Disney+ Latin America and Caracol TV’s Comedy Series ‘Peter the Great: Greater Than Ever’ Breaks the Mold, Hits Ratings Highs

Anna Marie de la Fuente In an unprecedented move, Disney+ Latin America and Colombia’s Caracol TV aired and streamed a series simultaneously, shattering distribution windows that typically start with a free-to-air broadcast if an FTA network is producing then followed by streaming on a platform. With “Peter the Great: Greater Than Ever” (“Pedro el escamoso: más escamoso que nunca”), the sequel to Caracol TV’s hit series “Pedro el escamoso,” the sitcom became Caracol TV’s most successful series in recent years with a grand finale that reached a 47.1% share and a 9.3 rating, surpassing its direct competitor, “Yo Soy Betty La Fea,” which reported a 25.1% share and a 5.0 rating. The Caracol TV and Disney+ co-production dominated prime time during its 23 x 60’ episodes, reaching an average rating of 9.3 and a 44.2% share.

More than 6.5 million Colombians, on average per episode, were transfixed with the story, according to Caracol. “It is definitely uncommon to launch a property simultaneously on a Direct-to-Consumer Platform (DTC) and a Free-to-Air (FTA) network and it is even more unusual to launch a property like ‘Pedro el escamoso’ on a Monday through Friday primetime schedule on a network like Caracol TV and all episodes at once on a platform like Disney+,” said Fernando Barbosa, SVP & general manager, Media Networks, The Walt Disney Company Latin America, who is attending Mipcom. “The compositions of the FTA and DTC audiences are different though, therefore, there isn’t much risk of cannibalization, at least in Colombia.

Each territory holds its own composition and story and by no means does this hold true everywhere. But yes, it’s the first time we do it and we chose to move forward because at the end we felt it was a win-win for both Caracol & Disney. It worked extremely well and over-performed for both,” he told Variety. The sequel begins with Pedro Coral’s return to his hometown after more than 20 years abroad.