Online TV programmer DramaFever has been quietly — and rapidly — adding Spanish-language titles to its offering in hopes of attracting the millions of U.S. Hispanic drama fans.
The company’s latest acquisition — Isabel, a TV series from Spain — quickly became one of DramaFever’s five most-watched TV series after its April 4 U.S. premiere.
The company, backed by AMC Networks, Bertelsmann and NALA Investments, draws about 4 million unique visitors per month, according to co-founder Suk Park. Of those visitors, a whopping 32% are Hispanic.
“Isabel has been drawing some great numbers for us,” Park told Hispanic TV Update. The South Korea-born executive, who speaks fluent Spanish, added that his company is quickly acquiring Spanish-language content from top providers in Latin America, including Argentina’s Telefe and Artear; Brazil’s Bandeirantes; and Chile’s TVN.
More recently, DramaFever completed a deal for Aguila Roja (Red Eagle), a Spanish live-action series set in the 18th century and starring Monica Cruz and Inma Cuesta. The expensive series had a budget of about 1 million euros per episode.
A site called DramaFever Latino now programs series beyond what are generally considered to be telenovelas. It showcases period dramas, comedies, teen musical dramas and historical melodramas.
Launched in August 2009 by co-founders Seung Bak and Suk Park, New York-based DramaFever streams programming from Korea and other Asian countries, as well as Latino dramas, to millions of users via DramaFever.com and its mobile and web-TV apps (iPhone, Android, Google TV and Roku).
The company also provides a curated selection of shows to Hulu, Netflix, iTunes and the Samsung Media Hub.
