MADRID — Rolling off the success of “El Pueblo” on both Spain’s Amazon Prime Video and Telecinco, the main commercial channel of top Spanish broadcast network Mediaset España, the U.S. online giant has clinched pay/TV and SVOD rights to four Mediaset España dramas and two docu series.
The deal was clinched by Amazon Prime Video and Mediterráneo Mediaset España Group, the broadcaster’s sales and distribution arm.
Announced Tuesday in Madrid, the deal takes in the second season of rural relocation comedy “El Pueblo,” whose Season 1 bowed May 14 last year on Amazon Prime Video, and then on Jan. 15 on Telecinco, to buoyant audience results.
Also in the cut is “Madres, Amor y Vida,” starring Belen Rueda (“The Orphanage”), produced by Aitor Gabilondo’s Alea Media (“Patria”) and turning on a group of mothers whose children are all being treated at the same hospital; plus legal procedural “Caronte” produced by Mediapro’s Big Bang Media, and Season 2 of “Dangerous Moms,” (“Señoras de la (h)AMPA”), a dark crime farce embroiling four mothers which won the 2019 MipDrama Buyers’ Summit Coup de Couer.
Mediaset España already has deals with HBO and Netflix. Networks are unlikely to greenlight series without having a pay TV deal in place for domestic, limiting their exposure.
The Amazon deal is one of ME’s largest to date with a major global platform, however. At a time when platforms are both a challenge and distribution outlet for free-to-air networks, the deal also marks a reminder to analysts that Europe’s broadcast networks, all of which still turn profits, are still in the game and able to pull off sizable deals with the platforms. The deal also shows Amazon relying on the tried-and-tested production capacity, know-how and deep pockets of an established player which can override production road bumps to deliver on time.