The industry has been using the podcast as part of the multiplatform and branded content strategy. HBO did it last year with the launch of Watchmen, accompanied by extra content in this format. But lately, the path can be the other way around, due to the large demand for stories and valuable IP that has to satisfy the industry.
“Before they asked us for genres, now they are asking us for a strong property. It can be novels, comics, people are even starting to adapting podcasts,” comments Ignacio Díaz, Content Manager from Scenic Rights, which they have in their projections for 2020. “Ẅe want to test the potential both of original podcasts that can be adapted audiovisually, such as playing with the synergies that can exist between literature, podcast, and TV”.
Increasingly more TV production companies are looking for fiction to develop on podcast platforms, very used among niche youth audiences, that can also turn to TV. With a still-emerging market in Latin America, formats become stronger.
In 2018, Amazon adapted the political thriller Homecoming,from the podcast production company Gimlet Media, bought last year by Spotify, that started to develop audible originals such as Fausto, narrated by the Mexican Damián Alcázar. In 2019, Facebook Watch launched the adaptation of Limetown, one of the most heard in the US.