2waytraffic Lands Raft of Deals for Japanese Comedy Format

LONDON, October 24:
2waytraffic has struck deals for Nippon Television’s (NTV) hit Japanese format Silent
Library in six countries,
including France and Norway.

Antena 3 in Spain is
currently broadcasting the format under the title La Biblioteka on its youth channel Antena.Neox. The 40×13-minute
series was produced by Spanish production company Zebra Producciones.

In France, Virgin 17
commissioned Coyote to produce a pilot, while in Romania, Zucchero/Power Media
is producing a 12×30-minute game-show version of the format for B1 TV to air
this fall.

In Scandinavia, SBS
commissioned Nordisk to create a 10×30-minute game-show version to air on SBS’s
Kanal 5 in Sweden, SBS Net in Denmark and TV Norge in Norway. The series
features competing teams from all three countries.

Silent Library was created by Japanese comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto
as part of NTV’s popular variety show Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende. The series is set in a library, where a team must
perform pranks and punishments on each other while having to remain as silent
as possible.

Ed Louwerse, the managing
director of 2waytraffic International, said: “Silent Library is proving a very adaptable format with great
appeal to broadcasters especially those targeting younger viewers. Alongside
these six territories, we have numerous further deals which are near
completion.”

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski