Walter Presents buys Spanish drama for UK, US

UK and US on-demand service Walter Presents has acquired exclusive rights to a Spanish-language thriller drama.

Lifeline (Pulsaciones) is billed as a psychological thriller about an eminent surgeon who unravels a horrific medical scandal after suffering a massive heart attack and subsequently having strange nightmares when he receives a donor heart.

Produced for Spanish broadcaster Antena 3 by Globomedia, it took strong ratings of more than three million viewers and a 17.1% share in Spain. Globomedia’s Mediapro stablemate, Imagina International Sales, shops the show internationally.

Walter Presents, which is co-owned by UK broadcaster Channel 4, tapped Imagina to acquire Locked Up (Vis a Vis), a tense thriller set in a women’s prison, in 2016.

“Last year, Locked Up exploded onto the international scene, heralding a renaissance in Spanish scripted excellence,” said Walter Presents curator Walter Iuzzolino. “This year they’ve done it again.

“Lifeline is rollercoaster thriller with plenty of shock narrative twists and epic cliff hanger endings. I’m confident UK and US audiences will find it just as hard as I did to tear themselves away from this series. Buckle up for a binge-watching fest.”

Walter Presents is to launch in the US in March as an SVOD service following its debut in the UK as an ad-supported on-demand player more than a year ago.