As NATPE is in full gear in Miami, Vivendi Entertainment is glad to announce that the format has been optioned in Chile and Argentina by TURNER LATIN AMERICA who will be working on local adaptations. In Chile, the company will focus on creating a local daily version for one of the leading free to air network, CHILEVISION, owned and operated by Turner Latin America.

The format has also been optioned in Mexico by ENDEMOLSHINE BOOMDOG.

In parallel, CANAL 10 in Uruguay has licensed episodes from the Spanish version with the objective to launch a local series.

These new countries come as a raft of others have decided to commission further series:

– in Italy, TV8 (Sky) has extended the daily series 2 (airing at 8:25 pm) up to the end of the spring season (production by Magnolia – a Banijay company) taking the number of episodes to 354;
– in Spain, CUATRO (Mediaset) has extended series 1 to run until the end of June (episodes air daily at 1:30pm – production by Bulldog TV). Ratings of “EL CONCURSO DEL ANO” have been really strong since the launch back in August and with an average of 9.1% on commercial targets in November, the show is +28% higher than daily averages for the channel on the demo;
– In Hungary, TV2 has just started production for a 3rd series (also to be aired daily, in pre-primetime) after 2 seasons which allowed the channel to be leader in the country.

In related news WARNER BROS INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION Portugal has optioned the show, Polish production outfit ROCHSTAR (The Voice, Dancing With The Stars, etc.) has renewed its option and is expecting a decision from a major local broadcaster soon and Latvian and Estonian networks from All Media have acquired the Russian series of the format.

Matthieu Porte, EVP in charge at VE says: “The Format’s huge and continued success as a daily in Spain on Cuatro has generated strong interest from Central & Latin America. We are looking forward to seeing the first local versions!”.