Montreal-based unscripted format production and distribution company Media Ranch has expanded its presence in Asia via a partnership with South Korea’s Something Special.
The deal will enable both organizations to represent the other’s most popular formats to the global marketplace.
As a result, Media Ranch’s entertainment competition format Watch! will now be represented by Something Special in Asia, while Something Special’s healthy lifestyle competition formats Miracle Recipes (pictured) and Miracle Habits will be represented outside of Asia by Media Ranch.
The newly formed partnership further exhibits Media Ranch’s commitment to its footprint in Asia which began in July with a multi-year first-look agreement between incubator initiative Horsepower and South Korea’s FormatEast to split IP and co-develop and co-distribute various projects.
Seoul-based Something Special was launched earlier this year by former CJ E&M executive and veteran format specialist Jin Woo Hwang (Better late Than Never, I Can See Your Voice, Korea’s Got Talent) and business partner Insoon Kim.
Something Special, which works across both the scripted and unscripted genres, serves as Korea’s first-ever TV format specialty agency for global content development, production and distribution.
The company represents such major producers and creatives from The Masked Singer, Running Man, I Can See Your Voice and others.
“Jin Woo is widely known and respected as a premiere format expert and a pioneer of this business in Asia. Our companies have similar DNA we are confident that Something Special will give our special format, Watch!, the care and attention it deserves, bringing Asian audiences great entertainment,” said Sophie Ferron, president and executive producer of Media Ranch, in a statement.
“Media Ranch is a great partnership for Something Special as we continue to expand during our first year in operation,” added Hwang. “Sophie and her team’s philosophies and goals are very much aligned with Something Special and we trust Media Ranch to bring Miracle Recipes and Miracle Habits to life in the West. We are confident that Media Ranch’s format Watch! will become the new hit format in Asia.”
