Netflix commissioned its highest number of new titles since the third quarter of 2021, while Amazon Prime Video set an all time record for its quarterly content production, according to a report from Ampere Analysis.

In fact, Netflix and Amazon commissioned more than half of all global SVOD original titles in the first financial quarter of 2024, the research company said. 

Ampere noted that the trend was spurred by investment in global content, with both Netflix and Amazon ordering the majority of their originals outside the U.S.

Also Read: Netflix Tops Among ‘Must-Keep’ TV Brands for Fifth-Straight Year

“The market saturation in North America, the growing cost of production, and the lingering impact of the Hollywood strikes have pushed Netflix and Amazon to increase investment in international productions to stimulate subscriber growth,” Mariana Enriquez Denton Bustinza, senior researcher at Ampere Analysis, said in a statement.

“While several studio-backed SVODs have made cutbacks internationally,” Bustinza added. “These two streaming giants are doubling down on their localized global strategy.”

In fact, Ampere predicts that Netflix and Amazon’s international content spending, which has already increased sizably over the past few years, will continue to rise as streamers look to combat slow domestic growth expanding internationally.

"For Netflix, this means catering to a broad subscriber base while leaning on markets whose productions offer the greatest potential for crossover appeal," Bustinza added. "Meanwhile, Amazon’s approach remains more heavily targeted towards key markets such as India, while it leverages its global position to expand further into the theatrical market to generate downstream revenues from its platforms.”

In fact, Ampere claims that Netflix’s Western European commissions already almost achieved parity with North American titles for the first time in Q1 2024.

Asia-Pacific titles also saw a significant increase in popularity, led by India, South Korea and Thailand.

Netflix, which announced in April that it would reduce the quantity of expensive big-budget films it releases, has reportedly upped its international movie orders to compensate in territories like the Nordics, Asia-Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa.

That makes sense, as a report in June by analytics firm Omdia indicated that, in some international regions like South Korea, Netflix content that's shot locally can attract nearly three times the viewership of English counterparts.

As for Amazon, the majority of its international commissions during the first quarter of 2024 came from India, with 37 total titles.

That’s more than the previous six quarters combined, and a 32% increase from Amazon’s Indian slate in Q2 2022.

Netflix could more than double its total subscriber additions in the second half of 2021 as its original content slate expands, while Q2 growth, fueled by children’s programming and international series, should be in line with guidance, according to Canaccord Genuity media analysts Maria Ripps and Michael Graham.

In a note to clients issued Wednesday (July 14), the analysts estimated that Netflix would report about 1.1 million customer additions in Q2, slightly above company guidance of about 1 million additions. But Ripps and Graham expect bigger gains in the second half of the year — about 14 million customer additions (more than twice the five million added in the first half of the year) — fueled by the return of several popular series and a slew of new originals.

Netflix is scheduled to report its Q2 results on July 20. 

Ripps and Graham expect Netflix to end 2021 with almost 223 million total paying subscribers, up 19.2 million from the prior year, but still behind the 36 million it added in 2020. In 2022, the analysts predict Netflix will have nearly 250 million global customers, up 26.6 million.

After a sluggish first half in 2021, Canaccord expects Netflix’s second half content lineup to have “significantly more firepower,” with the July return of series Atypical, Virgin River, Never Have I Ever, and one of its most popular shows of 2020, teen drama Outer Banks.    

Reality dating show Sexy Beasts debuts on July 21 and similarly themed reality hit Love Is Blind comes back a week later for a three-episode reunion. On the film side, the third installment of teen drama The Kissing Booth premieres on Aug. 11 followed by He’s All That (featuring the acting debut of Tik Tok star Addison Rae) on Aug. 27, and action comedy Red Notice, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Gal Godot and Ryan Reynolds on Nov. 12. Lin-Manuel Miranda musical Tick, Tick … Boom!, season two of The Witcher, and Don’t Look Up are also slated for fourth quarter release.

New episodes of past hits after a COVID-induced hiatus should goose next year’s subscriber rolls even further, according to the analysts. 

“The content pipeline for 1H22 and beyond is also robust as COVID-driven production delays pushed out new seasons of some of the biggest titles like Stranger Things, The Crown and Ozark into next year, and Netflix continues to invest in unique content both in the U.S. and around the world which is helping to strengthen its competitive positioning and differentiate its library from those of rivals,” Ripps and  Graham wrote. 

Netflix has been shaking up its content mix of late, which is reflected in Canaccord’s own top 10 rankings. Animated children’s fare like The Mitchells vs. The Machines, Dog Gone Trouble and Wish Dragon have dominated Canaccord’s TV Power Rankings, while at the same time strengthening Netflix’s position against rival Disney Plus, the analysts wrote.

Original content is still a core growth engine for Netflix, and despite a lighter than usual slate in the past few months, about 64% of the SVOD service’s top ten shows in Canaccord’s power rankings were originals, compared to 63% in Q1 and 59% in Q4. 

As production for its tentpole titles was on hold, Netflix boosted its commitment to children’s content, licensing The Mitchells vs. The Machines from Sony Pictures, which stayed in the top ten rankings for each day of the quarter after rights were purchased. Kids movies also made up six of the top ten films in Canaccord’s power rankings  during the quarter, including Netflix-produced Dog Gone Trouble and Wish Dragon joining licensed fare like Home, Madagascar 3 and The Secret Life of Pets 2. 

Ripps and Graham expect that trend to continue, adding that Netflix already has a handful of kids series in the pipeline — A Tale Dark & Grimm and Dogs in Space slated for fall 2021 and Super Giant Robot Brothers expected in 2022.

Investments in local language content also are showing results across the board, with the popularity of series like Mexican mystery Who Killed Sara? placing second during the quarter in Canaccord Genuity’s TV Power Rankings and French thriller Lupin, Norwegian fantasy drama Ragnarok and Spanish teen drama Elite spending significant time in the top ten.

Netflix began producing local language series back in 2015 with the Colombian Cartel-themed Narcos, and followed that somewhat surprising hit with shows like Money Heist (Spain), Dark (Germany) and others. Now such shows are regular hits with viewers.

“...This segment of Netflix’s library serves not just as a tool to drive subscriber acquisition and engagement in international markets, but also as a key differentiating factor compared to other streaming services,” Ripps and Graham wrote. 

The analysts noted that Netflix plans to step up its already impressive local language output on several fronts.

In South Korea, where it has about 3.5 million subscribers, Netflix has invested about $700 million in two product facilities and local language content, and plans to spend another $500 million on movies and TV series produced in the country. The SVOD pioneer has spent about $420 million in India on content over the past two years and said that it plans to spend more than that on 41 new shows and movies it will release in 2021. 

Other countries will see similar investment. Netflix is opening a new office in Italy in the second half and plans to double the number of Italian original series next year; in the Nordic region, where it has 4.5 million subscribers, Netflix has already produced more than 70 original series and plans to open an office there in the second half of 2021. 

Netflix already has spent about $175 million producing shows in Colombia over seven years and plans 30 new projects before the end of the year. In Spain, where it has produced more than 50 titles and opened its first European production hub in Madrid in 2019, plans are to double the number of sound stages from five to 10 in addition to building new post-production facilities, a film lab and high-tech editing suites. In Russia, Netflix has announced plans to produce its first Russian original series — Anna K — a retelling of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, while in Mexico it plans a remake of hit comedy movie Nosotros Los Nobles.

Less and less a “neutral” operator of the biggest OTT device platform, Roku appears to be staffing up to produce original shows. 

Among several LinkedIn job postings providing evidence: One seeks a “lead production attorney,” who will work on the company’s “expanding slate of original content.” 

The hire will "serve as lead production attorney for Roku’s original episodic and feature length productions,” Roku said, and draft agreements “to hire writers, actors, directors and individual producers.”

The individual would be working with talent guilds and unions, crafting “production services agreements, below-the-line agreements including for department heads, location agreements, clearances, prop rental agreements, likeness releases and credit memos.”

Protocol first spotted this posting, but we found others that looked geared toward original content making, too, such as one seeking a “talent relations and marketing manager” who will be “the point person responsible for cultivating and maintaining relationships with talent, publicists, managers, agents and casting directors in the entertainment industry…”

Roku has aggressively built up its ad-supported Roku Channel over the last year. In one of its more recent deals, it paid an undisclosed sum to purchase rights to the originals shows produced by failed mobile-first startup Quibi. (Side note: Roku also acquired all the data on Quibi’s customers, according to Zatz Not Funny.)

Roku wouldn't be the only provider of a large OTT device platform building up original programming around AVOD. Amazon has been steadily adding originals to its ad-supported IMDb TV service.  And Apple has added subscription platform Apple TV Plus to its Apple TV platform. 

The summer television season is upon us, and cable networks along with video streaming services are gearing up to launch new scripted series in programming genres ranging from comedy to horror and drama.

Here’s a partial list of new original scripted series premieres from cable and digital subscription video-on-demand services from June 19 through Aug. 31.

THE PRODUCTION ISSUE > Cover Story: John Landgraf's Legion of Hits |Content: Family Business Expands Its Tool Set | Finance: Production Profits Now Power VOD Leaders | Viewpoint: What Comes After Networks? Neo-Studios | Through the Wire: ITN Plotting British Invasion Into U.S. Production Market

JUNE 19
Loch Ness
Drama (Acorn TV)

JUNE 22
The Mist
Horror/drama (Spike)

JUNE 23
GLOW
Comedy (Netflix)

Free Rein
Drama (Netflix)

JUNE 25
Hotel Transylvania: The Series
Animated (Disney Channel)

JUNE 27
Tales
Drama (BET)

JUNE 30
Gypsy
Drama (Netflix)

Little Witch Academia
Animated series (Netflix)

Danger & Eggs
Animated series (Amazon)

JULY 5
Snowfall
Drama (FX)

JULY 7
Castlevania
Animated series (Netflix)

JULY 10
Will
Drama (TNT)

JULY 11
The Bold Type
Drama (Freeform)

The Hollywood Puppet Sh!t Show
Comedy (Fuse)

American Ripper
Drama (History)

JULY 12
I’m Sorry
Comedy (TruTV)

JULY 14
Friends From College
Comedy (Netflix)

JULY 17
Loaded
Drama (AMC)

JULY 21
Raven’s Home
Comedy (Disney Channel)

Ozark
Drama (Netflix)

JULY 25
The Last Tycoon
Drama (Amazon) 

JULY 28
Room 104
Drama (HBO)

AUG. 2
Swedish Dicks
Comedy (Pop TV)

The Sinner
Drama (USA Network)

AUG. 3
What Would Diplo Do?
Comedy (Viceland)
Small Town, Big Mayor
Comedy (UPTv)

Aug. 4
Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later 
Comedy (Netflix)

AUG. 9
Mr. Mercedes
Drama (Audience Network)

AUG. 13
Get Shorty
Comedy (Epix)

AUG. 18
Marvel’s The Defenders
Drama (Netflix)

AUG. 24
There’s … Johnny!
Comedy (Seeso)

AUG. 25
Disjointed
Comedy (Netflix)

The Tick
Comedy (Amazon)

TV production, long hoped to be the antidote for falling ratings and affiliate fees at cable networks, is expected to grow strongly in the next several years, fueled by an unlikely ally — subscription video-on-demand providers.

SVOD companies such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu are expected to significantly increase their spending on content this year. According to Morgan Stanley media analyst Ben Swinburne, SVOD firms will spend $15 billion in 2017, up from less than $4 billion in 2012 and led by Netflix ($6 billion), Amazon ($4 billion) and Hulu ($3 billion).

THE PRODUCTION ISSUE > Cover Story: John Landgraf's Legion of Hits | Content: Family Business Expands Its Tool Set | Viewpoint: What Comes After Networks? Neo-Studios | Through the Wire: ITN Plotting British Invasion Into U.S. Production Market

TV production revenue is a welcome addition as affiliate fees and advertising revenue continues to be under pressure, Telsey Advisory Group media analyst Tom Eagan said. “The better media companies are able to harness studio production.”

TV production has long been the decidedly less glamorous cousin of overall studio revenue, Eagan said. But in recent years, as movie budgets have escalated and box-office receipts have dwindled, TV production has gained in stature and sales.

The big content providers rarely break out specific numbers for TV production, but most said it has become a significant, and growing, part of the overall revenue haul.

Supply for Demand
Fueling that growth is the nearly insatiable appetite of broadcast, cable and now SVOD distributors, for scripted programming. Most programmers are clamoring to meet the demand.

In May, AMC Networks announced a deal with Charter Communications where it would develop and co-produce exclusive content for the cable operator within a specific window.

At its first-quarter earnings conference call shortly after the deal was announced, AMC Networks CEO Josh Sapan said he wasn’t sure whether that deal would lead to others like it, but added that it allows for the expansion of its AMC Studios operation.

Sapan has long been a proponent of owning the content the company’s networks air — AMC Studios produces several shows for its networks including The Walking Dead, Turn: Washington’s Spies and Fear the Walking Dead. But AMC is now seeing the studio as a source of revenue for shows outside of its networks.

“It’s a significantly growing part of our top line, and so we think that being a studio and TV producer will make us important for this ecosystem domestically, both satellite, cable, telco and emerging [multichannel video programming distributors],” Sapan said on AMC’s first-quarter earnings call in May.

Others are seeing the light too. Viacom CEO Bob Bakish touted his Paramount TV Studios deal with Netflix for the show 13 Reasons Why, which has become a social media phenomenon.

Viacom launched its Paramount Television production unit in 2014 and has already exceeded its target of one drama and two comedies on-air within three years. The studio is in production for season two of Berlin Station (Epix) and Shooter (USA Network) and for season three of School of Rock (Nickelodeon) and season three and four for Bajillion Dollar Propertie$ (Seeso). It also is currently in production on The Alienist for TNT and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan for Amazon. In the summer, shooting begins for Netflix series Maniac and in the fall for Netflix’s The Hunting.

“Having a successful TV production business attached to the studio provides helpful consistency in cash flows, and I believe it is fundamental to the success of the studio,” Bakish said on the call. “And let’s not forget that this is a low capital-intensive business. We see considerable value here going forward.”

The Price for Rights
In a recent research note, Swinburne pointed to Hulu’s purchase of streaming rights with NBC for the 20th Century Fox Television-produced hit This is Us for an estimated record $2 million to $4 million per episode as a sign of the changing times. That deal, he wrote, “highlights the new reality that the largest syndication dollars are now from SVOD, dwarfing what TV networks/stations are paying.”

Netflix, for example, paid an estimated $1.75 million per episode for Gotham and $2 million per episode for The Blacklist in 2014, records at the time.

“For TV studios, digital dollars now dwarf TV pennies,” Swinburne wrote, adding that combined licensing fees for digital and traditional platforms for syndicated shows is now in the $2 million-per-episode range, at or slightly ahead of historical levels.

But traditional TV’s portion of that average is dwindling. Recent off-network syndication deals for Brooklyn Nine-Nine ($500,000 per episode to TBS) and Black-ish ($800,000 per episode to FX and BET) are a fraction of what they were in the past. For example, TNT purchased Hawaii Five-0 from CBS in 2011 for $2 million per episode.

Broadcast networks plan to air more than 100 scripted series next season, Swinburne noted, and the studios behind those shows will most likely generate more revenue from back-end licensing from SVOD companies than from TV networks.

Eagan isn’t so sure that SVOD licensing will surpass TV network revenue, but said it could be close.

“While we saw viewership and ad dollar substitution for licensing, I don’t think you’ll see the same kind of substitution here,” Eagan said. “It’s probably net-net, but it’s still additive. Is it additive for the company itself? Probably yes.”

Original series help subscription video-on-demand services differentiate themselves in the market and lure in customers. But licensed programming still drives the most traffic in the U.S. for Netflix and Hulu, according to a March 2017 study from 7Park Data.

Granted, the picture might change during months in which new original series premiere on these OTT services, but more than 80% of TV streams in Q1 2017 were of licensed, non-original shows, 7Park Data found in its latest Streaming Intelligence report. Its findings were based on a proprietary mapping process paired with standard metadata that relies on numbers culled from more than 1 million active OTT users that collectively stream more than 1 million hours of content each day.

“Licensed TV is watched during windows when viewers are waiting for their favorite originals to return,” 7Park Data said. “Licensed TV is watched during that post-binge ‘cool down’ and watched in the run-up to a new season on broadcast.”

In addition to classics and cult programming, SVOD subs also gravitate to “micro-episode” series that are shorter-form (15 minutes or less), and therefore require a smaller time commitment.

For Hulu, it’s become a secret weapon of sorts, as the most popular micro-episode titles were Adventure Time, Steven Universe, Regular Show and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. According to the study, 7% of all TV streams on Hulu are for episodes of 15 minutes or less, up 19% from the prior year.

By comparison, micro-episode viewing on Netflix is miniscule, presenting a “rare weak point for the service (and an opportunity as well),” 7Park Data said.

The popularity of TV genres also differ between Hulu and Netflix subs.

The family genre was tops on Hulu, up 2.9%, versus a year ago, while horror led the way on Netflix, up 17.1%, aided by shows such as Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries and original new series Santa Clarita Diet.

By comparison, mysteries (-43.9%) on Hulu, and family (-39.2%) on Netflix were the genres that were falling behind the curve for the respective services.

Apple is hunting around Hollywood to form a new business focused on high-quality original TV shows and movies and to start offering scripted content by the end of this year, The Wall Street Journal reported.

But rather than using that strategy and spending the dollars it would require to take on the likes of Amazon, Netflix and HBO, the idea centers on helping the $10 per month Apple Music service gain ground on rival music streaming service Spotify,  and to help to offset slowing sales of products like the iPhone and iPad, the paper said.

Per the WSJ, Apple, which reportedly once had its eye on Time Warner, is in talks with “veteran producers” about securing rights to scripted TV series and looking into full-length movies as well.

RELATED: Cook: Apple ‘Open to Acquisitions of Any Size’

Though Apple Music already offers some originals, such as documentary programs and titles like Carpool Karaoke (via a deal with CBS), the new plan would be to develop more ambitious, high-acclaim series akin to HBO’s Westworld and Netflix’s Stranger Things, the WSJ said.

Last year, Apple hired former Time Warner Cable exec Peter Stern in a VP role focused on the company’s subscription services, including Apple Music.

RELATED:Netflix Has Lowest Churn Rate Among OTT Services: Study

More and more consumers see Netflix as the place to go for original programming, even as they look for ways to pare down their premium channel subscriptions, according to a Morgan Stanley survey.

According to Morgan Stanley’s 6th Annual Streaming Media Survey, 29% of respondents picked Netflix as having the best original programming, up from 23% last year and besting Home Box Office with just 18%. It was the first year in the survey’s history that HBO lost the original content crown.

Netflix has spent billions of dollars on original content over the years and has had both critical and popular success with shows like Orange is the New Black, House of Cards and Jessica Jones that have resonated with audiences. The SVOD pioneer expects to outspend HBO on originals for the first time this ear -- $2.4 billion compared to $1.8 billion for HBO – as it nearly doubles the number of original shows to 31 from 16. The news also comes as Netflix readies to move grandfathered subscribers to its $9.99 monthly price point, a move that some believe will lead to a slowdown of subscriber gains.

In a research report, Morgan Stanley media analyst Ben Swinburne wrote that original content was increasingly cited by the survey respondents as a membership driver. But Swinburne also noted that the number of people that responded “Don’t Know” to the survey increased significantly – to 34% from about 27% last year – which could indicate that the rise in over-the-top offerings could be adding to brand confusion.      

More survey respondents also said they intended to cut at least one premium service this year, the second consecutive year of increases. About 19% of respondents said they would definitely disconnect a premium service in the next 12 months (up from 13% last year) and 27% said they would probably cut a premium channel, up from 22% last year.

MTV has once again tapped the digital world for a major executive appointment, naming former Condé Nast digital channels content exec Michael Klein as its executive vice president of original content.

Klein effectively replaces Susanne Daniels, who left MTV last July to take over original content duties at YouTube.

Klein will oversee all original programming, development and creative across MTV and its related brands, said network officials. Klein was most recently executive vice president of programming and content strategy for Condé Nast Digital Channels, where he was responsible for programming strategy, development and production for the company’s millennial-targeted digital channels across unscripted, scripted, animation, documentary and virtual reality.

Klein has also held positions at Sundance Channel, where he was senior vice president of programming and development; at Travel Channel, where he served as senior vice president of content; and at TLC, where he was vice president of program production.

He will report to MTV president Sean Atkins, who joined the network in September after serving as executive vice president of digital media and strategy for Discovery Communications.

“Michael is a proven hitmaker with a strong feel for our audience, a keen eye for talent, and a successful track record of reinventing brands through distinctive, creator-driven content,” said Atkins in a statement.  “His leadership and experience are an excellent fit for MTV in this pivotal moment for the network, as we accelerate a new development slate of music and pop culture-inspired programming.”

Klein will take over a network that for a while has struggled on the ratings front and has been looking for a big franchise hit, although the network has had a strong ratings start to 2016. Heading into the last week of the first quarter, MTV’s primetime ratings were up 11% among total viewers and 16% among adults 18-49 with shows such as freshman series The Shannara Chronicles and veteran shows like Faking It, Catfish: The TV Show and Awkward.

Mark Lopez has been an hombre ocupado since taking the helm of Univision Communications’s digital-facing initiatives in April.

The former Google executive, now executive vice president and general manager of Univision Digital, has helped the Spanish-language media firm rapidly spool up a variety of projects, including a partnership with Snapchat; the debut of a mobile app that turns viewers into a judge for La Banda, the music- focused reality show; the launch of a fantasy soccer service based on Liga MX; and Univision’s “Creator Network” that taps into online video’s growing talent pool.

Next TV editor Jeff Baumgartner recently spoke with Lopez about these new projects and their role in Univision’s digital transformation. An edited transcript follows.

NTV:What was the big driver in your decision to join Univision?

Mark Lopez: I think the projects we’re putting together here are a great opportunity. When you look at the U.S. market opportunity and the consumers who make up that opportunity, the bulk of that growth is within the multicultural consumer.

Univision is uniquely positioned to go after that opportunity from the standpoint of the assets that the company has — the brand affi nity that the Hispanic consumer has … the amount of experience with content development the company has historically, and currently the focus that [Univision has] to really bulk up [its] digital assets.

When you look at all of that, it provides a great platform to really build a very unique project, which, to me, is really about a next-generation media company going after the multicultural consumer, the growth consumer in the U.S. That’s really what attracted me to come to Univision to put that together.

NTV:Now that you’ve been on board for about six months, what are your top priorities as 2015 wraps up and we head into 2016?

ML: For us, the acceleration of our digital business is paramount — getting to scale faster when it comes to our core Hispanic consumer. We define scale as both extending our TV content and programming onto the digital realm and finding additional, incremental distribution areas for that content, whether that’s … YouTube, Snapchat or also extending into second-screen apps like the Screenz [an interactive TV developer] app that we’ve done.

It’s about scaling that piece, but also looking at digital-only opportunities as we develop original content and as we help our other assets outside our core Spanish-language area develop and grow faster.

NTV:We’ve seen an increasing number of programmers develop and launch direct-to-consumer offerings that play outside of the traditional programmer-distributor dynamic. Is this something Univision will also have to consider — a standalone digital service that features your primary offerings?

ML: I think we have opportunities to leverage our brand … to develop digital-only content initiatives, whether that’s original programming, whether that is tapping into the influencer market through the Univision Creator Network, or partnering with production houses like what we’re doing with Dirty Kitchen out of Colombia to develop original content.

We want to piggyback on what we currently have to develop, versus doing it all from scratch.

For us, the multicultural Hispanic space is a space that we have a ton of experience with our brand that spans 30 years, and we think that we can win in this space when it comes to digital.

NTV:Is a big digital presence still a nice-to-have complement, or has it become critical table stakes?

ML: When we look at our audience footprint, we really look holistically at what we have with both linear and digital. Univision as a whole reaches close to 40 million media consumers monthly. We know that the growth [along] those touch points is going to come mainly from digital. That’s why it’s critical for us. To develop the footprint and the scale, which we currently have, we want to accelerate but also to develop the knowhow to go after that consumer across the board.

NTV:What’s the biggest challenge in reaching consumers via digital? Finding ways to reach them when compared to how it’s done via traditional TV?

ML: I think reach and engagement is a challenge, but it also goes around the capabilities of provisioning content for each of the distribution windows that you’re going against.

It’s very different for us when we produce content for our O&O properties than it is for producing content with our UCN partners for YouTube [or] producing comedy content across Flama or even doing a Snapchat Live Story with our soccer content. All of those things bring different capabilities to the table and I think the winners will be the ones that can develop across all of those windows that matter and get content in front of consumers.

NTV:Let’s talk a bit about some specific digital-facing projects that are underway, starting with the Snapchat partnership. How did that come together, and what results have you seen so far?

ML: [Snapchat is] a very important window for a lot of our programming. Initially, we worked with them on our sports content to develop Live Stories for our live soccer matches, our U.S.-Mexico matches that they could basically promote on their Live Story feed. That worked very well, basically developing incremental audience for that content.

When you can develop 2 [million] to 3 million additional unique users out of that event, it’s definitely incremental in nature. From there, we really have migrated to develop more content pieces that we can distribute through Snapchat holistically among other distribution networks.

NTV:Univision’s Conecta app ties in engagement across Facebook, Instagram, Periscope, Snapchat, Vine, YouTube and Twitter, allowing users to become La Banda’s “fourth judge.” How has this helped to increase engagement with the show?

ML: We developed that in partnership with Screenz. We ran that against La Banda, which is our reality show focused on music and it provides tremendous engagement during the show … Conecta allows us to get, on average, 30 minutes of extra engagement with that audience through the app.

NTV:Your Creator Network is an outlet for YouTubers and Viners. How is Univision leveraging that program, and are you making some of that content available through TV and digital?

ML: You could see the UCN [Univision Creator Network] being a standard MCN [multichannel network], but it’s not by any means. What we’re trying to do first is listen to what is trending in the marketplace — some of these creators are producing amazing content — and see what opportunities we have to bring them into both our tentpole events and with linear programming.

NTV:How do you pick who gets selected for that? Do they register or apply?

ML: As part of our UCN, we have a dedicated team that works with our creators. We work with the long tail as well as the fat tail. We work with the up-and-coming creators that have potentially very low traffic on YouTube … and want to go on and create more long-form video.

I would say that a lot of it is trial and error, but also it’s getting deeper relationships with the content creators and having the assets and the team in place to be able to do that. It’s critical for us, because that’s where the next generation talent will come from.

NTV:Univision Deportes launched its own soccer fantasy league in the U.S. this summer. What kind of a following has that seen since its launch? Is that purely ad-supported?

ML: We saw an opportunity to develop soccer-related fantasy product. We decided to launch our own that’s ad-supported, so we have partners like Ford. It’s scaling very nicely and focusing on soccer and what … we can bring on TV and [turning] that into a fantasy experience online.

Our hope for that is to take this dedicated audience and keep growing it and potentially continue to scale the advertising business, and look at potential ways to partner with [companies] that have different business models besides advertising.

NTV:In addition to locking in more engagement with viewers, particularly millennials, how are you monetizing some of these digital efforts? Have you blocked off some separate ad inventory for this, or are you looking at complementary subscription-based offerings?

ML: On the advertising side, I think we need to bring the entire message out to the marketplace. It is complementary to each other … We have current relationships with Hulu and with Netflix and with new services that are coming into the marketplace, like the new Verizon [go90] service. Our goal is also to become strategic partners from a content perspective to other distributors and partners, so we can balance a little bit of the revenue mix and it’s not all depending on advertising.