Another contender enters the ring when it comes to the battle for international streaming dominance with an announcement by Discovery that discovery+ will be launching in Brazil this September.
Fernando Medin, President of Discovery Latin America and U.S. Hispanic, said in a press release that the Latin America production team is collaborating with local as well as global production companies to create over 40 original titles and more than 150 shows by the end of 2022.
“These titles complement the incredible content offering created for discovery+ in the U.S. and international markets, which includes more than 200 new original titles scheduled to premiere in 2021, and much more ahead,” he said.
The international market is the great frontier for streaming providers. As tremendous domestic growth during the pandemic has slowed to the point of saturation, big players like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video have been setting up shop globally, looking to continue the trajectory of last year with new viewers.
Streamers are not just piping content developed in the U.S. to international audiences, however. The strategy for global expansion includes creating content tailored to specific markets by employing local studios and production companies, capturing eyeballs with programming that is regionally relevant.
Just as important as the Discovery+ announcement is this week's launch of WarnerMedia's HBO Max in 39 Latin American countries and the Caribbean.
In the same way that the Brazilian rollout of Discovery+ will include localized content, HBO Max is concentrating on region-exclusive material as a path to success in Latin America.
In a similar vein, earlier this week, Univision announced plans to launch a new global streaming service to include both free and advertising-supported content in the United States and Latin America in 2022.
The new, yet-to-be-named Univision service is directly aimed at Latin American audiences across both North and South America, with more Spanish Language original content than any other streaming service.
All of the new launches appear geared to target the largest services — Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video — each of which has an expansive global foothold.
discovery+
discovery+ is a video streaming service that offers more than 70,000 episodes of 2,500+ current and classic shows from several popular TV brands including Discovery, Investigation Discovery, HGTV, TLC, Food Network, A&E, Lifetime, and History.
The news follows the explosive merger of Discovery and WarnerMedia. The new venture, Warner Bros, Discovery, has its eyes set firmly on competing directly with Netflix and Disney+ with regard to top-tier content, but also providing some local flavor that those two platforms lack.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s intentions and plans with Latin America’s regionally-focused programming and productions make it clear that the new giant is keen to confidently put its money where its mouth is.