Maria Ignacia Barja de Riivi
An agreement to acquire eight films from Rhayuela Films was closed by María Ignacia Barja, Acquisition and Content Manager of the AVOD Riivi platform, within the framework of Iberseries.
Barja, who commented that the fair has been rewarding for the company. They already had some 30 meetings, and of the 8 films they bought, six are 100% Latin American productions and two are co-productions with Chile and Argentina, including the titles Un Caballo Llamado Elefante and Días de Vinilo. “The market not only served to close the agreement with Rhayuela, but we were also able to discuss with Federico Durán, VP of International Productions, how to increase the catalog to one more film and one series, to see if we can extend the license,” she explained.
She said that in October they will include Rhayuela’s films in Riivi. For next month the new movies are El Páramo, Alias María, El Baúl Rosado, and starting in November: Un Caballo Llamado Elefante. “Between now and January, two or three more from Rhayuela Films will also be included.”
During Iberseries they have been able to see projects for second window, which is the streaming platform that was launched this year, with rights for Latin America. Productions such as Señorita 89 and Super Nova by Kapow are series they would like to see on Riivi in the future.
Riivi platform is based in Chile and since May this year, it serves Colombia and Peru. It has a catalog of more than 200 titles. Héctor Rosas is the country manager for Colombia and Orlando de la Flor for Peru. “To date, our active users in Colombia are 30,000, while in Peru there 20,000. The platform is available on all the multi-devices that Riivi has from the app stores, the web format and for SmarTV Samsung and LG. Today they have productions from 20 countries, including Argentina, Peru, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Uruguay, Cuba and Spain (the latter are co-productions with Latin America or have Latin American actors).
She announced that by the end of the year they will open Mexico and in March 2023 they will enter Argentina. The new country manager of Argentina will be Anna Elías.
She said that Mexico is of great importance because it is a leading producer of content and is also the gateway to the US Hispanic market. “It was necessary to arrive in Mexico with a robust catalog and see how we are doing country by country. We did not want to enter massively without having a go with each audience, working on AVOD in each region one by one, in order to adjust the platform, it is very important to empathize with the user.”
She added two new horror movies starring Ana de Armas, Faraday and Anabel, thanks to an agreement with DelArt Distribution of Arturo Chávez.
