Afghan net makes formats debut
Mar 2nd, 2012 by Farrell
C21media.com
Posted: Wed., Feb. 29, 2012
Afghan net makes formats debut
Afghan commercial station 1TV is set to adapt its first licensed formats, after picking up local rights to the gameshows That’s My Stuff and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?.
The GroupOne-owned network will make both shows in-house, licensing That’s My Stuff from Sony Pictures Television subsidiary 2waytraffic and 5th Grader from Mark Burnett Productions.
That’s My Stuff started taping last week and is due to premier on 1TV next month to coincide with the Afghan new year, the CEO of 1TV and its parent company Farrell Meisell told C21.
The half-hour show will initially run three nights a week in a 19.30 primetime slot, with the potential to extend to five nights if it does well. It will be presented by Asaf Jalali, the host of 1TV’s popular talk/variety/comedy show Sweet Night.
“It’s a gameshow done in peoples’ homes and the whole idea is to help them upgrade their goods – could be furniture, could be a DVD, could be a coffee maker. It’s very funny and very well needed in a territory like that, primarily because goods are so expensive,” said Meisel.
The format has previously sold to broadcasters in Europe, South America and Asia, including TRT in Turkey, Antenna 1 in Romania, Chanel13 in Chile and Hanoi TV in Vietnam.
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? is going into pre-production and will debut in the spring, with the hour-long show due to run either once or twice a week.
“It’s very important because the literacy rate [in Afghanistan] is so low, so this is an opportunity to educate and inform, as well as entertain,” said Meisel, who also brought the same format to Poland in 2007, when he worked as president of the News Corp-owned Puls TV network.
Andrew McDonald
29-02-2012
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