Image Courtesy of Variety

MADRID  — Pubcaster RTVE’s webseries “Si fueras tu,” a Spanish adaptation of Intl. Emmy winning format “Reservoir Hill,” has become a pioneering transmedia and interactive production for Spanish TV fiction.

Available online from September via RTVE’s digital platform Playz, webseries’ eight episodes lured over three million views and scored massive tracking on social networks, including some 70,000 followers on Instagram.Closing the circle on Dec. 8, RTVE’s core channel La 1 aired in a late-night slot a 80-minute TV movie which combined the eight episodes plus unseen footage, adding 567,000 eyeballs to its global audience results.

Exec produced by well-known Spanish TV executive Isabel Raventós at Atomis Media, the psychological thriller series has achieved two major goals for the public broadcaster: Rejuvenation of its audience; strengthening its brand as an innovative company.

In a transition time between linear and non-linear TV, with “Si fueras tu,” Atomis has for the first time taken on interactivity in a fiction arena. “Webseries formats allow you to test and try to innovate,” Raventós said.

“Si fueras tu” involved viewers who not only decided how each episode’s plot must go on, but also established a close relationship with characters and writers through their continuous presence on social networks.When RTVE uploaded every new chapter, the followers ‘entered’ into it. Once each 10-minute webisode was finished, an online survey allowed viewers to collaborate with the characters in decision making, marking the next episode’s plot, which rolled only one day after the voting closed.

“It is great to work for conventional TV, but you have to think that there is an audience that no longer consumes TV as it was traditionally done. Now they want to choose what they want to see and when they want to see it,” Raventós said.“Also, we have discovered that there is an audience that wants to participate a lot. We need to create more projects in that line,” she added.

“Si fueras tu” tells the story of Alba, a 17-year-old Spanish girl who moves with her uncle to a housing development, looking for a new life. Her parents have moved to work in New Zealand, but she has to finish her school year in Spain.However, as soon as she arrives at the institute, she realizes that it will not be so easy to adapt because of her striking resemblance to Cris, a girl who disappeared just half a year ago. Read more at Variety.