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Industry veteran Mercedes Gamero will head, alongside Pablo Nogueroles and Christian Gockel.

Germany’s Beta Group has set up Beta Fiction Spain, which will produce television series and feature films, offer production services, and act as a theatrical distribution arm.

Beta Fiction Spain will be headed up by Mercedes Gamero, the former general manager of Atresmedia Cine, and Pablo Nogueroles, who was senior vice president at Warner Bros. Pictures International España. They will work closely with Christian Gockel, who heads all Beta Group’s Spanish activities.

Beta Fiction Spain is the second Spanish subsidiary of Beta Group alongside Beta Entertainment Spain,...

Jan Motjo’s Beta Group is making a bold bet on Spain, both its content and market, launching Beta Fiction Spain, a TV-movie production house which will also offer production services in Spain and run a theatrical distribution operation.

The new entity will be headed by two of the best-known and reputed film-tv execs in Spain: Mercedes Gamero, the former head of Atresmedia Cine, the film production-acquisition arm of Atresmedia Cine, and one of the most powerful movie producers in Spain; and Pablo Nogueroles, the former SVP at Warner Bros. Pictures International España. Both will head Beta Fiction Spain together with Christian Gockel, responsible for all Beta Group’s Spanish activities.

First projects or buys from Beta Fiction Spain have yet to be announced. The launch comes, however, as Spain is consolidating as an international power in a new platform driven environment – eight of the Top 10 non-English language TV shows...

Munich-based production and distribution house Beta Film has created a Spanish scripted division, with former Atresmedia exec Mercedes Gamero and Warner Bros. Pictures International España’s Pablo Nogueroles tapped to lead it.

Beta Fiction Spain will produce TV series and feature films, offer production services and act as a theatrical distributor in Spain.

The launch pushes Beta further into Iberia following the launch of Javier Pérez de Silva’s formats-focused Beta Entertainment Spain. The company has been a consistent investor in Spanish content over the years, selling several high-profile dramas such as Gran Hotel — often dubbed the Spanish Downton Abbey — and tying with likes of Atresmedia and Movistar+.

Gamero worked in acquisitions at Spanish broadcaster Atresmedia for 18 years, and worked as a producer on Academy Award-nominee Klaus and Goya Award Best Picture winners Futbolin and Marshland.

Nogueroles has been with Warner Bros. International Pictures International (now part of Warner Bros. Discovery...

Beta Entertainment Spain is joining forces with Nicely Entertainment, the L.A.-based outfit run by former Gaumont executive Vanessa Shapiro, to produce the TV thriller series project “The Tamer.”

The project, about a serial killer who tames and trains other killers to take down more of their kind, has attached Spain’s Paco Torres (“El vuelo del tren”) as writer, director and showrunner, alongside Mexican director of photography Guillermo Navarro, who won an Academy Award for Guillermo del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth.”

This deal marks an early incursion into the international TV drama production sector by Beta Entertainment Spain, the Madrid-based joint venture launched late last year by European film-tv giant Beta Film and Spanish producer Javier Pérez de Silva.

Bes is conceived as a bridge into the U.S. and Latin American TV markets.

“Partnering with U.S. and Latin American companies was a top priority for us.

Spanish TV drama producers are thinking bigger than ever, scaling up in a globalized SVOD market.

They are also allying with powerful U.S. partners, responding to a global feeding-frenzy for Spanish-language premium series.

Spanish TV dramas at Mipcom Online Plus underscore this trend. One, “Inés of My Soul,” marks the first move into big-budget international co-production by public broadcaster Rtve, teaming with Boomerang TV, Chile’s Turner-owned Chilevisión and Amazon Prime Video Spain.

Beta Film is presenting “Tell Me Who I Am,” based on Julia Navarro’s global bestseller, co-produced with Telemundo Intl. Studios in partnership with Dlo.

In ongoing productions, Movistar, Telefonica’s SVOD/pay TV arm, alongside AMC Studios and Fernando Bovaira’s Mod Pictures, is producing “La Fortuna,” an adventure series created by Academy Award winner Alejandro Amenábar.

Also, Spain’s Paco Cabezas (“Penny Dreadful: City of Angels”) is leading creative development on “The Gipsy Bride,...

Beta Nordic Studios, a subsidiary of Jan Mojto’s Munich-based production-sales powerhouse Beta Film, has acquired a 25% stake in Sagafilm, the thriving Icelandic production banner behind the Cineflix-repped series “The Minister”.

Sagafilm will now form part of Beta Nordic Studios, an unbrella group launched in 2019, comprising Patrick Nebout’s Swedish production outfit Dramacorp (“Midnight Sun”) and Matti Halonen’s Finnish company Fisher King (“Bordertown”). DramaCorp is a joint venture set up in 2016 by Beta and Nebout, a French-Swedish executive.

Beta Nordic Studios focuses on local scripted projects with an international appeal and is backed by Beta Film’s international distribution network.

The deal allows Beta Film to ramp up further its presence in the Nordics and collaborate with Sagafilm’s experienced producers who have nurtured a vibrant talent pool over the years. Iceland’s oldest production company, the 40-year old Sagafilm has a topnotch track record in films, TV series and documentaries,...

Madrid — Beta Entertainment Spain, the joint venture just launched by European independent film-tv giant Beta Film and Spanish producer Javier Pérez de Silva, has unveiled its earliest unscripted and TV drama production projects.

With central offices from October in Madrid’s Salamanca neighborhood, Beta Entertainment Spain will guarantee Beta access to a larger volume of Spanish-language content, whose distribution has proved highly successful for Beta in recent years.

“We have been teaming for years with fiction producers across Europe, first in Germany, then Italy, Scandinavia and now Spain,” said Christian Gockel, Beta Entertainment Spain’s co-ceo.

Bes was born as Beta’s bridge into the Latin American TV market for both TV drama and unscripted content production.

“The moment is great to produce all types of TV content, not only for Spain, but for the international market,” said Bes co-ceo, Javier Pérez de Silva.

Beta has been linked to the...

Rtve’s talent contest “Operación Triunfo,” a long-term local entertainment format, sprang back to life last year — 16 years after its debut — thanks in part to its reinvention as a transmedia program.

“Ot,” Created and produced by Endemol Shine Iberia’s Gestmusic, returned to Spanish TV after six years in 2017.

Airing October through February, it averaged a strong 19% share and 2.4 million viewers for Rtve’s La1 weekly in primetime, compared to the channel’s 11% February share.

The final gala (31%; 4 million viewers) was won by Pamplona-born Amaia, singing M-Clan’s “Miedo” and David Bowie’s “Starman.”

“Ot’s” standout performance allowed Tve to rejuvenate its audience and strengthen its brand as an innovative operator.

Some “Ot” transmedia milestones include 30 million visits to its app for voting; 85 million visualizations on its 24-hour online channel; 375 million for official content on YouTube; and the show’s constant presence as a trending topic. In February, of...