Atresplayer, five years as the ‘local hero’ of the platforms

More than one reader will have had the feeling of the similarities between the platforms. A greater variety of OTT may not mean a great plurality of content. However, in the tough competition of streaming, a national commitment appeared that, five years later, has consolidated itself as a benchmark in our country. Atresplayer is celebrating with numbers that invite optimism: more than forty original productions in the last five years, turning local stories into the differential fact that has managed to cross borders.

A strong commitment by Atresmedia that has made it the platform with the most national production released each month. According to the company’s own data, more than 600,000 subscribers or paying users support Atresplayer, in a model that has free and paid options. It was in 2019 when the communication group hit the table by launching Atresplayer Premium and standing up to the competition. It did so with an original and exclusive catalog that drew on Antena 3’s experience as a reference in fiction to capture an audience that was looking for new concerns outside the traditional screen.

For the director of Atresplayer, Emilio Sánchez Zaballos, the five years of the platform have been “constant work” where innovation has been committed and risks have been taken “at all levels.” «Now you look back and you are aware of what we have been building. Both at the content level, with series that have changed the audiovisual industry, and at the platform level, where we have positioned ourselves as the local benchmark,” he explains.

Behind the Atresplayer label are series such as ‘Veneno’, ‘La ruta’ or ‘Cardo’, which have managed to not only conquer the Spanish public, but also earn the respect of audiences and critics abroad. In the case of the ‘biopic’ created by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, for example, it jumped to conquer the United States in 2020. Among its distinctions, it was the winner of the Glaad Media Awards for best Spanish-speaking series and a finalist in the LGTBQ+ category of the Mipcom Diversity TV Excellence Awards, in addition to winning the Ondas Award for best female performer for the series’ leading cast made up of Jedet, Daniela Santiago and Isabel Torres, the three actresses who have given life to Cristina Ortiz in the different stages of his life.

«For us it is essential to rely on the local as a differentiating element. Tell recognizable stories for the national public but with an essence and characters that are capable of traveling and being enjoyed by a global audience,” explains the director, who believes that the three aforementioned fictions “are born from the local but have characters and pose “very universal conflicts capable of moving any viewer.”

Immediate future

A “good path” that began in 2019, according to Zaballos, but in an industry that “is constantly changing.” “Although we are clear that the principles that have brought us here are the correct ones, we must continue creating and evolving technologically so as not to be left behind,” he points out.

For the coming months, Atresplayer has more than twenty projects at different points of development that will see the light of day. Thus, among its most imminent premieres, the platform will launch original fictions such as the romantic comedy ‘A muerte’, directed by Dani de la Orden; the science fiction thriller ‘Sanctuary’, based on the acclaimed podcast of the same name; or ‘The Great Leap’, the ‘biopic’ of the gymnast Gervasio Deferr. This Sunday, precisely, the platform launched its latest series, ‘Eva & Nicole’, starring Belén Rueda and Hiba Abouk and which tells the story of two powerful women from the Marbella jetset faced in the 80s with a past that haunts them.

However, can the streaming bubble be burst? “We have lived through a few years in which an immense volume of productions have been released with great promotional campaigns every week,” explains the director of Atresplayer. «It is true that now it seems that everything is becoming ‘normalized’, but we have always operated in controlled environments, selecting each product very well, betting on quality and variety and taking care of each of the productions with the help of the creators. “, Add.