Carlota Vieira, Deputy Director of Content Sales at SIC, spoke to ttvnews at NEM Dubrovnik about the group’s latest production ventures and the opportunities they are finding in the CEE market.
Produced by Luis Cabrera, from Croatia
Through partnerships with major platforms and players in the international audiovisual market, SIC International Distribution has brought the power of Portuguese stories to various corners of the world.
And now, present at NEM Dubrovnik, the group is celebrating the success of its titles in the CEE region and seeking to forge new relationships with partners in the region.
“We produce content for Opto, we produce for Amazon, we produce for Disney+, and they are all very important partners for us,” began Carlota Vieira, Deputy Director of Content Sales at SIC, in a conversation with ttvnews during the event in Croatia.
“This CEE region is a bit more focused on telenovelas,” she added. “For example, in Bulgaria, we have shorter series on streaming platforms like The Good Girls Club, and new seasons of O Clube are being renewed. Besides Bulgaria, O Clube continues to be sold to very different regions, such as Mongolia. Furthermore, Azul was also sold to Macau, which is something we’re very proud of.”
“Azul is beautiful, the visuals are meticulously crafted, and it has a very strong visual presence. And I think all this niche content can resonate everywhere because it’s global content; it’s a story that could happen anywhere,” she added.
Thus, the executive explains that SIC’s focus is international: “It’s about trying to bring our content to new regions and strengthening the partnerships we have where we’re already present.”
And on this international path, the success of the series is a passport that facilitates their arrival in new markets.
“The fact that our telenovelas and our content are number one in Portugal also helps us tremendously in placing them internationally,” she explained. “And that they work in the places where they air is also fundamental to being able to take them to more places.”
“Right now, for example, we’re working to have one of our strongest telenovelas dubbed into neutral Spanish, to try to bring it to Latin America. We’re looking for a client there who shares that risk, who will confirm a purchase so we can move forward, and we believe it will do very well in the region. Because it has the rhythm of a Turkish story, but told in a slightly more Latin American way, a woman who is a bit more empowered, although still romantic, a bit stronger, and a bit less submissive, less willing to give everything. It’s more similar to Latinos, to those we have in Central America, in Southern Europe, everywhere, and so that’s why I think it could be very good for our productions,” he revealed.
As for the rest of the year, SIC plans to continue investing in original productions.
“We’re going to continue producing telenovelas; we already have at least two more titles confirmed. Right now, the one we have airing is incredibly successful in Portugal. It’s a TV Globo format from Brazil, a story that was very successful 20 years ago, Pages of Life, and it’s incredibly similar. It was launched on Content Europe. I think it’s a title that will help us attract attention in Latin America, because the original has been very successful there.”
“And then we will adapt another title from Turkey, the one that will replace Vitoria in its time slot,” the executive revealed. “And that’s how we’ll continue.”
