Spanish has a large presence in the US streaming scene. In the first quarter of 2024, Spanish was the foreign language with the highest number of films available on SVOD platforms in the United States and the third language in terms of the number of programs available, after Korean and Japanese.
This popularity is not surprising given that Spanish is the second most widely spoken language in the United States, as well as the significant investment by streaming platforms in Spanish language content in recent years. Global successes such as “La casa de papel” and “Elite” have strengthened Spain’s position as one of the world’s major content producing countries.
Although the most popular Spanish-language hit shows come from Spain itself, Mexican shows on US SVOD platforms outperform their Spanish counterparts more than two to one.
This is mainly due to platforms targeting Mexican audiences in the US, such as Pantaya and Vix. In addition to Mexico and Spain, a similar number of Spanish language programs come from Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina and the United States. Most of these American Spanish-language shows are from Telemundo, the Spanish-language network owned by NBCUniversal, and these shows are primarily available on Peacock and Hulu.
Parrot analysis Content summary, shows that among the major SVOD platforms, Netflix is the most committed to Spanish content. They represent 8.7% of the programs available on the platform and 7.7% of the films. Peacock, with about 5% of its television programming, is originally in Spanish.
Netflix and Peacock, in addition to having the largest shares of Spanish television, have a different approach to this type of content. Netflix has focused on producing and sourcing content from Spanish-speaking countries, especially Spain, by partnering with studios in those countries and making it available to a global audience. This strategy has led to international hits not limited to Spanish-speaking audiences, such as the aforementioned “La casa de papel,” its prequel “Berlín” and the prison drama “Vis A Vis.”
Instead, Peacock's Spanish-language catalog consists primarily of American productions aimed at Spanish audiences, primarily from Telemundo. These programmes, which are often soap operas and dramas, target audiences who are traditionally familiar with this type of content. Some examples are “El Señor De Los Cielos” and “Yo Soy Betty, La Fea”.
This demonstrates the diversity of Spanish content and its broad appeal to US and global audiences, making it one of the leading languages in the live streaming scene.
Daniel Quinod is a Senior Data Analyst at WrapPRO Partner Parrot Analytics. To learn more about Parrot Analytics, visit the Data and Analytics Center.
