Spanish production companies look towards Central and Eastern Europe

Several Spanish production companies will participate from June 26 to 28 in the first edition of NATPE Budapest.

Between June 26 and 28, the first edition of the audiovisual content market will take place at the Sofitel Chain Bridge hotel in the Hungarian capital under the name NATPE, (National Association of TV Program Executives), which has recently acquired the rights to the event.

Spanish participation in the fair is organized by the Federation of Associations of Audiovisual Producers of Spain, FAP and has the support of the Spanish Institute of Foreign Trade, ICEX. In this edition, the 7 companies participating as exhibitors under the Audiovisual from Spain pavilion are: ATN, BRB Internacional, Comercial de SERVICIOS Audiovisual, Filmax Internacional, Latido Films, Motion Pictures and RTVE. In addition to these companies, Neptuno Films participates in the event with an individualized presence.

During all the previous editions held under the DISCOP brand, the presence of Spanish producers and distributors has been constant, a fact that, together with the recent trade missions organized to Russia with the support of ICEX, has made it easier for the territories of Eastern Europe to be today one of the usual markets for Spanish products.

A thriving market

The markets of Central and Eastern Europe are in full expansion, constantly offering new opportunities to distributors. With almost 350 million inhabitants and 123 million homes that have some type of television connection, the demand for film, fiction, children's and documentary content has skyrocketed in recent years. Pay television now has almost 52 million subscribers and the increase in per capita income is providing new opportunities for cultural exchange that favor the consumption of non-local audiovisual products.

The set of television channels that offer national coverage, adding up the different countries that comprise it, exceeds a thousand and to these, we must add 3,000 channels of regional, local and thematic coverage that are produced and/or dubbed into the different languages ​​of each area.

These impressive data on the size of the market entail significant consumption and product demand. Xavi Mas, responsible for International Sales and Co-productions at Motion Pictures, confirms the good economic moment and the real purchasing capacity that the operators in the region have: “as we obtained excellent results with our animation series in the last edition of Discop, placing the majority of our animation catalog in multiple territories of Central Europe, this year we have decided to enhance the exhibition of our documentary catalog, presented by Montse Portabella, which has already generated notable expectations in the territories, with titles such as Seas & Oceans, Journey to the Depths and Canary Islands Biodiversity Redux“.

On the occasion of this event, a catalog has been published that will be available to companies and attending buyers, in which you can find information on the participating Spanish distributors and details of the products that are presented to the market.