Lionsgate and Hemisphere Media Group, Inc. announced that Hemisphere is joining Lionsgate in the first-ever Spanish-language SVOD movie service for the growing, digital-savvy Hispanic audience in the U.S. The service plans to launch next year.
Hemisphere, which operates five leading U.S. Hispanic channels, two Latin American pay television networks and the leading broadcast network in Puerto Rico (WAPA), will take a minority equity stake in the venture and leverage its library of hundreds of popular Spanish-language titles. Hemisphere’s channels rank among the most popular Spanish-language cable television networks in the U.S.
The Hemisphere movie library encompasses one of the largest selections of contemporary Spanish-language blockbusters and critically-acclaimed titles from Mexico, Latin America, Spain and the Caribbean. Its content, coupled with Spanish-language hits from Pantelion Films, Lionsgate’s joint venture with Televisa, and Hollywood films from Lionsgate’s 16,000-title library and other catalogs dubbed into Spanish, will give the service an unmatchable portfolio of world-class product.
As announced previously, the venture will capitalize on the marketing and distribution expertise of Univision Communications Inc., which will offer the new service to cable and satellite operators individually, as well as in tandem with its own Univision NOW, a subscription service for its broadcast networks Univision and UniMás. Univision will also license titles from its classic Latino cinema library to the new service.
“The addition of Hemisphere and its deep library of titles significantly expands the content offerings of a platform that is positioned to become the leading Spanish-language premium movie service in the U.S.,” said Lionsgate Chief Executive Officer Jon Feltheimer.
“We’re excited to be partnering with Lionsgate to help launch the definitive streaming service for the millions of Spanish-language movie lovers in the U.S., who traditionally over-index on media consumption. The service brings together many of the top names in Hispanic media and will offer an unparalleled collection of world-class movies and a compelling way for Spanish-speaking and bilingual consumers to access it,” said Hemisphere CEO Alan Sokol.