Madrid’s 4th Iberseries & Platino Industria’s conferences were packed, foot traffic at Madrid’s Matadero, a former slaughterhouse, was heavy. Delegates came as the industry has been facing a well documented perfect storm of rising costs and an invested pull back from streamers and broadcasters, hit respectively by cost-contention and plunging ad sales.

Yet the mood at Iberseries, which wrapped Friday, was “hopeful,” said Fremantle’s Manuel Martí. Takeaways from this year’s edition, which ran Oct. 1-4:

Spain Stands Strong

“The big slow-down hasn’t yet got to Spain,” Banijay Iberia CEO Pilar Blasco commented on an Iberseries & Platino panel. Spain’s shoot incentives are among Europe’s biggest – €10 million-€18 million ($10.9 million-$19.7 million) per TV episode. Spain had more and bigger first-half non-English Netflix hits than any other country in the world. In contrast, through September, first-run scripted series production is down in every major market in Latin America,...

When director Dani de la Torre read a news article detailing how the Spanish coastal town of Marbella became the playing ground for hundreds of international criminal organizations, he knew he had a new show on his hands. His “La Unidad” producing partners agreed and thus became Movistar Plus+ original series “Marbella,” premiering in Spain on May 2, to large media impact.

During a preview of the show at the Berlinale Series Market de la Torre remarked how the underbelly of Marbella was “unknown” in Spain when he first read an in-depth investigation into the criminal activities in the Málaga province. “More than 132 different gangs call Marbella their home turf and have their headquarters there. This was a novelty I was immediately attracted to.”

“Every day, news stories are coming out about the Marbella gangs, but these organizations have so much money that it makes it very difficult for the police to properly fight against them.

It’s a star-studded Marbella of the 1980s, and the glam Andalusian backdrop frames an opulent narrative that fuses suspense, betrayal and slow-simmering vengeance in the Atresmedia original series “Eva & Nicole,” teased by its producers – Spain’s Atresmedia TV (“Veneno”) alongside Good Mood (“Cristo y Rey”) – at the MipDrama showcase on April 7, a precursor to the broader MipTV international series market in Cannes, running April 8-10.

Handling global distribution, Atresmedia TV International Sales will attend MipTV.

One of only 10 international series selected by the MipDrama jury, the eight-episode affair is directed by David Molina, Antonio Hernández and Álvaro Vicario and structured around a fast-paced script written by Daniel Écija, Patricia Trueba, Andrés Martín Soto, Iñaki San Román, Paula López Cuervo and César Mendizábal.

The series opens with gusto at Nicole’s, the social club named after its owner who is framed from the back as she fiercely pulls open...

French broadcaster Arte has joined Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s upcoming Movistar Plus+ series The New Years.

Arte and Spanish streamer Movistar Plus+ will co-produce the series, which is from Madrid-based Caballo Films — the production company Sorogoyen co-founded.

Production on the series began last year, and Arte has now snapped up French rights. Movistar Plus+ International will shop the title outside of Spain and France.

The series is set on New Year’s Eve every year for a decade, following a couple, played by Iria del Río (Riot Police) and Francesco Carril (Un Amor), who meet aged 30. Each episode follows updates their relationship and the trials they face to stay together, and the final shot is a single 40-minute take. “The narrative device allows you to consider change,” said Movistar Plus+ Director of Fiction and Entertainment Domingo Corral.

Alexandre Piel, Deputy Head of Drama at Arte France, said: “We’re very happy...

Two Spanish female stars who have broken out to huge global audiences in Netflix hits – “Nowhere” and “A Perfect Story” lead Anna Castillo and Ester Expósito, highly prominent in “Elite” in early seasons – are set to star in dramedic vampire thriller “Death to Love,” (“Que muera el amor”), the first series created by “Piggy” director Carlota Pereda, who will also serve as its showrunner.

“If there are two actresses you can believe are immortals, with their out-of-this-world allure and talent, it’s Anna and Ester. I can’t wait to explore this world of darkness, joy and Eternal Love with them,” Pereda told Variety.

With that talent package, and the backing of two Spanish powerhouse producers, Morena Films and Buendía Estudios, “Death to Love” is shaping up as one of the hottest packages to come to market from Spain after it emerged from February’s Berlinale Series Market as one...

This year, Spain has more titles at the Berlinale’s two TV showcases, Co-Pro Series and Berlinale Market Selects, than any other country in the world— a total of four shows, beating the U.S. with one, and even Germany, which has three.

On top of that, running Feb. 19-20 at the fest’s CinemaxX screening hub, the Spanish showcase at the Berlinale

Market Series highlights three more shows and features a panel, in what may be the big- gest national TV showcase at 2024’s Berlin Festival.

What this bullish presence says about the state of the state of Spanish TV production is an- other matter. Seven key takes:

Second-Phase Boom

Spain’s Berlin bonanza is only natural. Netflix scored its first global TV blockbuster with Spain’s “Money Heist” in 2018, and now the country is now riding a second wave as a strong supplier of the global streamer. In...