Latino AVOD phenomenon VIX, which controls the biggest multi-platform Latino digital media audience in the world, is extending its reach as it pushes to underscore its relevance, premiering three COVID-19 confinement-themed series, all produced entirely during COVID-19 lockdown.
Making its world premiere on VIX, “The New Normal” is an eight-part doc-series featuring self-interviews and real-life moments of Brazilians around the world. Locales include Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, New Zealand, England, Israel and China. The series is produced by VIX’s in-house creative team led by director of OTT content, Ines Salles.
Created and produced by Maria Albinana and Luke Eve, directed by Eve and inspired by real-life circumstance, 10-part “Cancelled” turns on a man who is forced to cancel his wedding in Spain – and plunge into lockdown with his fiancee and his mother.
Already announced, “La Treintena,” which bowed late last week on VIX, marks VIX’s first series from Spain and early fruit of the production alliance between Legendary Global, the TV production-financing house launched last December by Chris Albrecht and Anne Thomopoulos, and Barcelona’s ESPotlight, a production-talent management combo, to develop and produce premium content targeting the Spanish-speaking market.
A spirited chronicle of the ups and downs of four women friends in Barcelona as they attempt to reset their lives while in lockdown, the series is written by up-and-coming actors Mireia Noguera and Marta Vives.
Drawing heavily on a new galaxy of international stars forged by streaming platforms, and particularly Netflix, “La Treintena” stars Vives, Paula Malia, star of Netflix Original Series “Valeria,” Marta Castellote, and Mireia Oriol, the female lead in upcoming Netflix Original Series “Alma” as well as David Solans, star of Movistar Plus TV series “Merli.”
Underscoring ESPotlight’s pulling power, special guest cameos take in José Corbacho (hit feature “Tapas”) Sílvia Abril, star of 2020 Spanish summer blockbuster “Father There is Only One 2,” Martina Gusmán, star of cult Netflix Argentine series “Marginal” and its upcoming “El año de la furia,” and Terremoto de Alcorcón (Netflix’s “Nailed It!”).
“This trio of series further demonstrates our commitment to introduce our audiences to authentic, creative voices tackling the most relevant and timely subjects,” said Rick Rodriguez, VIX head of OTT content,
“We are thrilled to be in business with VIX and to bring ‘La Treintena’ and its extremely relatable story to VIX’s audiences,” added Legendary’s VP of distribution Carlos Sanchez.
Moving from short to long form content where it saw a market opportunity, a move aided by the purchase in August 2019 of Pongalo, an AVOD OTT operator with an extensive library of long-form content, VIX has burst onto the Latino scene as one of its biggest and still fastest-growing OTT operators.
Aggregating libraries, and leveraging its social media reach to promote its offer, it now has over 1,000 features, hundreds of series and docs, and 200 million viewers and 90 million social media followers, CEO Rafael Urbina told TodoTVNews in a recent interview.
Fast consolidating, in 2020 VIX became a Top 3, free Hispanic film and TV streaming app on Roku in the U.S., and Top 10 in every Spanish-speaking Latin American country – the first-ever free streaming app to accomplish the milestone, VIX said in a written statement.
As channel brand diminishes in favor of content brand, “La Treintena” marks VIX’s first series sourced from Legendary Global as the service, which already has the programming bandwidth to satisfy a broad range of advertisers, may well move into higher-profile content to stand out from the competition.
Both “La Treintena” and “The New Normal” are exclusive to VIX.