Rodrigo Bustos, CEO of CookingMedia: We are growing and sophisticating the production process, focusing on optimizing investment and contributing to a more complex industry
The success of Tierra Brava in Chile, the show produced by CookingMedia and Latina Televisión, sparked the interest of producers from several countries regarding the format and its production hub. “Producers from France and the US visited us and were amazed. Now we are in talks to produce their versions of Tierra Brava or another format from our hub in Peru,” reported Rodrigo Bustos, CEO of CookingMedia.
The companies, equal partners in the creating and developing formats and the production hub, appointed MGE, owned by Esperanza Garay, to distribute their content.
Simultaneously, the Chilean production house continues its international expansion strategy. The growth of the operation in Latin America left on standby the opening of an office in Madrid to prioritize a headquarters in Miami to cover Mexico and the rest of the region.
TIERRA BRAVA
CookingMedia and Latina Televisión began developing formats with the unfinished Tierra de Famosos for Peru. However, its Chilean version produced in Peru has been on the air for almost four months: Tierra Brava, established as one of the most-watched reality shows in the history of Chilean television with a household share of 36.6% and a commercial share of 41.6% in its first 63 broadcasts. About 14 years ago, in 2009, the 1810 format garnered 41.7% and 41.1% of the home and commercial share, respectively, and in 2012 Mundos Opuestos achieved 48% and 44.6%.
The success of Tierra Brava spilled to digital media and social networks. Reproductions of the reality content have a weekly average of +3.6 million on Canal 13’s digital signal and +2.3 million on its website. Likewise, the content reach is +17.1 million on Instagram, +2.2 million on Facebook, and +1.8 million on TikTok.
PRODUCTION HUB
The production hub is on a 6,200-square-meter farm in Lurín (about 30 km from Lima). The place, called Mamacona, has green areas and two houses. In the largest one is the Tierra Brava set and in the other is the transmission switch from where the signal is sent to Latina Televisión. A post-production room equipped with 22 editing islands was set up on the channel and from there the episodes are sent to Canal 13 in Chile for broadcast.
“We are thrilled because we enhanced the operation, delivering a quality product with a great narrative that attracts a new audience. We must add the training of Peruvian professionals, inexperienced in reality shows,” Bustos said.
Chilean and Argentine professionals with extensive experience lead the 160-people CookingMedia team, including Ignacio Corvalán as executive producer, Luis Rols as general director, Juan Pablo Planas as general producer, Ariel Cava as head of the post-production, and Rodrigo Bustos is responsible for developing the business model. These professionals — who have been part of reality shows such as La Granja, Mundos Opuestos, Pareja Perfecta, Protagonistas de la Fama, and Hotel de los Famosos — trained the Peruvian team in the production of reality shows.
The production company is building a second set that will allow simultaneous productions. Within this framework, they are recruiting more Chilean and Argentine personnel to assemble another format development team aiming to have continuous production.
“We are growing and sophisticating the production process, focusing on optimizing investment and contributing to a more complex industry that requires more global projects, with optimized production designs and quality content,” said Bustos.
Currently, the hub is working on three lines: Tierra Brava, which completed recordings but continues post-production and broadcast; two reality shows for Canal 13, one that is about to start casting, and another in development for the second half of 2024; and the production of Tierra de Famosos for Latina in Peru and formats for other countries.
