MUMBAI: Keshet International (KI)’s trailblazing interactive talent format Rising Star has been licensed by the brand new Cambodian broadcaster Town TV. Building on its existing talent management agency and production company, Town Group will launch its new free-to-air channel in late 2016/early 2017 with RISING STAR as its flagship, prime-time weekend entertainment show. The must-see series will be produced in-house by Town TV.
Keshet International Asia head Gary Pudney said, “Rising Star is only just starting its life cycle in Asia. A success for CCTV China and RCTI Indonesia – which is soon to air its second season - it has proven its appeal with Asian audiences. I’m delighted that Town TV has chosen to brand its exciting new channel with Rising Star as the tent pole in its weekend schedule and am certain this is the first of many more deals throughout the region.”
RCTI will begin airing its second season this winter. Season one aired successfully and won a Panasonic Gobel Award for Best Program Talent Show & Reality Show in 2015. The format has also aired across China on state TV channel CCTV-3, where it achieved higher ratings than The Voice and a 30% growth in audience share from the first episode to the last. The finale was also the leading programme of the night across the whole of China.
Earlier this week KI announced two new hires in Asia, Sales Managers Cherry Lu (Beijing) and Kelvin Ko (Hong Kong). Both will report into KI’s Head of Asia Gary Pudney who has outlined the company’s intention to develop fully-fledged local production entities in China and India over the next two years. Since the opening of KI’s dedicated Hong Kong Asia HQ in late 2015 - following earlier successes such as the first season of MASTER CLASS China, which amassed more than one billion views online alone, RISING STAR China and Indonesia, and Spy(MICE) Korea - KI has licensed a number of its hit formats and premium dramas across Asia. The company recently announced the Indian remake of its premium award-winning drama format, Prisoners of War with one of the country’s leading general entertainment channels, Star Plus. The second 12 episode season of its children’s singing format MASTER CLASS, produced locally by 3C Media, has just finished airing on Beijing Satellite TV and Sichuan Satellite TV, and was the no.1 most engaging TV show (by click rate) on the social media site Weibo. KI Asia has also closed deals for MASTER CLASS in Vietnam (TTN Media Corp.), its branded entertainment car game show Trade Up in China (CCTV-2) and its original variety game show Who’s On Top in Indonesia (RCTI). RCTI is also home to series two of KI’s interactive talent show RISING STAR which will air this Winter. As well as selling into Asia, KI is actively acquiring content from the region and staffing up its local operations.
Produced by Tedy Productions for Keshet Broadcasting, Rising Star became the fastest-selling talent show on record when it launched in October 2013, now more than 250 episodes of the show have aired with upwards of 160 million votes tallied worldwide. In Brazil it has become one of the country’s most popular shows with unprecedented activity on social media – some 41 million votes were cast across two seasons and a third season is currently in the pipeline. The show aired successfully in Portugal and beat off competition from the World Cup football fixtures throughout season one. Both season one and two of the show also rated well in Argentina, with more than two million users downloading the Telefe app and 22 million votes cast across both seasons.
