Distributing audiovisual contents in the new digital scenario: Multiplatform strategies of the main Spanish tv networks

Abstract

The audiovisual entertainment business is undergoing a key moment due to several reasons: the Internet boom, its convergence with television, the prominence of the user as well as thedigitalization of the production and distribution processes.Although this phenomenon was initially originated by technologicalfactors, its consequences affect to the whole audiovisual industryand, more specifically, to the very core of the business-contents.In this context, fiction and entertainment contents must bedeveloped since its first stage for a multimedia and interactiveconsumption in order to be enjoyed by the audience on a wide range of platforms. From this perspective, successful contents demands capability to be multi-platform distributed and customized by the consumer. In this regard, its interactive options, its potential to create a prestigious brand and a profitable business model, and, last but not least, its power to tell an original transmedia story. This chapter tries to figure out the most innovative trends in production, distribution and commercialization of multi-platform contents in the case of the main television networks in Spain. In this sense, we are presenting a comparative analysis of their different multi-platform strategies following a two-step methodology: firstly, a descriptive study of their respective websites, online players, mobile apps and social network' profiles; secondly, questionnaires to the multimedia managers of the chief networks together with some personal interviews. The preliminary results of this research prove that, in the Spanish case, the convergence of television and the Internet is revolutionizing the production and commercialization of audiovisual contents, although it is also clear that is still in a challenging first stage.