After succeeding on the international market with fiction, Spanish production continues to expand its presence abroad through non-fiction content. Some entertainment formats such as El Conquistador have already been broadcast on free-to-air TV channels in Latin America. Formats such as the docu-reality El Puente, born on pay TV, are also traveling.

The boom in unscripted production has been underway for a couple of years, favored by the evolution of the audiovisual market.

In many countries, fiction had become a consumer product through SVOD operators, while unscripted programs were usually found on the free-to-air channel schedules.

The arrival of the pandemic helped to boost the prominence of entertainment content.

According to a report by Ampere Analysis, the percentage of non-fiction programs commissioned by operators rose from 32% of total demand at the end of 2019 - the eve of lockdown- to 52% in the fourth quarter of 2022.

"Since the pandemic, audiences are looking for a good time, opting for entertainment formats with less dense narratives, "says Daniel Domenjó of Mediacrest, producer of TVE' s successful daily game show El cazador and the new reality TV format El pueblo.

José Velasco, founder of iZen (part of the Newen group) and producer back in the day of the benchmark reality show Gran Hermano, in October last year launched the first season of Insiders, the pioneering Netflix original reality show made in Spain, available simultaneously in the 190 countries covered by the streaming giant.

"Today scripted and unscripted are audiovisual content that navigates between the two worlds, and the platforms have found that incorporating both into their offering can help them both with users and with the new subscription model with advertising," explains Gloria Saló, director of Production and Content Consulting at Geca.

It should not be forgotten that the production cost of unscripted content is lower than that of scripted content, and also means less development time when it comes to launching a project.

While the linear channels remain faithful and even increasing non-fiction genres such as reality shows, talent shows, game shows and magazines, the platforms have found an interesting and diversified production in terms of content in docuseries.

True-crime - a star format thanks to titles such as Amazon Prime Video's A Crime Story, HBO Max's Arny la historia de una infamia, and RTVE Play's El asesino de la baraja - has given way to other types of true stories focused on important facts and events, and especially on topics related to the world of sport, with stories about athletes (Marc Márquez, Alexia Putellas) or teams(Real Madrid, FC Barcelona).

Fremantle's production featured prominently on Spain's OTT market last year, with four unscripted formats - amounting to some 30 hours of programming - including Movistar+'s TV show Martínez y Hermanos and Netflix's reality competition Amor con fianza, according to Geca's data.

El Conquistador, international

One of the longest-running and most international entertainment contents created in Spain is El Conquistador, which has reached its 19th season on the Basque regional channel EiTB. and is about to make the leap to national television with the help of TVE.

Created and produced by Hostoil, part of The Mediapro Studio, the format has been seen on international television channels such as Telemundo in the United States, Gamavisión (Ecuador), TV Azteca (Mexico), UCTV Canal 13 Universidad Católica (Chile) and SBT (Brazil).

El puente, a pioneering reality show on the pay TV scene in Spain, produced by Zeppelin (Banijay Iberia) for Movistar Plus + since 2017, has generated business throughout its trajectory with France, where it was acquired by M6; the UK (Channel 4), Brazil (HBO Max) and Australia (Paramount +), as well as with other countries.

TMS also has other formats that have been successfully established themselves internationally. For example, the culinary reality show El Discípulo del Chef, which was developed jointly with Chilevisión, and is now in its fourth season in Chile.

What’s more, in a firm commitment to promote the creation and production of entertainment formats, TMS hired Amparo Castellano as director of non-fiction last year, and has signed an agreement with Belgian company Be-Entertainment to develop the formats The Musical of Your Life and The Big Job Switch in Spain and Latin America.