Ridiculous format deals for Viacom

MTV is readying five local versions of its viral video format Ridiculousness.

The international arm of MTV parent company Viacom has set up a hub in Spain and will make local versions of Ridiculousness for the MTV channels in Spain, France, Italy, Africa and the Netherlands & Belgium.

The format sees hosts presenting and commenting upon viral sourced from around the internet. In the US the show launched on MTV in 2011 and is presented by Rob Dyrdek.

Madrid-based entertainment producer La Competencia Producciones will make the new European and African versions of the clip show.

Laura Abril, senior VP of Youth & Music and Kids & Family Brands at VIMN SEMEA said: “By taking a well-known property like Ridiculousness, built on highly transferrable and digitally-friendly content, and adding hosts and guest-stars who are well-known in their home countries, we have the opportunity to personalise the same material for each country’s audience, leveraging our hosts’ existing fan bases to boost tune-in and taking advantage of the highly shareable nature of the content to engage our audiences in the multiplatform space as well.’’