Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) and Endemol have entered into a strategic partnership to launch a new global entertainment brand. Skewed towards a female audience aged 16-49, Viacom Blink! will make its global debut in Poland this summer.
The channel has already secured distribution to over one million households in the country through the cable operator Multimedia Polska and DTH platform n, as well as other local companies. It will in due course explore international distribution opportunities, specifically in Central Europe, the Middle East and Latin America.
Speaking at a special press event in London, Ynon Kreiz, chairman and CEO of Endemol, said the agreement between the two parties will give VIMN access to over 4,000 hours of content specifically for the Polish market, with 650-800 hours being premiered each year. Endemol currently has a library of 24,000 hours and is adding 1,000 hours to it each year.
Bob Bakish, president and CEO of VIMN, added that the strategy is one of “idea, pilot, scale”. Poland is being used to trial Blink! and the brand is likely to be expanded in 2012.
This is not the first partnership between Viacom and Endemol, with the two companies having worked together in the US and India. In The Netherlands, Viacom and Endemol jointly produce the Comedy Central Family channel, exclusively for the Dutch market. Programming consists of US programming combined with classic Dutch comedy series from Endemol.
However, Broadband TV News believes it is the first time an international brand that its owners hope will eventually be on a par with such well-known services as MTV and Nickelodeon has been trialled in a CEE market.
