Miguel Somoza, Sabbatical Entertainment
To continue with the current business model that has given them results, continue with the production of documentaries and develop the Sabbatical Brazil office, are some of the plans for this and next year, that were outlined by Miguel Somoza, CEO of Sabbatical Entertainment during his #VisitaPRODU last Tuesday.
Somoza, who started in the world of contents inspired by the work of his mother Valeria Palazio at Univision and later under the gaze of Luis Villanueva from Venevision Internacional, for whom he worked upon graduating from college and considers a great mentor, highlights that the educational children´s contents El Mundo es Tuyo (52×30’), Planeta de Niños and Naturaleza Humana were the ones that gave origin to Sabbatical Entertainment. “The US government requirement of airing educational products was the easiest and most acceptable path for our business and production model, and in the first year, we sold these three series to Univision. This was what actually created Sabbatical and helped us set up house”. These products have also been accepted in Latin America through the Nickelodeon Nogging platform and in Brazil.
He added that both CNN and Univision “have been pivotal to establish our brand and create premium content”.
One of the things that Somoza learned in so many years of being in international distribution was to limit the opportunities in which clients say no. “I tried to create content that faced few obstacles -talents, religious topics, dubbing- things that generate more costs for buyers and subtract appeal” he detailed: Linear TV and OTT, ‘ligital’ content.
He admitted it is a moment of great uncertainty. “For us, fortunately, this virus does not affect how we are generating content. We continue giving opportunities and work to editors worldwide -Spain, Mexico, Brazil- and at home they can do the work since we create content using image banks and other footage”.
Miguel Somoza from Sabbatical Entertainment: We sold The World is Yours to Univision
Con Miguel Somoza de Sabbatical desde el Mipcom en Cannes, en la marina
