Camera, action: Lat Am’s top filming location
Colombia’s time has arrived says Netflix’s Ramos
Where the numbers work for int’l copros
PLUS: Caracol | RCN | TIS Studios | Prime Video | Dynamo The Mediapro Studio | Broadcast TV | Hot shows | Comment
In a global industry that has become increasingly defined by stalled productions and shrinking budgets, finding a territory where the numbers actually work is no mean feat. Yet Colombia has far more to offer than balance sheets and rebate percentages.
Every year at Cveintiuno we turn the spotlight on a country in IberoAmerica. And for 2025, the choice was quite obvious. Powered by a successful incentive scheme, Colombia has retooled its audiovisual sector into one of the most dynamic in the world. While producers elsewhere wrestle with the slowdown of the streamers, in Colombia they can barely keep up with demand, as evidenced by the fact that the country’s US$56m incentive pool was tapped out by August, months before year-end.
But as we zoomed in, it became clear that incentives are just the visible tip of a much larger iceberg – or perhaps, more accurately, a single link in a chain that has been years in the making.
Behind it lies a resilient broadcast industry still anchored by two of the region’s heavyweight media groups, RCN and Caracol. For decades, they have trained audiences, nurtured talent and built production expertise.
Add to that world-class crews trained on major international blockbusters; costs that are not only competitive on a global scale but also within Latin America itself; and some of the best creative talent in the region. In many ways, Colombia is now following the same trajectory Spain did not so long ago, before it became a magnet for international production.
The country also boasts an infrastructure that shatters outdated clichés. One veteran producer put it memorably: “People judge without seeing. They imagine we’re running the show with a monkey pedalling the generator to keep the lights on, held together with duct tape. Until they come. Until they see what we have here.”
And then there’s the content itself. Colombian programming carries a rare passport in Latin America: it travels well. It plays in Mexico, it resonates with US Hispanic audiences and it lands solidly in the Southern Cone, not to mention internationally.
That is a remarkable achievement in a region too often mistakenly viewed from the outside as homogeneous but which is deeply fragmented. For local content to cross those borders with ease is exceptional – and platforms are paying attention, with major investments such as Netflix’s long-awaited adaptation of One Hundred Years of Solitude and increasingly ambitious local slates.
So what does all this mean for the international industry? In Colombia, there is opportunity –opportunity to shoot, to produce, to coproduce. A fertile landscape still relatively under-explored, and one that has already delivered global hits from Narcos to Betty, la fea, officially recognised by Guinness World Records as the most successful telenovela of all time and still alive today through the recent Prime Video revival.
There’s something about Colombia. And in 2025, it’s worth a closer look.
Gonzalo Larrea, co-editor of Cveintiuno
FUNDAMENTALS: Filming in Colombia
Tax rebates, a strategic location and professional crews have turned Colombia into a hot filming destination.
CONTENT STRATEGIES: Ne lix
Francisco Ramos at Ne lix Lat Am on Colombia’s shi from telenovelas to big-budget epics.
CONTENT STRATEGIES: Caracol
Leading Colombian TV is no longer enough – Caracol is now eyeing “any territory in the world with potential.”
CONTENT STRATEGIES: Estudios RCN
The studio is shoring up its local screen work while doubling down on copros, distribution and production services.
DEVELOPMENT SLATE: TIS Studios
Paramount’s Lat Am studio is branching out across genres and models and eyeing film business expansion.
CONTENT STRATEGIES: Prime Video
The Ugly Betty sequel’s success is guiding Prime Video in Lat Am, where its head of originals reveals the company is now open to stories you can Google.
AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Colombian coproductions
Firms in Spain, Mexico and Turkey are moving ahead with copros in Colombia, which is helped by incentives, talent and numbers that work.
DEVELOPMENT SLATE: Dynamo
The prodco has signed up veteran international TV execs Carol Trussell and Kristin Jones to turbocharge its push into English-language content
DEVELOPMENT SLATE: The Mediapro Studio
Having shed its inhibitions about melodrama, the studio is embracing the genre and looking to expand it.
CONTENT STRATEGIES: Broadcast TV
Colombia’s top broadcasters have similar game plans, blending local productions with Turkish drama and focusing on culinary and music reality.
NEXT BIG THINGS: Hot new shows
The writer, director, showrunner and producer sees Colombian storytelling being born again, but warns the country must avoid the clichéd. C9 C12 C17 C21
A new wave of formats, dramas, novelas and films looks to capitalise on rising production values.
PERSPECTIVE: Mauricio Leiva-Cock
Generous tax rebates, a strategic location and professional crews have turned Colombia into the most competitive filming destination in Latin America. And now its industry is hoping for an even bigger boom. By
Sebastián Torterola
t the 2023 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival, US feature The Long Game, starring Dennis Quaid and set in 1950s Texas, had its world premiere. And if it hadn’t been for Colombia, the film might never have been completed.
“It was a very Texan story, set in the heart of Texas, but financially it was about to die, because it couldn’t have been shot entirely in the US,” recalls Simón Beltrán, CEO of Colombian prodco Jaguar Bite, which provided production services for “more than half of the movie” in its home country.
The Long Game is one of many international productions that have chosen Colombia, drawn by its generous incentives and variety of locations that can stand in for almost anywhere in the world.
“Colombian producers have positioned themselves as the alternative to give these projects a home and save them by offering economically viable services. And we’ve become increasingly skilled at recreating other parts of the world in Colombia,” Beltrán notes.
But with an annual budget of just US$2.3m, its reach was limited.
That’s why the real turning point, according to producers and officials, came in 2020 with the launch of the Audiovisual Investment Certificate (CINA). With US$60m available annually, it has become the engine of Colombia’s screen industry.
“We’ve had spectacular results,” says Silvia Echeverri, head of the Colombian Film Commission, which operates under Proimágenes Colombia, the public/private body promoting the sector.
CINA is a transferable tax rebate that allows international productions to recoup 35% of the taxes they pay in the country by selling a certificate issued by the ministry of finance on the local securities market.
“It’s now a globally recognised incentive and international producers have great confidence in the system.
Silvia Echeverri
Colombia’s transformation began in 2012 when the government introduced production incentives that changed the game for international shoots.
The first was the Colombia Film Fund (FFC), a cash rebate offering international productions reimbursements of up to 60% of their local spend: 40% on production costs (crew, talent, equipment) and 20% on logistical expenses (transport and accommodation).
Between 2013 and today, 61 projects have tapped into the scheme, generating an estimated US$120m investment in the country.
“Foreign producers hand that certificate to a Colombian broker, who sells it quickly at a favourable price. It’s now a globally recognised incentive and international producers have great confidence in the system,” Echeverri adds.
In 2025 alone, 31 projects were awarded CINA support. In its six years, the scheme has benefitted 165 productions, drawing an estimated US$861m into the country.
Unlike the FFC, CINA has no cap per project and applies not just to films and series but also documentaries, reality shows, commercials, music videos and videogames. It even covers post-production for projects shot abroad. Its success has been such that this year the US$60m fund was exhausted by August, prompting expectations it could be increased in 2026.
That momentum is fuelling predictions from
Colombia’s independent producers’ guild Asocinde of further growth, even as other global markets cool.
“What’s coming is a major explosion of Colombian content. More and more people are seeing it as a market that connects easily with others, and Colombian productions are proving they can travel to Mexico, the US Hispanic market and beyond,” says Asocinde’s vice president Federico Durán, also VP of international productions at prodco Rhayuela Films.
Like The Long Game, dozens of international titles have chosen Colombia in recent years, including South Korean feature Bogotá: City of the Lost, UK movie Paddington in Peru, global hit Sound of Freedom, Indian drama White and German feature Titan from Constantin Film.
“Colombia’s animation industry is still relatively new but with enormous potential. With the help of Proimágenes and government support it’s been growing steadily,” says Jorge Otero, co-founder and exec producer at iKartoons. “We feel Colombia is now ready to take on large-scale international animation.”
This story mirrors what happened in film and TV more than 15 years ago, when Colombia started to open its doors to international shoots and absorb new ways of working.
Back in 2009, Colombia hosted Fox’s Mental, the first US network drama shot in Latin America. Then known as Fox Telecolombia, today’s TIS Studios produced the series.
“When Mental came, it allowed us to understand US production processes and adopt Hollywood standards on and off screen. We carried out a very meticulous shadowing scheme, bringing directors, production designers, directors of photography, producers and line producers from the US to work alongside our teams,” recalls Samuel Duque, president of TIS Studios, now part of Paramount.
“What we did was a transfer of know-how, and we began to apply Hollywood processes to our local productions. That started to professionalise the entire experience in Colombia,” he adds.
“What’s
coming is a major explosion of Colombian content.
That leap is now evident in local titles that have conquered streaming, such as Netflix hits The Marked Heart (Pálpito, CMO Producciones), One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien años de soledad, Dynamo) and Medusa (TIS Studios), Prime Video’s Betty la fea: The Story Continues (Betty, la fea: la historia continua, Estudios RCN) and Disney+’s Peter the Great: Greater Than Ever (Pedro el escamoso, más escamoso que nunca, Caracol).
More and more people are seeing it as a market that connects easily with others, and Colombian productions are proving they can travel to Mexico, the US Hispanic market and beyond.
Federico Durán Asocinde and Rhayuela Films
And now, the country is beginning to attract international animation work too. One example is US-based iKartoons Animation, which has a Bogotá outpost and is handling the new season of Sesame Street for Netflix’s global audience.
But the runaway success of the incentives, combined with tighter budgets that force coproduction, is creating pressure to refine the system. Producers are calling for higher caps, faster permitting and above-the-line incentives to attract international talent.
“The incentive is working so well that it’s starting to fall short. This year we used up the fund faster than expected. There’s still work to do in professionalising processes to reach the US market more efficiently, but both the Film Commission and Proimágenes are working hard with local authorities to get there,” Duque concludes.
Francisco Ramos, Ne lix’s VP of Latin American content, highlights Colombia’s shi from producing telenovelas to big-budget epics and explains why the streamer is doubling its investment in the country.
By Gonzalo Larrea
Afew weeks ago, Netflix wrapped filming on the second season of One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien años de soledad). And the phone of Francisco Ramos, its VP of Latin American content, rang far less than expected.
With an estimated budget of US$50m for its first season, One Hundred Years of Solitude is the most ambitious Netflix original ever made in Colombia and one of the three most expensive series the streamer has tackled in all of Latin America.
And according to Ramos, the project perfectly illustrates how far Colombia’s industry has come since 2018, when Netflix shot its first local original in the country.
“I still find it incredible that in just six years we’ve gone from a very good but small show like Siempre Bruja to pulling o a blockbuster like One Hundred Years of Solitude,” he recalls.
Although famous worldwide for telenovelas such as Ugly Betty (Yo Soy Betty, la Fea), Without Breasts There Is No Paradise (Sin senos no hay paraíso) and Pablo Escobar: The Drug Lord (Pablo Escobar, el patrón del mal), the Colombian audiovisual industry faced a real challenge in adapting Gabriel García Márquez’s masterpiece of magical realism – a genre many had long considered impossible to bring to the screen. To meet that challenge, Netflix hired
professionals from around the world, including Argentine director Alex García López (Fear the Walking Dead, The Witcher, The Acolyte) and Spanish producer Josep Amorós (Neruda, The Machinist, Below Zero).
Even so, many of the hurdles that arose during production still led to urgent appeals to Ramos and his team. “I remember during the first season we were getting calls every day to make decisions, simply because of the natural lack of experience in projects of this scale. But that created a breeding ground of knowledge that allowed us to have a majority of Colombian professionals in the second season,” he says.
And this time, he reveals, there were far fewer calls. “In the second season, all the directors and producers are Colombian, and they are taking the decisions themselves based on what they learned,” Ramos says.
Produced by Dynamo, One Hundred Years of Solitude sits at the opposite end of the spectrum from the telenovelas for which Colombia and Latin America are most closely identified: melodrama- and romance-driven series with hundreds of episodes.
But far from dismissing them, Ramos credits telenovelas with helping the Colombian industry reach its current level.
“Colombia doesn’t have a huge industry, but it is very solid and competent, with artistic and technical
“I’m not at all surprised by the popularity of Colombian content. Colombian popular culture is having a really strong moment, not just in TV but also in music, as shown by Shakira and Karol G. There’s something very powe ul about Colombian identity right now.
Francisco Ramos
meticulousness. And while the preconception is that its audiovisual expertise was limited to melodrama, what we’re proving today is that the talent was always there – it just needed resources and exposure,” he says.
“And let me tell you something: people don’t realise how hard it is to make a telenovela. They are a business that produces a huge amount of craft and are very complex to pull o .”
Ramos, a Mexican executive whose background is mostly in film and who built much of his career in Spain, is now learning that craft himself thanks to a wave of melodrama shows that, combined with thriller elements, are delivering big hits for Netflix.
“I had no idea how di cult it was. So many characters, so many subplots. It’s crazy. For me it’s much easier to make The Eternaut [El Eternauta] than a telenovela,” he jokes, referencing the Argentine sci-fi series launched earlier this year.
Colombian shows like Fake Profile (Perfil falso) and The Marked Heart (Pálpito) are prime examples of this type of programming, which is joined locally by acquisitions and copros through Netflix’s lucrative output deals with Caracol and RCN, Colombia’s two leading broadcasters and content factories.
“Colombia has an advantage over other markets where we operate, which is that we have very strong relationships with both Caracol and RCN. We’ve become preferred partners for their content, which often lands on Netflix as the first international window.
That doesn’t happen with TelevisaUnivision, because they have ViX, or with Globo, because they have Globoplay.”
This “mutually satisfying” relationship has allowed Netflix to bring in linear TV hits such as The Influencer (La influencer), Love of My Life (Devuélveme la vida) and The Scent of Passion (Café con aroma de mujer).
Between these pick-ups from Caracol and RCN and Netflix’s own originals, Colombian content has surprisingly become the most popular in Latin America on the platform.
Indeed, according to UK consultancy Omdia, during the second half of 2024, Spanish-language content was the second most popular non-English category on Netflix, generating 2.59 billion viewing hours. Colombia ranked second among Spanish-speaking countries with a 24.6% share of that total, behind only Spain on 38.7%.
The achievement is all the more remarkable given that Colombia is far from Netflix’s biggest market in Latin America. According to Ampere Analysis, the streamer has 4.13 million subscribers in the country, where last year it commissioned just nine originals – half the number it ordered in Mexico.
“I’m not at all surprised by the popularity of Colombian content. Colombian popular culture is having a really strong moment, not just in TV but also in music, as shown by Shakira and Karol G. There’s something very powerful about Colombian identity right now.”
Perhaps that explains why Netflix has been steadily increasing its investment in Colombian programming, which will reach US$57m in 2025, according to Ampere projections. That figure represents 50% growth on 2024 and more than double the US$23m invested in 2023.
“In Mexico and Brazil, the number of series has already peaked, and Colombia is now one of the countries where we’re ramping up production the most,” Ramos explains.
As a matter of fact, in late July Netflix unveiled a new slate of 10 Colombian titles, a mix of returning and new series and films. They include a three-part docuseries on Colombian football star James Rodríguez (Clover Studios), period drama Palacio, about the 1985 siege of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá (Dynamo) and Estado de fuga 1986 (AG Studios), inspired by real events surrounding Bogotá’s deadliest massacre.
They join Medusa (TIS Studios), Fake Profile S2 (TIS Studios), Delirium (Delirio, TIS Studios) and The Guest (La huésped, CMO Producciones), all released this year.
Driving these commissions are Colombia’s tax incentives, which have been transformative for the local industry.
“They are important for several reasons, among them the fact that they generate strong international interest, which benefits the whole industry,” Ramos says. In his view, if just four or five new productions choose Colombia each year, the country could be creating 10,000 to 20,000 additional jobs that build skills and strengthen its industrial base.
Beyond incentives, Ramos points to other factors working in the country’s favour.
“Colombia has a very friendly ecosystem, typical of medium-sized countries that show more flexibility and eagerness to attract in order to compete. It also has a very rigorous industry. And then there’s something key: a very powerful popular television culture. Colombians really love TV.”
That love of TV is not at odds with sophistication, he warns, pointing to the recent launch of psychological thriller Delirium, based on the novel by Colombian author Laura Restrepo.
“It’s a challenging series that deals with very complex issues around mental health. We thought it was going to be much smaller in scale than more conventional shows. But it wasn’t – it became massive,” he reveals.
“There’s a prejudice that Latin Americans only like simple, telenovela-style television. And that prejudice has been reinforced by decades of being served only that. But what people really want is quality and ambition. They want you to challenge them with complex stories, not spoon-feed them. And that also applies to Latin America, as we’ve proven.”
“
Colombia doesn’t have a huge industry, but it is very solid and competent, with artistic and technical meticulousness. And while the preconception is that its audiovisual expertise was limited to melodrama, what we’re proving today is that the talent was always there – it just needed resources and exposure.
Ramos
Caracol may mean snail but the company moves at lightning speed. Leading Colombian TV is no longer enough – a er producing in Mexico, Turkey and Spain, it now faces the future as a global studio eyeing “any territory in the world with potential.”
ABy Pina Mezzera
sk around any international market for Latin America’s biggest players and Caracol will almost certainly be among the first three names. It’s impossible to talk about the internationalisation of Lat Am and naturally Colombian content without including it.
After decades of selling its telenovelas worldwide, Caracol Televisión has in recent years embarked on a transformation from a free-to-air broadcaster, where it has led local ratings for nearly a decade, into a studio with global ambitions.
This shift is part of a wider transformation launched in 2023 under president Gonzalo Córdoba, designed to tackle digital expansion on three fronts: streamlining its structure, diversifying its model with greater financial weight for the studio and ramping up international production.
Caracol’s origins as a producer renting slots on Colombia’s mixed public-private TV system in the 1960s gave it a creative DNA it has held on to –from its 1980s acquisition by Valorem, the Santo Domingo family’s holding company, to its conversion into a private channel in 1998, and later its push into international markets with talent and storytelling as its flag.
Yet much of Caracol’s success comes down to discipline, according to VP of production and content Dago García.
“We’ve always been big believers in process. In an industry where talent is essential but volatile, a systematised process ensures continuity, strength and fewer mistakes,” he says, referring to the company’s model of independent production units.
Caracol is making its Spanish debut with a series about the singer Raphael
Caracol’s production engine now operates across three business models: content for its own channel, including prebuys and distribution; commissioned projects for third parties; and international productions or copros.
All three models run in parallel. For its network, Caracol produces original entertainment formats like The Challenge (Desafío) and adaptations like The
“ Our goal is to
plant
seeds
beyond Colombia
and
expand the frontier of our capabilities in any territory of the world where we see potential.
Lisette Osorio
Voice, plus four to five scripted series a year of at least 60 episodes each, later picked up by platforms. Recent titles include melodramas The Influencer (La influencer) and Love of My Life (Devuélveme la vida) and a remake of the comedy classic Newly Rich, Newly Poor (Nuevo Rico, Nuevo Pobre).
At the same time, it delivers three or four original series annually to international streamers. Caracol was one of the first Lat Am broadcasters to see platforms not as a threat but as allies.
Alongside a distribution deal with Netflix, it has produced shows for the streamer such as Eva Lasting (La primera vez), the first Colombian Netflix original to run for four seasons. It has also partnered with Prime Video on musical series Out Loud (A Grito Herido) and with Disney+ on the return of its classic comedy telenovela Pedro the Great (Pedro, el escamoso) two decades after the original debuted.
Finally, Caracol has set a concrete goal abroad. García reveals: “The plan is to produce one series a year in another territory, with the aim of increasing that volume.”
While common in Europe, which is used to cross-border collaboration, such a strategy is
innovative in Latin America, a market as vast as it is diverse, and still weighed down by stereotypes of narco dramas and tear-jerking melodramas.
Caracol has already deployed the model in three markets: Mexico, with ranchera music biopic The Voice.
The Legend. Vicente Fernández (El Rey, Vicente Fernández, 2022) airing on its channel and screened by Netflix; Turkey, with romantic drama Leylifer (2023), coproduced with Inter Medya and now shopped internationally; and Spain, with Aquel, a biopic series about renowned Spanish singer Raphael, shot this summer with local prodco DLO Producciones and sold to Netflix for Spain and Lat Am.
For these international shows, Caracol itself is not necessarily the main client, often just “buying a licence depending on the potential it sees in the product,” García explains. The experience has pushed the studio towards a model of taking financial risks but with some guarantees. “We don’t throw ourselves into production without first securing presales.”
Presales have indeed become essential for
structuring financing models, though there is no one-size-fits-all formula.
“ In the past, each prodco managed on its own. Now we’re looking to join forces and approach the market together. It’s one of our key bets for the future.
Dago García
“Each platform is its own universe, with its own way of operating, which shifts rapidly. Our skill is in spotting those needs and offering not just content but a business proposal,” says Lisette Osorio, VP of international business, who leads Caracol’s negotiations on such projects.
“In the past, in another industry, they’d buy purely for the creative. That doesn’t happen anymore. Now it’s, ‘Let’s analyse the business.’ Having a creative department and a commercial one working hand in hand is key,” she adds.
García sums it up: “My thesis is that today you need more creativity to build the production model than to come up with the idea and script.”
Caracol’s latest international production, the eightpart Raphael series, is a clear example of the kind of model and partner the studio feels comfortable with outside Colombia.
between Spain’s iZen and Lat Am’s Non Stop, while also actively exploring new strategic markets such as Brazil.
“You often hear, ‘Why would a Colombian company produce a Mexican show, or vice versa?’ But I don’t believe there are limits in creativity,” says Osorio, laying out the ambition: “Our goal is to plant seeds beyond Colombia and expand the frontier of our capabilities in any territory of the world where we see potential.”
Another area Caracol is venturing into is vertical microdramas, a trend booming across Latin America that has also attracted broadcasters like TelevisaUnivision in Mexico and the US Hispanic and Chile’s TVN and Canal 13.
Caracol has already produced its first vertical series through a deal with ReelShort, the platform spearheading the phenomenon in the region. And while no official announcements have been made, more are expected to appear on Ditu, the free streaming service Caracol launched in Colombia in February.
As with the Vicente Fernández series, Manuel
Aquel
sees Caracol retain the IP and control distribution rights. “Once we had the IP, we thought about who would be the best local partner to execute. DLO is a highly respected producer in Spain, headed by José Manuel Lorenzo, a great showrunner,” says Osorio. “When we partner, we look for players that let us multiply and combine forces, and also provide security. The less sense of risk for the client, the easier the sale.”
Spain is particularly strategic for Caracol, combining high production values, strong tax incentives and international demand for its storytelling. Osorio says this mix makes distribution highly attractive and allows the company to broaden its slate with premium series capable of reaching screens that Colombian telenovelas would never access.
This partnership with DLO also signals a new way of working, according to García. “In the past, each prodco managed on its own. Now we’re looking to join forces and approach the market together. It’s one of our key bets for the future,” he says.
Initially fed by the network’s library, Ditu explores alternative formats like reality extensions, sports talkshows and animation, such as kids series Cocoa (Roberta Quiere Cacao which after a YouTube and Spotify run will see a second season on the AVoD app. In this space, Caracol also sees microseries as fertile ground for innovation.
“We’re looking at making our own vertical series and also exploring how we can play with our library and adapt it into short formats,” says Osorio.
“We’re in a moment of transition and, as such, it’s chaotic. Every day one certainty collapses and a new path appears. Microdramas are one of those unexpected phenomena,” García says.
“The only way to know if there’s really a business here is to try it.”
In addition to Turkey’s Inter Medya, with which Caracol is already planning its next copro, the company has partnerships with Mexico’s Elefantec Global, Spain’s Secuoya Studios and Cacao & Cía, a joint venture
Medya, with which Caracol is already planning its next copro, the company has partnerships
network’s Roberta Wants Roberta Quiere Cacao), certainty there’s called distribution.”
For him, the old paradigm where content was king has given way to one where it must “share the throne with a demanding, jealous queen called distribution.”
Caracol seems to have understood that. With creativity, risk and ambition as fuel, it is feeding a spiral that only points upwards.
Caracol seems to have risk and ambition as fuel, it is feeding a spiral that only points
With Colombia’s largest production complex, Estudios RCN is shoring up its local screen presence while doubling down on copros, distribution and production services for global streamers and broadcasters.
By Pina Mezzera
Just a few years ago, the international market came to RCN mainly to buy its telenovelas. That still holds true, but the Colombian company has since multiplied its business o er: diversifying its catalogue into other genres and partners, providing production services at its Bogotá studios and becoming an active player in alliances and copros.
That shift stems from a strategy drawn up before the pandemic, when a team of seasoned execs arrived at the company to push through a paradigm shift.
RCN began life in 1967 as a programming house, became a private broadcaster in 1998 and is now part of Organización Ardila Lülle, founded by the late Carlos Ardila Lülle. Today it positions itself as a studio with its own free-to-air channel in Colombia, capable of creating original content, producing for third parties and providing production and distribution services worldwide.
That transformation crystallised in 2023 with the formal creation of Estudios RCN.
“I can say that this transition, though challenging, remains in place in terms of structure and company mission - and it’s where we’ll keep betting,” says Alex Marín, VP of distribution at Estudios RCN and one of the execs behind the change.
A major strength lies in its Bogotá facilities, with 18 soundstages that make up Colombia’s largest production complex and one of the biggest in Latin America. Around 80% of Canal RCN’s programming is made there.
“Colombian audiences have a very deep-rooted idiosyncrasy that makes local content work,” explains Eugenia Vélez, VP of programming and marketing. “But the free-toair channel is just another client. The main focus of our business is to produce for any client through Estudios RCN.”
Currently, the studio machinery is powering Canal RCN shows such as MasterChef, soap La hija del mariachi and upcoming drama Las de siempre, alongside live news and magazine shows. It also produces Top Chef for US Hispanic network Telemundo and two scripted series for Prime Video.
“Right now we’re producing around eight projects simultaneously, though two weeks ago it was 12,” says Marín.
“Our capacity isn’t unlimited, but the engine is well-oiled, and that volume
still leaves room to take on two or three more projects with ease.”
Early in 2025 the company also made a bold digital play with the launch of its AVoD service Canal RCN.
The timing matched the premiere of a new celebrity version of Big Brother (La casa de los famosos), which powered the app’s debut thanks to an exclusive aftershow and 24/7 streaming that pushed subscriptions past eight million.
“I’m very excited about the
“Right now, we’re producing around eight projects simultaneously, though two weeks ago it was 12. Our capacity isn’t unlimited, but the engine is well-oiled and that volume still leaves room to take on two or three more projects with ease.
Alex Marín
app because it lets us try new things, run experiments and discover opportunities that are just starting to open up,” says Juan Pablo Posada, VP of production and content.
“Very soon we’ll start adding original hours,” he adds. First up was comedy talkshow Qué hay pa’ dañar, carried both on the app and on YouTube, and next will be microdramas, with scripts already in development. “I see it as a great niche for new actors and directors to grow,” Posada notes.
Estudios RCN’s muscle also serves international clients. “I brought the production team from one of the major global streamers into our stages and they admitted they never imagined we had this here,” says Marín.
Telemundo is a prime example of a partnership that has expanded, with Posada noting that “new opportunities keep opening up.” In addition to four seasons of the Top Chef cooking format, Estudios RCN this year produced Miss Universe Latina: El Reality, a new format developed by the NBCUniversalowned network, which RCN later acquired to make the Colombian version.
In scripted, the standout case of producing for third parties is undoubtedly Betty La Fea: The Story Continues (Betty la fea, la historia continúa).
In 2024, Prime Video greenlit the sequel to Yo soy Betty, la fea, created by Fernando Gaitán for RCN in 1999 and recognised by Guinness World Records as the most successful telenovela of all time, sold into more than 180 countries, dubbed into 25 languages and adapted in over 20 territories worldwide, including the US, Mexico, Germany, Russia and India.
The story sparkled again in streaming, with season one becoming Prime Video’s most-watched Lat Am original ever and its top show in Colombia. Season two debuted in August, again topping charts in the region, prompting an order for S3.
The alliance with Amazon also covered romcom Manes, produced by Estudios RCN across three seasons, plus the distribution of telenovelas like Rigo, about cyclist Rigoberto Urán, and Darío Gómez, about the popular music star.
“Prime Video acquires our shows as finished tapes, and those presales
allow us to raise production values for our telenovelas,” explains Posada.
In this new phase, RCN has broadened its roster of streaming clients. For TelevisaUnivision’s ViX, it produced drama The Substitute (La sustituta), while with Netflix it has moved from licensing titles like global hit Co ee With Scent of Woman (Café con aroma de mujer) to debuting its first local original, romcom series Just Alice (Simplemente Alicia), about a woman juggling two marriages, set to premiere in 2026.
All of this strategy is underpinned by Colombia’s role as a market.
“We’re in a great moment,” Posada says. “Number one is the CINA [tax rebate] incentive, which put us on the world’s radar. But Colombia has much more: a strategic location, production quality, genre versatility, technical talent and a dollar that makes local pesos go further. It’s an incredible time.”
But all of that is only the baseline, according to Marín.
“The incentive and other advantages create a level playing field that allow anyone to provide the service. What separates us is the ability to deliver those projects at an extraordinary level of quality,” he says. “We have the largest stage in Latin America, probably the newest equipment in Colombia, a thousand years of combined leadership experience and a unique storytelling track record.”
Distribution completes the picture, with RCN expanding as a Lat Am player by selling not just its own shows and formats but third-party content too.
Much of that comes via a deal with Canadian firm CosMedia, led by Mike Cosentino, through which RCN distributes titles like horror
The biggest development in this space this year, however, is Spanish drama Zoomers (6x30’). Premiered on October 3 on Prime Video in Spain, Andorra and Portugal, it’s the first project from the Spanish arm of Colombian prodco Dynamo.
“It’s a Spanish series with a Mexican lead. We’re distributing it jointly with Dynamo, and RCN also holds broadcast rights in Colombia,” Marín notes of the series, which follows a young man entering university after a personal tragedy.
And while Spain is a strategic bridge between Lat Am and Europe, RCN prefers to keep its focus wide when exploring these models.
“Today’s industry forces you to be much more agile, to make quick decisions. Many companies are struggling, in my view, because they can’t adapt at the speed the industry is changing,” says Marín.
But some things remain the same: “The type of content and how it’s consumed shows that for certain audiences the story matters far more than the cast or production values. What really counts is storytelling. The hunger for content and the beast you have to feed – human consumption of stories – that hasn’t changed.”
Estudios RCN is clear on how it wants to tell those stories. “In our industry, when something works everyone rushes to do the same. But it doesn’t work that way,” says Posada. “You need to keep calm, hold the course and not run. You have to trust you know what you’re doing.”
“
In our industry, when something works, everyone rushes to do the same. But it doesn’t work that way. You need to keep calm, hold the course and not run. You have to trust you know what you’re doing.
Juan Pablo Posada
With new owners in place following Paramount’s merger with Skydance earlier this year, and as the industry awaits a new international strategy for streaming platform Paramount+, TIS Studios continues to be one of the most active producers in Latin America.
The company currently delivers between 15 and 20 projects a year. And according to president Samuel Duque, that level of output is only possible thanks to its focus on diversification.
“We offer production services, where we’re handed a script and go shoot it. But we also create originals from scratch and join as partners or investors on other projects. TIS plays on many fronts
and will keep doing so,” Duque says.
Indeed, Paramount’s Lat Am studio spans original production, coproduction and production services, while also recently returning to distribution. Although the US company has held a 75% stake in TIS since 2021, its output extends well beyond the group’s content.
“Regardless of who our majority shareholder is, we work for all players,” Duque stresses.
Recent examples of this include production services on Prime Video’s Colombian drama News of a Kidnapping (Noticia de un secuestro), Disney+’s Mexican young-adult series Journey to the Centre of the Earth (Viaje al centro de la tierra) and Netflix originals from Colombia, such as Fake Profile (Perfil falso), Medusa and the most recent, Delirium (Delirio).
“Fake Profile and Medusa were number one in the US and globally. They are very local shows but are travelling incredibly well, and none of them touch on narco themes, which used to be the label attached to Colombia and which we’ve managed to shake off,” Duque notes.
Both series have been renewed by Netflix and will return with new seasons in 2026. Duque credits their success to the current momentum Colombian content is enjoying.
“Original Colombian shows are performing really well internationally and are well received across both ends of Latin America. They don’t face the same polarisation as content from the Southern Cone, which struggles to travel north, or from Mexico, which struggles to travel south,” he explains. Indeed, TIS is capitalising on Colombia’s
Paramount’s Latin American studio is branching out across genres and business models. And a er helping bring the new Dora the Explorer movie to life, it now wants a bigger slice of the film business, its president says. By Sebastián Torterola
popularity, boosted by production incentives and its studio bases in Bogotá and Mexico City. At the same time, its ties to Paramount bring clear advantages, with the studio producing for Paramount+ formats such as Germany, Mexico and globally, plus Beach and Dating Naked the UK, Netherlands and Italy.
“To deliver those shows, we built the largest hub for reality production in Latin America. We secured an island in the Colombian Caribbean to film editions for the UK, France, Italy, the US, Mexico and Brazil, alongside Colombia,” Duque says.
direction of former Netflix exec Cindy Holland, the streamer appears ready to shift its focus back to international production – a move that could give TIS even greater scope to grow its partnership with the platform.
RuPaul’s Drag Race for Ex on the for Brazil, Mexico, its partnership
While no official announcements have been made, signs from Paramount+’s new leadership suggest the relationship could be set to deepen. Under the
In fact, in Latin America the streamer has strengthened its leadership with the appointment of Rodrigo Mazón, formerly of ViX and Netflix, as head of direct-to-consumer. In this new role, he will be responsible for shaping and overseeing Paramount+’s programming strategy across the region.
“ Original Colombian shows are pe orming really well internationally and are well received across both ends of Latin America.
Samuel Duque
In the meantime, TIS has been broadening its scope with production services on Paramount Pictures’ feature Dora & the Search for Sol Dorado. The project marked a return to the big screen for the studio and, according to Duque, has rekindled its appetite for cinema. “It’s not our main business, but we want to turn it into a core unit,” he
Sol and, according to Duque, has rekindled its appetite for cinema. “It’s not our main business, but we want to turn it into a core unit,” he says.
Alibi Films has made a difference by producing content that crosses borders and captivates audiences. With more than 25 years of experience and presence in Colombia, Mexico, the United States, and all of Latin America, the production company has consolidated itself as a benchmark in innovation, quality, and creative vision.
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The success of Ugly Betty’s sequel is shaping Prime Video’s path in Latin America, where its head of originals admits the company is now more open to coproductions and to stories you can Google.
By Gonzalo Larrea
Released on August 15, the second season of Betty, la fea: The Story Continues (Betty la fea, la historia continúa) became the most-watched title of 2025 on Prime Video Colombia in its first week. And its first instalment remains, to this day, the most-watched Latin American original in the platform’s history.
Produced by Estudios RCN, the series picks up the story 20 years after the original Colombian telenovela, Yo soy Betty, la fea – the show created by Fernando Gaitán that inspired Ugly Betty and still considered the most successful telenovela of all time.
And beyond being a ratings blockbuster for Prime Video, the new Betty has been a real eye-opener for the company, which is now more willing to explore coproduction opportunities in Latin America, as Javiera Balmaceda, its head of originals for the region, said at this year’s Content Americas and Rio2C.
“From here on, the biggest change for us is that we’re looking for more opportunities to share screens,” Balmaceda said in Miami. “We don’t need to own everything for everywhere anymore. We’re really open to coproductions and to share territories and windows.”
She cited as an example the streamer’s licensing alliance with RCN, which has already extended beyond Betty to biographical series like Rigo and Darío Gómez, based on Colombian cycling star Rigoberto Urán and
“local popular music icon Darío Gómez respectively. And Betty itself illustrates the evolution of Prime Video’s model. While its first season was produced under a licensing deal in which Amazon covered production costs but RCN retained the IP, for the second, the streamer came in as a full coproducer. Now, Balmaceda says, the aim is to go further down that road.
“I want to be honest: we’re not jumping into every coproduction. There are specific requirements that need to be met to spark our interest and meet audience expectations. With Betty, for instance, we made sure the original cast returned, and we carefully studied the
From here on, the biggest change for us is that we’re looking for more opportunities to share screens. We don’t need to own everything for everywhere anymore. We’re really open to coproductions and to share territories and windows.
Javiera Balmaceda
reboots that failed so we could learn from them,” she said at Rio2C in May.
Betty also fits into Prime Video’s current Latin American strategy around “big IPs,” mirroring trends across the wider industry. But for Balmaceda this is less about risk-aversion than it is about managing risk.
A good example is Mexico’s Mentiras, la serie. As an 80s-set jukebox musical comedy-drama, the show is a rare beast in Latin America’s premium drama landscape. That made it look like a gamble on paper, but drawing on a hugely popular stage play with a devoted following turned it into a much safer bet for the streamer.
“Mentiras is based on a play, a musical that’s been hugely successful in Mexico with a massive following. It’s a great example of how we take calculated risks – and that’s exactly what we want to lean into,” Balmaceda said, adding that the same logic applies to shows rooted in true stories.
“One thing I always ask myself before greenlighting a show is, ‘Can I Google it?’ It’s really engaging to watch a show that sparks your curiosity, that makes you want to look up what happened or who those people were in real life.”
That principle fits perfectly with Colombian film Noviembre, about the controversial 1985 storming of Bogotá’s Palace of Justice by guerrilla group M-19. After premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival and a theatrical run in Colombia, it will arrive on Prime Video later this year.
scripted comedies Manes (Estudios RCN) and Primate (The Mediapro Studio), plus films like The Initiated (Los iniciados, AG Studios) and Pimpinero: Blood & Oil (Pimpinero: Sangre y gasolina, Dynamo).
But that situation may be about to change, as the latest signals from Amazon MGM Studios suggest. The company has just appointed Mario Almeida as head of international originals for emerging Latin America, a position left vacant after Camila Misas’s departure earlier this year, from where he will lead original programming in Colombia.
Almeida steps up after three years with the streamer, where he oversaw original films across Latin America, and previously headed content for US Hispanicfocused service Pantaya before it was acquired by TelevisaUnivision. His arrival coincides with a broader relaunch of Amazon’s integrated o ering in Colombia, unveiled in September.
Colombia, however, has not been one of the streamer’s priority markets. According to Ampere Analysis projections, Amazon will invest US$21.53m in Colombian content this year – a modest figure compared with the US$300m it has poured into Mexico over the past three years or the US$860m it has committed to Brazil (including acquisitions) since launching there in 2017.
The figure is almost identical to last year’s US$21.37m and is enough to sustain a pace of around four local productions annually.
Among the most notable titles so far are the local version of comedy gameshow LOL (3Pas Studios),
As part of the new push, Prime Video announced that in addition to aggregating films and shows from more than 20 streaming services (including MGM+, Universal and Paramount+), from October it would expand its Colombian catalogue with more local and global titles and add live sports to the subscription.
Key among the additions are the renewal of Betty la fea, la historia continúa for a third season and the acquisition of NBA broadcast rights, bringing 67 exclusive games between October and April to Colombian subscribers.
“Colombia is among the top 10 international markets for NBA fandom,” says Gustavo Coelho, sports business lead for Latin America, noting that around 11 million Colombians follow the US basketball league.
For María Isabel Figueroa, head of Prime Video for emerging Lat Am, the company’s play in Colombia is about more than streaming. She emphasises that the membership combines premium entertainment with benefits like free shipping and fast delivery on eligible Amazon purchases, a mix she says reflects Prime’s strategy to deliver distinctive value in the market.
She also highlighted the importance of continuing to invest in local storytelling and talent development. “The success of Betty, la fea shows the power Colombian stories have to connect not only at home but also internationally,” she says.
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Colombia doesn’t have the demographics of Brazil or Mexico. Its 50 million people are not enough to make it a self-sustaining market. So why are more and more international companies arriving to coproduce in the country?
Several factors explain the trend. One is the favourable environment for getting stories made, thanks to the calibre of its talent and technical crews. But there’s a simpler explanation: in Colombia, the numbers work.
Alongside Brazil’s Senna and Argentina’s The Eternaut (El Eternauta), Colombia is home to one of Netflix’s most ambitious Lat Am series ever: One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien años de soledad). The production is thought to have cost around US$50m and required building Macondo, Gabriel García Márquez’s iconic fictional town, entirely from scratch.
“Four versions of Macondo were built. Some 11,000 people auditioned and the set has 1,000 people working on it. In total, 100,000 costume pieces were made, and postproduction for the first season alone took a full year. It’s a gigantic process,” says Diego Ramírez Schrempp, partner at Colombian prodco Dynamo, which is currently filming the second season.
With offices in Mexico and Spain and a new partnership with former Apple TV+ exec Carol Trussell and former The North Road Company exec Kristin Jones (page C37) on international projects, Dynamo is one of several Colombian prodcos making the most of the country’s positioning to expand abroad.
But they are not alone. TIS Studios operates facilities in Mexico and the US, Perrenque Media Lab has expanded into Puerto Rico, Jaguar Bite and Miracol have both opened in Mexico, while Fidelio Films has a presence in Canada, Mexico and Switzerland.
“The visionary incentives Colombia offers make it a regionally relevant country for production, not just in terms of volume and investment but also artistically. In the new business models emerging in the market, coproduction is natural and necessary,” says Ana Barreto, CEO of CMO Producciones, the outfit behind scripted hits such as (La Venganza de Analía) and Heart (Pálpito), and also active in providing production services to international partners.
Prodcos from Spain, Mexico and Turkey are already moving ahead with coproductions in Colombia, which is stepping up its international ambitions thanks to incentives, talent and numbers that work. By
Sebastián Torterola
particularly financial. “I’ve taken scripts for a series and priced them in Colombia and Mexico. The result: almost 30% cheaper in Colombia, and that’s without considering rebates. Add in the incentives and it can be up to 50% more economical, with the same quality.”
Known for production services on entertainment formats such as Big Brother Colombia, Iron Chef: Mexico and Sueño Fútbol, Miracol has recently broken into scripted originals with The Hijacking of Flight 601, which entered Netflix’s top 10 in multiple territories in 2024.
That success has paved the way for its most ambitious copro project yet: Chavela, a biopic of legendary Mexican singer Chavela Vargas. First announced with broadcaster and studio Caracol Televisión, it later brought in heavyweight Spanish partner Shine Iberia.
Ana’s Revenge The Marked Mexican model,
Pedro Dávila, CEO of Miracol, highlights Colombia’s competitive advantages,
“It ended up as an international copro: Shine Iberia took Spain, we have the rest of the world, and Caracol came in to finance as a studio. It’s the sweet spot of the copro model, letting us retain the IP, stay involved creatively and secure independent financing with two initial broadcast partners, Mexico and Spain,” Dávila explains.
Coty Cagliolo, SVP and MD, production, Lat Am/USH, Sony Pictures Television
We are open to co-development when the value of external IP makes sense, or when the talent behind an idea has a particular spark. There’s room for hybrid models that combine creativity, shared risk and long-term vision. Each project has its own path, but the key is flexibility to adapt while keeping the story front and centre.
Diana Camargo, exec producer and creative, Laberinto
Beyond the opportunities created by incentives in Colombia, we are also developing copro and codevelopment relationships: a film with a Chilean prodco and another with an Argentine one, a docuseries with a Spanish prodco and another with Endemol Shine Boomdog in Mexico. We’re exploring different partnerships.
Nicolás Martínez, founding partner, Perrenque Media Lab
Colombia has specialised in action shoots, with finely tuned logistics covering security, helicopters, uniforms, transport and hotels. While for years the image was of jungles and favelas, today the offer is more diverse, with cities like Cali, Medellín, Cartagena, Santa Marta and Barranquilla now part of the mix for shoots. It’s worth remembering the incentive is nationwide, not just Bogotá.
Ana Barreto, CEO, CMO Producciones
Colombia’s openness to welcoming foreign producers has allowed us to learn a lot from different work cultures, from the US to the Southern Cone. And the incentives have made Colombia a very relevant production hub. The only challenge in coproduction is finding the stories.
But Chavela is far from the only international copro coming out of Colombia. Another is Aquel, a biopic of Spanish music icon Raphael, produced by Caracol Televisión and Spain’s DLO Producciones (part of Banijay Iberia), with Netflix already picking up rights in some territories. After that initial window, Caracol will distribute internationally.
Studios shot its upcoming miniseries Los 39 there, about the 39 men Christopher Columbus abandoned on Hispaniola in 1492. Fellow Spanish group The Mediapro Studio is also active, running a local unit led by Catalina Porto that is constantly scouting for copro opportunities. Those ties could deepen even further after Colombia and Spain signed an audiovisual coproduction treaty in July during the Bogotá Audiovisual Market (BAM).
Mexico and Spain may be leading the way, but other territories are also lining up, including Turkey and Brazil. Caracol partnered with Inter Medya on Turkish drama Leylifer for the international market, a model both sides are looking to replicate. With Brazil, bridges include an MoU signed between São Paulo’s film body Spcine and Proimágenes Colombia at BAM, aimed at strengthening production ties, as well as the launch of Caracol Formata Hub, a copro venture with Brazil’s Formata specialising in unscripted content.
On the creative front, there’s one standout fact Colombian producers are keen to underline: none of these new international copro projects touch on narco themes.
Feature film
La Corona, based on the award-winning 2008 HBO documentary, has also brought together Colombian prodco Black Sheep Productions with international partners Startling, Infinity Hill and Runaway Films, plus Spanish outfit Secuoya Studios.
Spain is playing a growing role in Colombia. Secuoya
After a wave of Colombian dramas linked to drug trafficking, including El Capo (Fox Telecolombia, RCN), La Reina del Sur (RTI Televisión, Telemundo) and Pablo Escobar: The Drug Lord (Caracol) and, of course, Narcos (Gaumont, Dynamo, Netflix), the country is now eager to shake off that image.
“I’ve taken scripts for a series and priced them in Colombia and Mexico. The result: almost 30% cheaper in Colombia, and that’s without considering rebates. Add in the incentives and it can be up to 50% more economical, with the same quality.
Pedro Dávila Miracol
“At first, in our neorealist way of selling ourselves as a country, we had to lean heavily on the narco universe. But today it’s very satisfying to see other Colombian narratives making their way internationally. It allows us to shed that old image,” says Samuel Duque, president of TIS Studios.
“After Narcos, the trend was to show favelas, poverty and nature, third-world backdrops that could just as easily be South America or Indonesia. But now we’re seeing a wider range of stories, looks and locations in Colombia,” agrees Nicolás Martínez, partner at Perrenque Media Lab, which has bases in Bogotá and San Juan, Puerto Rico, and mixes original development with production services for global partners.
With incentives, low costs and years of validation from US media groups, Colombia is no longer just an attractive destination. It is becoming a reliable, indispensable cog in the machine of international production.
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After 19 years as a standard setter for Spanish-language content on the global stage, Colombia’s Dynamo is setting its sights firmly on the English-language market with a pair of high-profile collaborators.
The company has formally forged relationships with the former head of production at Apple TV+ and Gaumont Carol Trussell (Narcos, Severance, Pachinko) and Kristin Jones, who previously led programming, development and production at AMC Networks before joining Peter Chernin’s North Road Company.
LA-based Trussell, who collaborated with Dynamo on Netflix’s Narcos a decade ago, is executive producing projects and serving as a strategic advisor to Dynamo, while London-based Jones, whose resume includes overseeing The Night Manager and Top of the Lake: China Girl, is an exec producer and consultant.
The appointments are part of a major copro push in Europe and the US for the Andrés Calderón-led company, which is based in Bogotá and has o ces in Mexico City, Madrid and New York. The pursuit of global expansion comes as Dynamo levels up with its ambitious adaptation One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien años de soledad, Netflix), now in production on season two, and follows the recent appointment of Angélica Guerra, the former head of Apple TV+ in Latin America, as a partner and chief strategy o cer.
Jones is serving as something of a conduit between Dynamo and her network of European writers, actors, directors and companies. She is currently working on English-language and English/Spanish bilingual projects with Dynamo, describing it as a production company that “operates like an indie studio.”
As an American in London, Jones has witnessed first-hand the collapse of the US/UK coproduction
market, which has seen US buyers pull back and left British producers scrambling to find new partners.
“Given the fraughtness of the landscape right now, it’s appealing to have another place where one can look and potentially figure out projects. Not to mention that the cost of actually making things in Latin America is significantly less than it is in the UK or Europe. You can make a really high-quality show there for under US$1m an episode,” she says.
“ Given the fraughtness of the landscape right now, it’s appealing to have another place where one can look and potentially figure out projects. Not to mention that the cost of actually making things in Latin America is significantly less than it is in the UK or Europe.
Kristin Jones
The latter point is particularly appealing for cash-strapped European commissioners who are increasingly inclined to explore new business models and partnerships.
Trussell says Colombia is a country that US and European producers need to keep in mind. During her time at Gaumont, she was instrumental in convincing Netflix to shoot Narcos in Colombia, despite the fact it had no production incentives at the time.
The bilingual series played an influential role in the growth of non-English-language dramas on
Production studio Dynamo has aligned itself with veteran international TV execs Carol Trussell and Kristin Jones to turbocharge its push into English-language content and help bring more production to Colombia. By Jordan Pinto
the global stage, and the country capitalised on the visibility by introducing a tax credit programme that has further grown the local industry.
Trussell returned in 2021 to shoot the Englishand Spanish-language Apple TV+ drama Echo 3, noting that the ‘Narcos e ect’ was evident, as many of those who had worked on the Pablo Escobar drama had become department heads since then. “Another wave of people have come behind them,” she says, noting that the industry remains on an upward trajectory.
There is still great opportunity to bring more foreign production to Colombia, however, and that is partly why Trussell has been engaged: to help bolster Dynamo’s service production business with US shows.
The growth of Colombia’s production infrastructure, including new studio space and post-production facilities, is also making it an increasingly attractive full-service production destination, says Trussell. “Those are really important, because everyone wants to try and make their budget stretch as far as it can.”
The other part of her role is opening doors to key decision-makers in Los Angeles, where Dynamo is continuing to make inroads.
There is an ongoing responsibility for companies like Dynamo to support the next great international creators and storytellers, argues Trussell, who says the industry can still occasionally feel like “an old boys’ network.”
“There’s going to be a whole new wave of people, and there needs to be investment by companies like Dynamo into those people to make sure they step into those roles,” she says.
FThe Mediapro Studio has shed its inhibitions when it comes to melodrama – a genre it is now proudly embracing and looking to expand, according to its head of content for Colombia and Mexico. By
Juan José Torres Negreira
or Catalina Porto, head of content for The Mediapro Studio in Colombia and Mexico, competing internationally today means doubling down on local strengths. And in Colombia, that strength has a name: melodrama.
“We are the kings of melodrama, it’s the content we really grew up with,” says the Colombian exec.
“When premium content and platforms first took off, melodrama was seen with a certain reserve. But I believe that’s precisely where our great strength lies. Today the numbers prove it: Colombian content is the second mostwatched in Spanish worldwide in terms of hours,” she adds.
Indeed, UK consultancy Omdia reports that three of the 10 most popular Spanish-language titles on Netflix last year were Colombian: Pablo Escobar: The Drug Lord (Pablo Escobar, el patrón del mal), Hidden Passion (Pasión de Gavilanes) and Coffee With Scent of Woman (Café con aroma de mujer).
(Prime Video) and It Was Always Me (Siempre fui yo, Disney+). But while she has been building the Colombian slate, the company’s main business in Latin America so far has come from Mexico.
Mediapro’s Mexican productions include Televisa gameshow Cash: The Weight of Money (Cash: el peso del dinero), ViX melodramatic comedy Consuelo, the second season of HBO Max’s football dramedy Las Bravas F.C. and Disney+ feature Mesa de regalos. The latter was not only a hit on the platform but also became the second most-watched Mexican theatrical release of the past decade.
competitive market. Compared with other countries in the region, Colombia is in a strong position,” says Porto, pointing to the combination of talent, infrastructure and incentives that makes the country increasingly attractive to international players.
“On top of that, we’ve spent about 10 years now on this premium-production trajectory, which means technical crews, artistic talent and creative teams have built up enormous expertise. That has turned Colombia into a hub where teams from different countries converge. We’ve capitalised on that with productions for Disney, Amazon or ViX that have been developed in the country,” she adds. Mexican titles Mesa de regalos and Consuelo prove Porto’s point – while the former was conceived in Colombia, the latter was filmed almost entirely there.
Looking ahead, The Mediapro Studio is seeking to further integrate its Lat Am operations. Projects increasingly involve several countries at once, from shooting to post-production, with talent drawn from across the region. Argentina and Uruguay are also part of that mix, creating a regional production ecosystem that Porto believes will define the future.
A recent case is the TelevisaUnivision version of adventure-reality format El Conquistador, filmed in the Dominican Republic with support from crews in multiple markets. “That’s the direction we’re heading in,” Porto says. “A production model that blends resources, expertise and incentives from different territories.”
Colombia, however, also has a say in those. Since 2017, The Mediapro Studio has used the country as a production hub, and in recent years that strategy has accelerated thanks to generous incentives and a strong cost-to-quality ratio.
“From a pricing perspective, we’re a very
Creatively, however, the Colombian path is clear: reinforce the melodramatic stamp, while adding new layers. “Melodrama is the raw material. From there you can make combinations, like dramedy, thriller or romantic comedy, like we did with Mesa de regalos
The common thread, as Porto points out, is melodrama.
Porto knows this world well. After a spell at Colombian prodco RTI and more than a decade at Caracol Televisión, she joined the Bogotá office of Spanish giant The Mediapro Studio in 2022. Since then, she has overseen local series such as Primate
Colombia and a hit in Mexico. So we come back to love stories, which for us are hugely important, and they remain our most essential genre.
“Today we are very proud producers of great melodramas.”
Catalina Porto , conceived in they hen
“ When premium content and pla orms took o , melodrama was seen with a certain reserve. But I believe that’s precisely where our great strength lies.
Like a chess match played in front of a mirror, Colombia’s two main free-to-air broadcasters, Caracol Televisión and Canal RCN, are locked in a tactical battle of scheduling and acquisitions to keep hold of their audiences and advertisers.
While the Colombian TV landscape also includes nationwide alternatives such as private network Canal 1 and public broadcaster Señal Colombia, Caracol and RCN are the undisputed ratings leaders.
acquisitions, which no longer offer the same cost-benefit ratio.
As a result, both broadcasters are leaning on big formats. RCN has doubled down on Banijay titles such as Big Brother (aired locally as La casa de los famosos) and MasterChef, which has been on air for over a decade and is currently airing a celebrity edition.
Colombia’s leading broadcasters follow near-identical acquisition strategies, blending local production with Turkish drama and focusing on culinary and music reality rather than dating formats, and both also recently launched their own free streaming pla orms.
“Today, Colombian TV is essentially a duopoly between Caracol and RCN. There are other options, like mixed-system channels and regional stations, but in private television it’s us two that dominate,” says Dago García, VP of production and content at Caracol.
Caracol, meanwhile, just wrapped the 10th season of Banijay competition format My Name Is… (Yo me llamo ) and continues to deliver its
By Sebastián Torterola
That’s no small feat in a market long marked by fierce competition, a legacy of how Colombian television was originally structured: at the beginning, instead of granting full channel licences, the state leased out specific programming slots to different producers, creating a system with constant competition and no monopolies.
“Unlike other Latin American TV industries, Colombia didn’t begin as private television or as an extension of commercial radio but as state television,” García points out.
And as a result, Colombian TV has three defining traits: a close link with reality, a constant drive to innovate and a strong vein of humour. “Colombia has always had a very complex reality. We’ve never had a period free of conflict. So we developed two survival strategies: forgetfulness and humour,” García adds.
Today both Caracol and RCN are in transition, redefining themselves from traditional broadcasters into content factories supplying all kinds of screens.
This has meant prioritising local production over canned
“ What’s changed most is that our entertainment shows no longer run for an hour but for 90 minutes. The Challenge, for instance, blends adventure-style physical challenges with reality storytelling, giving us lots of content that keeps audiences engaged.
María Zuleta Caracol Televisión
original adventure reality Desafío (sold internationally as The Challenge).
“What’s changed most is that our entertainment shows no longer run for an hour but for 90 minutes. The Challenge, for instance, blends adventure-style physical challenges with reality storytelling, giving us lots of content that keeps audiences engaged,” explains María Zuleta, head of acquisitions at Caracol.
Dating shows, however, “don’t work as well” for Caracol, which has instead invested in music formats such as its original The Download (La descarga) and its local version of The Voice (ITV Studios). Zuleta has also tried modelling formats, like original reality The Agency (La agencia) and says the channel is open to culinary shows, which have proved a hit for rival RCN.
Meanwhile, at RCN, around 20% of the grid is filled with acquired content, though much of that also ties into its studio-first strategy. Finished programming is often used as currency in partnerships with players like TelevisaUnivision, Telemundo and Sony Pictures Television.
“Budgets force us to look for new types of creative alliances; there’s no other way. These are very specific products that work in certain dayparts and stand the test of time. We source them from various providers with whom we also have original production relationships,” says Eugenia Vélez, RCN’s VP of programming and marketing.
That means titles like Mexican telenovela The Rose of Guadalupe (La rosa de Guadalupe, TelevisaUnivision), children’s live-action classic El Chavo (TelevisaUnivision), Telemundo talkshow Case Closed (Caso cerrado) and Sony’s weekend blockbuster movie packages.
At Caracol, acquired programming takes up between five and six hours a day during the week and three or four hours at weekends. The big shift here has been moving away from Mexican telenovelas in favour of Turkish dramas, which work thanks to their classic storytelling style and long episode runs.
“Turkish dramas can be stripped Monday to Friday, one episode a day. We need a minimum of 60 episodes to keep them on air for long stretches. Taking a show off too soon doesn’t work for us,” says Zuleta.
On weekends, Caracol is obliged to meet a quota of
children’s programming, but since its target is “not strictly kids,” it fills the gap with feelgood movies from third parties, such as Home Alone
Another symmetry between RCN and Caracol is the launch in 2025 of their own free streaming platforms: Canal RCN and Ditu respectively.
Both offer full catalogues and live feeds, but Caracol has taken the bolder step of acquiring NBA broadcast rights for Colombia, covering regular season games, the playoffs and the league’s full programming.
Ditu and Canal RCN are also being used as digital windows for content that doesn’t fit on linear but draws interest online, from live football matches to FAST channels curated from library titles and digital-first aftershows of big formats like RCN’s Big Brother and Caracol’s The Challenge
So far, neither has made specific acquisitions for their platforms or invested heavily in production, although Canal RCN did launch an original magazine (Qué hay pa’ dañar) exclusive to its app. But as they position each brand and build FAST offerings, both are exploring potential content deals.
Meanwhile, Colombia’s third private broadcaster, Canal 1 (operated by Plural Comunicaciones), continues to fill most of its schedule with local production, from news and sports to current affairs and magazines. This is balanced with a handful of acquisitions, such as Puerto Rican celebrity format I Know It All (Lo sé todo, from Wapa TV) and drama The Rookie (eOne/Lionsgate).
Public network Señal Colombia, run by state organisation RTVC, maintains its cultural and factual focus while upholding a tradition of high-quality children’s programming, often sourced from regional public broadcasters and funding entities.
“ Budgets force us to look for new types of creative alliances; there’s no other way.
Eugenia Vélez
Canal RCN
Colombian stories have long travelled well internationally. Today, a new wave of formats, dramas, telenovelas and films is looking to capitalise on rising production values to keep conquering the global market.
Producer and distributor: Caracol Internacional
Genre: Competition reality
They say: The Challenge is Caracol Televisión’s longest running and most successful competition reality. Contestants, split into teams, take on physical and survival trials in extreme conditions while living together and fighting for a big cash prize.
We say: With more than 20 years on air and adaptations in Mexico, the US, Romania, Greece, Russia and Bulgaria (six seasons and counting), The Challenge is battle-tested and export-ready. Season 21 topped ratings in Colombia this year, proving its staying power. Adventure, strategy and human drama form a mix that resonates globally. Flexible to produce locally or abroad and scalable to different budgets, the format has the kind of longevity buyers love.
Distributor: Caracol Internacional
Producer: CMO Producciones
Genre: Drama, political thriller
They say: The world met Ana when, after a life marked by revenge, she managed to defeat her father and send him to prison. Season two begins as he stages a Machiavellian move to regain his freedom. What looked like the end of the story turns into a new beginning full of conspiracies, betrayals and greater challenges for the heroine.
We say: Ana’s Revenge was a phenomenon when it launched in 2020, topping ratings in Colombia and breaking out on Netflix, where it pulled in mass audiences across Latin America. The timing of its comeback could hardly be better, with viewers’ appetite for political thrillers and family sagas remaining high, while the brand recognition of this IP is still powerful.
Distributor: Cineplex
Producer: Laberinto
Genre: Comedy-drama
Producer and distributor: Estudios RCN
Genre: Romantic drama
They say: Rosario, a young singer in a Bogotá cantina, meets Emiliano, a Mexican businessman on the run after being wrongly accused. Between rancheras, secrets and danger, the two fall into a passionate love story that fuses romance, music and drama in equal measure.
We say: This reboot of the 2006 telenovela The Daughter of the Mariachi leans into melodrama but updates the storytelling with higher production values and a contemporary feel. The original was a smash hit in multiple territories and remains one of Colombia’s most recognisable telenovela brands. The relaunch lands as telenovelas are regaining traction as long-run content for both platforms and broadcasters.
They say: The Swap is in development as a scripted series inspired by the true story of two sets of twins switched at birth in 1990s Colombia. The story unfolds through the eyes of Yaneth, the woman who stumbled across the case and brought it to light.
The
We say: Laberinto already mined this case for the Netflix documentary Accidental Twins, which became an unexpected hit on the platform. Now it is flipping the story into a scripted TV show, capitalising on its emotional weight and universal themes of identity, family and destiny. In a market where real-life stories travel well, the choice of dramedy as a tone gives this project a fresh edge, balancing pathos with humour and humanity.
Producer and distributor: Estudios RCN
Genre: Telenovela
They say: Currently shooting in Colombia, The Usuals centres on four college friends who, as they hit 40, realise the stability they thought they had built is beginning to unravel. Careers, marriages and personal ambitions all come under pressure, forcing them to face new questions about identity, reinvention and second chances.
We say: Fronted by Verónica Orozco, Rafael Novoa, Juliana Galvis and Viña Machado, this new telenovela looks to follow in the footsteps of RCN staples like Till Money Do Us Part and With an Open Heart, combining the traditional novela blend of drama, humour and relatable situations. Beyond that, it adds new layers with more complex themes, offering a contemporary take on midlife and asking what it really means to turn 40 today. With a strong ensemble cast, proven genre DNA and a storyline that speaks to audiences across demographics,
The Usuals has the makings of a long-running hit.
Producer and distributor: Alibi Films
Genre: Reality
Producer and distributor: TIS Studios Genre: Action-drama
They say: Iconic narconovela The Capo, charting the rise of a Colombian drug lord from poverty to criminal power and his ultimate downfall, returns years later. Marlon Moreno reprises the role of fictional kingpin Pedro Pablo León Jaramillo, now facing even deadlier threats in a season driven by action, revenge and family survival.
We say: Since its debut in 2009, Gustavo Bolívar’s The Capo has defined the narco genre and become one of Colombia’s most exported franchises, adapted in markets including Mexico and distributed worldwide via Netflix. S4 breaks with the 60-90-episode telenovela model to emerge as a premium limited series. Already produced but unreleased since Paramount+’s strategy pivot, it is positioned as an event property ready for buyers, either stand-alone or bundled with the earlier three seasons.
Producer and distributor: Sony Pictures Entertainment
Genre: Comedy
They say: Raquel, Mónica, Olivia and Diana were childhood best friends until betrayal tore them apart. Five years later, their lives are very different, but one birthday party brings them back together. What looks like a disastrous night becomes a journey of rediscovery, forcing them to confront frustrations while reconnecting with the friendship that once defined them.
We say: Featuring a female-led cast including Laura Londoño, Cassandra Sánchez-Navarro, Luz Aldán and Giovanna Romo, Till Dawn is a completed streaming movie now looking for a buyer. With its breezy tone and sharp rhythm, it recalls international comedies about groups of friends navigating midlife crises. Beyond the humour, it offers a heartfelt take on friendship, reinvention and the acceptance that life rarely sticks to plan.
They say: Eight celebrities and eight ordinary people enter a maximum-security prison stripped of comforts. Divided into teams, they must share cells, showers and food, while facing weekly challenges until only one ‘inmate’ regains freedom and takes home the prize money.
We say: Extreme reality formats are booming, but The Sentence adds a unique hook with its prison environment. The setting magnifies drama, raises ethical dilemmas and creates fertile ground for conflict. By blending survival, social experiment and competition, it fits neatly into current international trends. The clash between celebrities and unknowns adds another layer of unpredictability and social conversation.
Writer, director, showrunner and producer Mauricio Leiva-Cock sees Colombian storytelling being born again, but warns the country’s screen industry must avoid the clichéd and embrace originality.
Igrew up in Colombia – but the Colombia the world knew and accepted was the one filtered to the masses through Escobar: El patrón del mal, El cartel de los sapos, Narcos, even Mr and Mrs Smith or Clear and Present Danger. We were the baddies. We were infamous.
Yes, many things in those stories were based on reality, but writers and producers glamourised them. However, that Colombia seen on screens worldwide is not the Colombia I imagined depicting. Not the Colombia that defined me or those around me. I have always believed there are other ways of narrating ourselves, of constructing new perspectives about our present, past and future.
There were notable exceptions in the soap opera world of the 80s and 90s, where writers experimented with characters, stories, genres. Los Cuervo dared to blend horror with the telenovela format, creating something genuinely unsettling. Don Chinche brought absurdist comedy to primetime, proving Colombian humour was quirky and unique. Café con aroma de mujer showed we could tell deeply Colombian melodramas that travelled globally while remaining authentic. And what can I say about Yo soy Betty, la fea?
expressing ourselves are emerging, and audiences are beginning to see other sides of the narrative. Producers, networks and platforms are willing to take more risks, and as someone who once struggled to pitch them, I can say the doors that were bolted shut are slowly opening. Many of us have realised there are other, more intriguing stories to tell. And it is in cinema, the medium that so many have declared dead, where these new narratives are taking root. Films like Un poeta or Adiós al amigo show how we’re embracing genres to tell ourselves. And it is thanks to public funding that our narrators are beginning to take these risks.
Colombian narrative is poised to flourish. We have learned from working on our own stories, questioning how we want to narrate ourselves, how we want to be perceived, but also by collaborating with people from all over the world who choose our country to film here. Our technicians, actors, artisans and storytellers are growing. We’re finally willing to bend the medium for our own needs – much like those soap opera writers did a few decades ago.
“ We have learned from working on our own stories, questioning how we want to narrate ourselves, how we want to be perceived, but also by collaborating with people all over the world.
These weren’t just hits, they were proof that when we trusted our voice, we created something unique. Escapism worked, but authentic storytelling worked even better.
Years later, as a writer in training, the Colombia I dreamt of seeing on screen was closer to these experiments than mainstream depictions. I wanted to be real, to dialogue with our problems, our idiosyncrasies and our cultural particularities. I wanted to explore the country through genres, through stories told in ways we had not explored before. However, when I began writing professionally, that Colombia was a hard sell because the narco narrative prevailed, and audiences worldwide indulged in the cartels’ hedonism. As an industry, what did we do? We pumped those stories into the market. Undeniably, Escobar was a cinematographic character, but how many versions of his story did we really need?
Today, something has shifted. New stories and ways of
However, to truly reach this potential, we still lack an important conversation about original intellectual property. Those groundbreaking soaps of the 80s and 90s were Colombia’s first major lesson in the power of homegrown IP. They succeeded because they weren’t trying to copy international formats but were creating something that could only have been born here. The irony today is that some of these stories have since become formulas we keep returning to instead of creating new ones.
This is the conversation we need as a local industry hoping to connect with global audiences. If we are to survive in this ever-changing world where technology and homogeneity threaten to make everything immediate, bland and repetitive, we need to understand that our strength lies in strange perspectives, in letting go of expected norms, in rejecting overdone clichés.
If in the past we were able to create global hits without copying anyone, the future will belong to those who dare to imagine us anew.
WHO’S WHO: CHANNEL21 COLOMBIA SPECIAL Co-editors Pina Mezzera pina@c21media.net, Gonzalo Larrea gonzalo@c21media.net, Business development director Fabricio Ferrara fabricio@c21media.net, Contributor Sebastián Torterola sebastian@c21media.net C21 EDITORIAL Editor-in-chief & managing director David Jenkinson david@c21media.net, Editorial director Ed Waller ed@c21media.net, Editor of C21Media.net Jonathan Webdale jonathan@c21media.net, Chief sub-editor Gary Smitherman gary@c21media.net, Chief sub-editor, Drama Quarterly John Winfield john@c21media.net, News editor Clive Whittingham clive@c21media.net, Channel21 International editor Nico Franks nico@c21media.net, DQ editor Michael Pickard michael@c21media.net, Research editor Gün Akyuz gun@c21media.net, North American editor Jordan Pinto jordan@c21media.net, C21Kids editor Karolina Kaminska karolina@c21media.net, Senior reporter Neil Batey neil@c21media.net, Special projects editor Louise Bateman louise@c21media.net SALES Founding partner & commercial director Odiri Iwuji odiri@c21media.net, Sales director Peter Treacher peter@c21media.net, Business development director Patricia Arescy patricia@c21media.net, Senior sales executives Richard Segal richard@c21media.net, Yasmin Connolly yasmin@c21media.net, Event programming director Ruth Palmer ruth@c21media.net, Head of events Gemma Burt gemma@c21media.net, Events manager Mia Hodgson mia@c21media.net, Events coordinator Lily Miller lily@c21media.net, PRODUCTION Operations director Lucy Scott lucy@c21media.net, Head of digital Laura Stevens laura@c21media.net, Production manager Courtney Brewster courtney@c21media.net, Team assistants Caitlin Wren caitlin@c21media.net, Rory Mullan Wilkinson rory@c21media.net, Sashka Wickramasinghe sashka@c21media.net, Gema Angulo gema@c21media.net
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