In a press conference this Tuesday to present its original productions that will arrive in HBO channels and HBO GO this year, Warner Media confirmed the arrival of the streaming service HBO MAX in Latin America sometime in 2021 – something anticipated by LABS in May 2020. The company, however, did not reveal an exact date for the launch.
With Netflix dominating the Latin American market, HBO Max will arrive in the region to compete directly with Amazon‘s Prime Video and Disney+, which debuted in the region in November last year. In November 2019, John Stankey, COO of AT&T, revealed that HBO has around 10 million customers in LatAm, including pay-TV and HBO GO subscribers.
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Large international platforms usually divide Latin America between Spanish and Portuguese speaking markets, with services operating on both sides but with different timelines and launch strategies. With connections consolidated on the “two sides” of the region through HBO existent channels, it remains to be seen whether WarnerMedia will opt for a debut in Brazil first or whether it will be able to articulate a simultaneous launch across Latin America. The original productions to be launched in the region don’t exactly give a clue.
On Tuesday, Gustavo Grossmann, leader of the General Entertainment (GE) Networks area at WarnerMedia Latin America, spoke about some original productions made in the region and will reach the screens throughout the year.
READ ALSO: Why HBO Max has chosen Latin America as its first market outside the U.S.
In addition to a new season of the Brazilian miniseries Hard, in which the actress Natália Lage plays Sofia, a dedicated housewife who inherits from her husband a pornographic film producer, the HBO channels and the HBO GO service will launch in 2021 other Latin American production, such as:
- The American Guest – Brazilian series with international talents, including Aidan Quinn and Dana Delaney, about the American’s president Theodore Roosevelt trip to Brazil.
- Transamazônica – A road to the past – A Brazilian documentary series, directed by Jorge Bodanzky and Fabiano Maciel, links the history of the construction of this huge road to all the Amazon’s misery.
- Among Men – A new Argentine miniseries set in the 1990s Buenos Aires will show the city’s criminal underworld, during its darkest period, and in a context in which the social division gains prominence. The plot is based on the eponymous cult novel by Germán Maggiori, and the cast is led by Gabriel Goity, Nicolás Furtado, Diego Velázquez, Diego Cremonesi, and Claudio Rissi.
- Sérgio Mendes: In the Key of Joy – Documentary series about the Brazilian singer Sergio Mendes.
- Tu casa es mi casa – Documentary series by Brazilian singer Paulinho Moska.
During the press conference, Warner Media also announced two new Latin American series yet to be filmed: Amsterdam, about a divorced couple who cannot decide what to do with their dog, and that will be filmed in Mexico and Uruguay; and Service Area, a comedy that addresses the relationship between social classes with acid humor, written and created by the Brazilian comedian Pedro Cardoso and his wife, the actress Graziella Moretto. A third season of the original Argentine series, The Bronze Garden, was also confirmed.
