ZDF Studios and Castalia Communications Launch FAST Channel Crimen ZDF on Samsung TV Plus Mexico

ZDF Studios and Castalia Communications Corporation announce the launch of their FAST channel Crimen ZDF for Spanish-speaking audiences in the U.S. and Latin America.

Crimen ZDF will feature the best crime, suspense, and mystery series from Europe and will initially be available in Mexico starting this Wednesday, the 30th, on the Samsung TV Plus service.

The collaboration between ZDF Studios and Castalia Communications to develop this service was first announced in October 2023. The channel delivers quality programming from ZDF Studios’ catalog to end users in the U.S. Hispanic and Latin American markets.

“We are excited to offer our most successful European procedural dramas on a FAST channel for audiences across the Americas, and for the first time, dubbed in Latin American Spanish,” said Susanne Frank, Head of Drama at ZDF Studios. She added that the new channel “is the result of our collaboration with Castalia Communications.”

“We have selected captivating and iconic series full of intrigue, all filmed on European locations and with an authentic atmosphere, distinct from the usual offerings in the U.S. and Latin America. The channel will appeal to audiences already familiar with European content who are eager to enjoy this programming in their own language, as well as new viewers seeking premium, high-quality content,” said Luis Torres-Bohl, President of Castalia Communications.

300 HOURS OF CONTENT DUBBED IN SPANISH

Castalia and ZDF Studios understand that audience expectations regarding content quality include top-tier dubbing in their native language. For this reason, they hired Caaliope to handle the dubbing for all channel content. “Dialogue in the viewers’ own language is a key part of the viewing experience, and having it in Latin American Spanish elevates the content’s quality,” explained Carlos Sánchez, CEO of Caaliope.

The channel will feature a total of 300 hours of available content, with an initial package of 190 hours, including acclaimed series such as The Crimson Rivers, about complex murder cases solved by a detective and his top student, based on the French bestseller by Jean-Christophe Grangé; The Bridge, the award-winning Swedish-Danish original crime series that has inspired several international remakes; SOKO, a popular and current German show following the investigations of Special Crime Units across the country; and The Old Fox, a long-running German series still popular today, centered on a chief inspector guiding his team through the darker side of crime to solve mysterious murders.