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MIPCOM: A second Norwegian channel has taken the plunge into the diving formats that are making the headlines at this year’s Mipcom.
ProSiebenSat.1 Media-owned TVNorge is the latest in a growing list of broadcasters to opt for Eyeworks’ version, Celebrity Splash.
This makes Norway the first country to enter into a celeb diving formats face-off, after the country’s TV2 picked up rights to Banijay International’s Stars in Danger earlier this week.
Significantly, TVNorge programming director Eivind Landsverk said Celebrity Splash was “the only diving format in the market presented as a series.”
TVNorge has signed up to two seasons of the show, with the second likely to launch no later than fall 2013, a channel source indicated, but declined to disclose details for competition reasons.
The show will be made by local Eyeworks affiliate Eyeworks Dinamo and Norwegian Olympic and world champion alpine skiing multiple-gold medallists Kjetil André Aamodt and Lasse Kjus are already signed up.
“Production is already in progress in both the UK and US, two of the most important TV markets in the world,” said Odd Arvid Strømstad of Eyeworks Dinamo. “This is a playful family fun format and a perfect fit for TVNorge’s concise and positive profile.”
The format is now at the centre of a widely reported row between Eyeworks and Banijay International, which has expressed concerns over similarities between the rival Dutch format and its own show, a claim Eyeworks has rejected.
In the past week, Eyeworks has sold the format to ABC in the US, ITV in the UK, France’s TF1, Nelonen in Finland and Ukraine’s 1+1.
