Televisa in French Alliance

CANNES, April 9: At a
press conference at MIPTV, Televisa Internacional announced an alliance with
France’s JLA Group, with plans to work together on adapting each other’s
properties and developing new content.

The alliance follows their
successful collaboration on the French version of Televisa’s Código Postal, entitled Baie des Flamboyants, produced for RFO and France Télévisions. The new
alliance will see the adaptation of JLA’s formats in Spanish and the production
of Televisa’s telenovelas in French. Televisa and JLA will also work together
to develop original telenovelas for the European markets. Furthermore, Televisa
content will air on JLA’s IDF1 channel, and both companies will work together
to develop ancillary products for all of their co-productions.

In other Televisa formats
news, the Mexican media giant has announced that production has begun on the
Chinese adaptation of La Fea mas Bella (The Prettiest Ugly Girl). The show is the Mexican version of Colombian
broadcaster RCN’s hit Yo soy Betty la Fea. The Chinese version is being producted in
collaboration with broadcaster Hunan Satellite Television, as well as the
independent production company Nesound and RCN Television. The
Mandarin-language version is called Chou Nu Wu Di (The Ugly Girl with no
Rival) and will consist of 400
episodes, based on the Televisa version but adapted to local conditions. Hunan
launches the series in September 2008. There will be five seasons of 80
half-hour episodes.

—By Mansha Daswani