DramaFever.com, New York-based foreign drama streaming service, is making a big push towards international expansion with the addition of content from Spain and Argentina and a new Spanish-language website Monday. The service also expanded its distribution agreements, and is now supplying Netflix and Apple’s (A AAPL) iTunes with Asian and Spanish-language dramas. “We are really excited about bringing more of our content to iTunes,” DramaFever co-founder Suk Park said during a recent phone interview.
The expanded content offering was made possible through deals with Argentina’s TV network Television Federal SA and local production heavyweight Arte Radiotelevisivo Argentino as well as Spain’s Imagina and Televisión Española. The licensing agreement adds 500 hours of new content to the DramaFever site this week. One of the more notable titles: The original version of Mujeres Asesinas, a drama that was remade in Mexico after becoming a hit in Argentia, and is currently slated to get another remake from Hollywood, with Modern Family’s Sofia Vergara being the executive producer.
Park told me that the content is licensed non-exclusively, and that the company won’t be able to stream it within Latin America. However, DramaFever has high hopes for the more than 50 million Latinos living in the U.S., which it targets with a kind of multi-generational approach: Viewers who primarily speak Spanish can enjoy streams in their native tongue, and second- or third-generation immigrants who primarily speak English will be able to follow the action via English subtitles.
DramaFever started out as a streaming service for Korean dramas, and quickly learned that there is a large demand for this type of content that goes far beyond expats. Over 85 percent of DramaFever’s existing audience aren’t Asian, Park told me, which is why the service is also looking to bring Asian content to Latin America through its new Spanish-language website.
The service has always had a strategy of multiple revenue streams. It allows viewers limited free, ad-based viewing on the web, with paying subscribers getting access to better-quality streams on mobile and connected devices. DramaFever has also in the past licensed some of its content to Hulu, and has now added Netflix and iTunes to its licensing partners as well.
These relationships help the company to strike additional licensing agreements, with Park telling me that DramaFever is already the largest single source of online revenue for its Asian content partners. It now wants to replicate that success story across Latin America. Park said he’s interested in striking additional deals in countries like Mexico and Colombia.
DramaFever has raised a total of $ 7.5 million in funding from investors like MK Capital, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, cable network AMC and Nala Investments.
Check out my earlier interview with CEO Seung Bak below:
Watch this video for free on GigaOM
