Eve Rawlings: "Our aim is to increase further valuable partnerships with more Latin American producers"

Boutique distributor Espresso Media International recently added Eve Rawlings to its sales team to expand its presence in Latin America. Rawlings spoke exclusively with Señal News about her new challenges in the region and the main titles that can attract Latino buyers.

Espresso Media International is looking to expand into the Latin American market. What is your offer for buyers in the territory?
"Espresso Media offers a comprehensive catalogue of factual content, from documentaries to factual entertainment, across diverse genres. Many of our titles have worked well Internationally across multiple platforms and we have Spanish dubbed versions of many titles. We already work directly with some Latin American producers and our aim is to increase further valuable partnerships with more Latin American producers to offer regionally relevant, Spanish language content in the territory."

Which main content needs do you observe in the region?
"We have observed that Latin American broadcaster’s needs are varied. Music documentaries have worked well in Brazil. History, Science, Space, Travel / Lifestyle and True Crime all have a demand, but programmes need to have a strong connection to Latin American audiences."

How was the performance of the company during 2023 and what are the main goals for 2024?
"We have noticed that many producers are suffering from a lack of commissioning in the last year due to broadcasters tightening their belts on funding. Therefore, the flow of new programming from producers who are reliant on commissioning has been reduced. However, we help many producers with pre-sales and co-production funding. Espresso has completed a very good year, licensing content worldwide, with major sales across the world to broadcast partners including Channel 4, Peacock, ZDF, NHK, ARTE, RTVE, A+E, Paramount, SBS, Netflix and many more. We have expanded our factual entertainment series offering, and our goal is to continue expanding in this area, as well as maintaining our hits of single documentaries and mini-series. We are already seeing that 2024 is shaping up to be a positive year, with many existing broadcaster collaborations in the pipeline. In relation to Latin America, we are looking forward to meeting our Latin American partners in-person at Content Americas in January, and potentially MIP Cancun later this year."

What will be your highlights of English titles for the next year?
"Highlights from our slate include ‘Below the Belt,’ an incredible documentary about health equity executive produced by Rosario Dawson, ‘Hair: Uncut,’ which features a stunning cast of Hollywood celebrities including Naomi Harris. In the history genre, we are representing ‘The Boys Who Said NO!’ which examines resistance to the Vietnam war. Our latest true crime offering is ‘Where is Baby Gabriel?’ – a three episode series that originally aired on Peacock in America and Channel 4 in the UK. In the factual entertainment area, we have ‘High Altitude Carpenters,’ a returnable series that originally transmitted on Discovery Italy. We have many more exciting documentaries and factual entertainment series in the pipeline, which we can’t wait to announce later in 2024!"