Último Año: How PMC and MTV Latin America Reached 22 Million Households

Último Año (“Last Year”) was an award-winning psychological thriller co-produced by PMC and MTV Latin America — a 70-episode telenovela that aired one hour, five nights per week from September through December 2012, reaching an estimated 22 million households across 19 countries in Latin America and the United States.

It was MTV Latin America’s third novela and the first produced in Mexico, created in partnership with Argos Productions and broadcast on CadenaTres, one of Mexico’s most popular free-to-air channels. The series later aired in the U.S. on Tr3s: MTV, Música y Más. Mexican pop star Dulce Maria recorded the show’s theme song, “Es un Drama,” and the series featured a cast drawn from across Latin America: Kendra Santa Cruz and Martín Barba from Mexico, Mauricio Henao from Colombia, and Iliana Fuengo from Mexico.

The partnership

Último Año marked PMC’s first collaboration with MTV. PMC trained the Mexico-based creative team in its serial drama methodology and provided ongoing creative and technical input throughout production. The goal was to embed evidence-based storylines on sexual and reproductive health, gender equity, and disability inclusion into a format young people were already watching — not as lessons, but as the lived experiences of characters they came to know.

MEXFAM, Mexico’s Planned Parenthood affiliate, provided a text and internet chat service that connected viewers directly with reproductive health resources during and after the broadcast.

The story

The series followed a group of young people navigating their final year of school — a universal turning point where decisions about relationships, health, identity, and future direction converge. At the center was Martin, an apparently ideal student who arrives at an elite school on exchange, and Benjamin, the popular kid who takes him in as a best friend. When both fall for the same girl, trust fractures, and Benjamin wages a solitary battle to unmask the real Martin. Within that psychological thriller framework, storylines explored contraception and reproductive choice, relationships affected by domestic violence, HIV/AIDS awareness and stigma reduction, disability inclusion, cyber bullying, and the tension between education and early adulthood pressures.

The impact

The results demonstrated that entertainment designed for young audiences can shift both attitudes and behaviors at scale. Viewers were significantly more likely than non-viewers to report using contraception: 78 percent of viewers had used contraception in the past month compared with 64 percent of non-viewers. Viewers were nearly twice as likely to have sought reproductive health information from a doctor (38 percent versus 20 percent). The series also shifted attitudes around reproductive timing: 42 percent of viewers believed the ideal age for a first child is after 25, compared with just 26 percent of non-viewers.

The show’s impact extended beyond sexual and reproductive health. Ninety-five percent of viewers expressed willingness to help people with disabilities facing discrimination, compared with 86 percent of non-viewers — evidence that the disability inclusion storylines resonated.

“Many people find it more helpful to get information through a telenovela. It helped me see myself reflected in the characters,” said one adolescent viewer.

Commercial success

Último Año didn’t just deliver social impact — it delivered commercially. The series won multiple MTV awards, generated 324,000 website visits and 1.4 million page views in its first month, and ranked fourth on MTV Latin America’s website. It became profitable for MTV Latin America within nine months of its premiere. It proved that entertainment-education doesn’t require trade-offs: stories grounded in evidence can drive both cultural change and commercial success.

Broadcast countries

Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela, and the United States.