'Business Idol' deals for Sony

Sony Pictures Television International has found a number of buyers for a newly-acquired reality talent-search format that extends the genre into the hunt for the next business entrepreneur.

Dragon's Den involves youngsters with money-spinning ideas pitching to a panel of venture capitalists and investment bankers, who all have briefcases of their own cash to invest in new schemes there and then.

{It's Business Idol,{ Sony's vp of international formats, Tim Crescenti told C21. The format, devised and originally broadcast by Japan's Nippon Television, has been licensed to Russian network TNT and pan-Middle Eastern satcaster MBC.

The UAE-based network is lining up 25 episodes, to be produced out of five Middle Eastern capitals, including Cairo, Riyadh and Dubai. The move continues the Middle East's trend for pan-regional adaptations of reality formats.

The Russian channel has also licensed Sony's win-a-job reality format Human Resources and the interactive quiz Red Numbers. Human Resources (aka Recursos Humanos) was devised by Argentina's Imagen Real, while Red Numbers (aka Numeros Rojos) came through Spanish indie ZZJ.

Other recent deals for Sony include Russian Roulette licences going to SIC (Portugal), TVR2 (Romania), MediaCorp (Singapore) NTV7 (Malaysia), Mediaset (Italy) and ITV (UK). {Russian Roulette is turning into a juggernaut,{ enthused Crescenti.

Sony has also struck format licences with WB Network (US), VT4 (Belgium) and MBC for the vintage format The Gong Show, originally devised by US gameshow legend Chuck Barris.

Crescenti described the format as {the opposite of Pop Idol,{ in which contestants win small amounts of cash for performing bizarre stunts, {…like juggling cats,{ and face being unceremoniously gonged off by Barris. Sony has sold another of Barris' formats, The Dating Game, to Greek network Mega, for autumn. The format airs as Blind Date in the UK.

Other new Sony acquisitions for MipTV include Israeli format Heaven or Hell from Keshet and Game Show Network's revision quiz Cram.

As for the future, Crescenti said that a move into {partially scripted hybrid reality formats{ is on the cards. {There's a glut of hidden-camera shows out there, offering little more than CCTV and bank surveillance footage.{

{Viewers now want more than that,{ he continued. {Better shot, with more story.{ Citing the BBC show The Kumars at No. 42 as a good example, he said Sony has around 12 such hybrid projects in the pipeline, all mixing actors with members of the public and celebrities.

Crescenti also cited Sony's 1975 ABC sitcom Hot L Baltimore as something that could be adapted into a scripted-reality show set in a run-down hotel. {Viewers want more substance from reality these days,{ he said.