Mipcom 2014 essential mexico

mipcom nEWs 速

S p e cial re por t

w w w.mipcom.com

Oc tob e r 2 014

l a i t n e s s E

COUNTRY OF HONOUR

2014

203_TV AZTECA_SUPPL_COM-p1

203

203_TV AZTECA_SUPPL_COM-p2

CONTENTS Welcome to Mexico

6

On screen: A love affair with television 8

Regulation: The changing media landscape 14

Mexico by numbers 16

Acquisitions: Global taste, local flavour 20

Exports: Spreading the word 31

Digital: Mexico’s next frontier 22

ESSENTIAL MEXICO Production: Something for everyone 26

Locations: Filming in Mexico 34

ESSENTIAL MEXICO – October 2014 – MIPCOM News Special Report. Director of Publications Paul Zilk Director of Communication Mike Williams EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Editor in Chief Julian Newby Deputy Editor Debbie Lincoln Technical Editor in Chief Hervé Traisnel Deputy Technical Editor in Chief Frédéric Beauseigneur Graphic Designer Carole Peres Sub Editor Joanna Stephens Contributors Andy Fry, Juliana Koranteng, Gary Smith Editorial Management Boutique Editions. PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT Publishing Director Martin Screpel Publishing Manager Amrane Lamiri Co-ordinators Nour Ezzedeen, Emilie Lambert Production Assistant, Cannes Office Eric Laurent Printer Riccobono Imprimeurs, Le Muy (France) MANAGEMENT & SALES TEAM Director of the Entertainment Division Jérome Delhaye Director of the Television Division Laurine Garaude Entertainment Conference Director and MIPJunior Show Director Lucy Smith Sales Director Frédéric Vaulpré Director of Market Development Ted Baracos Programme Director Tania Dugaro Director of the Buyers’ Department Bénédicte Touchard Brand Director Lionel Lelouch Managing Director (UK / Australia / New Zealand) Peter Rhodes OBE Senior Vice President, Americas Robert Marking Sales Director Latin America José-Luis Sanchez Sales Manager Panayiota Pagoulatos Regional Sales Director Sylvain Faureau Regional Sales Director Nathalie Gastone Regional Sales Director Fabienne Germond Sales Managers Paul Barbaro, Liliane Da Cruz, Nancy Denole, Samira Haddi Sales Executive Cyril Szczerbakow New Media Development Manager Bastien Gave Sales Managers, Buyers Cyriane Accolas, Yi-Ping Gerard Australia and New Zealand Representative Natalie Apostolou China Representatives Anke Redl, Tammy Zhao CIS Representatives Alexandra Modestova, Igor Shibanov English Speaking Africa Representative Arnaud de Nanteuil Germany Representative (Digital Media Sector) Renate Radke Adam India Representative Anil Wanvari Israel Representative Guy Martinovsky Japan Representative Lily Ono Middle-East Representative Bassil Hajjar Poland Representative Monika Bednarek South Asia Representative Adam Ham South Korea Representative Sunny Kim Taiwan Representative Irene Liu UK Representative (Digital Media Sector) David Hedges Reed MIDEM, a joint stock company (SAS), with a capital of €310.000, 662 003 557 R.C.S. NANTERRE, having offices located at 27-33 Quai Alphonse Le Gallo - 92100 BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT (FRANCE), VAT number FR91 662 003 557.

Contents © 2014, Reed MIDEM Market Publications. Publication registered 3rd quarter 2014. Printed on 50% recycled paper

ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

214_PROMEXICO_SUPPL_COM

COUNTRY OF HONOUR

2014 INTRODUCTION

Competitiveness, quality, creativity Mexico is the MIPCOM 2014 Country Of Honour. Francisco N Gonzalez Diaz, CEO of ProMexico, invites the world to share his country’s “competitiveness, quality and creativity”

6

I

N THIS new era of communications in which content leads the way, Mexico is one of the most important global players and its success is spreading rapidly.

Mexico is currently the 18th largest exporter of creative goods in the world and the leading one in Latin America. In fact, every year its audiovisual content is watched by over one billion people in more than 100 nations.

Our country’s main competitive advantages can be summed up as the triple ‘i’: internal market, infrastructure and innovation. In 2013, Mexico was ranked in 13th place on PwC’s Global Entertainment And Media Outlook, with

a market value of $25bn. Mexico is also ranked among the world’s top 14 videogame markets, with an overall value of $1bn, which represents one third of the total share in Latin America. In the film sector, Mexico had the 10th largest box-office revenue in the world and the highest in Latin America in 2013, at $900m.

Mexico is also a gateway to both North America, the largest media market in the world, and Latin America, one of the fastest growing regions. We are also recognised as the Latin American centre for content production and creative producers, offering the facilities and suppliers needed to realise any idea — including the largest water set in the world. Mexico’s creative sector consists of 1,500 companies capable of providing the wide range of services demanded by the industry.

Moreover, we host the major commercial broadcast television networks in Latin America, as well as a vibrant community of independent networks that are creating new content and cutting-edge approaches.

The combination of Mexico’s creativity and innovation has made it the most impor-

ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

tant talent pool in Latin America. Close to 125,000 students graduate each year from courses in animation, digital design, filmmaking, communication in the virtual media, image and sound design, to name just a few. In addition, in terms of the copyright industries’ contribution to national employment, Mexico is second on the world league table, according to WIPO. Mexico’s leadership in this sector is being enhanced by the co-ordinated efforts of the Mexican government, the country’s private sector and academia. Mexico offers favourable incentive schemes, created to attract international projects. In fact, our incentives are among the most competitive in the world and are designed to boost the film and content sectors.

In this new content era, Mexico is increasing its market leadership. Being named Country Of Honour this year at MIPCOM is an acknowledgement of our competitiveness, quality, talent and creativity. Over the next few days, we will be showcasing Mexico’s success story, led by the largest Mexican business delegation ever to attend the event, comprising more than 100 companies.

095_MULTIMUSIC_SUPPL_COM

COUNTRY OF HONOUR MEXICO’S TV LANDSCAPE

2014

A love affair with television In terms of its global appeal, Mexico has it all — a huge population of TV lovers, a rebounding economy and a growing middle class of increasingly connected consumers. But there are challenges to negotiate, as Andy Fry discovers

W

ITH a population of 112 million and the world’s 14th largest economy, Mexico has exactly the kind of profile that appeals to international channel operators and programme distributors. And the fact that Mexicans love television suggests that it ought to represent a strong market for foreign content-owners.

But the reality is that Mexico has proved a tough market to crack. Dominated by a handful of powerful media firms, the country is better known as an exporter of content than as an importer. Leaving Hollywood aside, the telenovela is arguably the most successful TV-based export in the world, with fans across the US, China, Europe, Africa and South America, and Mexico is a leading supplier of this form of serialised drama.

A series of commercial, regulatory and technological changes may well transform Mexican media and telecoms over the next three to five years. But to really get to grips with this complex and fascinating country, there is only one place to begin: Televisa.

For those unfamiliar with the Mexican market, Televisa is a diversified media business that has its roots in the 1920s, when Emilio Azcarraga Vidauretta opened one of the country’s first radio stations. In the 1940s, Azcarraga Vidauretta expanded into films and then, in the mid-1950s, he launched the TV channel Televisa.

The expansion of Televisa was overseen by his son, Emilio Azcarraga Milmo, who led the firm until he passed away in 1997. Under his tenure, Televisa developed interests in a variety of media. But it was the company’s dominant position in free-to-air advertiserfunded TV that became its unassailable powerbase.

8

Destino, a hit telenovela for Azteca

ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

097_ARGOS_SUPPL_COM

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

COUNTRY OF HONOUR

2014

10

Effectively unchallenged until the 1993 launch of rival commercial broadcaster Azteca, Azcarraga Milmo’s Televisa mastered the art of producing high-quality, high-rating telenovelas on an industrial scale. With a virtual monopoly of primetime viewing, Televisa was able to establish a stranglehold over Mexican TV advertising revenues. Even today, the company takes around $2bn of Mexico’s $3bn TV ad revenue.

The arrival of Azteca in 1993 did not affect Televisa’s position as the dominant producer/broadcaster in the Mexican TV market.

But as Azteca’s share of the audience grew — peaking at around 30% — it became clear to Televisa that it needed to start thinking about the shape its business might take in the future. It was not just competition from Azteca that threatened Televisa either.

The late 1990s also saw the arrival of pay TV in Latin America.

With the death of Azcarraga Milmo in 1997, responsibility for addressing these challenges fell to his son Emilio Azcarraga Jean.

Despite his relative youth, Azcarraga Jean moved decisively to re-inforce Televisa’s position in the market. Without taking his eye off the company’s free-to-air cash cow (driven on by ever-increasing levels of telenovela production), he did two things.

First, he manoeuvred Televisa into a powerful position in the pay-TV market. Through a series of acquisition deals, he secured control of Mexico’s leading DTH platform Sky Mexico and three of its leading cable firms. At the same time, he ramped up the number of pay-TV channels controlled by the company.

For a long time, this commitment did not generate much of a return. But in the last five years, Mexican pay TV has grown extremely rapidly. Today, Televisa has nearly 10 million cable and satellite subscribers and 24 pay-TV channels — a fact that has begun to convert into significant revenues for Televisa.

Azcarraga Jean’s second move was to place renewed emphasis on the company’s content business, increasing its output to its current level of 93,000 hours a year. In parallel with this expanded output, he made the provision of content to the international market a priority, both as completed shows

and formats.

This has proved to be masterstroke, with Televisa content now available around the world via third-party channels and Televisa’s

own international channels. In particular, Televisa has benefited from its relationship with Univision, the leading pay-TV channel for Spanish-speaking viewers in the US.

“There is evidence that the SVOD platforms are starting to gain traction” ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

COUNTRY OF HONOUR Initially, this relationship simply took the form of a programme-licensing arrangement, with Televisa receiving a relatively low sum under the terms of a long-term contract.

But under Azcarraga Jean, this situation has been renegotiated in Televisa’s favour. Today, the company owns a 38% stake in Univision (soon to rise to 40%) and generates huge sums from its relationship with the Hispanic pay-TV giant. In the first quarter of 2014, Televisa’s royalty from Univision grossed a record-breaking $64.8m, up 13.1% year on year.

The overall impact of Azcarraga Jean’s strategy is that Televisa has become a vertically integrated studio that uses its unmatched content creation capabilities to fuel its domestic and international businesses. To put it in perspective, the company has created 800,000 hours of content in the last 10 years.

All of this activity has made Televisa the undisputed market leader in Mexico. But as alluded to earlier, there are various competitive pressures that will keep the company on its toes in the next few years.

First, as referenced above, Mexico has a robust number two in the free-to-air market in the form of Azteca. Launched in 1993, Group Salinas-owned Azteca has three freeto-air channels compared to Televisa’s four.

Azteca 13 focuses mostly on telenovelas, entertainment and chat shows, while Azteca 7 is more reliant on acquired US series including Graceland, The Simpsons, New Girl and Marvel Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Then there is Proyecto 40, which also carries some acquisitions, for example Showtime’s Dexter and Nurse Jackie.

Like Televisa, Grupo Salinas has also diversified its media operations to encompass the international market. Aside from its programme distribution activities, it broadcasts Azteca 13 International across Latin America and Azteca America in the US. It also has a 100% stake in mobile telco Iusacell — a business that it owned 50:50 with Televisa until earlier this year.

Also growing in importance is the pay-TV market. According to 2013 data from Nielsen IBOPE, the pay-TV universe now attracts

2014

SPOTLIGHT ON TELEVISA TELEVISA operates four free-toair channels via networks of local affiliate stations. This coverage is topped up by satellite distribution.

The four channels are Canal de las Estrellas (first-run telenovelas, sport and news), Canal 5 (US series, youth-oriented programming and movies), Gala TV (re-run telenovelas, sport, news and comedy) and FOROtv (news, debate and chat shows).

In pay TV, Televisa is the dominant cable and satellite platform-owner.

It also has 24 channel brands, including the recently launched Golden Premier, a showcase for movies and TV series. Moreover, the company owns several international channels. Its most valuable asset is a 38% stake in, and programme licensing agreement with, Univision. In the first quarter of 2014, Televisa’s royalty from Univision grossed a record-breaking $64.8m, up 13.1% year on year.

Televisa royalties from Univision 2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

$143m $156m $225m $248m $273m

27.4% share of the Mexican TV audience, compared to Televisa’s 43.4% and Azteca’s 19.5%. When you consider that Mexican pay TV only took a 17.9% share in 2010,

Azcarraga Jean’s decision to move into the market makes a great deal of sense.

Meanwhile Mexico’s leading telco operator, America Movil, is currently barred from competing in the pay-TV sector, but there is a general view that this situation may change soon — in which case Televisa will face a formidable opponent. At the same time, there is evidence that the SVOD platforms are starting to gain traction.

Another area of growing importance is Mexican public broadcasting, represented by a small brigade of educational and cultural channels including Canal Once, Canal 22, TV UNAM and Canal 30. While this group has historically lagged behind Televisa and Azteca in terms of ratings, the Mexican government has made a real effort to expand the impact of this sector in recent years.

This began in 2010 with the formation of a government department called OPMA, which was charged with supporting the development of public television. OPMA has subsequently been reinvented as independent agency SPR (Sistema Publico de Radiodifusion del Estado Mexicano), but its function is effectively the same. One of SPR’s key tasks has been to increase the national coverage of the four public channels. In the case of Canal Once, which is operated by the Instituto Politecnico Nacional, penetration has risen from 28% of Mexico to 66% since 2010, with further expansion planned (the target is to reach 91 million domestic viewers by 2020). SPR also has its own channel, Channel 30 (aka Una Voz Con Todos), which launched in 2010.

Like Canal Once, this has seen a dramatic increase in coverage in recent years. It has also shown some high-profile programming, notably the 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics from Sochi.

More generally, the four publicly backed channels show documentary and cultural programming, says Ernesto Velazquez, who is director general of TV UNAM, a channel run by the National Autonomous University Of Mexico.

“We have our own production unit, which

“For Mexico, the real success story is just beginning” ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

11

COUNTRY OF HONOUR

2014

makes films and documentaries about subjects like history, literature, science, art and current affairs,” Velazquez adds. “But we also film the various live-music events that take place at the university. Our productions account for about 50% of our schedule.

The rest is made up of content we source through agreements with other Mexican public stations, and co-productions we enter into with the likes of ORF and ARTE.” According to Velazquez, recent changes have been a shot in the arm for Mexican public television — and he believes other factors will help the sector to gain strength: “The shift to digital is going to help us in-

crease our national distribution further.

Also exciting for TV UNAM is a new partnership with Discovery that is designed to encourage young producers to make new documentaries about cultural subjects in Mexico. That will provide a boost to the next generation of creative talent.”

Investment in public broadcasting is not the only intervention that the Mexican government has made in the media market — it has also announced plans for two new free-to-air channels, which will probably be launched in mid-2015. This, combined with the expansion of pay TV, the arrival of SVOD and a

re-energised public TV system, promises to lead to an exciting new chapter for Mexico.

While it is possible to view the current changes in Mexico as destabilising, the reality is that they are ushering in a new era of adventurism for Mexican companies. Increasingly, Mexico City is being recognised as a creative hub that is capable of competing on a global stage. Televisa’s export successes are evidence of this. But there is also greater optimism among indie producers, which have also started to have an impact in Latin America and beyond.

For Mexico, the real success story is just beginning.

“In the last five years, Mexican pay TV has grown extremely rapidly”

12

218_RM OPENING PARTY_SUPPL_COM

ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

206_TELEFILM_SUPPL_COM

Canada MIPCOM 2014

Why Coproduce with Canada?

Work with award winning talent and experienced crews Benefit from Canadian funding and incentives through a Canadian partner Discover the wide range of production locations to fit any scene as well as post-production facilities

We salute Mexico MIPCOM’s Country of Honour, one of Canada’s 54 coproduction partners!

Join us at the Canada Pavilion networking reception Tuesday, October 14, from 17:00 to 19:00 Stand P-1.A51

Presented by

COUNTRY OF HONOUR

2014

REGULATION

The changing media 14

The next few years will see a number of regulatory changes in Mexico that could impact significantly on the country’s media landscape. And Fry explores the key points

M

EXICO president Enrique Pena Nieto, who came to power in 2012, is keen to encourage greater competition in Mexico as a way of stimulating economic growth.

To this end he has sanctioned an overhaul of Mexico’s television and telecoms systems.

In the case of free-to-air TV, market leader Televisa has been declared dominant because it controls more than 50% of the market (70% to be exact). As a result, it will be subject to new regulations designed to limit its market power. In the telecoms sector, the same designation has been attached to market leader America Movil, which belongs to Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim. America Movil owns Telcel and Telmex which, between them, give Slim control of around 70% of the country’s fixed-line and mobile telecommunications.

As a dominant player, Televisa will be subject to various rules designed to level the playing field in free TV. For example, it must “make its broadcasting infrastructure available to third parties on a non-discriminatory and non-exclusive basis”. It will also be

barred from acquiring exclusive transmission rights in Mexico to certain categories of content that have, in the past, delivered high audiences. This is likely to mean highprofile sports rights such as the FIFA World Cup will have to be shared.

With respect to advertising sales, Televisa must “provide to [industry regulator] IFT the terms and conditions of its broadcast advertising services and fee structures, including commercials, packages, discount plans and any other commercial practice”.

In the telecoms sector, America Movil decided to head off such controls by agreeing to divest some of its holdings. It has agreed to reduce its market share to 50% over the next 18 months.

In parallel to all this, the government has also announced plans for two new free-toair TV channels, meaning that there will be additional competition for Televisa and its main rival Azteca.

Although Televisa controls in the region of 60% of the Mexican pay-TV market, it has not been designated as “dominant” in this

ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

sector. Instead, IFT is in the process of deciding whether it has “substantial market power” that gives it an unfair competitive advantage. If IFT decides that Televisa does indeed have an unfair advantage, it will impose some as-yet-undetermined obligations on the company, but they will not be as onerous as those outlined above.

Meanwhile, it is difficult to tell who will benefit from these changes, because no one knows how the new regime will work out in practice. In telecoms, Mexico’s number two in the mobile sector, Spain’s Telefonica, is expected to expand into the vacant space.

One possibility is that it will merge with smaller players, such as Axtel and Nextel.

In TV, Televisa and Azteca will not be allowed to bid for the two new TV licences referred to above. Foreign companies may be interested, but they will be restricted to a minority 49% shareholding. Many analysts believe the only player with sufficient clout to take on Televisa is Carlos Slim, although this might require some clever political manoeuvring.

As things stand, America Movil is not allowed to enter the free-TV market until it

a

COUNTRY OF HONOUR

2014

The Cuervos dunes, Mexicali

landscape 15

deals with its dominant position in the telco business. There have been suggestions that it could get around this restriction by launching a new corporate entity. That said, Slim has not yet revealed whether he wants to bid. Other names that have been mentioned include media owners such as Olegario Vazquez and Manuel Arroyo. Among foreign companies, Spanish media group Prisa has expressed interest.

Also likely to benefit is Grupo Salinas, the owner of Azteca and Iusacell. The company believes the changes in the law will offer Iusacell “enormous opportunities” for further expansion.

After applicants have been given the green-

light by the competition authorities, they will have to present their business case in November, with the winners announced by next June. Companies can apply for both channels, but it is not yet known what view the regulator will take on this. Some commentators argue that one large player winning both channels will stand a better chance against Televisa (which has four channels) and Azteca (which has three channels).

The general view is that more competition is a good thing. For foreign contentowners, it will mean more buyers while, for domestic producers, it will mean more commissioning.

Televisa will not come out of the changes too badly. So strong is its grip on the free-

TV market that it would take a monumental effort to dislodge it from its dominant position with regards to ad revenue. For America Movil, its share of the telco market is being limited and some services for which it previously charged will now become free, or have their prices capped. But despite all this, any entrants will find it hard to compete with the company. One possible upside for America Movil is that divestment in its telco business may allow it to enter the pay-TV market.

Mexico’s new telecoms legislation also makes provision to increase internet penetration in Mexico, including plans to introduce free wi-fi into 250,000 parks and public spaces nationwide. It also relaxes unpopular controversial restrictions on internet access.

“It is difficult to tell who will benefit from these changes, because no one knows how the new regime will work out in practice” ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

COUNTRY OF HONOUR

2014

MEDIA LANDSCAPE

Mexico by numbers With the analogue switch-off being brought forward, pay TV on the rise and the biggest broadband penetration in Latin America, Mexico’s media landscape is becoming increasingly complex and dynamic, as Andy Fry explains 16

I

N MEXICO, the share of viewers who watch free-to-air television fell from 84% to 72% between 2008 and 2013, according to Nielsen Ibope figures. However, these figures need to be viewed carefully because Televisa and Azteca contest their accuracy.

Pay TV currently has around 15 million subscribers and takes around 12% of Mexico’s $3bn television advertising revenue. The major player is Televisa, with its interests in cable and satellite. Televisa has approximately 9.7 million subscribers, six million of whom connect via satellite platform Sky Mexico. Megacable is the biggest cable provider after Televisa, with 2.2 million subs.

DTH platform Dish Mexico also weights in with two million-plus subscribers.

Overall consumer spend on video and TV entertainment in Mexico (movies, pay TV, Blu-ray, DVD, etc) grew by 9% in 2013 to reach $4.2bn and is forecast to reach $4.5bn in 2014, according to analysts at Futuresource Consulting.

Electronic home-video revenue is expected to rise to $393m in 2018, up from $202m in 2013. OTT/streaming revenue will rise in spectacular fashion from only $1.6m in 2013 to $58m by 2018. In 2017, total electronic home-video revenue will overtake total physical home-video revenue, which will de-

cline to $292m in 2018, from $323m in 2013.

SVOD accounted for 66% of overall digital spend in 2013, says Futuresource Consulting. The key drivers of this growth were the introduction of Netflix in 2011 and new entrants such as Clarovideo, a subsidiary of leading Mexican mobile operator Telcel.

Mexico’s broadband penetration is, at 68%, the highest in Latin America. It is also the second-largest internet advertising market in the region. According to PwC, internet advertising revenue in 2013 was $641m, up from $142m in 2009, and is forecast to reach $1.41bn in 2018.

Social media is growing extremely quickly.

Mexico is one of Facebook’s top 10 markets globally by number of users.

Mobile internet advertising has also shown substantial growth, with revenue forecast to grow to $25m in 2018. With smartphones set to constitute 50% of all mobile phones in 2018, mobile advertising will continue to grow its share.

Box-office revenues are expected to reach $1.18bn, up from $940m in 2013, PwC predicts. Admissions should reach 265 million by 2018, up from 239 million in 2013. Mexican movies are also starting to compete more effectively with Hollywood.

ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

Analogue switch-off was originally scheduled for 2021, but the date has been brought forward significantly. Currently, the government is investing $1.5bn to try to achieve the transition from analogue by 2015, although this may prove over-ambitious.

Mexican pay TV has suddenly burst into life.

After failing to make much of an impact during the last decade, recent years have seen rapid growth. Since 2010, pay TV’s share of the Mexican audience has risen from 17.9% to 27.4%.

In the process, it has overhauled the country’s long-established number-two network Azteca.

“Now is a great time to be in Mexican pay TV,” said Eduardo Lebrija, Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) Mexico’s senior vice-president and CEO. “10 years ago, pay TV was a premium service that only reached the upmarket AB audience.

But that has changed a lot. Now we are up around 50%-55% penetration of the Mexican market, which is very attractive to advertisers.”

Lebrija cites a number of reasons for the pay-TV boom: “Partly, it is to do with the growth in the economy — people have more money. But we have also seen more channel operators enter the market. In addition to this, we have seen new, lower-cost

COUNTRY OF HONOUR subscription packages become available, which means pay TV is more affordable to the mainstream Mexican audience.”

In Lebrija’s opinion, the current upward trend is set to continue for some time.

“Pay-TV penetration is healthy, but there is clearly more room for growth. And with increased subscription revenues, you’ll see more services launch and more local production. That’s attractive to audiences and advertisers.”

Currently, VIMN’s portfolio consists of 14 channels, six of which are wholly owned (Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, etc) while eight are represented on behalf of third parties. With the market currently so buoyant, Lebrija says that VIMN is also planning to launch a local Paramount Channel.

That will make the most of our film library and key acquisitions.”

VIMN is not the only international player helping to drive the Mexican pay-TV market.

Among the many HD channels now available in the country are Fox, A+E, TLC, HBO, Disney, AXN, MGM and the BBC. According to Fred Medina, BBC Worldwide’s executive vice-president and managing director, Latin America, the strength of the pay-TV market is that it offers a complementary viewing experience to market-leader Televisa. “Telenovelas are the staple diet of primetime viewing here, so there is not any real benefit in trying to dethrone them.

I think the opportunity for pay-TV broadcasters like us is to help create an adjacent offering made up of genres like drama, natural history, special events and music.”

Like Lebrija, Medina does not see an end to the growth in pay TV: “It’s not just the increases in cable and satellite that are making a difference. We’re also seeing explosive expansion in the alternatives, like SVOD services Netflix and Clarovideo. With big

“Now is a great time to be in Mexican pay TV” Eduardo Lebrija increases in smart TVs, PCs and mobiles, Mexico is a rapidly changing market.”

Also driving growth is the fact that Mexico is such a strategically important market.

“I can’t emphasise how committed BBC Worldwide is to succeeding in this market,” Medina adds. “Any multinational company that is serious about succeeding in Latin America has to have a solid foothold in two markets — Mexico and Brazil.”

A+E president and general manager Eddy Ruiz echoed that sentiment, saying that his company has also made Mexico a priority.

“We have four channels in the market, A+E, History, Lifetime and H2. History is one of the best-performing channels in the pay-TV market and is always in the top three for men.”

Like Medina, he said telenovelas are “a cultural phenomenon in Mexico, but as pay TV grows it’s creating a healthy market for genres like documentary, drama series and music”.

If there’s another key change he believes is boosting the sector it’s changes to content windowing. “The Mexican market is very tied to the US culturally and economically.

And now we are seeing that reflected in the amount of content that is released on the same day as the US. It used to be more like six months.”

Of course, it is important not to overlook the fact that Televisa itself is a key factor in

“Any multinational company that is serious about succeeding in Latin America has to have a solid foothold in two markets — Mexico and Brazil” ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

2014

the growth of Mexican pay TV. Leaving aside the fact that its platforms control nearly two-thirds of subscribers, it also operates 24 channel brands, including the recently launched Golden Premier, a showcase for movies and TV series.

According to Televisa, these channels more than hold their own against their international rivals. In its most recent annual report, it says: “We finished 2013 with five of the top-seven entertainment networks, three of the top-five movie networks and the topthree music and lifestyle networks. We also reached a new record for primetime viewership from Monday to Friday.”

While a big part of this success is down to Televisa’s in-built brand awareness and cross-marketing capability, it has also invested heavily in production for its pay-TV services. Overall, it has increased production from 4,000 hours in 2003 to 23,000 hours last year. “In spite of strong competition from key international networks, we doubled the average rating per network over this period,” says Televisa’s annual report.

With pay-TV penetration expected to increase, the prospects look good for both Televisa and international networks. But it would be wrong to suggest Televisa will have everything its own way. As discussed elsewhere, some analysts predict that Carlos Slim’s America Movil will be allowed to enter the pay-TV market once it drops its share of the telco market below 50%.

Slim, who has TV interests across Latin America, is already well prepared for such an eventuality. He runs SVOD and videostreaming services and also has links with Dish Mexico, the country’s number two DTH platform, which could eventually lead to a full-blown takeover bid. If that happens, it will represent a serious challenge to Televisa — but an exciting opportunity for channel operators to expand their coverage.

Fred Medina

17

COUNTRY OF HONOUR

2014 PAY-TV FACT FILE

• Pay-TV currently has around 15 million subscribers and takes around 12% of Mexico’s television ad revenue, which is worth over $2.5bn and is set to rise to $3.21bn in 2018 • The major pay-TV player is Televisa, with its interests in cable and satellite. Televisa has approximately 9.7 million subscribers, six million of whom connect via satellite platform Sky Mexico • Megacable is the biggest cable provider after Televisa, with 2.2 million subscribers • DTH platform Dish Mexico also has over two million subscribers • Pay-TV penetration will reach 88% by the end of 2018, with total subscriptions rising to around 21.6 million, according to PwC

ELECTRONIC HOME VIDEO MARKET 18

The electronic home video market is growing fast in Mexico: • Netflix arrived in Mexico in 2011 • Total electronic home video revenue is expected to rise to $393m in 2018, up from $202m in 2013, a CAGR of 14.2% • OTT/streaming revenue will rise at a CAGR of 105.5% from only $1.6m in 2013 to $58m by 2018 • OTT/streaming will still only account for 15% of total electronic home video revenue in 2018 • TV-subscription revenue is expected to increase at a CAGR of 10.8% to reach $335mn in 2018 • In 2017, total electronic home video revenue will overtake total physical home video revenue, which will decline to $292m in 2018, from $323m in 2013.

Source: PwC Entertainment & Media Outlook 2014-2018

SUBSCRIPTIONS & LICENSE FEES

• Subscription TV penetration of TV households was 69.3% in 2013 and is expected to increase to 88.1% by end 2018 • Total subscriptions will rise from 15.7 million in 2013 to 21.6 million in 2018.

• Satellite will be the main driver of growth in the Mexican pay-TV market, accounting for 47.8% of TV households by 2018, up from 36.6% in 2013.

• Total pay-TV revenues will rise, from $4.7bn in 2013 to $6.8bn in 2018, a CAGR of 7.8%.

SVOD FACT FILE

• Netflix launched in Mexico in autumn 2011 and its subscriber base has grown from 60,000 to 640,000 in that time • A Netflix deal with Televisa provides its service with 3,000 hours of content a year on a non-exclusive basis • Telecoms giant American Movil has an SVOD service called Clarovideo. When it launched in 2012, Clarovideo undercut Netflix by one third • Clarovideo is available across all of Latin America • In 2013, Clarovideo announced a licensing agreement with CBS that gave it access to titles including The Good Wife and CSI, as well as Showtime’s Californication and Nurse Jackie • Azteca owner Grupo Salinas offers a triple-play service called Total Play via its mobile operator Iusacell • Also active in Mexico are Walmart-owned movie streaming services Vudu and Bacuza, an OTT film and TV service that originates out of Chile

TV ADVERTISING

• TV advertising is the advertising sector in the Mexican market accounting for 60% of overall advertising revenues • Revenues declined by 2.9% in 2009 following the global financial crisis • Recovery put net TV advertising expenditure beyond pre-crash levels to $2.49bn by 2013 • Average annual growth of 5.2% is forecast to see revenues reach $3.21bn in 2018 • The TV advertising market is dominated Televisa and TV Azteca, which have a combined viewing share of around 75% • Terrestrial channels accounted for 88.4% of total TV advertising revenues in 2013. This share will decline to 83.5% by 2018 as multichannel services increase their revenues to $492m • Online TV is set to grow towards $39m in net TV advertising revenues by 2018, up from $3m in 2013, representing just 1.2% of total revenues Source: PwC Entertainment & Media Outlook 2014-2018

Source: PwC Entertainment & Media Outlook 2014-2018

ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

207_RM MOBILE_SUPPL_COM

COUNTRY OF HONOUR ACQUISITION TRENDS

2014

Global taste, local flavour Mexican viewing habits are changing. So what are the country’s broadcasters buying to satisfy their vast and diverse audience? Gary Smith reports

M 20

EXICO is becoming an increasingly diverse media landscape, in part because of the new services coming on-stream.

The lowering of prices means more homes are receiving the pay-TV services that were once the preserve of the minority that could afford them, and this means more exposure for local programming.

Clearly this is a good time to be in the payTV sector, and Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) Mexico’s senior vice-president and CEO, Eduardo Lebrija, sees many new opportunities: “The level of penetration of pay-TV has been very positively affected by internal competition driving down prices, which means that services that used to be the preserve of the rich and the middle classes are now in C- and D-income homes.

And of course that means that channels

have to react and provide what that audience segment wants. Consequently, there is an ever-greater emphasis on homegrown shows and on Spanish-language programmes. By that I mean that we are becoming more and more localised rather than pan-regional, because our audience wants

“Our audience wants shows that reflect Mexican realities” Eduardo Lebrija

ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

shows that reflect Mexican realities. In fact, this is a general trend across Latin America — Argentinians, Colombians and Peruvians all want their own series.”

VIMN Mexico is set to launch its 15th channel — ­The Paramount Channel — and for the first time has produced a local version of a Viacom format. “Acapulco Shore is our version of Jersey Shore, which we launched in September,” Lebrija says. “I’m happy to say that not only has it been a hit with our audience, but it has also received very strong and positive reactions on the international market.”

He adds that Mexico “has the very good fortune” of being located at the cultural crossroads between North and South America. “And now that the IFT [the Mexican telecoms and broadcasting regulator] has opened up the market and encouraged competition, we can also offer much greater value to foreign producers who want to make shows here.”

According to Nat Abraham, president of distribution at Breakthrough Entertainment, Mexico is proving to a significant — and growing — pay-TV market. “And it doesn’t

COUNTRY OF HONOUR

2014 show any signs of slowing down,” he says.

“Most recently, we licensed David Rocco’s Dolce Vita and Dolce India to Latin America’s new lifestyle network ¡Hola! TV. The David Rocco brand taps into the Mexican’s strong appetite for inspiring lifestyle programming and human-interest stories.”

Running alongside Mexico’s increasingly cosmopolitan tastes is an enduring and robust love for the telenovela. Head of acquisition at TV Azteca, Pedro Lascurain, takes up the story: “We have a co-production deal with Globo in Brazil, through which we are broadcasting two series each day, and we also acquire novelas from RCTV, Caracol, RCN, Artear and Telefe. So this is a country that still loves its traditional TV.” But, Lascurain says, even this is evolving, with versions of primetime US shows now being remade as telenovelas. An example is A Corazon Abierto, which is a local version of ABC’s hit drama Grey’s Anatomy.

“Formats are also increasingly important here,” he adds. “We made a local version of FremantleMedia’s The Weakest Link called El Rival Mas Debil, and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? is also very popular. Our version of Millionaire is, in fact, made in Venezuela with Mexican participants, because the set is so expensive. It’s cheaper to share it with neighbouring countries rather than to build a new one in each country.”

Cable and pay-TV penetration is now at just

over the symbolic 50% of households, but what that means in real terms is that more than 55 million people now have access to the kids’ channels from Viacom, Disney, Turner and Discovery Kids. This, in turn, has made it a more competitive environment for the traditional free-to-air channels.

“The SVOD business has also grown with the entrance of various new platforms, such as Netflix, DLA TV and Televisa-owned VEO, giving rise to new opportunities for kids’ content,” says Christoph Goldberger, CEO of consultancy Gold Bee. “Combined with the general worldwide trend of kids consuming content as they please on the internet, and the [industry regulator] IFT’s decision last spring to make historical giant Televisa share some of its content and infrastructure, Mexico has been experiencing unprecedented changes in its media landscape in general, and the kids’ arena in particular.”

Televisa is currently moving towards a young adult target and focusing less on younger skewing animated children’s programmes. “Recent acquisitions include Pretty Little Liars, Vampire Diaries and The Big Bang Theory,” Goldberger adds. “But public broadcasters such as Canal Once and Canal 22 are still making kids a priority.” He points to a recent deal between Netflix and ZDF Enterprises for the exclusive rights to season one of Mako Mermaids for Latin America, in addition to various other territo-

ries, including the US. Canal Once has also renewed its commitment to Dance Academy, picking up the third and final season of the Australian teen drama. And the Walt Disney Channel has acquired season two of CBBC’s acclaimed fantasy/supernatural series Wolfblood.

PGS Entertainment’s co-founder and president, Philippe Soutter, is equally enthusiastic about the Mexican children’s audience.

“Mexico has been a great territory for PGS and the producers there have a unique style and way of entertaining children,” he says.

“The country has some of the most diverse and exciting programming when it comes to kids. While local programming — novelas and premium US shows — are dominant, the Mexicans are very open to international content.”

PGS partnered with Televisa on the Iron Man series from Marvel and Method Animation, as well as on The Little Prince, which is an iconic series in Mexico. “We are currently working on several local partnerships with Once TV, which is opening up new opportunities to place many great shows on Mexican networks,” Soutter adds. These include The Jungle Bunch To The Rescue and Super 4 with Cartoon Network, LadyBug with Disney, Alvinnn!!! And The Chipmunks with Nick, and Alpha And Omega and The Little Prince with Discovery.

For Jaime Aguilar, commercial manager at Televisa, second-screen content is now a prime consideration. “Canal 5 was relaunched in July, aimed at the millennial audience,” he says. “Those viewers expect extra content and also exclusive content. They love the fact that we are able to have a conversation with them, which is something that informs my work in acquisitions. Consequently, much of what I’ll be looking for at MIPCOM are series that can be played across every platform, from linear TV through to mobile apps. On top of that, reality/talent shows like The Voice are a solid bet. Quality drama like The Walking Dead, Hannibal and Spartacus are also doing increasingly well in Mexico.

Acapulco Shore, Mexico’s version of Jersey Shore

ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

21

COUNTRY OF HONOUR

2014

22

THE DIGITAL LANDSCAPE

Mexico’s next frontier With smartphone penetration, e-commerce, online gaming and all social-media growing strongly, it’s clear that Mexicans are committed netizens. Juliana Koranteng reports

A

CCORDING to Internet Live Stats, online penetration is more than 40%, with 50.9 million subscribers in a population of about 124 million.

In the year to September, 3.4 million people in Mexico became new internet subscribers, which compares to 1.5 million each in France and Germany, and 1.6 million in the UK. YouTube accounts for a significant share of the digital-video consumption, says John

Farrell, director of Latin America at the Google-owned video-sharing giant. “Mexico loves YouTube,” he adds. “The country punches far above its weight in terms of the internet population accessing YouTube.

It’s third in the world in terms of YouTube consumption, based on time spent on the platform. And we have both traditional and new-generation content creators here.”

YouTube hosts videos of shows from TV

“For those who have it, the smartphone is the most engaging platform for Mexicans” ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

networks owned by the country’s mass-media conglomerates, such as Grupo Televisa and Azteca. Moreover, YouTube features a growing number of next-generation Mexican multichannel networks (MCN) offering original online video content.

“What makes my job interesting is that Mexicans are ingesting archive content, claiming user-generated content and beginning to programme for the platform,” Farrell adds.

Jose Rivera Font

COUNTRY OF HONOUR Among the most popular MCNs are Yuya, dubbed the ‘beauty queen of Latin America’, whose beauty and lifestyle videos have more than 7.7 million subscribers. El Pulso De La Republica is presented by Chumel Torres, who is compared to the US satirist/TV host Stephen Colbert. Werevertumorro is a vlogging channel with more than 1 billion views.

Another Mexican MCN hitting the headlines is MiTu, a YouTube entertainment video network aimed at English, Spanish and Portuguese speakers internationally. In June, it raised $10m in a round led by private-equity investor Upfront Ventures. Other investors include Advancit Capital, the Chernin Group (owned by former global TV executive Peter Chernin), and Allen DeBevoise (Machinima co-founder). Shortly after, MiTu snapped up a multi-year, multiplatform deal with Televisa. The new partnership will give Televisa access to a new generation of entertainment producers at MiTu. Furthermore, MiTu — already boasting 43 million subscribers and 450 million monthly views — will have opportunities to expand its reach via the Televisa networks, which include several Mexican, Latin American and international terrestrial and cable-andsatellite TV networks, plus its US interests in Univision and Telemundo.

International MCNs with significant follow-

Yahoo! LATAM and US Hispanic’s Armando Rodriguez

ers in Mexico include video games-centric Machinima and entertainment platform Maker Studios, which is now a Walt Disney Company subsidiary. Maker Studios says its biggest channel partner in Mexico is HectorLealVlogs, a comedy-and-music channel with more than 958,000 subscribers and 85 million-plus views. Among Maker Studios’ other online-content partners in Mexico are the games-themed channels Leumas14785, Missa Sinfonia and Pablocuchis, plus Angel vf (Angelvfranco) for car fanatics. InventMX, a subsidiary of Grupo Imagen Multimedia, is a major YouTube content distributor.

In August, YouTube introduced a new Spanish-language education-focused MCN aimed at Mexicans and other Spanish-speaking Latin Americans called YouTube EDU. Currently aggregating more than 22,000 teaching videos targeted at high-school students, YouTube hopes it will ultimately become a “repository of knowledge for all academia”.

The use of YouTube for an artist’s audience engagement is still at the early stages, but it is growing, Farrell says. “In Mexico, they build their fan base [on YouTube] before writing books or making music, movies and TV shows. This is where they can always contact their fans and drive them to wherever they are expanding to.”

Data from comScore Insights reveals that Mexico has the highest penetration for so-

Fox International Channels’ Latin America’s Carlos Martinez

YouTube’s John Farrell

“Right now, [we estimate] Mexico to be the 11th largest internet-user country in the world — and Yahoo! reaches 80% of those users” ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

2014

cial media, with Facebook the most popular, followed by Google+, Twitter and Instagram.

Social-media networks reach 98.2% of the population — and an estimated 65% of them are under the age of 35.

Although mobile penetration stands at 87% of the population and smartphones reach at 37% (higher than Brazil’s 26% smartphone penetration), experts agree that, once telecom operators such as Movistar and Telcel start offering efficient data plans to their customers, smartphone adoption will soar.

Until then, users have to depend on wi-fi signals. That said, 59% of mobile users access social media via apps.

In other digital activities, SuperData Research estimates that Mexico is Latin America’s second biggest online-games market (worth an estimated $963m) after regional leader Brazil ($1.5bn).

As international legal streaming-music services such as Spotify and Deezer enter Mexico, experts have observed that the local music business has started to thrive despite well-documented piracy issues.

Music-industry trade body Amprofon said revenues jumped 130% in the six months to June 30, 2014 compared to the same period in 2013. eMarketer predicts that Mexico will be Latin America’s fastest growing e-commerce market, rising at an average annual rate of 17.6% to $15bn by 2017.

Futuresource Consulting’s Joanna Wright

Armando Rodriguez

23

COUNTRY OF HONOUR

2014

Digital Mexico

24

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2013-2018 CAGR

Internet access in Mexico (US dollar millions)

3218,98

4619,538

5355,939

6483,108

7889,479

8887,848

9742,944

10609,952

11485,971

12436,153

9,5

Internet advertising in Mexico (US dollar millions)

141,511

243,345

369,609

511,357

641,458

766,551

910,781

1059,313

1219,294

1407,003

17

Fixed broadband households in Mexico (millions)

9,356

11,482

12,527

14,274

16,156

17,414

17,959

18,37

18,692

18,967

3,3

Fixed broadband penetration in Mexico (per cent)

42,199

50,9

54,612

61,272

68,324

72,552

73,717

74,333

74,658

74,821

-

Mobile internet subscribers in Mexico (millions)

8,371

11,299

15,301

19,638

24,928

31,306

38,495

46,477

53,317

58,755

18,7

Mobile phone ownership in Mexico (millions)

82,079

89,498

93,198

98,698

103,735

109,293

114,791

120,17

125,47

130,683

4,7

Mobile internet penetration in Mexico (per cent)

7,144

9,525

12,741

16,155

20,262

25,145

30,574

36,524

41,461

45,217

-

Non-smartphone penetration in Mexico (per cent)

-

-

-

84,889

78,633

71,721

64,75

58,534

53,693

50,267

-8,6

Smartphone penetration in Mexico (per cent)

-

-

-

15,1

21,4

28,3

35,3

41,5

46,3

49,7

18,4

Tablet ownership in Mexico (millions)

-

-

0,427

1,357

2,965

4,941

7,603

11,077

15,426

21,171

48,2

Tablet penetration in Mexico (per cent)

-

-

0,356

1,116

2,41

3,969

6,039

8,705

11,996

16,293

46,6

IPTV households in Mexico (millions)

0,03

0,052

0,06

0,073

0,076

0,253

0,475

0,765

1,008

1,196

73,5

IPTV penetration in Mexico (per cent)

0,145

0,241

0,276

0,33

0,338

1,099

2,033

3,219

4,175

4,878

-

Total with double counting

3360,491

4862,883

5725,548

6994,465

8530,937

9654,399

10653,725

11669,265

12705,265

13843,156

10,2

Note: Numbers shown are rounded. Totals may not equal the sum of their parts due to rounding. Sources: PwC, Informa Telecoms & Media

Such positive digital developments have also driven Crackle, the free advertisingfunded global on-demand video entertainment channel belonging to Sony Pictures Television (SPT) Networks, to invest in Mexico. The international service has been regionalised for Spanish-speaking Mexican online audiences, according to Jose Rivera Font, Crackle’s general manager and vice-president of digital networks for Latin America and Brazil.

Among Crackle’s popular, originally Englishlanguage titles are Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee (with Jerry Seinfeld), and Cleaners, starring David Arquette.

“In Mexico, Crackle has decided to dub or

use subtitles for our mostly Hollywood content, which includes movies and TV series made by Sony [Pictures] Studios,” Rivera Font says. “The engagement with users is almost four times as much as the engagement we get when we don’t localise.”

Rivera Font confirms that Mexicans’ fondness for online videos was accelerated by this year’s FIFA World Cup football tournament in Brazil, where Mexico was expected to do well. This has encouraged Crackle to consider investing in original Spanishlanguage content. Additionally, he believes revenues will ramp up as streaming content reaches more connected devices, including smartphones, video-game consoles and smart TVs.

ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

“Mexicans watch as much as 11 hours a month [comScore figures] and that’s a healthy sign for the OTT [over-the-top internet] TV in the region,” he adds. “And for those who have it, the smartphone is the most engaging platform for Mexicans.”

Since Crackle relies on advertising, the number of ‘video starts’ and ‘video-ad starts’ (commercials triggered by the click that starts a video show) is crucial to the on-demand platform’s financial wellbeing.

“We’ve seen the number of video starts triple — and every time a video starts, it triggers an ad,” Rivera Font reports.

Yahoo!, the global web-portal giant, also has interests in Mexico. Armando Rodriguez, vice-president and managing director of Ya-

COUNTRY OF HONOUR hoo! LATAM and US Hispanic, says: “Right now, [we estimate] Mexico to be the 11th largest internet-user country in the world — and Yahoo! reaches 80% of those users. We have made considerable traction in the last few years and see huge potential to growing our market share.”

When Buzzfeed, the fast-growing US-based online content-sharing group, picked up $50m in new venture-capital funding in August, it included Mexico in the four countries into which it plans to expand later this year.

And Carlos Martinez, Fox International Channels Latin America’s president, says the Mexican online audience is a priority when more than 6,000 hours of content is produced locally for both the linear platforms and multiplatform services such as Fox Play.

Televisa, Mexico’s biggest media group, operates digital assets that include websites for the 189 Spanish-language print magazine titles it publishes, plus the 120 portals operated under the Televisa Interactive Media subsidiary. Rival Azteca has joined forces with YouToo Technologies to offer social-TV content and second-screen services, starting with US-Hispanic audiences.

Joanna Wright, senior market analyst at UK media-research company Futuresource Consulting, is not surprised to see digital media flourishing in Mexico. “There has been a lot of investment in the Mexican digital-video market in recent years, and the key companies driving this include Netflix and Apple’s iTunes, which both launched in 2011,” she says.

Wright also points to the emergence of local

streaming-video platforms. Telecoms group Telmex offers clarovideo, which went live in 2012; and Televisa’s Veo launched in 2013.

Other players include Totalmovie.com from Grupo Salinas (Azteca’s owner), and Cinepolis, Mexico’s largest cinema chain, which operates Cinepolis Klic, an SVOD (subscription videoon-demand) and iVOD (internet VOD) platform.

“SVOD accounted for 66% of overall digital spend in 2013 and 70% growth is expected in 2014,” Wright says, adding that Futuresource predicts consumer spend on digital video services will jump to $360m in 2018 from $86m in 2013.

Another digital revenue source will be advertising. Statista.com predicts digital-advertising expenditure will grow to $1.82bn in 2018 from an estimated $0.9bn in 2014. Based on figures from IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) Mexico and PwC, eMarketer calculates that online advertising spend (excluding mobile ads) grew to $630m in 2013 from $482m the year before.

As smartphone penetration grows among Mexico’s affluent middle class, the company argues that leading telcos will start marketing more price-friendly feature phones and cheaper smartphones. This is expected to boost mobile-advertising revenues. eMarketer forecasts that mobile-ad spend will jump 87% to $173m this year over 2013.

At 19% of total digital advertising, Mexico’s mobile advertising’s share is much bigger than the Latin American average of 6.5%.

Making the transition to digital broadcast

“Mexico is already the third biggest consumer of YouTube videos. Imagine what the country will look like for us once we reach 60% to 70%.

The future is bright”

ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

2014

from analogue has not been easy for a government occupied with content piracy and other more pressing social issues. Mexico’s analogue switch-off programme was supposed to have been completed in 2021. For reasons that are unclear, the government decided to bring this date forward to 2015.

This has left many viewers disappointed as the roll-out is taking place before they have purchased the necessary set-top boxes and/ or TV sets.

Piracy also continues to hurt the country’s entertainment and media sectors. In February, the US Trade Representative (USTR) included Mexico in its Notorious Markets List of countries plagued by a substantial amount of physical and digital piracy. Although Mexico is signatory to the United Nations’ WIPO internet treaties, these provisions have not been fully adopted by the country’s copyright legislation. Consequently, law-enforcement officers continue to focus their attention more on counterfeit physical goods, including CDs and DVDs, instead of online piracy.

The USTR’s IIPA (International Intellectual Property Alliance) has recommended Mexico be retained on its Watch List of countries identified as having woeful copyright protection. YouTube’s John Farrell, however, remains optimistic. “For us, the glass is half full,” he says. “With 50% of the online population accessing YouTube, Mexico is already the third biggest consumer of our videos. Imagine what the country will look like for us once we reach 60% to 70%. The future is bright.”

John Farrell

V 25

COUNTRY OF HONOUR

2014

26

Heroes Del Norte, developed for Televisa by Adicta Films

PRODUCTION

Something for everyone The telenovela is still the darling of Mexican viewers. But as the channel universe expands and Mexico’s production industry ramps up to feed the content pipeline — both at home and abroad — output is diversifying to satisfy an increasingly wide audience. Andy Fry reports

T

ELEVISION production in Mexico has been dominated by Televisa for decades. In 2013, the company produced a staggering 93,000 hours of content, up from 53,000 hours 10 years earlier.

In part, this expansion in output is down to the fact that Televisa is supplying shows

to its pay-TV channels as well as its freeto-air portfolio. But there is also a strategic dimension to the growth. In its most recent annual report, Televisa said increased production “reduces our dependence on thirdparty content”.

While Televisa’s output covers a variety

“The telenovela isn’t going away, but there is more space in the schedules now for reality and entertainment shows” ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

of genres, the one for which it is best known is telenovelas. Even today, with domestic competition growing rapidly, Televisa’s telenovelas continue to attract a huge following in Mexican primetime. In fact, such is the pulling power of Televisa’s telenovelas that many have been broadcast

Coty Cagliolo

COUNTRY OF HONOUR or reversioned worldwide. Top examples down the years include Betty La Fea, Rebelde, Rubi, Soy Tu Duena, Triunfo Del Amor, Fuego En La Sangre and Teresa, though this barely scratches the surface of Televisa’s archive.

The Televisa production pipeline never sleeps. Some of its telenovelas are adaptations from elsewhere in Latin America, some are updates of earlier successful shows, and some are wholly original. Irrespective of where they start out, however, Mexican audiences continue to be loyal to the genre.

Recent successes include La Gata, Hasta El Fin Del Mundo, La Malquerida, Mi Corazon Es Tuyo, El Color De La Pasion, Que Pobres Tan Ricos and Quiero Amarte. The latter, a remake of Imperio De Cristal, was one of the most talked-about telenovelas of the year on social media, as well as being a ratings success.

While Televisa leads the way, free-to-air rival Azteca has a parallel operation producing around 10,000 hours of content a year.

Like Televisa, it has stand-out titles that have aired worldwide, including Cuando Seas Mia, Mirada De Mujer, Cielo Rojo, Montecristo and Catalina Y Sebastian, a 1999 production that was later re-imagined by Azteca as Cielo Rojo.

Among the Azteca titles currently making waves is Siempre Tuya, a domestic hit that has also been remade for Malaysia.

Other recent hits include Destino (where a woman and her mother fall in love with the same man) and Prohibida Amar, a remake of Caracol Television Colombia’s La Sombra Del Deseo.

While Televisa and Azteca’s telenovela output casts a lengthy shadow over the Mexican production business, there have been some interesting moves towards diversification.

One is the gradual introduction of entertainment formats into the Mexican market. Televisa has aired local versions of shows such as Endemol’s Wipeout and Talpa’s The Voice, while Azteca has just greenlit a local version of FremantleMedia’s Got Talent.

Commenting on the latter deal, FremantleMedia Mexico’s creative director, Coty Cagliolo, says: “We’ve been in Mexico for about a

2014

Sony’s Senorita Polvora (Miss Gunpowder). Pictured is Camila Sodi who plays one of the lead characters, Valentina

decade and produced many different kinds of game shows and reality series. But producing Got Talent is a huge opportunity for us.”

Competing as an indie in Mexico requires a couple of things, Cagliolo adds: “The first is patience. Succeeding in Mexico doesn’t happen in a couple of weeks. You need to keep your eyes and ears open and show a lot of respect for the way the industry works here. The second is the special role of the telenovela in people’s lives. In the case of Got Talent, there will be telenovela-style elements to the way we produce the show.”

Although Mexico is tough for indies, Cagliolo is optimistic about FremantleMedia’s prospects: “The telenovela isn’t going away, but there is more space in the schedules now for reality and entertainment shows.

The growth in pay TV is also encouraging, because it’s leading to a great demand for original shows.”

In addition to these points, Cagliolo stresses the role of Mexico as a production hub for Spanish-speaking Latin America: “Mexican culture and the Mexican accent are widely understood in Latin America, so it’s a good

“Mexico is a key location for any company with Latin American ambitions” ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

strategic base for the region. We have made shows like Project Runway Latin America from here.”

Another indie that has managed to create a successful business in Mexico is Argos Comunicacion, which launched 21 years ago.

According to Argos casting director and producer Ana Celia Urquidi, the company started out by working for Azteca, producing telenovelas such as Mirada De Mujer and Todo Por Amor between 1995-2000. It subsequently started working for Telemundo, which is now its major client. “We made a lot of telenovelas for Telemundo from 2000-2006,” Urquidi says. “And now we are working for them again, producing around 240 hours a year. Current examples include La Patrona and Los Miserables.”

Recent years have been good to Argos because of the growth of pay TV and public TV in Mexico, Urquidi adds: “There are new opportunities these days. We made three seasons of Capadocia for HBO and a series for MundoFox called Dos Lunas. There have also been recent series for MTV and Disney.”

Roberto Rios

27

COUNTRY OF HONOUR

2014

“This is an unprecedented time for production across Latin America. The explosion of new channels and platforms has led to a globalisation of content” While Mexico is the core market for Argos, Urquidi believes the current trend towards international production is “also a big opportunity for us. Mexico has become an excellent centre of production. There are studios, crews, equipment here — all of the infrastructure we need to make shows for other markets. Latin America is an obvious target for us, but also Europe.”

Thanks to the increased opportunities, Urquidi says that Mexico’s independent sector is becoming stronger. “There are some young, fresh companies that are doing a great job, like Lemon and Itaca,” she adds. “That is good for the future of Mexican independent production.”

28

Siempre Tuya, a domestic hit for Azteca that has also been remade for Malaysia

Although the leading pay-TV players do not require the same volume of content as the free channels, they are ramping up their originations.

MTV Latin America, for example, is making a local version of Jersey Shore entitled Acapulco Shore. Similar to the original, it will follow the lives of eight young Mexicans living in and around the fabled beach resort town of Acapulco. MundoFox is another network that is cranking up production with shows like Dos Lunas.

Another company to have started making shows in Mexico is HBO Latin America. The company’s vice-president of original

ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

Angelica Guerra

production, Roberto Rios, says: “Mexico is a key location for any company with Latin American ambitions. In production terms, it has a long and impressive history that dates back to the great filmmakers of the Forties.

More recently, of course, it has an excellent track record in television production. While Televisa is the main player, there are some good independents that we like to work with because they suit the more maverick image we are after. We want our shows to be perceived as Mexican, but not like anything else that is currently produced in the market.”

Key HBO shows in recent years include Capadocia, produced by Argos. Also significant is Senor Avila, the story of an insurance salesman who lives a double life as an assassin. Produced by Lemon Films, the show scored great ratings for HBO and has gone to a second series. “We are trying to build franchises, so that the audience know our shows are coming regularly and coming back,” Rios says. “If there’s too big a gap between series, the message gets lost.”

A+E president and general manager Eddy Ruiz said his company’s strategy is to make two tiers of original content — shows that work at a Latin American regional level and shows which deal with purely Mexican subject matter. “It’s an important part of what we do but it is a challenge,” he says, “for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there is quite a lot of difference between the various LatAm countries so we have to choose subjects that appeal to all of them, recent examples being ET Contact and Miracles Decoded.

Secondly, the economics of producing solely for Mexico are sometimes tough. But we still have to do it. If a big Mexican historic anniversary is coming up, for example, then viewers expect History to cover it.

Another significant player in Mexican production is Telemundo. Owned by NBCUniversal, Telemundo is primarily targeted at the Hispanic US audience, though it does

COUNTRY OF HONOUR have a feed into Mexico. Because of this, it has ramped up the level of telenovela production it delivers out of Miami.

At the same time, however, Telemundo continues to use Mexico as a key production hub. This summer, it signed a three-year deal with SPT’s Mexico-based production arm Teleset that will see the two partners produce three primetimes series at a rate of one a year. The shows will air in the US and

be distributed internationally by Telemundo International (TI).

TI’s president, Marcos Santana, says: “We are very proud to enter this agreement with SPT to produce scripted content with the highest quality standards and talent selection. This agreement will provide us with appealing and attractive content at the level our international clients have come to expect from TI.”

2014

SPT has made more headway than most in Mexico. In addition to the deal with Telemundo, it has signed a five-year pact with Televisa that will see 12 Spanish-language series being produced for broadcast on Televisa platforms in Mexico. This builds on a pre-existing deal that brought a local version of SPT’s hit series Breaking Bad (Metastasis) to Televisa’s Canal 5.

For SPT, the partnership is an opportunity to gain a strong foothold in Mexico. But there are also clear benefits for Televisa. The first is that it gains access to SPT’s expertise in short-run series — a genre that is growing in popularity in Mexico. The second is that the shows can be channelled through to Univision-owned network UniMas in the US (reaping a financial reward for Televisa). And the third is that it consolidates Televisa’s global alliance with SPT. In addition to the above production plans, the two are working together in the global market to help each other to develop and produce local versions of their formats.

Angelica Guerra, SPT’s senior and vice-president and managing director of production for Latin America and US Hispanic, says the first co-production will be Senorita Polvora (Miss Gunpowder), which is currently in production in Mexico City and will premiere next year.

Commenting on the prospects for Mexico and the region, she adds: “This is an unprecedented time for production across Latin American. The explosion of new channels and platforms has led to a globalisation of content. Latin Americans have always been great TV storytellers — the digital revolution has simply enhanced the way we tell stories and has given the audience a window into our unique world.”

While the growth of pay TV is driving production, it is also important to note that the Mexican government is channeling investment into educational and cultural production via channels including Canal Once, Canal 22, Canal 30 and TV UNAM. Canal Once, for example, has aired original productions such as XY, an acclaimed drama that investigate issues including intimacy, infidelity, money and unemployment among men; and Yo Solo Se Que No He Cenado, which travels to different Mexican locations to showcase their culture, history and people through traditional foods.

Metastasis, a local version of SPT’s Breaking Bad for Televisa

ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

29

COUNTRY OF HONOUR

Adicta Films’ Coloformo

2014

30

‘Mexico is developing a healthy industry’ Adicta Films is a production company come creative laboratory dedicated to developing fiction for TV and theatrical release. Director, writer and producer Gustavo Loza gives Andy Fry an independent’s view of the Mexican market Give some examples of shows you produce…

“Commercially speaking, our most successful show is the fictional series Los Heroes Del Norte, which we developed and produced for Televisa. The series is going into its third season and has achieved ratings records in Mexico and the US on cable television. Another production of which we are extremely proud is Cloroformo, also for Televisa. In cinema, our last film was The Other Family, which was exhibited in Mexico and across Latin America through 20th Century Fox.” What are the strengths of Mexican producers?

“Our strengths are our narrative ability, our stories and, above all, the ability we have to make high-quality productions even when resources are limited. Adicta is composed of people drawn from film and this gives us a competitive advantage in terms of visual and narrative quality.”

What’s it like being an independent producer in Mexico?

“Being in independent production in Mexico is an extremely difficult task due to the huge distance between [the indies] and the major TV networks, which for many years have created and produced their own content.

However, we have found a formula and are now one of the few production companies that produces content for Televisa while maintaining our independence.

“Our focus as a company is on fiction, because we believe there is much to be done in that area. Mexico is a country with a strong tradition in the telenovela, but that is not everything. Our contribution is in other forms of fiction, including mini-series, sitcoms, films and TV movies. We have also started to look at areas such as talk shows, documentaries and reality.”

ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

Will the restructuring of the Mexican media market over the next few years be good for producers?

We hope the changes will be beneficial for independent producers by offering us opportunities to place our products in various new windows. Down the road, it is the public who will benefit. Hopefully, Mexico is developing a healthy industry.”

What are the regional growth opportunities?

“Fortunately, our fiction projects are not exclusively for the Mexican market but also have windows in the Latino market in the US and Latin America. As Mexicans, we have two markets of equal importance — our country and the Hispanic US. In my case, I always think of the two markets when I develop products, because it is a great opportunity for us — as long as we understand their similarities and their differences.”

Son Mariachis chronicles the adventures Mariachi band Banda Nueva Generation. The series is at MIPCOM with Castalia Communications

COUNTRY OF HONOUR

2014

CONTENT EXPORTS

Spreading the word Mexico is the world’s 13th largest entertainment and advertising industry market.

No surprise, then, that its programming exports are booming, writes Gary Smith

I

N 2013, Mexico produced 100,000 hours of television programming, which was then sold to over 100 countries and translated into 30 languages, before being watched by one billion viewers. The country’s entertainment and media market generated $24.7bn in 2013 and it is estimated that its entertainment and advertising industry will grow by 9.5%, to a value of $27bn, in 2014.

In terms of volume, Grupo Televisa and Azteca are the clear leaders, but the country’s production sector, boosted by the thriving Latin American market and an increasingly

competitive local market in the run-up to deregulation, includes several world-class independents.

According to Luis Gadea, CEO of Celuloide Films, his company’s production plans include some big projects with clear international appeal. “By the end of 2015, our plan is to shoot two films per year,” he says. “Right now, we are in pre-production on the documentary Fast Forward, which is our most ambitious project up to date.

It takes place in 21 countries and has the support of the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon.” Other sup-

porters include the executive secretary of the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres, and the secretary general of the OECD, Angel Gurria.

Leading Mexican animation house Gyroscopik Studios, meanwhile, is launching a cartoon series called The New Adventures Of Cantinflas (26 x 12 mins), which was selected from hundreds of entries to be viewed at MIPJunior’s Snack & Screen session. “Of course, we’re delighted,” says Gyroscopik CEO Yoan Pablo Perez, explaining that Cantinflas was one of the

“We are seeing local shows like Mexicanico increasingly being picked up beyond the LatAm region” ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

Allan Navarrete

31

COUNTRY OF HONOUR

2014

Discovery Mexico’s El Asesinato De Pancho Villa: La Conspiracion

best-known and loved comedians in Latin America. “Twenty-one years after his death and 33 years after his last film, he is still a legend and widely regarded as the people’s comedian because of his generosity and common touch,” he adds. “We already have interest from some major broadcasters in The New Adventures Of Cantinflas, and at MIPJunior we are looking for coproduction partners.”

Discovery Mexico has been producing local and regional programming for years.

Now, according to Allan Navarrete, executive vice-president of Discovery Mexico, Colombia and Central America, the number of productions is growing in line with demand: “Our own productions like Grito De Gloria are pulling in very strong ratings.

The show, which is entirely shot and produced in Mexico, has also been nominated for an International Emmy, which we’re extremely proud of.”

Other Discovery productions include Wild Mexico, a local version of telenovela Quatro Por Quatro, and the mini-series Mayan Apocalypse. “On top of that, we have produced a 26-episode series of Doki for Discovery Kids, and El Asesinato De Pancho Villa: La Conspiracion, which was made as a modern criminal investigation,” Navarrete adds. “Aside from our own productions,

we are increasingly hosting production visits from our global partners. I’m happy to say that Mexico’s reputation as a great and cost-effective place to shoot has grown enormously in the last couple of years.

Although Azteca also sells hundreds of hours of telenovelas such as Siempre Tuya

Value of the filmed entertainment industry in Mexico

2,000

Data explorer

1,500 US dollar millions

32

Plus, we are seeing local shows like Mexicanico increasingly being picked up beyond the LatAm region.”

After pulling in a 25% audience share in Spain, Televisa’s Little Giants is now a much sought-after format. And there’s more to come, according to Ricardo Ehrsam, general director for Europe, Asia and Africa at Televisa International: “We have a new primetime show called Stand Up, which is all about standing up for what’s good about your country, which I believe has huge international potential.”

At MIPCOM, Televisa is showcasing a pilot of Los Gonzalez, a comedy about a fictional family; Mad World, which was launched internationally at MIPTV, and Dolphins With The Stars, which aired successfully in Portugal this summer.

Ehrsam estimates that 60% of his sales comprise classic telenovelas. But the balance is changing: “We are developing a lot of non-scripted ideas and even telenovelas like The Dark Widow and Shot Of Grace, which tackle some strong, realworld topics. It’s a new twist on the classic long-run series.”

1,000

500

0

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Source: PwC Entertainment & Media Outlook 2014-2018

ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

d

n h o t w s t -

t l h -

s a f -

f a

8

8

COUNTRY OF HONOUR

“Lo Que Callamos Las Mujeres has genuine social impact and changes people’s lives for the better.

The fact that it has been sold to 159 countries speaks volumes” and Las Bravo, the company is having increasing export success with its formats. “In terms of reality shows, we’re doing well with L’Academia Kids, which is very popular in SouthEast Asia and in its second season in Indonesia,” says Marcel Vinay, Azteca’s vice-president of international sales. “We are also currently producing UEPA, a re-make of a show called Como En El Cine, which was very successful 10 years ago and sold to over 50 countries. But the show I’m most proud of for many reasons is Lo Que Callamos Las Mujeres [What Women Keep In Silence], because it has genuine social impact and changes people’s lives for the better. The fact that it has been sold to 159 countries speaks volumes.”

Mexicanal’s production centre is in San Luis Potosi — a deliberate move away from Mexico City, according to Luis Torres-Bohl, president of both Mexicanal and parent company Castilia Communications. “The culture of the channel is all about creating a bridge for migrants, both those who go to the US and those who move within Mexico, so we wanted to be somewhere where the real popular culture of the country lives,” he says.

“And that’s how we found a Mariachi group who were so keen to go to Brazil to see the World Cup that they sold their prized instruments to pay for the travel, then bought cheaper ones when they got there.”

The resultant travel/adventure show, Son Mariachis, features the Mariachi group’s experiences in Brazil, from attending the football matches to dealing with some Croatian fans who took against their music. “It’s the sort of show we’ll be making more of in the years ahead,” Torres-Bohl says.

2014 Marcel Vinay

33

ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

COUNTRY OF HONOUR

2014

Avenida Revolucion in Tijuana

34 19

FILMING IN MEXICO

Camera-ready When it comes to filming, Mexico offers some of the most varied and stunning landscapes to be found anywhere in the world. And its financial landscape is equally attractive, thanks to a range of incentives aimed at strengthening its position as a filming destination. Gary Smith reports

S

OMEONE who has had plenty of positive experiences of filming and producing in Mexico is Juan Maldonado, chief creative officer at Zodiak Latino, based in Colombia.

“Mexico has a huge amount to offer and a tremendous variety of extraordinary locations,” he says. “In addition, ProMexico has a fund to support international productions, which is a significant incentive in itself. In

ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

terms of settings, Mexico offers a unique variety of landscapes and cities, plus plenty of resources in terms of equipment and facilities. And we shouldn’t forget that Mexico is in a key geographical position. Being so close to the US means that, if there’s a need for extra equipment, it can be found in a matter of hours.”

And there’s more good news — the Mexican government has made it clear that the creative industries are a priority sector for the country’s economy. As part of this strategy, ProMexico, the government agency responsible for promoting international trade and investment, has embarked upon a strategy designed to boost the country’s position as a film and audiovisual production hub.

“As part of its strategy for the sector, ProMexico is promoting the Support

COUNTRY OF HONOUR Program for High-Impact Film and AudioVisual Production,” says Francisco N Gonzalez, ProMexico’s CEO. The Program comprises a dedicated government-service platform for film and audiovisual production, as well as the ProAV Fund, which grants an incentive of up to 7.5% on the total eligible expenses incurred and invoiced in Mexico during film and audiovisual productions.

Gonzalez says that the ProAV Fund’s terms are very flexible in terms of eligible expenses, the only requirement being to prove that expenses qualify with authorised fiscal invoices. “Practically, any expense incurred in

Mexico related to the production and postproduction of a movie or audiovisual production is eligible,” he adds.

In addition to providing production facilities and locations, Mexico is also a regular choice for film studios wanting to outsource VFX work. “Projects including The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, Zodiac, The Social Network, Tron: Legacy and Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides have used Mexican digital-effects professionals, thanks to our state-of-the-art facilities, competitive pricing and the fact that we have US studio security certifications,” Gonzalez says.

“Mexico offers a unique variety of landscapes and cities, plus plenty of resources in terms of equipment and facilities”

According to Gabriel Del Valle, Baja California film commissioner, his region is one of the most recognised and sought-after places to make films in Mexico and attracts numerous projects from around the world every year.

“Baja California has many locations and you can make almost any kind of movie here,” he says. “It doesn’t matter if the movies are supposed to be set in Mexico or not, because we can recreate countless landscapes and regions from around the world, as has been done in numerous productions.”

––Among those to have used the region as a body double for another part of the world are Master And Commander, which used Mexico to stand in for the Galapagos Islands, plus some Pacific Islands, and Jar-

Juan Maldonado

Muelle Beach in Baja California

ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

2014

head, which was set in the Middle East, Iraq and Kuwait. Others include Resident Evil: Extinction (set in Las Vegas and a post-apocalyptic desert of the US), Babel (a residential colony of the US), Jumper (Egypt), Little Boy (California during the Forties) and All Is Lost (the Indian Ocean).

“That said, most productions want to photograph Baja California as it is,” Del Valle adds.

The region is also conveniently only three hours by plane from Los Angeles, which means that any equipment not available locally can be brought in very quickly. Del Valle says that he hosts an average of 60 productions a year, ranging from commercials and music videos to documentaries, TV shows and movies. “They come from very different places — the US, the UK, France, Spain, Japan, Colombia, Argentina, to name just a few, and not forgetting Mexico, of course,” he adds. “Many of the projects are for major television networks like Discovery Channel, National Geographic, the History Channel, the BBC, El Gourmet, Canal 11 and Televisa.”

In terms of cinema projects, this year has seen Baja California host the movie Desierto, written and directed by Jonas Cuaron, produced by the Oscar winner Alfonso Cuaron, and starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Some scenes for Warner Bros.’ Point Break, a remake of the 1991 film, were also filmed in Baja Studios (formerly Fox Studios Baja).

35

COUNTRY OF HONOUR

2014

BAJA CALIFORNIA’S TOP SPOTS

On the lot at Baja Studios

36

“So far this year, there has been a total of 60 productions in Baja California and we have several in production right now, so we will definitely pass the number of projects made in 2013, which was 65,” Del Valle says.

The Baja California region has historically, however, always hosted more television projects than feature films. Del Valle reports that, in the last six months, the roll call of TV productions has included How Do They

Do It? by Wag TV for Discovery Channel UK, Crossing South and Centurion 5 for KPBS in the US, Vodafone Firsts for Vodafone Spain, Border for NHK Japan, Die Grenze for Maximus Films in Germany, Spawn Of Jaws

by Icon Films for Discovery Channel UK, Kumeyaay Land by Verrechia Films in the US, and Dios Inc by Itaka Films for HBO Latin America. Manhunt, again for Discovery Channel UK, is currently in pre-production.

The Vineyards of San Vicente, near Ensenada

Baja California film commissioner Gabriel Del Valle lists his region’s most popular locations:

• Desert landscapes, including dunes, the Laguna Salada dry bed lake, and landscapes featuring cactus, scrub and roads through the wilderness • The border wall and bordercrossing checkpoints between Mexico and the US • Urban landscapes, including popular neighbourhoods, streets and avenues • Beaches, notably secluded beaches, beaches with great surf and cliffs • Vineyards, ranches, plantations, wineries and rural houses • Baja Studios in Rosarito

“So far this year, there has been a total of 60 productions in Baja California” ESSENTIAL MEXICO • OCTOBER 2014

Gabriel Del Valle

BA TO

Baja Gabr most

• De du lak ca the • Th cro Me • Ur po an • Be be an • Vin wi • Ba

COUNTRY OF HONOUR 2014

MEXICAN COMPANIES AT MIPCOM 2014 get more details on Mexican companies in the MIPCOM GUIDE (available in the registration area)

List as of 11 September 2014

101 PRODUCCIONES S DE RL DE CV

CAMARA NACIONAL DE LA INDUSTRIA EDITORIAL MEXICANA

PROMEXICO STAND*

PROMEXICO STAND*

ADICTA FILMS S.A. DE C.V.

CANAL 22 MEXICO

PROMEXICO STAND*

PROMEXICO STAND*

ALAZRAKI ENTERTAINMENT FORCE SA DE CV

PROMEXICO STAND*

PROMEXICO STAND* ALL ABOUT MEDIA PROMEXICO STAND* ALTEA INTERNACIONAL PROMEXICO STAND* ANIAMEAD PROMEXICO STAND* ANIMA ESTUDIOS PROMEXICO STAND* ARGOS TELEVISION S.A. DE C.V. PROMEXICO STAND* ARTE MECANICA PRODUCCIONES S.A. DE C.V. PROMEXICO STAND* AVANTI PICTURES PROMEXICO STAND* BLUEPRINT PROMEXICO STAND* BOXEL INTERACTIVE SA DE CV PROMEXICO STAND* BRAVO PROMEXICO STAND* BRINCA TALLER DE ANIMACION SA DE CV PROMEXICO STAND* CAALIOPE PROMEXICO STAND* CADEREYTA MEDIA S.A.P.I DE C.V. PROMEXICO STAND* CALAVERA FILMS PROMEXICO STAND* CAMALEON FILMS SA DE CV PROMEXICO STAND*

CANAL ONCE CAPONETO PROMEXICO STAND* CARAMEL VFX PROMEXICO STAND* CHAMAN ANIMATION STUDIO PROMEXICO STAND* CHICO CHIHUAHUA PROMEXICO STAND* CINE VIDEO Y TV S.A DE C.V. CINETECA NACIONAL CLUSTER STUDIO S.C. PROMEXICO STAND* COLOR SPACE S.C. PROMEXICO STAND* COMAREX PROMEXICO STAND* COMTELSAT PROMEXICO STAND* DIECINUEVE TREINTA Y SEIS S.A. DE C.V. PROMEXICO STAND* DIRECCION GENERAL DE TELEVISION EDUCATIVA PROMEXICO STAND* DISCOVERY COMMUNICATIONS Stand: P3.C41

EL MALL PROMEXICO STAND* EPICS FX STUDIOS MEXICO S.A. DE C.V. PROMEXICO STAND* ETC MEDIA GROUP PROMEXICO STAND* EXODO ANIMATION STUDIO PROMEXICO STAND* FILMALIA S.C. PROMEXICO STAND* FILM TANK PROMEXICO STAND* FPU NEXUS PROMEXICO STAND* FREMANTLEMEDIA MEXICO Stand: Croisette 11: C11 GASOLINA STUDIOS PROMEXICO STAND* GOBIERNO DE DURANGO PROMEXICO STAND* GP FILMS PROMEXICO STAND* GYROSCOPIK STUDIOS SA DE CV PROMEXICO STAND* HABITANT PRODUCTIONS PROMEXICO STAND* INDUSTRIA DIGITAL G RG S DE RL DE CV PROMEXICO STAND* INJAUS LETTERS & FILMS

DON PORFIRIO BROADCAST DESIGN SCP

INTEGRADORA CINEMATOGRAFICA S.A. DE C.V.

PROMEXICO STAND*

PROMEXICO STAND*

DUBBING HOUSE

INTERSAD SISTEMAS S.A. DE C.V.

PROMEXICO STAND*

PROMEXICO STAND*

EFECTO LUNA AZUL S DE RL DE CV

KAXAN MEDIA GROUP SAPI DE CV

PROMEXICO STAND*

PROMEXICO STAND*

(*)PROMEXICO STAND: Croisette 16.A 5 & Palais -1: P-1.H29/P-1.J19/P-1.K15

liste_companies_mexique.indd 2

08/10/2014 16:01

KW ENTERTAINMENT S.A. DE C.V. PROMEXICO STAND*

PROMEXICO STAND*

LEMON FILMS S.A DE C.V. PROMEXICO STAND*

MULTIMUSIC, S.A. DE C.V. MUV EXPERIMENTO S.C.

LEMON MEDIA S.A. DE C.V. PROMEXICO STAND* LEXEL ABOGADOS LOCOMOCION ANIMACIONES SA DE CV PROMEXICO STAND* LOS CUATES FILMS PROMEXICO STAND* LOS OJOS DE MI ABUELA S.A. DE C.V. PROMEXICO STAND* LOVESTORY AND FLY PROMEXICO STAND*

MULTIMEDIOS TELEVISION

PROMEXICO STAND* MVS MULTIVISION DIGITAL S. DE R.L. DE C.V. OCELOTL COMPANY PROMEXICO STAND* ONCE TV MEXICO OPERADORA SISTEMA UNIVERSITARIO DE RADIO Y TELEVISION PROMEXICO STAND* PISITO TRECE PRODUCCIONES S DE RL DE CV PROMEXICO STAND* PIXELATL

LUMEN ENTERTAINMENT PROMEXICO STAND*

PROMEXICO STAND*

MANTIZ GAME STUDIOS S DE RL DE CV PROMEXICO STAND*

C.V.

MAQUINA VOLADORA PROMEXICO STAND* THE MATES CONTENTS SA DE CV MENTAL REVOLUTION PROMEXICO STAND* METACUBE TECNOLOGIA Y ENETRETENIMIENTO, S.A. DE C.V. PROMEXICO STAND* MEXICAN FILM INSTITUTE IMCINE PROMEXICO STAND* MEXICO CHANNEL PROMEXICO STAND* MIGHTY PROMEXICO STAND* MILENIO TELEVISION PROMEXICO STAND* MILOS FUNKY STUDIOS PROMEXICO STAND* MINOTAURO PRODUCCIONES SA DE CV PROMEXICO STAND* MODELARTE/EFECTO SECUNDARIO ENT. PROMEXICO STAND*

PRESUMIENDO MEXICO S.A. DE PROMEXICO STAND* PRODUCCIONES A CIEGAS PRODUCCIONES KAMALEON S.A. DE C.V. PROMEXICO STAND* PROMEXICO PROMEXICO STAND* PROTEUS INTERNATIONAL PROMEXICO STAND* RADIOTELEVISION DE VERACRUZ PROMEXICO STAND* RED DE RADIODIFUSORAS Y TELEVISORAS EDUCATIVAS Y CULTURALES PROMEXICO STAND* RENDER FARM STUDIOS PROMEXICO STAND* RESONANT PROMEXICO STAND* SANSIERRA STUDIO PROMEXICO STAND*

SIDI MEDIA PROMEXICO STAND* SIN SETIDO FILMS PROMEXICO STAND* SISTEMA DE RADIO Y TELEVISION MEXIQUENSE PROMEXICO STAND* SISTEMA PUBLICO DE RADIODIFUSION DEL ESTADO MEXICANO PROMEXICO STAND* STELLA FLORA FILMS PROMEXICO STAND* STORY: WE PRODUCE PROMEXICO STAND* SULAFILMS SA DE CV PROMEXICO STAND* TALLER DE LUZ PRODDUCIONES S.A. DE C.V. PROMEXICO STAND* TRANSMEDIA AUDIOVISUAL SAPI DE CV PROMEXICO STAND* TREEHOUSE ARMY PROMEXICO STAND* TV AZTECA S.A.B. DE C.V. Stand: RIVIERA 8: R8.B10 TV UNAM PROMEXICO STAND* VAQUITA FILMS CASA PRODUCTORA PROMEXICO STAND* VEO Stand: RIVIERA 9: R9.A 2 VISION TV SA DE CV PROMEXICO STAND* VITRUVIO INGENIERIA CULTURAL PROMEXICO STAND* WE ARE NOT ZOMBIES PROMEXICO STAND* WEEPING WILLOW

SECRETARIAT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE STATE OF JALISCO

PROMEXICO STAND*

PROMEXICO STAND*

PROMEXICO STAND*

Z GRUPO CREATIVO

(*)PROMEXICO STAND: Croisette 16.A 5 & Palais -1: P-1.H29/P-1.J19/P-1.K15

liste_companies_mexique.indd 3

08/10/2014 16:01

214_PROMEXICO_SUPPL_COM

216_COMAREX_SUPPL_COM