In another sign of the booming TV production market in Latin America, Audio Network has struck a deal with Disney Latin America to provide them with unlimited access to its music library and renewed key contracts for music rights with a number of other programmers, including Telemundo, Claxson, Cinelatino, MVS Television, Warner, MTV3, SiTV and HBO Latin America.
Disney Latin America's deal with Audio Network will provide the studio's regional in-house marketing and promo team, along with their third-party producers, access to the library, which has over 40,000 titles, for all their productions and promotions.
Having wide clearance of rights across all platforms and territories in perpetuity was an important factor in the deal. Disney's channels are not only distributed in a number of different markets in Latin America; they have also been expanding their Latin American production efforts and selling those programs around the world.
"We've seen a rapid growth in the Latin sector over the last six months" said Rose Adkins, vice president of business development at Audio Network in an interview.
That growth has made the Latin American market the fastest growing area of Audio Network's business, she adds.
As local production has grown, content creators also have needed to have access with music libraries where all rights are cleared. This is important because international sales help finance a number of programs, particularly telenovelas, which are widely distributed around the world and are one of the most popular genres in global TV sales business.
"We've had a lot of people reaching out to us because they can purchase a license that clears all the rights in perpetuity," Adkins explains. "A lot of creative companies have run into trouble [selling the shows internationally] in the past because they've discovered the music rights aren't all cleared."
This ability to clear all rights was also an important factor in the other recently renewed deals and the worldwide agreement they concluded with Endemol.
That gives all of Endemol's production companies, including those in Latin America, access to the Audio Network music library.
The library includes material from all genres, but has an extensive library of Latin music, with tracks and styles from Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Chile and Spain.
Audio Network has also worked to build up its Latin music library by working with such composers as Grammy-Award nominated composer Tim Devine. Other writers include Luiz Marquez, Jorge Luis Sosa, Leonardo Ceballos Infante and Juan Cheito Quinones.
