ARMOZA FORMATS AND HUNAN TV STARTS STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

Armoza Formats, part of ITV Studios, have announced a co-development deal with leading Chinese broadcaster Hunan TV. As part of this deal, the companies have worked together to launch “Dance Smash,” a prime time dance competition based on Quebecor Content and Fair-Play’s format “Dance Revolution,” which originally aired on Canada’s TVA.

Following further development by Hunan TV, Armoza, TVA and Fair-Play, “Dance Smash” began airing in China this month, with a record-breaking premiere that has become the best launch for a Chinese television dance competition show in the past two years. The first episode won the timeslot with a 5.2% share and achieved a remarkable 7.8% share with the youth under-23’s demo.

“Dance Revolution” (11x90’) is the prime time dance show that welcomes all dancers to compete and be judged with a 360˚ shot of their most spectacular “Revolution” moment using state-of-the-art technology. In every stage, the masters will have the help of the Revolution moments – capturing the dancers’ precise and timeless movements to make sure that they make the right decision. The dancers’ performances and the breath-taking Revolution moments will decide the four finalists, who will showcase their talent in the hope of winning the $100k grand prize.

Yann Paquet, Vice-President of Quebecor Content, said: “‘Dance Revolution’ is a hit in Canada and we are excited about the growing international interest in this unique format, developed with our partners at Fair-Play. The success of the Chinese version testifies to the talents of Quebec’s creators and the quality of our formats”.

Lester Hu, Head of Formats and International Business at Hunan TV, commented: “We are happy to have found the right partner for this new co-development deal and that our first project from this collaboration, ‘Dance Smash’, is an absolute success on our channel. Built on the original idea, our in-house producers have worked heavily on its redevelopment to be the perfect fit for China, including a completely different approach in casting. We look forward to continuing to build our strong relationship with Armoza by co-developing new format ideas for both China and the international market”.

Avi Armoza, CEO of Armoza Formats, concluded: “At Armoza Formats, we strongly believe in using creative and innovative content as a way to connect viewers worldwide and believe that ‘Dance Revolution’ does so in a truly unique way. We are thrilled that the Chinese adaptation ‘Dance Smash’ is successfully airing, using the format’s revolutionary technology to wow the Chinese audiences, and see this as a strong start to many future collaborations with Hunan TV”.