Domestic TV's foreign adventures
How are adaptations of Catalan and Spanish TV series doing abroad? Polseres vermelles and Los misterios de Laura are two new series on FOX and NBC
Selling their products abroad is a key aim of the main Spanish production companies, from Bambú (Velvet) and Globomedia (Águila roja) to the Catalan company, Diagonal TV (Isabel).
Television series are not cheap to make, and represent even more of an expense in the current economic environment. To make the task harder, there is also a glut of programmes on offer on today's market, especially from Anglo-Saxon and European countries. What's more, audiences have gone from local to global, viewers' tastes have become increasingly selective and sophisticated.
That's why production companies have started to look abroad, either to sell the rights of the original versions or to make adaptations of hit series. In the Spanish market, there are three main groups that buy series – Atresmedia, Mediaset and RTVE. This makes it difficult for the rest of the companies to grow and, in the case of the Catalan companies, the situation is even more complicated.
In fact, the latest TV3 drama series are co-productions with TVE: there are some television films waiting to premiere, such as El cafè de la Marina directed by Sílvia Munt, and Fastman by Joaquim Oristrell, starring Juanjo Puigcorbé – a film that was made at the end of last year. TVE and TV3 have also co-produced the mini-series Habitaciones cerradas with Diagonal TV.
Italy's Braccialetti rossi
It's not all about achieving success in the United States alone. A year ago, RAI1 premiered, Braccialetti rossi. Italy was the first country to adapt the series, and it gained an audience share of 7.2 million, 25% of the total ratings. Each chapter was an audience leader every Sunday night in Italy. Last month, the second season of the series started.
Red Band Society, cancelled
The fact that Steven Spielberg showed interest in the Catalan series Polseres vermelles was a great success for TV3. It was important for the Catalan television channel to see how a series of its own could became successful abroad. The American adaptation of the series was not easy. First, it was the ABC channel which showed interest but finally Spielberg's production company created it for Fox hoping that Red Band Society would have enough potential to become a hit among teenagers. Although it got good reviews from critics, the series did not get enough ratings. Finally, the channel pulled the series.
Velvet: next stop the US
The latest hit on the Antena 3 TV channel has already been shown in Italy, and the French channel M6 has also bought the rights for the original version. The production company Bambú is now working on getting the series on to televisions in the US. Velvet is set in a big general store in the 1950s.
Refugiados with the BBC
Shot in English with a cast of British actors and a very Anglo-Saxon format of 50 minutes, the series is aimed at a global audience but with the “made in Spain” seal of Atresmedia (Antena 3 and La Sexta) and the production company Bambú (Velvet). Los Refugiados aims to create a new style in the audiovisual industry.
Polseres in Russia and Ukraine
Despite flopping in the US, this year, the adaptation of the popular drama series will premiere on Channel One and STB, two of the main channels in Russia and Ukraine. For the sequences in the swimming pool where Roc “lives”, the Russian filming team travelled all the way to Barcelona and shot them in Montjuïc's municipal diving centre.