Ludo Poppe’s Peking Express Gets Orders in France, the Netherlands

BRUSSELS: Former Zodiak USA exec Ludo Poppe’s new outfit EcchoMedia has landed two deals for the Peking Express format, which is returning to Net5 in the Netherlands for a fifth season and M6 in France for an eighth.

EcchoMedia’s EcchoLine production unit will line-produce the new installments of the adventure reality format, which Poppe created. Poppe was previously the head of the Zodiak USA office before the merger with RDF Media. He was also the founder of the Belgian-Dutch production outfit Kanakn. The Dutch and French deals mark the first international sales for EcchoLine since making its debut at the recent MIPCOM market. 

Gert Van Kerckhove, the managing director of EcchoMedia, commented: “We’re very pleased with the deals in France and the Netherlands as they represent a significant milestone for EcchoLine. We are working very hard to efficiently roll out Peking Express, an independent format we considered underexploited. We are thrilled with these two deals. And, especially the closed-end celebrity version of Peking Express, called STRIPPED Celebrity Race, is a big success. We will be announcing new deals soon. This is prove that independent international line-production can help underexploited formats travel. That is our mission!”

Alphons Martens, the director of programming at Net5, said: “Ever since I became director of programs at Net5 in May 2010 people kept asking me when we were going to bring back the format, so I knew that Peking Express still had a lot of fans. Therefore I’m extremely pleased that we’re embarking on another exciting route with Peking Express.”