Sinapsis: Streaming changed the production and narrative of reality shows due to the way of its consumption

Marcos Gorban, president of Sinapsis Producción, has produced content for television for at least 32 years, 27 focused on realities and entertainment programs. And one of the lessons he has learned during this long experience is that “one of the maxim of the audiovisual industry is that trends always change.”

“It is one of the industries with the greatest amount of vertigo in terms of transformation and change of scenarios,” he said, Currently, open TV remains the best medium for live content and what seems to have been capable of keeping the attention of such a fickle audience are the Q&R programs, talent shows and realities. But, as said, trends change. “A year ago I would have said that streaming still hadn’t found a reality show that was the perfect fit for it, but now Insiders has arrived,” Gorban said.

Insiders is an original Spanish Netflix reality show, in which 12 participants believe they are on the final phase of being selected as cast of a reality show, but the truth is that they are already part of the program and are being recorded by hidden cameras, so they will have to face the consequences of what they did and said behind the back of their cast-mates during those days. It’s a show with seven episodes for streaming, and a fictional narrative structure.

“The formats produced for streaming are different from those made for open TV because the consumption experience is different,” explained Gorban. On linear TV they are live programs, with about 60 episodes, where the audience watch daily, give their opinion, vote, and decide who stays and who goes. In streaming the programs are recorded, with eight to ten chapters, and the story is woven and solved in another way. “The arrival of streaming changed the production and narrative of reality shows. The forms of consumption dictate the production, shaping the product,” he said.

Behavior on social networks is also not the same for a daily live program than for a recorded space. “Nowadays, when launching a marketing campaign, one takes into account whether a protagonist has millions of followers on social media or not, because that person with millions of followers tells a story on the networks and opens new paths and dilemmas. Two years ago no one was thinking about that but now many are,” Gorban pointed out.

Sinapsis Producción has joined the trend of creating formats for streaming and is working on two projects for two different platforms: a talent and a game show, both of which are original to each of the streamers. In addition, he is working on the second season of La Casa de los Famosos (for Telemundo, together with Endemol Shine Boomdog).