SPTI Acquires European Format Rights to Korean Drama

HONG KONG, August 10: Sony
Pictures Television International (SPTI) has secured the format rights for
Europe to the Korean drama series Hyena from
CJ Media.

The deal marks the first time
that SPTI has acquired a scripted format from the Asia-Pacific region for
Europe, and further strengthens the relationship between SPTI and CJ Media.
Last year, the two companies concluded an agreement to distribute Hyena and other CJ Media-produced series in Asia,
excluding Japan, China and Korea.

Hyena was the number-one Korean drama in 2006, capturing a
47-percent share of total TV households. The drama charts the lives of four
single guys—Chul-Soo, Suk-Jin, Jin-Bum and Jin-Sang—as they
discover that though they may only look for casual relationships, sometimes
they find true love. The writing on Hyena was supervised by Wan-Kyu Choi, the
head writer who was also behind Prince of the Legend.

“Hyena has proven to
be a groundbreaking series in Korea incorporating the dramatic elements and
fine writing of Korean dramas with a Western episodic structure,” said Mary
Chan, SPTI’s executive director of Asia production. “But more importantly, it
is simply a great story filled with rowdy humor. We look forward to bringing
this great story to audiences beyond Asia by formatting it in Europe. This is
just another example of how we are actively creating, acquiring and
distributing Asian content within Asia and to the rest of the world as well.”