Endemol comes looking for bite of entertainment pie

Endemol, owner and producer of format shows, targets to produce five television shows in the country this year. The Dutch company also plans to make formats for domestic television channels which could be later exported.

Format shows are programmes based on a particular format which is exported across countries and customised to the local environment. For instance, hugely popular Indian Idol which was aired on Sony had used the format of Pop Idol, a UK based show, which was later produced in the US and Australia. Similarly, the original format of the more famous Kaun Banega Crorepati is Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

Endemol, which set up shop in India last month, is producing Star One's The Great Indian Laughter Challenge (Season 2). It has also entered into a two-year output deal with Sony Entertainment Television (SET).

According to Rajesh Kamat, managing director, Endemol India, "We are already in advanced stages of discussions with many broadcasters and are on the verge of signing deals for production of Endemol formats. The focus this year would be to establish ourselves as a production hub, producing not only our own formats but also third party formats."

Peter Bazalgette, chief creative officer, Endemol, said the company will focus on comedy in the Indian operations. He said the UK office has set up a comedy panel and India would be looking at producing these formats in India.

Besides, the Indian arm would also be looking at creating formats through call TV, which enables viewers to interact live with a television show. The company has call TV formats running across 18 countries.

Maker of the popular format Big Brother, the American reality show, the company is also looking at setting up a production subsidiary in Thailand,which is expected to be operational in the first half of this year. The Thailand office will act as a hub for Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia.

Kamat said, "With the expanding horizon of entertainment in the country the consumer's demands are increasing. The plethora of channels coming up and improved distribution, means boom time for all genres of entertainment."

"Having demonstrated the strength of our intellectual property, the task now is to demonstrate production expertise by providing the Indian audiences with interesting and innovative content," Kamat added.