Pierluigi Gazzolo VIX
“We are going to continue investing heavily,” said Pierluigi Gazzolo, CEO of ViX, referring to the investment in content production for its ViX and ViX+ streaming platforms. The executive was interviewed by Ríchard Izarra, editor-in-chief of PRODU, during Content Americas.
“One of the things I like about our model is that we are investing incrementally, we are not ‘reskinning’, it is not a new skin with the same body. We are not a broadcast or pay TV channel that wants to stream the same content, we are simply launching completely complementary streaming to our network. All the content or the vast majority of it is additional to those of Univisión and of Televisa. So it is not that we are trying to replace lost income or audience, we are advancing towards bringing more audience to become increasingly the largest media group in Spanish globally.”
Gazzolo is one of the main architects of the transformation that led to the merger of Televisa and Univisión, and the launch of its ViX and ViX+ platforms. “I was working helping Wade [Davis] transform the company, which we did before the merger and even after. I was in charge of various parts of the transformation with him. We reinvent how advertising is sold. We became a data-centric versus a non-data-centric company,” he said.
“This transformation culminated in the idea of launching an additional and complementary streaming service to the channels, which could only be done with the Televisa merger that took place, which was for me one of the greatest moments of our transformation, because without Televisa we would not be here and that is where ViX and ViX+ come from,” he added. “TelevisaUnivision is already the world’s largest content company in Spanish, without a doubt,” he highlighted.
WE AIM TO SPANISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES
He talked about the benefits of their business model. He first highlighted that they have the largest and best production company in the world, which is Televisa, as well as other own production companies, “we can produce on our own and that is a great benefit.” Second, they are taking advantage of the favorable costs of producing in Latin America. And finally, that ViX and ViX+ commitment is to be available in all Spanish-speaking countries.
“We are not aiming at non-Spanish-speaking countries. For example, we are not going to enter Brazil, or Italy, or Germany, but I can bring people to co-produce our series with us so they can have the rights and co-own the IP. This is a model that allows us, apart from the fact that we can produce with our own studios, that when we talk to third parties we can move forward with more volume without having to sacrifice too much cost.”
As an example, he referred to Las Pelotaris, a series announced in 2022 and that was co-produced with Mediapro, “where they have their own IP for several European countries and we for other Spanish-speaking countries.” There is also the series written by Mario Vargas Llosa, Travesuras de la Niña Mala, which Globo has the IP for Globo Play in Brazil, while Gazzolo for the rest of the world. “This is being done with almost everyone. We have all the options available, we want to be the owner of our content, but we can also sell the equity of that part of the content in the regions where we will never be,” he pointed out.
WE BET ON ALL GENRES
“There are so many stories to tell in Latin America in docuseries that can be very interesting. There is room for expansion in the genre of Spanish-language content. For example, there’s not enough action, there’s not enough comedy, there’s not enough horror, and we want to expand as far as we can into all genres. But today the content produced in Mexico and the melodrama has been one of the best we have had on ViX and ViX+.”
He singled out the seriela or the novel-series. “We are going to continue doing more of that, but we have to expand now, for example, we need a little more reality, reality competition.”
WE NEED TO MARKET OUR CONTENT
He stressed that ViX is already in Latin America. “What happened was that the first year or the first six months, we focused on the two largest Spanish-speaking markets, which are US Hispanic in terms of the GDP and Mexico in terms of population size.” And although the application of the platform can be downloaded in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Argentina, “there has not been that marketing push in the content and now we are going to begin to expand our footprint little by little in the rest of Latin America.”
The idea is to start this push this year in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador.
SYNDICATION WILL REMAIN STRONG
“I think there are streamers who up until now have said that everything they do is global, but there are others, like us, that everything we do doesn’t have to be global, and in my opinion that’s where syndication, which is the sale of content to other entities – streamers, television channels, pay TV -, will continue and very strong,” said Gazzolo.
“I think if we want to continue to grow as people slow down the cost accelerator – a lot of big global streamers are cutting costs -, it’s going to be much easier to continue to make volume with partnerships or co-productions, pre-sales or selling the can once you’ve used it and done with it. That is going to continue,” he added.
A GENERALIST
Gazzolo has been in the industry since he was 23 years old when he was hired to sell advertising on CBS Telenoticias. “I have been doing media for many years, but each time it has been something different. Now being in charge of launching and driving the future growth of Televisa and Univisión, which would be ViX and ViX+, makes me very happy.”
At 54 years old, It can be said that Gazzolo has worn several hats: financier, producer, and salesman. “I have always been a generalist. I started out as a salesperson but slowly became more of a generalist and I like getting involved in all parts of the business. We have a fabulous team that takes care of each of those parts, but I love getting in and out of everything and I consider myself a general manager.”
Currently, he is completely devoted to streaming platforms. “When we launched [ViX] in March of last year, and I was president and CTO, I was already almost 100% focused on streaming. My role didn’t really change, it just became more official because now the baby has already been launched, it’s already growing and needs attention.”
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