Netflix, Globo, Eric Barmack, Gaumont USA

Launching in 2023, few physical markets have come together as quickly as Miami’s Content America. In 2025, there were 2,278 participants. All exhibition spaces are sold out this year.

However, while quickly cementing its position as the number one international television competition for Latin America and U.S. Hispanics, these regions, and the global television market as a whole, are experiencing increasing disruption and headwinds.

“The market has really shrunk. There are fewer buyers and there is less appetite to take risks,” said Eric Barmack of Wild Sheep Content. “These are turbulent times,” adds Ezequiel Olzanski of EO Media. Few people would object to either judgment.

“If you’re a production company that has a lot of overhead or you’re just starting out, that’s going to be very difficult,” he adds. Some of the smaller, niche players in Latin America and the United States have actually hit a wall. Multiple projects in development were pulled. According to distribution companies, sales to free-to-air stations are declining.

Content Americas’ carefully planned 2026 conference will provide guidance in difficult times. Oscar winner Juan José Campanella, who received an honorary Rose d’Or Latino Award for career achievement at Content Americas, will give the keynote speech, speaking as an authority on creators who have directed in Argentina (“In My Eyes”), Spain (“Vientos de Agua”), the United States (“House,” “Law and Order”), worked on independents (“Underdogs”) and Paramount+ (“The Envoy”), and are still directing today. Netflix (upcoming movie “Parque Lezama”).

Among the regional giants, Brazil’s Globo will host a showcase delving into telenovela strategies, while Banijay will host a panel discussion on expansion in Latin America. CEO Dario Trowelski is expected to explain his plans at the newly built Telefe studio after local company Television Litoral acquired Telefe, Argentina’s top broadcast network, from Paramount Skydance in October last year.

Content Americas also hosts the now traditional and popular CoproPitch and Rose d’Or Latinos awards.

But the big question for Content Americas is likely to be the same as for Mipcom: How do we reinvent the international television business?

“These are turbulent times, but also a time to be active and creative. It is our clear goal and intention to be an active player along with other companies in the international sector in rebuilding a damaged but still very vibrant industry and to work towards creating a new model for the industry for stronger times to come,” said Orzansky.

However, this process is already underway.

In Part 10, we look at how the international television business is exploring new and different avenues. This will likely be the primary conversation driver at Content America 2026, which will be held as usual at the Hilton Miami Downtown this year from January 19th to 22nd.

The Crunch

According to Ampere analysis, the number of first orders for global streamers in the first half of 2022 was 67, but the number of first orders for global streamers in Latin America was halved to 32 for the same period in 2025. Outside Brazil, recovery may not occur in the short term.

“This market remains a very challenging market, driven in part by factors beyond the control of producers,” says Christian Gabela of Gaumont USA. “The rising prices of everything, including production costs, are being felt most acutely in Mexico, where incentives for TV production are not yet in place. Also, industry consolidation at the highest level is still underway, such as the battle for WBD between Netflix and Skydance, and there are management changes at the Latin American level. Until everything stabilizes, it will be a wait-and-see approach,” he added.

Zig and other zags

So the tough guys started moving. Companies with impressive track records of global streamers are turning to the open market. Their new project should prompt new business announcements in Content Americas. And while some companies move in a zigzag manner, others move in a zigzag manner. In Latin America, the global streamer has had huge success with telenovelas, including HBO Max Latin America’s first original novel, “Scars of Beauty,” which was a huge hit in Brazil, and “Madame Beja,” which is now out February 2nd. Both are only 40 episodes long. Meanwhile, Globo, still the queen of Latin American telenovelas, announced at Mipcon a juicy international standard-length miniseries and series in partnership with the BBC, Ron Leshem and Janeiro Studios, respectively. But Globo is also experimenting, returning to the literal translation of “novelão,” or “grand novel,” and doubling down on melodrama, as in “Three Graces,” the company’s biggest content America bet. It has also partnered with LA-based international entertainment studio MFF & Co to reformat Globo’s megahits as English multi-season series for the US market.

Addiction TV

Another big question is how quickly Latin America will ramp up production of its own microdramas. In one of the first sessions of Content Americas on Tuesday, Omdia’s María Rua Aguete is expected to present Can you show me that slide again? Statistics show that the daily viewing hours of microdramas on mobile devices already significantly exceeded that of most global streamers in the last quarter in some regions of Latin America. It features an impossible love story between impossibly handsome protagonists, with regular soapy developments every 90 seconds. “With Microdrama, we’re not reinventing the wheel, we’re inventing the Gen Z telenovela,” says The Wit’s Caroline Servey. It is therefore logical that Latin America, the epicenter of the novella, not only gets caught up in the microdrama feeding fever, but also goes fish-like-water in its production. For example, Globo has already started. TelevisaUnivision’s ViX integrates microdrama into its larger AVOD/SVOD ecosystem, notes Rua Aguete.

While foreign streamers focus on local programming, local broadcasters are increasingly moving towards international content

Similarly, one of the market focuses for streamers, once courted by producers for international reach, has become increasingly local as they evolve towards traditional broadcasters. For example, Olzansky said he is shaping the potential for streamer projects that are “particularly strong local to the market because they have a story or topic, an IP, a real-world origin such as real crime, or a great cast and talent from the region.” Broadcasters, once much more local players, are being forced to become more international, creating cross-border co-productions to compete with higher-budget streaming fees. That is especially true in Latin America.

Please consider your shooting location carefully

“You have to look at areas where your budget makes sense,” says Gaumont USA’s Gabela. “Spain is probably the leading example of a Spanish-speaking country that has successfully encouraged productions from around the world to shoot there,” he points out. “Spain, along with Colombia, Uruguay and others, offers an opportunity to optimize budgets with essential soft money to offset rising costs due to inflation. We at Gaumont USA are considering filming in these countries even though the story takes place in other countries. The same goes for the streamers we’ve talked to.” One case in point: Gaumont USA and Argentina Mariano Cohn and Gaston Duprat (Official Competition, The Boss) are adapting the Argentinian novel The Supermarket Robbery by Hajdu Koscu, and are looking to set the project in Spain for narrative reasons and to secure the best possible budget and incentives.

Or look to Europe

“The challenge in Latin America has always been that there are fewer strong local broadcasters who can start co-producing in the same way that European broadcasters can do through co-production. There are fewer options for forming partnerships, which makes alternatives to streamers more difficult,” Barmack says. With so many Latin American players in Content Americas, Europe will be the focus, especially in meetings with Spanish players operating in Miami. Director Olzanski, who has just arrived from a conference in Madrid, said he was pursuing “an old traditional model of co-production that naturally became a real future model”, with different frames and regions and incorporating an “organic Spanish-Latin American” partnership.

soccertainment

Players also take advantage of the world’s global events and passions, including soccer and the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be held in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Gaumont USA and Netflix are in the final stages of post-production on “Mexico 86,” directed by Diego Luna, which builds on Mexico’s long-term bid to host the 1986 Cup. Barmack’s Wild Sheep Content is co-producing “Raza Brava,” about a group of passionate fans of Chilean soccer club Colo Colo, selected for the upcoming 2026 Berlinale Series Market Select. And it looks like “Pioneers,” about Argentina’s first women’s national team, which beat England in a little-known Women’s World Cup in Mexico in 1971, could turn heads at Content Americas’ CoPro pitch on Tuesday. “A national event like this has relevance to what is happening now, namely the return of the World Cup in Mexico in 2026, and serves as a type of intellectual property that can be mined to create similar and interesting stories,” Gabera says.

or explore new trade routes

For his part, Barmack said he’s targeting a model for “premium series that you think can go from a small market, but that punch above their weight and are made with directors and writers who don’t look like Mexicans or French or Germans.”Laza Brava, for example, is show-run by Chile’s Hernán Cafiero, who won an International Emmy for “Interrupted Memories.” “Chilean filmmakers are now able to take slightly greater risks than in other parts of Latin America, producing very high-quality work on low budgets and, hopefully, distributing it around the world,” he added.

Brazil leads the way for global streamers

For global streamers, “Brazil is currently the strongest in Latin America,” says The Wit’s Caroline Servy. Global streamer orders doubled in Brazil from seven in the second half of 2024 to 14 in the first half of 2025, according to Ampere Analysis. HBO Max’s smash hit “Scars of Beauty” and the upcoming “Madame Beja” are only 40 episodes long. Netflix’s hybrid novel/series “Desperate Lies” was #1 worldwide in non-English speaking countries in 2024, only coming in at #17. “In telenovelas, global streamers have been making big moves lately, shortening their formats,” says Wit’s Caroline Servy. “Brazil is building the largest scale in terms of production volume of authentic crime dramas, which is huge for streamers. Quite a few of the recent Brazilian streamer productions have also proven to be hits,” she added. He cited Netflix’s Brazilian gambling thriller “Rulers of Fortune,” which was No. 1 in the world in non-English speaking countries from March 3rd to September 9th, and Prime Video’s true-crime event “Tremembe,” which follows inmates in a prison for celebrity criminals.

Blue sky crime remains prevalent

Some things remain the same. In such an alarming real world, post-pandemic blue-sky entertainment shows little sense of dimming. Three of the six finalists in Tuesday’s Copro Pitch, “Doctor Sex,” “José Piedra, the Unlucky Man” and “Sexorcism,” are feel-good second-time comedies or dramas. As another example, the 2026 Rose d’Or Latin nominee “Until You Burn” delivers Netflix/Caracol’s blue-sky Caribbean rendering of Boris Vian’s 1946 bestseller “I Spit on Your Graves.” The song is so dark that it was used by a French murderer to describe how he felt when he murdered his mistress. Some of the acid wash of its origins remains in the racism of urban elites and their scathing disdain for their nuanced views of character. But this is a sugar confection covered in luxurious leads, Caribbean blue skies, waterfront high-rise apartments, and chic clubs. Vian’s novel ends with the black antihero being lynched, his erect penis hanging out of his pants. “Until You Burn” culminates in a story of belated female empowerment.