BUSINESS / PRODUCTION
This Tuesday, the giant Viacom International Studios (VIS) announced the opening of new offices and production centers in Madrid and Manchester, as part of a growth process of its international production capacity in English and Spanish
Laura Abril
These initiatives are provoked after their successful launch in Latin America last year. Under the leadership of Federico Cuervo, VIS Americas based in Miami serves Latin America and U.S. Hispanic and has quickly consolidated as a leading developer, producer and distributor of Latino content, with more than 900 hours of dramas, comedies, realities and live action for all ages.
With a view to replicating this success in other territories, Jill Offman assumes from now on the management supervision of Elephant House Studios, renamed Viacom International Studios UK and will attend the new production office in Manchester to support and ensure English commissions of third-party broadcasters and distributors in the United Kingdom.
Laura Abril will lead the planned expansion of VIS in Western and Southern Europe, as well as in the Middle East and Africa (MENA). Based in Madrid, Abril will lead a team that, like VIS UK, will be responsible for securing orders from pay TV operators, open TV, video on demand platforms (SVOD) and social networks. Will oversee all multi-platform content production for the brands and applications owned by Viacom in those territories. This team will work closely with their VIS Americas colleagues to develop, produce and distribute content.
David Lynn, CEO of Viacom International Media Networks, commented in the communiqué: “Television networks and online platforms are in a constant global battle for the best content, which constitutes a significant growth opportunity for Viacom, given our studio capabilities for international productions and our creative expertise, exemplified by Jill, Laura and Federico.”
Federico Cuervo
In this way, there are three big ones who put their eyes on the Spanish capital and almost at the same time made their announcements: Mediapro presented its new initiative The Mediapro Studio and Netflix will inaugurate its first European production center also in Madrid. And VIS, also took this great step on the Spanish soil.