It is a problem faced by many broadcasters around the world – do they want to be a distributor of programming in order to build an ad or subscription business, or do they want to produce shows they can syndicate to other platforms?

An already-healthy global acquisition market is now buoyed further by the emergence of deep-pocketed OTT platforms, encouraging many broadcast firms to leaner farther in to production capacity.

But most broadcasters, ultimately, would still like to reach scale and own their own audience.

That is the view from Spain, where Antena 3 TV channel owner Atresmedia is operating a balanced digital strategy – posting through its own Atresplayer, as well as syndicating to Netflix.

“For us, the main challenge is how to deal with technology,” Atresmedia director general Beatriz Medina says in this video interview with Ashley Swartz for Beet.TV. “We are very strong in producing content, content that’s relevant for the Spanish audience. But, when it comes to the digital platforms, we really need scale.”

But Medina is weighing up the challenges.

Whilst Atresmedia has sold its production La Casa de Papel to Netflix for global distribution, she would like that Atresmedia could build its own platform scale, too.

“We produce this content, we distribute it to Netflix, and Netflix made a big hit worldwide out of this content,” she says. “Sure, if we give scale to our national produced contents, it would be easier to run the scale, but I believe thinking that we could become a global brand, it’s maybe too ambitious.

“I think it’s relevant to have your own platform because your consumers are linked and engaged to your brand.

“For us, building big platforms, having big teams of engineers is maybe too expensive for a local broadcaster. I think your brand needs always the platform.”

This interview was conducted at the EGTA New York meetings hosted by Viacom.   EGTA, the Brussels-based trade association of international television companies, is the sponsor of this Beet.TV series. For more videos, please visit this page. 

By Robert Andrews on    @robertandrews