Warner Bros. International Television Production and TV Asahi to Develop TV Formats (March 2, 2012 – Tokyo, Japan and Burbank, CA) – TV Asahi Corporation, one of Japan’s largest commercial broadcasters, and Warner Bros. International Television Production have signed an agreement to collaborate in developing TV formats to be distributed around the world. Recognizing the growth of the TV formats business in the past few years, TV Asahi is aiming to exploit their catalogue globally by tying up with one of the major format distributors of the world. In order to demonstrate the international potential of TV Asahi’s formats, every year at least one project from their current slate of entertainment shows or from its archives will be re-produced as an English language pilot or presentation. WBITVP will handle distribution of these formats in the U.S., Europe and Latin America whilst TV Asahi will handle distribution in Asia. The intention is to take the first of these projects to MipTV and Mipcom later in the year. Andrew Zein, SVP, Creative, Format Development and Sales WBITVP comments “Japanese TV shows are full of great ideas, original concepts and the Japanese have a unique approach to entertainment; many of the programs have the potential to work internationally. We intend to bring these TV Asahi formats to market and try and secure commissions around the world, including in the U.S.” WBITVP already distributes TV Asahi formats including “Ranking The Stars” - a celebrity panel show which has been sold to many territories including The Netherlands, Belgium, Russia, Poland, Sweden, Korea, India and Lithuania. Ikuo Kamiyama, Senior Executive Director at TV Asahi comments, “I am looking forward to working with WBITVP to further extend the value of our programs. People at Warner Bros. love our programs as they are packed with ideas and originality and they have strong potential of becoming global formats.” About Warner Bros. International Television Production:
Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP) aims to establish or acquire production companies in the major television territories around the world in order to become a leading producer of local scripted and non-scripted programming. In those territories where WBITVP establishes a production base, it operates by developing and producing original programming and also producing local versions of formats owned and controlled by the group such as “The Bachelor,” “The World’s Strictest Parents” and “Who Do You Think You Are?” Where WBITVP has no local production capability it licenses Warner Bros. formats to 3rd parties. WBITVP has already taken significant steps by acquiring a majority stake in UK production group Shed Media, one of the UK’s largest and most successful independent production companies, which operates both in the UK and the US. Most recently it has acquired a majority stake in BlazHoffski Holding B.V., a leading independent television producer in The Netherlands and Belgium. TV Asahi Corporation:
TV Asahi, launched in 1959, is a major Japanese commercial broadcaster located in Tokyo, Japan. It has 25 local affiliate stations and 10 international bureaus that extend coverage across the world. TV Asahi is known as the central pillar of the Japanese largest Asahi Media Group, which includes The Asahi Shimbun (largest Japanese quality paper) and Toei (producer and distributor of movies, TV dramas and animation). TV Asahi operates 3 broadcasting services; Terrestrial (TV Asahi), BS digital (BS Asahisince 2000) and CS digital (CS110 since 2003), and has been listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, 1st Section Market since 2000. TV Asahi is highly recognized for its well-balanced programming with a good mixture of news, infotainment, animation, and entertainment, to ensure constantly high ratings and revenues. In the international arena, TV Asahi’s dramas, animation, and entertainment shows has been distributed mainly throughout the entire Asia. In 2005, TV Asahi steps into the TV format business, and made great progress in the European market with titles such as “Ranking the Stars” and “Fidelity Test” (both from London Hearts). TV Asahi continues to accelerate its sales by developing new formats and exploiting new business models to reach the international markets. ###