In a highly competitive market with strong pressure to innovate due to the current context of technological acceleration, a new player has emerged seeking to fill a gap in the market. With Broad Service and Atresmedia as founding partners, B3media launched a few months ago with the ambition of offering a comprehensive service to all types of clients in the audiovisual sector.TM BROADCAST spoke with its managing director, César Ona, to discuss the key aspects of this project and gather his initial impressions.
“B3 came about for many reasons, but one of them was that the founders saw a gap in the market for a different business model. I joined the company because I saw that the market needed a player to do what B3 is now offering,” says César Ona.
We saw that there was no actor capable of managing brands, projects and systems that could cover the entire chain from start to finish.
And what is that niche? The director of B3 explains: “We saw that there was no player capable of managing brands, projects and systems that could cover the entire chain from start to finish. From initial consulting, supply, training, implementation, maintenance and subsequent support, and even, in certain cases, the delivery of the services themselves with other business models that the company has. In other words, providing the entire supply chain to broadcasters, production companies and other types of clients in the audiovisual sector.
“We aspire to be a player that can offer equipment in an agnostic way, seeing what is best for the customer,” explains César Ona, who distinguishes B3media’s proposal from the classic systems integrator model. “The knowledge lies with the reseller, and the close relationship with suppliers also lies with the reseller. That is what we wanted to offer across a very wide range and throughout the media chain.”
The combination of the complementary experiences of the partners—one as a systems integrator and the other as an end user—adds “enormous value” to B3, Ona points out, although he makes it clear that the new company is presenting itself as an independent firm with a different proposition from that of its two shareholders.
“B3 was born with a very powerful service for Atresmedia: full support for the operation of the television channel. This gives it a platform and the solvency to approach other clients with know-how and a knowledge base that is difficult to create from scratch,” emphasises the company’s director.
The new company, which currently has almost 40 employees, was created with the aim of expanding beyond our borders, as the two founding companies have a clearly international profile. “It’s in their DNA,” explains Ona. But it won’t happen immediately. “Internationalisation will come, and we want it to be smooth and gradual,” he stresses. “There is no specific plan, but it will come. For now, we are focusing on the domestic market.”
A major project in the pipeline
Regarding their future plans, the CEO of B3 anticipates that the company has already finalized “a major project” that they cannot yet reveal. He also hints that they are focusing on a new strategic direction. “We want to place special emphasis in the coming months on the corporate market, with everything that entails: venues, communications, production…”.
“Many large corporations have better-equipped studios than some television networks,” reflects César Ona, who also indicates that the company is establishing the necessary contacts to offer immersive technologies such as augmented and virtual reality.
The founders of B3media have, in short, placed great expectations on this new company. We will soon be able to better gauge its true potential when they unveil specific projects, which we will cover in TM BROADCAST. In any case, what is clear is that a new major player has emerged in the Spanish audiovisual sector.
We want to place special emphasis in the coming months on the corporate market, with everything that entails: venues, communications, production