SPT gets Married in Israel, Bulgaria

MIPCOM NEWS: Married With Children, one of Sony Pictures Television’s (SPT) local production favourites, is continuing its global tour with new deals in Israel and Bulgaria.

Keshet TV has signed a pact with SPT to produce 50 episodes of a local adaptation to air on Channel 2. In Bulgaria, Viasat Broadcasting has taken the sitcom format for 120 episodes for its Bulgarian network Nova TV.

Married With Children is one of SPT’s most successful scripted formats, with local versions previously produced in Argentina, Armenia, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Hungary, Turkey, Russia and Spain.

Elsewhere, SPT’s Moscow unit, SPT Productions Russia, has won a commission from broadcaster CTC to produce 40 episodes of a sitcom based on the CBS hit The King of Queens. The series will air from December and the deal marks Sony’s first local-language version of the format.

“The significant growth in SPT’s scripted formats business demonstrates how, with the right expertise, the best storytelling translates into any culture or language,” said Jeff Lerner, senior VP of international scripted development and production at SPT.