Spain's small handful of sales outfits will soon face a new competitor on the international scene: Grupo PI, a powerful new rights broker and channel packager being launched by four of Spain's top producers.

Combining film and television content, Grupo PI launches with one of the world's biggest catalogues of Spanish-language product, spanning almost 5,000 feature films and 4,000 broadcast hours of television product. Partners include TV and film production houses Grupo Arbol, BocaBoca, Cartel and Enrique Cerezo. What's more, PI has the indirect backing of publishing and multimedia giant Grupo Correo, shareholder in both Arbol and BocaBoca.

The bulk of the catalog for PI (as in "Produccion Independiente" as well as the numerical sign for infinity) comes from Enrique Cerezo, who through his distribution subsid Video Mercury Films owns theatrical rights to more than 4,500 films. Cerezo has been named President of PI, with Arbol CEO Mikel Lejarza, BocaBoca head Cesar Benitez and Cartel chief Eduardo Campoy sharing VP duties.

PI's initial emphasis will be the packaging of thematic channels which pull from its newly conjoined catalogs. Potential areas for future growth include the production of new content, optioning rights on material for thematic channels, and picking up independent film and television product for representation on the international market. The latter could have wide ramifications for the bulk of Spanish producers who lack in-house sales operations.

Set to feel the most immediate effects of PI's launch are other Spanish sellers who have previously handled product for these producers or who compete for limited sales in the same markets, particularly Latin America where PI plans to focus its greatest efforts outside Spain. Arbol owns a strategic 25% share in Argentinean TV producer Promofilm.