had the great advantage for Latina, that we are not only co-producing fiction internationally, but we are exporting production with all the expertise that exists in Peru, to produce high quality and low-cost entertainment, which manages to be successful in other territories. In Chile, our reality show has made Canal 13 go to first place in prime time, which makes us very happy”, he said.
