Mar Martínez of Atresmedia in #PRODUprimetime: 2022 will be big for our ATRESplayer platform with the big aggregators

For Mar Martínez, general director of Atresmedia Internacional, 2022 will be a great year for their OTT ATRESPlayer thanks to the great aggregators of the region. During #PRODUprimetime with Ríchard Izarra she also referred to the 25th anniversary of Antena 3 Internacional, Atresmedia’s portfolio of four pay TV channels; and expressed her desire to return to face-to-face events, including the Andina Link that will be held in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, this March.

25th ANNIVERSARY OF ANTENA 3
25 years ago, Antena 3 became the first private TV channel in Spain to reach the Americas. And since then television has changed a lot. “It’s like another world”, said Martinez.
“We started by the hand of a great company that is Multivisión (MVS) and that was more than 25 years ago. But since then –and still- we’ve been closing distribution agreements with many operators, large, medium. We have just launched Antena 3 with an operator in Uruguay. So there is still room for growth, even many years ahead while we continue to incorporate signals. We don’t have 100% penetration, which is great because that allows us to further extend our presence. Our followers are extremely loyal and they continue to really like Antena 3 productions, obviously, a lot has changed now, but we have followers of our daily programs such as El Hormiguero, La Ruleta de la Suerte, Pasapalabra, which are fantastic contests; and of the edition that we do in Spain of La Voz or Tu Cara Me Suena, which are great entertainment shows,” she highlighted.

FOUR SIGNALS AND THE OTT ATRESPLAYER
“We have had the honor of launching and placing new channels on the market. First came HOLA! TV, produced in Miami and available to all of America; then Atreseries, made in Spain and responsible for producing great internationally recognized series. And then, more recently, Atrescine was born. So we have four channels, which were finally joined with the international part of our OTT, ATRESplayer, reaching many subscribers around the world, especially, in Latin American countries and in the US. We distribute ATRESplayer with Claro Video at a pan-regional level, and we are also going to use new operators. I think that 2022 is going to be very important for our OTT platform ATRESplayer hand in hand with the big aggregators”, she stated. “The content proposal is very broad, the way to reach is also very different, but we have seen the changes that this pay-TV industry has undergone throughout America. What prevails is a huge amount of content and the important thing is how to manage that content.”

¡HOLA! TV & ATRESERIES
“!HOLA! TV is very successful because to begin with it already came with a great appeal and a very important asset, which is a well-known and highly identifiable brand. That helps a lot, and also it has high levels of production quality. And Atreseries, is recognized for being very good at producing series. Of the great titles in Spanish, most are ours. We have been the producers of El Tiempo entre Costuras, Gran Hotel, La Casa de Papel -one of the best-, Vis a Vis, the best series on the market and still more in the making. We have that baggage, that identity and the public recognizes us. We had excellent timing, anticipating that great boom that has been the production of the series, and we are delighted,” she expressed.

OTT vs LINEAR
For Martínez, the arrival of the OTTs doesn’t mean that the linear channels will disappear because. “Both are different ways of -what we call- consuming audiovisual content. There are people used to watching their scheduled linear channel and others who want to see the same content, but when they want. That’s why we offer complimentary content, what we call VOD or ‘catch up’, which complements the linear channels, has allowed us to grow a lot and have a great presence with our subscribers. And then, of course, there’s an audience that wants to access our platform, which has a massive amount of library content but also features our same linear channels, and you can have access as well. There are different ways of watching us and our interest is to serve all those different ways of watching TV,” she said.

ANDINA LINK
“If there are no changes or last minute problems, we will be at Andina Link to celebrate. That was the last place I visited before air flights were banned and we were unable to travel. So it will give me great joy to return to Cartagena, that wonderful city and country; and share for a few days. We need to sit down and talk. We really need to know what is going on with the operators -who are our first customers-, how they are assessing these changes, this development; where are we heading to? We are convinced that this will be a good year. We’ve been through the worst. These confinements have favored us in consumption, but there are many things that we need to start growing. I think it is important that we see each other in Cartagena, that we go back to those old customs or to the best of them.”

US HISPANIC
Martínez said that the devotion to Atresmedia’s channels and its portfolio is great both in the US Hispanic and Latin America. “The content that appeals to them is practically the same. And we’re talking about a very interesting and large market. The US Hispanic is the second-largest country in terms of Spanish speakers, so that territory is very important to us. Outside of America, it is something else, there is not so much Spanish-speaking population. We also have our channels in Europe, but it is not the same. In Europe, we address the Spaniards who live abroad. In America our advantage is that anyone can be our audience, they don’t have to be from Spain. They just have to like our programs, our series and be entertained and they follow us. In Europe, it is different because the language barrier makes it a lot more difficult.”

View interview here