Dutch, Finnish Treatments for Eccho Rights’ u:Supporters

STOCKHOLM: Eccho Rights has inked two deals that will see the new entertainment format u:Supporters from Uncle Ned being adapted in the Netherlands and Finland.

u:Supporters brings together fans and professional players in a video-game tournament based on league football. Tuvalu is developing a local version for the Netherlands based on the Dutch Eredivisie football league. The Finnish treatment, based on a national ice hockey league, is being developed by Yellow Film. The format first launched in Sweden, where it aired on TV4 as well as online on Fotbollskanalen.

Taco Zimmerman, the creative director at Tuvalu, remarked: “Young men are historically a hard audience to attract, but u:Supporters taps into the biggest activity for this demographic—playing video games—and the biggest sport on Earth—football. It builds a bridge between the two worlds and creates an exciting TV event.”

Milla Bruneau, the COO of Yellow Film & TV Group at Yellow Film, noted: “Since ice hockey is a bigger sport in Finland than football, we looked at how we could make it relevant for our audiences and ice hockey seems the natural choice.”

Nicola Söderlund, the managing partner at Eccho Rights, added: “The great thing about this format, which is illustrated by the deal in Finland, is that it is easy to adapt for local markets where football might not be the number one sport. I can imagine basketball or American football versions being popular in some territories.”