Viacom and “Big Brother” producer Endemol NV will debut “Viacom Blink!” this Summer in Poland, targeting women 16-49 years old. It will offer (you guessed it) Endemol-distributed shows such as “Hot in Cleveland,” “Fear Factor U.S.” and “Make Me a Supermodel.”
The network will initially be available to more than 1 million households on pay-TV platforms Multimedia Polska and N Platform and other local distributors. Viacom and Endemol are also seeking deals with distributors for the channel elsewhere in central Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. Viacom is in talks with studios to show feature films on the network as well. Endemol will also make original productions for Viacom Blink! in the future, according to a Bloomberg article.
Plans for Viacom Blink! were being hatched last year, culminating in the long-term partnership that gives Viacom access to more than 4,000 hours of content for TV and digital media platforms, the companies said. This guarantees 800 hours of premium premiere hours in the first year and about 650 hours in coming years.
RBR-TVBR observation: With the successes of Lifetime, Oxygen and perhaps OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network down the road, global companies are joining forces to super-serve audiences across the globe now wired in to the 500-channel universe. When content makes a hit in one country, we are now seeing it quickly sprout roots in other countries—often with their own version of the show. Endemol is certainly one of the leaders in making this happen.
