Priya Dogra, president of WarnerMedia Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia (excluding China), took the stage on Thursday to deliver a keynote speech at the Series Mania TV fest in Lille, France, and the message was clear: the U.S. conglomerate is ramping up production in Europe.
“Our industry is becoming more global,” said Dogra. “As players launch services across the world, competition is intensifying, and we are seeing record levels of investment in high-quality content in all markets, and no more so than in Europe,” she noted in her opening remarks.
The top WarnerMedia exec went on to add that amid the ongoing global rollout of HBO Max, “In Europe, we have gone from producing around 10 HBO titles in 2019 to having over 40 in the pipeline for 2023 for HBO Max across scripted and unscripted,” she said.
Five months after its launch HBO Max is now available in 21 European territories where Dogra said they’ve already released eight European originals in five languages.
By the end of the year, Dogra said she expected HBO Max to go live in six more European countries, “bringing our total to 67 countries globally, with many more still to come.”
Dogra went on to underline that, more in general, local content creation is becoming a top priority at WarnerMedia.
“We are of course immensely proud of the blockbuster Warner Bros. movies that inspire the world,” she said, citing the more than $600 million box office haul of “The Batman” since its release earlier this month, and the upcoming third installment of the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise that is coming to cinemas soon.
But pivoting back to the importance of local, Dogra pointed out that “we also know that people love authentic stories that reflect their own cultures and communities.” Among other examples of this she mentioned Italy’s “Gomorrah,” the fifth and final installment of which recently went out stateside on HBO Max.
Dogra then vowed: “We will continue to partner with and ramp up our investment in local creative communities across Europe.”
She pointed to Spain as a case history of a European territory that has generated top notch WarnerMedia-produced shows since Spain is one of the countries where they have been streaming HBO content direct to consumers for several years prior to the transition to HBO Max.
Dogra cited the Spanish drama “Patria” that has sparked a national conversation about the legacy of armed conflict in the Spanish Basque Country and scored an International Emmy nomination for actor Ane Gabarain.
She also lavished praise on Spain’s “30 Coins” from helmer Alex de la Iglesia, which, she said, “introduced audiences to his unique blend of horror and dark humor.”
“Our success in Spain has created a strong foundation for HBO Max,” said Dogra. “We have premiered four original Spanish series on HBO Max: ‘Venga Juan,’ ‘Todo Lo Otro,’ ‘Sin Novedad’ and ‘Dolores: The Truth about the Wanninkhof Case.'” And there are more to come soon.
Dogra talked up “García!,” the Spanish science-fiction thriller adapted from the graphic novel of the same name, and “Poor Devil,” also from Spain, which will be WarnerMedia’s first adult animated original from Europe for HBO Max.
Among other upcoming European productions she then went on to mention crime noir thriller “The Thaw” from Poland, and period spy drama “The Informant,” from Hungary.
Its ongoing increase in European output is why lastNovember, WarnerMedia’s Danish drama “Kamikaze” became their first European series to receive a simultaneous premiere in all HBO Max territories.
“From now on, our intention is that day and date will be the default way for us to launch new scripted series across our footprint,” said Dogra.
Moving on to address the French home crowd, Dogra said WarnerMedia plans to ramp up production in France by increasing its film output to between six and eight French movies per year “across a broader range of genres.”
In 2022, Warner Bros. France will release five locally produced movies. Dogra said she is proud that three of these will be directed by women. She did not specify titles.
On the TV side, the first French original series for the Warner TV channel is the eight-part comedy “Visitors” that premiered at Series Mania on Saturday.
