Warner Bros strikes Asahi deal

Warner Bros has struck a deal with TV Asahi. The studio and the Japanese broadcaster will develop, coproduce and distribute a raft of new formats to the international market.

The agreement means that Warner Bros International Television Production will remake at least one Asahi format as an English-language pilot and the Hollywood studio will distribute this in the US, Europe and Latin America, while TV Asahi will distribute across Asia.

This comes after the two companies worked together on the celebrity panel show Ranking the Stars, which was produced by Asahi and distributed by Warner Bros International Television Production across the Netherlands, Belgium, Russia, Poland, Sweden, Korea, India and Lithuania.

Asahi is the latest Japanese broadcaster to tie up its catalogue with one international distributor; Fuji struck a deal last year with FremantleMedia for the RTL-owned company to develop and distribute its formats internationally.