Warner Bros. Scores Bulgarian Output Deal

July 2, 2009 World Screen

SOFIA/BURBANK: Central European Media Enterprises’ (CME) PRO.BG is to become the new Bulgarian home for TV series, feature films and animated series from Warner Bros. International Television Distribution (WBITD) via a multiyear output deal announced today that includes the hit shows Fringe and The Mentalist.

The Bulgarian broadcaster has already made a substantial investment in its content slate, picking up the rights to key sporting events such as UEFA’s Champions League and Europa League, as well as the local Bulgarian A league. With the WBITD deal, effective this month, the channel scores the rights to J.J. Abrams’ Fringe, CBS’s hit drama The Mentalist, Jerry Bruckheimer’s new show Dark Blue and John Wells’ latest NBC show, Southland. On the movie front, PRO.BG will be able to air The Last Samurai, Ocean’s Eleven, Training Day and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, among others.

“After six months of very competitive negotiation, we are extremely glad to have landed the most important and biggest deal on our market," said Liliana Slavova, the program director at the channel. "PRO.BG is going to air more than 900 hours of programming per year from Warner Bros. The latest hit films and TV series from Warner Bros. will be available soon for Bulgarian viewers, only on PRO.BG, and our viewers will be happy to learn that we have acquired the rights to the series involved “for life,” meaning that whenever a new season of a particular program has been made, in Bulgaria it will be aired on PRO.BG.”

“This deal positions PRO.BG to become the Bulgarian home for our highly sought-after Warner Bros. programming, and is a great fit for the channel’s audience,” said Jeffrey R. Schlesinger, the president of Warner Bros. International Television. “With a healthy slate of continuing hits and some of the most highly anticipated new series of the upcoming U.S. television season, we are pleased that PRO.BG has selected our programming to be the core U.S. programming to launch their channel, and we look forward to working closely with them to make our shows hits with their viewers.”

PRO.BG was launched as TV2 in November 2007 and acquired in August 2008 by CME.