Brazilian TV Major Globo entered the streaming battleground in 2015 with the launch of Globoplay, the dedicated VOD service that combines the broadcaster’s hugely popular telenovelas with original high-end drama, sports and international content, including shows from the U.S. majors.
The service has since expanded to the US market, primarily targeting Brazilian expats, and the plan is to expand internationally in 2021. Deadline spoke with California-based Director of Digital, Erick Bretas, who oversees all online activity at Globo, including Globoplay, to discuss plans for the coming year.
Bretas reveals that the streaming platform should be available across Europe by the end of the year, although it will continue to target Brazilian audiences. The original strategy increases with 82 shows now being recorded or in development, but the pandemic remains a challenge for the production.
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Globo also recently hosted a special ‘Upfront’ event in a digital incarnation, in part because NATPE Miami, which kicks off today, will be held in a limited online format this year. At that event, the company revealed that it now has 101.6 million users for all of its digital products, with 30 million users for its paid and ad-supported levels on Globoplay.
In terms of content, the company says the recently launched supernatural drama Insane is the most ambitious project to date, while calling on people like A better place, a mother’s love and the anticipated return of its popular Hidden truths for a second season in 2021.
Overall, the company’s goal now is to merge digital across all of its operations, Bretas tells us, as it prepares for a digital future where its main competitors are like Netflix and Amazon, both of which have already made significant efforts . the Brazilian market and boost investments.
DEADLINE: Hi Erick, can you start by giving us an overview of your responsibilities?
Globo / Sergio Zalis
ERICK BRETAS: I oversee all Globo digital affairs, I am equivalent to a Chief Digital Officer. I also wear a different hat as the leader of Globoplay. We have many other digital companies [alongside the streaming service] and we enter into new ventures.
We launched Globoplay five years ago. Initially it was a service designed to be complementary to TV Globo, but over time it gained momentum and today it is a more independent service.
DEADLINE: What can you tell us about Globoplay’s subscriber base?
CHEST: We do not disclose the total number of our subscribers, nor does Netflix deal with specific markets. We protect those numbers. But I can tell you that we ended the year 2020 with an 89% increase from subscribers in 2019. It wasn’t just the pandemic, we also had Big brother Brazil which is very popular in Brazil and boosts our subscriptions – some people tend to churn out after the show, but others stay because they are drawn to the general content of series, movies and telenovelas. But Big Brother is something people use to discover Globo, it’s our biggest show.
2020 was a big year. We stream 100 million hours every month. Most of these are from subscribers, we also have content to watch for free. If you are not a subscriber, you can watch news, the variety shows, interviews and small clips from the telenovelas.
DEADLINE: Obviously your market share in Brazil is huge, how is Globoplay’s presence in the US now?
CHEST: It is small. Our international strategy is not to disrupt the major platforms. It is to serve the Brazilian expats. However, what we find out is that a lot of those Brazilians are in international families, and people have started asking us to subtitle shows so that families can watch together. This expands our content to a wider audience.
DEADLINE: What about the broader international strategy?
CHEST: Our plan is to expand internationally. We should be going across Europe this year, our plan is to make Globoplay available all over the world. We have feeds from our linear channels (available on the digital service) that are tailored for individual time zones. But we are always focused on the Brazilians living abroad.
Globe
One of the ways we want our content to reach a wider audience is by seeking partnerships with global or regional streaming services. There are other very strong regional services such as Stan in Australia, Joyn in Germany, iFlix in South East Asia. The idea is to strengthen our relationships by exchanging content or in some cases producing together. You will see more of this. While everyone is talking about the US streaming services, we are seeing more and more relevant services in national markets, like us.
DEADLINE: It’s competitive out there, and the US giants have deep pockets …
CHEST: I think these services will live with the big US services because I think the US companies will not be able to produce local content with the same quality and understanding of national markets as the local players. My personal belief is that we will see local and global streaming services side by side. But I can’t predict how many will be left of these steamy wars, it’s hard to sustain markets where you have 12-15 shifts.
DEADLINE: Who are your main competitors in Brazil?
CHEST: Netflix is very big in Brazil. They designed their international expansion strategy in Brazil and arrived there after first expanding into the English-speaking areas in the UK and Canada. They produce a lot of local content. Amazon is also starting to produce local content, and Disney has just arrived and plans to produce a lot. We’re also seeing movement from HBO, already producing for their pay-TV business and probably for their streaming service too. All the big boys produce on the Brazilian market.
We have a number of other local streaming players. Our Record TV competitor has PlayPlus, similar to Globoplay. We have Looke, which is more focused on transactions, but they also have some SVOD. It is a very populated market.
DEADLINE: And you believe Globoplay is the fastest growing platform in Brazil?
CHEST: We think we were the fastest growing sometime in 2020. It’s hard to tell because the companies don’t release their actual numbers. Sometimes specific shows mean subscribers go up in a given month, it fluctuates wildly.
DEADLINE: Even without those specific numbers, do you know where you are in the market in terms of total subscriber numbers?
Globe
CHEST: In the Brazilian market, we are definitely second or third, behind Netflix and maybe Amazon, with whom we compete closely.
DEADLINE: Back to content, tell us about co-production and content partnerships.
CHEST: Last year we launched the great show The head, which was produced by Mediapro. They were very adept at forming a consortium of buyers / co-producers and we were one of them. They also had Hulu Japan, HBO Asia, Viaplay in Scandinavia.
We also have an agreement with Sony, we produce The Angel of Hamburg together and there is a second show going into production this year. There are more conversations going on about which I cannot reveal details now. We are looking for stories that can be told in different languages and for different audiences, there are so many stories that are of interest to Brazilian audiences that could also be of interest to American or European audiences, we have seven to eight projects like this one in the pipeline that either have characters who travel, or relate to a real story or event that took place in multiple countries at the same time. So there are more to come.
DEADLINE: Do you mean different languages in the same show?
CHEST: Yes. Like it Narcos, for example.
DEADLINE: We talked about Big Brother, what other content is successful on Globoplay? Is it mainly Portuguese or is English content also successful?
CHEST: Oh yes, we also license content from everyone, Disney, Warner, NBCU, everyone. We have very popular English shows. I would say the most popular drama series we have on our platform right now is The good doctor, that’s Sony.
DEADLINE: You also have a broader deal with Disney.
CHEST: We have a commercial partnership with Disney + where we bundle their service with Globoplay. We truly believe the two services are very complementary. If you want the best service for Brazilian content, Globoplay is definitely the best option, and Disney + has the family-oriented lineup. It’s an excellent combination and the price is very competitive, it’s less than Netflix’s premium plan.
DEADLINE: Do you expect that deal to end with the expansion of Disney + to Brazil and other markets?
CHEST: It might come to an end, but I would say Disney is happy and we are happy too, so there’s no reason to think about the end of this relationship at this point.
DEADLINE: What can you tell us about the original Globoplay side? Is that increasing?
CHEST: Yes it is. We now have 82 shows in development or production. We launched 13 originals last year, despite the difficulties of the pandemic, and five of them were major dramas. Originals are now the most important part of our strategy.
These shows are designed for streaming, it is very different from a TV broadcast show. For TV broadcasts, you are targeting a wider audience and the story should be slower, so even if you miss episodes you can understand what’s going on. With streaming, the audience is more involved and follows more strictly. You can demand more of them, be more tense, give more information per chapter.
DEADLINE: Give us a sneak peek at what’s to come …
CHEST: Hidden truths is one of our biggest bets in 2021. It’s the second part of a show that was first released on TV broadcasts in 2015. It was so popular that the second part will be released on streaming, because we think it’s our subscriptions.
DEADLINE: How much impact did the pandemic have on production?
CHEST: We are now starting to resume some productions. It is still very challenging because we are in the middle of a second wave. We handle this very carefully, as the health of our employees is of course our priority. But we manage to resume some with very strict guidelines, meaning it’s slower – you’re producing 30-40% of what you would normally produce in one day. When we have the vaccine, we will resume it in full.
In Brazil, some of the global streaming services tried to penetrate but they had cases where the cast got Covid and they had to shut down productions, it’s not easy going full throttle right now.
DEADLINE: And it also has to be expensive.
CHEST: Yes. We had one case at a specific show where the logistics were so complicated that the cost would be up to 120% more than the original budget, so in that case we suspended – not canceled – and won’t resume until we have the vaccine. In other cases, we absorb the rising costs.