Telefónica will produce original fiction content for Latin America

The Peruvian director and producer Joanna Lombardi will be responsible for these productions in the region, whose first premieres will arrive in the second half of the year.

Telefónica pre-production of the three first fiction productions in Latin America, specifically in Colombia and Peru. The first premieres will be made from the second half of 2019 on the operator's different video platforms.

The company thus consolidates its firm commitment to becoming the main producer of fiction content in Spanish in the world, which started at the beginning of 2017 in Spain through Movistar+. Since then, 19 original series have been produced, released exclusively for Telefónica customers, both in the markets where Telefónica operates and in another fifty countries around the world through international distribution agreements.

Content, and especially original fiction content, has become a fundamental and differentiating part of Telefónica's video service offering. An offer that it provides through the excellent connectivity provided by its fixed and mobile networks and available on video platforms that have the best content and offer the best user experience. The company has a total of almost 9 million pay television customers all over the world.

Paula Figueroa, director of the Telefónica Video Unit, states that "after the success achieved by the original fiction content produced by Telefónica in Spain, it was natural that we expanded this same strategy to Latin America. The contents are a key differentiator of our offer and we have transformed our video platform into an aggregator where our clients can access from a single place the best content, their own and third parties. With our commitment to original production, we want to turn our channels into the best showcase to publicize all the talent and creativity of a great community that has Spanish as a common language.”

"I took on this great challenge motivated by the enormous potential that Telefónica offers for the growth of the audiovisual industry in our region. We are very excited about the projects we are developing. We seek to reach the Latin American viewer with stories that are close to us, that move us and with which we can feel identified," he says. Joanna Lombardi, Peruvian director and producer with a long history in the sector, appointed director of Fiction for Latin America at Telefónica.

A Peruvian comedy that combines fiction and reality with a lot of music in its soundtrack, and a coming-of-age youth series set in the turbulent Bogotá of the 90s are two of the first series whose pre-production began several months ago in Colombia and Peru.

The series will be seen through the Movistar Series channel available in Latin America since February 2018 on Movistar TV and Movistar Play, the application aimed at the more than 110 million Telefónica mobile users in the region. Movistar Series is available in 11 countries and exclusively offers all the original Movistar+ series produced in Spain, series such as To the fish, Giants, Madrid burns o The pier.