ITVS GE Licenses Formats into Brazil & Argentina

LONDON: A number of formats from the ITV Studios Global Entertainment (ITVS GE) catalogue, among them BBQ Champ, have been licensed for adaptations in Brazil and Argentina.

SBT commissioned BBQ Champ, a cooking competition in which contestants compete in weekly challenges in a battle to be crowned the BBQ champ. The 14×1-hour local series, BBQ Brasil, will premiere on SBT early this year.

Globo in Brazil commissioned the reality format The Audience, which sees a person with a life-changing decision to make opening up their life to “The Audience,” 50 people who follow them for a week and draw on their collective life experience to solve the problem. The series will debut early this year within Globo’s Fantastico program.

In Argentina, ITVS GE sold the rights to the game-show format The Alphabet Game. El Trece has commissioned a 14×1-hour series called Pasapalabra, which will air this January.

Greg Johnson, the executive VP of distribution for the Americas for ITV Studios Global Entertainment, said: “Latin America has been a particular focus for our formats business in the past year and I am delighted to see this strategy come to fruition, with three of our formats set to go into production in key South American markets. There is an increasing demand from broadcasters across the Americas for proven international formats and these deals demonstrate that we are well-placed to meet that need.”