María Lucía Hernández de RCN
“We have a history of presenting different original stories; when referring to RCN, people know that we come up with things that anyone has seen before. We are a benchmark in stories! ” said María Lucía Hernández, RCN International Sales Director during an interview on #PRODUprimetime with Ríchard Izarra.
María Lucía proved herself as an executive with great knowledge of the industry, very committed to the company (“I must have an RCN barcode somewhere on my body that I haven’t found yet, but it must be there”), and passionate about television.
“TV lives in me, I am happy working on this,” said Nani, who was introduced by Ríchard “as one of the most loved and admired executives in our industry, with 28 years of experience and an admirable dedication to the sale of Colombian products. worldwide, and all that time, only in one company: RCN. She is María Lucía Hernández, Nani, as her friends call her, and #cartagenaprincess, as she is known on social networks.”
“I feel proud every time I sit down with clients and being able to offer them extraordinary original stories for open TV. Right now we are offering the new Café con Aroma de Mujer, we sold it before it aired, and we know that all viewers, everywhere, are going to enjoy it immensely. It is a story based on our original version that Fernando Gaitán wrote in the early ’90s. It is significantly shorter, half of the original 160 episodes. It is being adapted by Adriana Suárez, an extraordinary scriptwriter, who was not only Fernando’s apprentice but was also one of his greatest friends, and additionally, she is from the coffee zone. We have a Gaviota character more real and from this era, wonderful production values, and a cast that we feel happy about, led by William Levy and Laura Londoño.”
“We finished Pa’quererte, Enfermeras, a successful original format that has already confirmed a third season. There we have a group of scriptwriters who dynamically are feeding the story, which has been written for open TV and has been a success among audiences of that format. We want those who come to RCN to always find quality content and content with very specific features for our audience. Additionally, now comes La Nieta Elegida, based on a wonderful book by Julio Jiménez, a current product with a thriller touch: one is surprised that TV is doing things with such quality,” she affirmed.
“In Colombia, we have Netflix, which has been a client for several years since they were Natpe. They opened an important space, another alternative in the consumption of audiovisual content. Today I think we are at a very interesting time to pay attention to it,” she said regarding streaming. “They are no longer only OTTs under subscription, now they are also free models that are after advertising investment. So you have to be attentive in how this goes, because if we remember when cable networks began it was by subscription without advertising, and from one moment to another advertising came in. Subscription but also advertising. Now we are in a similar situation with non-linear ones, with OTTs. There are many that offer that model of eyeballs, which takes out directly the advertising investment business. I think that the remaining of this year and next year are going to be quite important in terms of the distribution of advertising investment in the different markets. Each country is really going to see how the big advertisers will distribute those cakes. I don’t think there will be growth, but rather a displacement of investment,” she added.
Regarding the pandemic, she pointed out: “We in the TV industry have had the privilege of continuing to work. The audience grew because many people had to stay at home. Guided by our president, José Antonio de Brigard, that time was used in an extraordinary way. Internally changes were made to improve processes, scriptwriting, production. We look for a way to adapt to the clients’ needs and thanks to digitization and new systems, we always kept in touch, looking for a way that our clients felt more comfortable because the truth is that clients are overwhelmed by so many things that come to them. It is always important to be able to reach them with what you know they need, having productive meetings, and always maintaining the friendship cultivated for many years. We keep informed of how they are, how the family is doing, with those who have suffered losses we have been very supportive. I believe that this time has served to keep us productive, connected, and looking towards an optimistic, promising, and successful future, with a lot of business to do and of benefit to all parties.”
Watch the complete interview here
