The first batch of four original Amor en Navidad films, co-produced by Lifetime, VIP 2000 TV and Yahayra Films, has already confirmed 10 open TV screens in the region: TV Azteca in Mexico, TC in Ecuador, Medcom in Panama, Televen in Venezuela, Corripio in Dominican Republic, Panamericana in Peru, Telefuturo in Paraguay, TCS in El Salvador, Teleonce in Puerto Rico, Teletica in Costa Rica in addition to IVC in Venezuela on pay TV.
This was revealed by Carmen Larios, SVP of Programming and Production at A&E and Lifetime, and Roxana Rotundo, CEO of VIP 2000 TV, who added that they are proud that these “stories are traveling to cable TV, to digital platforms (VOD) in Lifetime, to open TV and to media that is merely digital”.
Larios explained that this alliance between Lifetime, VIP 2000 TV, and Yahayra Films, with whom, in addition to the group of Christmas movies, have the fiction Amores que Engañan 1 and 2, “has been marvelous, both in terms of the team and for business”. She added that it is a pleasure to work with “such talented, decisive, creative, and respectful people in every sense”.
For her part, Rotundo commented that the combination of the three companies “is quite unique in co-production schemes. The success of our company is the know-how that everyone brings from their side of the business: Lifetime is very clear about their audience and what the producer wants, and how to approach the product; we have the effectiveness of the production company, Yahayra Films, from Guadalajara, and, in the case of VIP 2000 TV, it is years of listening to so many people say what works and what doesn’t, and to be able to make the compilation to say let’s do this that has a better chance of success.”.
Rotundo mentioned that Amores que Engañan 1 can already be seen in a second window in the US, and on Univision and Televisa on open TV in Mexico.
Amor en Navidad 2, which debuted on Lifetime on November 18 in Latin America, according to Larios and Rotundo, presented several production challenges, including reflecting Christmas traditions of the north and south of Latin America; keeping the Christmas focus in all the locations in Guadalajara where the filming took place in the middle of the hot summer season; and the preparation of the houses that were used as locations in two hours to be able to film the same day.
They mentioned as a new element of Amor en Navidad 2 the theme song performed by Carlos Ponce, which is not only for the setting but also a character in the stories.