Killer Karaoke travels to India

An Indian broadcaster has picked up the rights to air a local version of Zodiak Media’s extreme singing format Killer Karaoke.

Local Tamil channel Zee Tamizh has licensed the format from Zodiak Rights, the international sales division of Zodiak Media.

The broadcaster will air 42×60’ episodes of the format (locally titled Y This Kolaveri), which will be produced by Zodiak Media’s Sol Production.

The deal is Zee Tamizh’s first acquisition of an international format.

Killer Karaoke challenges competitors to do their best to sing along to popular tunes while others do all they can to disrupt them.

The deal follows Thai broadcaster MCOT tapping local producer Heliconia to produce a 24×60′ run of the show, which began in September. The broadcaster has now commissioned a second 24×60′ season, which will go into production next year.

Last week Zodiak Rights announced the series has also been picked up in Vietnam (BHD), Cambodia (Hang Meas HDTV) and the Philippines (TV5).

The format, which has already been sold into Russia (U-TV), the Netherlands (RTL5) and Czech Republic (Barrandov TV), is an extreme version of another Zodiak format, Sing If You Can.

The truTV US adaptation hosted by Steve-O (Jackass) has also travelled across the world, to broadcasters including BSkyB-owned Challenge in the UK, Comedy Central in Germany and TVNZ in New Zealand.

Zodiak Rights retains worldwide distribution rights to Killer Karaoke.