Weekly: Unpacking Spain’s format fever & why it matters

Spanish free-to-air broadcasters have long held a taste for international formats but with eight greenlights of such shows in the past month alone, what does it mean for local producers and homegrown ideas?

The latest commission came from public broadcaster FTVE earlier this week, with a local remake of Talpa Studios and Fox format The House of Hide & Seek that marked the first international adaptation of the Dutch show.

While Spain might be well known for its powerful drama industry, the entertainment side of things are quite the opposite.

The eight adaptations announced by FTA channels come from public and private broadcasters, operating on both a national and regional basis. None can resist the lure of a proven success but the broader market travails are seemingly supercharging an ongoing trend. 

Spain’s lack of tradition in developing unscripted formats alongside decreasing advertising incomes and linear viewers - in addition to an entertainment market dominated by multinational groups such as Banijay, Fremantle, Warner Bros., ITV Studios and BBC Studios, which are all strongly established in the country - are some of the reasons why the country’s networks are favouring tried-and-tested ideas.

Rights retention & risk

“Sometimes the delivery schedule is very tight and there is no time to test paper formats, it’s more agile to produce on a hub,” says one Spanish consultant who wants to remain anonymous.

They also suggest that TV executives are increasingly influenced by budgets, profitability and dividends when commissioning, which is impacting risk taking further. According to Spanish consultancy InfoAdex, advertising incomes decreased by 5.2% on linear free TV channels in the country during 2026 Q1 alone.

“TV networks in Spain usually retain the whole IP or a majority of it, so producers don’t feel motivated to invest time and money on developing formats from scratch, even more so when there is no guarantee that they will get a greenlight,” says Javier Martínez, a veteran in the entertainment format industry and currently director of originals at YouFirst Originals by Gersh.

Martínez’s credits include some paper formats that were produced in Spain, such as gameshow Crush on RTVE and docu-reality Una Vida, Una Cena on Prime Video, “but it was abroad where we’ve found more solid and sustainable business models,” he says.

He points to gameshow Don’t Say It, Bring It, which has been adapted in the UK, Germany and Canada, is “an example of a valued IP, beyond the pure commission, with potential to scale”.

Part of the solution may lie in creating a more favourable business model for producers. “What we need is an ecosystem to boost existing Spanish talent, something like the UK’s Terms of Trade, which allow independent producers to retain IP when working for public broadcasters”, says Martínez.

“Being able to apply for the tax incentives that we already have for scripted productions would also be helpful,” he adds, a measure that Ireland has already activated for documentaries, reality TV, gameshows and other falvours of unscripted programming.

Domestic spending quota

Following the installation of a new management team at RTVE in late 2024, the public broadcaster has been looking to play at the same level on entertainment as commercial rivals Atresmedia and Mediaset España, commissioning big primetime formats, most of them created and distributed by foreign companies.

During the current TV season, RTVE has launched seven international format adaptations, while new seasons of The Great British Sewing Bee (now with celebrities), The Dog House, The Floor, and Race Across the World are also underway.

The upcoming slate also includes local versions of Sort Your Life Out, MasterChef Celebrity Legends, and aforementioned The House of Hide and Seek, a shift that has pushed some producers into supporting a move that would see RTVE having a mandatory investment in Spanish paper formats. But it’s not on the table so far.

It is a foreboding tale for other countries but there are some signs of optimism for Spanish producers. 

Catalonian public broadcaster 3Cat is boosting investment in the regional unscripted industry, asking for original developments to launch on its streaming platform.

Adventure reality show La Travessa will launch its fourth edition next autumn and the show has been a turning point for independent prodco Aguacate & Calabaza Films.

“Sharing the IP with the broadcaster allows us to invest in new developments, also on the scripted side,” says co-founders Nuria and Jorge Velasco.

Another example of the 3Cat strategy is AI-driven dating show La Gran Cita (The Great Date), developed by independent prodco Incís TV. The show, young skewed and supported by a big promotional campaign, surpassed one million views in less than three weeks.

Following its diversification strategy, Atresmedia has claimed to be open to original unscripted ideas - but still hasn’t greenlit any. The broadcaster aims to co-develop original ideas with producers and to exploit the rights selling the format to third parties, the same way they do with drama series. The group is shooting the adaptations of Seefood TV’s The Box, and ITV’s Parents’ Evening, among others.

“Throughout history, Spanish TV has had several failures based on original ideas that have created a mistrust of paper formats,” adds the Spanish consultant. “When developing, it is crucial to go very deep and find your own personality, get distance from existing ideas.”

They continue: “Networks with better ratings should be more open to experimentation, and more able to find a balance between tested and paper formats on their schedules.” The exec also highlights that some Spanish versions of formats have been so very well localised that the success has been undeniable.

Despite the lack of risk-taking, some Spanish paper formats have travelled internationally. Banijay Rights’s Your Face Sounds Familiar, Operación Triunfo, and The Bridge, Onza Distribution’s The Anthill and Fremantle’s My Mom Cooks Better Than Yours all highlight that when local, original IP is given a chance it can succeed further afield.

Streamers have also tested some Spanish paper formats, with Netflix’s Love Never Lies and Deep Fake Love as examples, together with HBO’s Time Zone, although none managed to secure a renewal. For now, local producers are facing an uphill battle in the face of a snowballing number of international ideas.