The Mediapro Group Taps Hollywood Rep in Bid to Lure More Productions to Spain, Portugal (EXCLUSIVE)
In its continued bid to lure more international productions to Spain and Portugal, Barcelona-based multinational The Mediapro Group has tapped L.A.-based Spanish publicist Alvar Carretero to represent the company in Hollywood.
For the past 25 years, Mediapro has been represented in the U.S. by its production centers in New York and Miami but Spain’s launch in March of a new Audiovisual Hub plan has given Mediapro more impetus to build its presence in Los Angeles, the epicenter of the North American media and entertainment industries.
The Audiovisual Hub scheme offers a total €1.6 billion ($1.9 billion) over 2021-25 to rev up Spanish film and TV production and persuade key foreign players to shoot and set up production bases in Spain. Ongoing incentives on a national and regional levels make the offer even more enticing. The current national tax relief incentive to shoot in Spain is 30% of the total cost incurred on Spanish territory with a minimum spend of €1 million ($1.2 million). There is a cap of €10 million ($11.8 million) per production, and the total amount of any incentive may not exceed 50% of the production cost.
On a regional level, the Canary Islands offer a tax deduction of 54% for a minimum expenditure of €1 million with a cap of €12.4 million ($14.6 million). The region of Navarre offers a 35% tax deduction for a minimum one week shoot in the region.
Courtesy of Mediapro Services
“It’s an honor to represent Mediapro, a company with six production centers in Spain (Barcelona, Madrid, Canary Islands, Seville, Valencia, Bilbao) and one in Portugal (Lisbon), with a total of 47 sets, and 12 more in the rest of Europe and Latin America,” said Carretero.
“Mediapro is truly a one-stop-shop for every kind of production interested not only in this region, which boasts great new tax breaks, but also in our full chain of value as a studio which include our tax department, legal services, and suppliers,” he observed, adding: “We have everything that you could need in our facilities, including the guarantee of the best crews in the land.”
The Mediapro Group’s extensive TV credits include Amazon Prime’s “The Boarding School: Las Cumbres” and soccer docuseries “Six Dreams”; Atresmedia’s “Vis a vis”; and “The Head,” with Hulu Japan and HBO Asia; as well as feature films such as Mariano Cohn and Gaston Duprat’s “Official Competition” starring Antonio Banderas, Penélope Cruz and Oscar Martínez, which had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival; and Fernando León de Aranoa’s “The Good Boss,” due to world premiere at the San Sebastian Festival next week.
Spain has already become an audiovisual hub for some big players including Netflix, which established its first European Production Hub in Madrid. The headquarters of Movistar Plus, The Mediapro Studio, and networks Atresmedia and Mediaset España are all clustered in north Madrid or on its outskirts, in Tres Cantos and San Sebastián de los Reyes.
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