Fernando Medin, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery: The launch of Max is the most important event for the company in Latin America
That Latin America is the first territory where Max arrives after the US makes sense for Fernando Medin, president & general director of Warner Bros. Discovery because the region has the audience that best receives international content. In a conference during Content Americas Medin, together with Mariano César, leader of General Entertainment Content for Latin America & US Hispanic, and Pablo Zuccarino, SVP and general manager of Kids and Family for Latin America & US Hispanic of the company, talked about their challenges and the content available on Max after its launch to ensure that this audience fertile ground consolidates firmly the screen.
“The launch of Max is the most important event for the company in Latin America,” said Medin, highlighting that it comes with challenges, such as the low penetration of credit cards and the low level of banking access of the population, making it difficult ‘direct to consumer’ (D2C). However, this is the only monetization option. “We have been working in the region for years with partners, such as pay TV,” he commented, adding they will rely on these alliances, among other strategies.
Max also brings the opportunity to expand the content offering with local productions. “The challenge is to think that this content offering is aimed at increasingly older demographics and in all genres, and is where our company intends to use the power of our strong brands – HBO, of course, DC, Warner, and all the brands coming from Discovery -. They all represent an expectation of quality in different genres, moments, and sometimes the entire year for different people, and HBO will play a central place within that,” said César.
Part of the commitment is combining iconic productions with emerging and innovative ones. As an example, he mentions the premiere of the fourth season of True Detective. “It is a very different franchise from season to season but building on its universe, in which Jodie Foster joins forces with a Mexican female director for the first time,” he said.
Local content faces the challenge of a high-quality standard with the importance of joining the conversation about big issues that drive cultural change. Examples that will become global hits are Como Agua para Chocolate, Ciudad de Dios, and Chespirito: Sin Querer Queriendo.
“Como Agua para Chocolate is a novel that talks about female roles rebelling against family precepts or cooking as a way to express and connect with others; Ciudad de Dios speaks of communities fighting against adversity, against crime, in challenging situations that speak of our reality; Chespirito‘s biography speaks of the Latin American content that has transcended the most beyond its original market and throughout time,” said César, adding that it is not only about deepening the relationship with the Latin American audience but finding the best the region has to offer the world. “We believe that these titles are going to be global hits.”
Latin America is good at soccer and novels. So, they are working hard with these verticals. In the case of novels, they will invest in two Brazilian projects: Belleza Fatal, produced by Coração da Selva, and Dona Beija, produced by Floresta.
Zuccarino commented that integrating Discovery Kids into streaming is one of his most relevant events, allowing them to have more proximity to the audience. “Discovery Kids is an incredible brand; it has excellent content, and there is a latent opportunity to reach audiences more directly,” he said, adding that the same happened with adult animation on the recently launched adult swim channel.
César added that the Discovery brand allows to bring local content associated with global franchises such as Supervivencia al Desnudo. “It is no coincidence that it was one of our first releases,” he said, referring to the Latin American and Brazilian versions.
