Atresmedia Studios Names Laura Miñarro Head of International Business (EXCLUSIVE)

By John Hopewell

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Atresmedia Studios, the newly launched production arm of , producer of iconic Spanish TV series such as “Velvet” and “Money Heist,” has appointed Laura Miñarro, one of Spain’s best known international TV execs, as V.P., international business.

Coming just months after Atresmedia Studios’ snagged Amazon Prime Video’s first fiction series order in Spain, to produce “Little Coincidences” with Spain’s MedioLimon and Onza Ent., the appointment signals Atresmedia Studios’ desire to intensify its drama series commissions outside Spain at a time of skyrocketing demand in the pay TV and streaming space for Spanish-language series and escalating competition to meet that demand.

Miñarro previously served as director of co-production and scripted at Swedish company Eccho Rights and before that, managing director of Imagina Intl. Sales (IIS), the overseas sales arm of Mediapro, one of Southern Europe’s biggest TV conglomerates, where she oversaw international distribution and co-production development. Miñarro first came to notice as V.P. international co-production at Spanish scripted production powerhouse Globomedia, part of the Mediapro group.

Launching last December, Atresmedia Studios was born with the ambition of producing for third party companies, especially new operators and streaming platforms in and outside Spain, with a strong focus on the Latin American market.

Atresmedia Studios’ first order was “El Embarcadero” (“The Pier”), commissioned by Movistar +, the powerful pay TV division of Telefonica, Europe’s second-biggest telecom, and co-produced by “” creators Alex Pina and Esther Martínez Lobato at Vancouver Media. “The Pier” will have its world premiere TV screening at October’s Mipcom market in Cannes.

Headed by Atresmedia CEO Ignacio Corrales and with Atresmedia fiction director Sonia Martínez marking its editorial line, Atresmedia Studios capitalizes on strong tailwinds, with Atresmedia having produced “,” “Vis-a-Vis,” and the first two parts of “La casa de papel” (Money Heist), three emblematic series which broadened the global reach of Spanish scripted shows, and lie nearer to streaming platform sensibilities than most free-to-air productions, Martínez noted at Spain’s Conecta Fiction co-production forum this June.

Nacho Manubens serves as director of contents at Atresmedia Studios which also negotiates remake rights of Atresmedia scripted formats, following on deals struck by Atresmedia with Netflix for “Money Heist” and Movistar + for “Velvet,” allowing Movistar + and Bambu Producciones to create its first original series, “Velvet Collection.”

Fox Networks Group España and Mediapro have produced a third season of “Vis-a-Vis,” a women’s penitentiary thriller with a cable edge licensed from Atresmedia.