The MEDIAPRO Group and its international rights agent, Imagina International Sales, will attend MIPCOM this year with their own stand and will present new original content both in fiction and entertainment.
Starting with entertainment, there are two highlight formats – “Forever or Never” and “Never Far Away”, both produced by MEDIAPRO and Phileas Productions. “Forever Or Never” is an original, very enjoyable dating show in which we will travel into the future in order to make decisions in the present. Candidates will have the chance to meet with the looks they will have when they are twice or three times their current age. If they like each other, they will finally meet with their real looks. In this voyage, candidates will not be alone, they will be accompanied by their mothers and grandmothers, who will help them choose the ideal prospective partner. For its part, “Never Far Away” is a factual show that consists of realizing impossible challenges with the aim of eventually bringing people and families together. Typically, it includes stories of people who cannot be present at their own weddings, the birth of their babies, Christmas dinners or any important event in their lives. The show will make it possible for them to be present at all these events, overcoming every difficulty, no matter how far they might be, even if they are in outer space…
In fiction, the highlights are SIDE GAMES, coproduced by MEDIAPRO and DIRECT TV, directed by Daniel Calparsoro and with Eduardo Sacheri as lead writer, with impressive audience ratings when it was broadcast on ONDIRECTV; and “Victim Nº 8”, a Globomedia (MEDIAPRO Group) production for Telemadrid. “Side Games” is a high-concept coproduction between MEDIAPRO and DIRECTV, a 50-minute 8-episode thriller that shows how the world of soccer is intertwined with the dark underworld surrounding it. The series was premiered on July 15 on ONDIRECTV and DIRECTV PLAY and the first season finished on September 3. It became the top series of the month, with an impressive rate rise of 53%, during the first times it was broadcast, with regard to the title that was shown previously on the same time slot. “Victim Nº 8” will be soon premiered on Telemadrid. It is an amazing thriller whose starting point is a terrorist attack that changes the lives of both victims and terrorists, and both groups will be protagonists of a story with a markedly personal tone.
The new seasons of the successful “Locked Up” (Vis a Vis) and “I’m Alive” (Estoy Vivo), both produced by GLOBOMEDIA (MEDIAPRO Group) and with successful international careers, will also be presented.
These titles will be internationally marketed by Imagina International Sales, the distribution branch of MEDIAPRO Group, which will also bring to this market some titles that were not produced by the group. This is the case of “To Serve and Protect” (Servir y proteger) and “Betrayal” (Traición), both produced by TVE. “To Serve and Protect” (Servir y proteger) is a crime drama, broadcast daily, produced by Plano a Plano. Its leading characters are mostly women and it is a portrait of life in a police station in a large city. For its part, “Betrayal” (Traición) is a family saga by producer Bambú in which an apparently perfect family starts to crumble after the death of the patriarch.
Imagina International Sales and MEDIAPRO will be in stand R7.F31 in Cannes.
“Crush”, the game-show has recently been added to the NBCUniversal catalogue as one of the foreign shows which the American company will distribute internationally. Developed by MEDIAPRO and Phileas Productions, the programme provides entertainment for all the family and sees two teams, made of 4 people and a famous face compete for succulent cash-prizes. In order to win the teams have to choose the right answers to avoid being crushed under the giant safes.
One of the stand-out features of the gameshow, which was broadcast in Spain by RTVE over the summer months, is the chance to come back from the “Limbo” area, the place where the contestants end up “crushed”.
“Crush” is a super-production and the version developed by RTVE, presented by Juanma López Iturriaga, was recorded on a circular 1,000 square metre set, with 200 people in the audience and 5 safes with heavy metal structures which were hung over the contestants with the chance of them falling on them if they got a question wrong. The 360º set, with no visual obstacles for the audiences both live and at home, made possible the use of special robot-controlled cameras such as the sky-cam which covered the set like a football pitch, offering viewers images similar to video-games.
The simultaneous premiere of “La víctima número 8” on Telemadrid and ETB was a big hit, the series produced by Globomedia with support from both regional networks posted an impressive 12.8% share on ETB and an aggregate audience of 205,000 viewers in the Basque Country and its broadcast catchment. In the Basque Country it was the second most popular option of the evening and was the number one choice for viewers over 64 (15.5%). On Telemadrid it notched up a 3.8% share with highlights being the female viewers (4.3%) and over 64 viewers (6.6%).
The first episode is now available online via both networks’ web-sites. In the second episode of “La víctima número 8”, viewers are set to discover who is really behind the terrorist attack.
“La víctima número 8” kicks off with an Islamist terrorist attack in Bilbao and goes into the back-story of all of the people affected by the attack. The fiction series delves into the back-story of those caught up in the attack. The thriller revolves around how the characters come to terms with the consequences of the attack. Both victims and perpetrators will be centre stage in the drama with the police investigation trying to catch the people responsible for the attacks and provide answers to the many question marks which it caused.
César Mateo, María de Nati, Verónika Moral, Marcial Álvarez, Farah Hamed, Lisi Linder and Iñaki Ardanaz head the cast of this new production alongside Óscar Zafra, Alfonso Torregrosa, Itziar Lazkano, Khaled Kouka, Moussa Echarif, Jesús Ruyman, Itziar Aizpuru and the child actors Son Khoury, Youssef Bougarouame and Auritz Salteráin.
Close to 300 staff from the MEDIAPRO Group came together for 3 days in Barcelona for the annual Convention. Staff from the 53 offices which form part of the Group in 35 different countries took part in debates about both internal questions as well as issues affecting the audiovisual sector: digitalisation, new content trends, the application of new technology in audiovisual production and the role of production companies in an OTT- age. Javier Olivares, Ram Tellen, Iván Escobar, Manuela Burlo and los Javis, chaired by Conchi Carvajosa, analysed the phenomenon of fiction series in the new 21st-century cultural age, whilst famous youtubers “los Prieto” led an interesting debate about content, audiences and talent in new format content channels which also saw Sara and Marta “DeVermut”, Vicky and Nacho “Living Postureo”, Gabriela Narzekian aka Gakian, Lula from “Eres una caca” and Ibai Llanos from LVP, among other guests take part in.
Group staff shared their knowledge and experiences about topics such as the application of Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality in the sector, with the presentation of prototype connected car developed internally as well as themes such as the characteristics of the audiovisual market in China.
For more than 20 years the MEDIAPRO Group has been bringing together the heads of its companies and business units to analyse the evolution of their activities, propose new business lines and reflect on the most important audiovisual sector issues.
A 10-strong Overon team is currently providing news coverage of the flooding which hit North-East Majorca last week. The coverage features 2 DNSG, one based in Palma de Majorca and another flown in from Barcelona; as well as 6 4G back-pack broadcast units. The team also had a drone at its disposal which provided valuable live broadcast footage of the area affected by the flooding and which was shown in the Antena 3 programme “Espejo Público” last week.
Overon is providing broadcast services for both national and international networks from different spots around the island. Clients include: ZDF, ARD, France TV, SERVUS, TVE, Antena 3, FORTA, ETB (via K2000) and TV3, among others.
wTVision covered the Maldives Presidential Elections, for the Public Service Media (PSM) Channel, the local public broadcaster, managing the official data and providing the real-time graphics and Augmented Reality in the most innovative election coverage ever in the Maldives.
With the support of PSM, wTVision developed both creative and technical aspects of the operation to implement the real-time graphics and the live Augmented Reality. PSM left in wTVision’s hands the complete branding design of the electoral night including the logo, opening title, wipes and all the on-air graphics used during the live show. All the Augmented Reality graphics were also developed by wTVision’s design team.
Elections CG, wTVision’s dedicated software that imports, manages and transforms detailed data into high resolution graphics, in real-time, followed the statistical progress thanks to a web application designed specifically for this project. Every voting box inserted the official results into the app and data was then gathered, validated and aired.
In addition, journalists were also provided with a dedicated web application that constantly updated detailed information about results, votes counted and changes in the leading board. This interactive tool supported political analysts in the unpredictability of the election night.
This was the first time Maldives TV audience got the chance to follow their local election with such cutting-edge and innovative virtual graphics.
