Warner Bros. Int'l Television Acquires Distribution Rights to CELEBRITY WEDDING PLANNER

Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP) has acquired the rights to distribute the successful prime-time format CELEBRITY WEDDING PLANNER. Produced in the U.K. for Channel 5, by Renegade Pictures and GroupM Entertainment.

WBITVP will be pitching the worldwide format rights (excluding North America and Australia) at next week’s MIPCOM, with Warner Bros. International Television Distribution selling the finished episodes.

Each episode of Celebrity Wedding Planner sees a pair of celebrities plan the wedding of an ordinary couple. But there’s one huge catch. The couple must give total control of the most important day of their lives to the celebrities without knowing their identity. And the famous faces won’t be revealed to them until it’s too late for the bride and groom to back out. Each week the celebrity wedding planners have just three weeks and £12,000 to create a dream wedding for one lucky couple. Will it all end in tears of joy and happiness or will the bride and groom have the worst day of their lives?

“Everyone loves a good wedding – and even more when it could go wrong! It’s such a great concept – brave couples are trusting celebrities to plan such a momentous occasion. It makes for gripping viewing when the stakes are so high and we believe that the format will travel around the globe” said Andrew Zein, SVP, Creative, Format Development and Sales WBITVP.

"We have had a huge amount of fun - and success - creating and producing this format for Channel 5 in the UK, and are now excited to see it roll out internationally". Ed Nissen, Managing Director, Renegade Pictures.

"The original commission was a step in a new direction for the UK broadcaster which historically skewed male and more factual. The show has been a resounding success, beating slot average across all key demographics, and has helped attract a new audience to the Channel. We are delighted to be working with WBITVP to bring this show to the international market". Richard Foster, Managing Director, GroupM Entertainment.

Warner Bros. International Television Production
Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP) aims to establish or acquire production companies in the major television territories around the world in order to become a leading producer of local scripted and non-scripted programming.

In those territories where WBITVP establishes a production base, it operates by developing and producing original programming and also producing local versions of formats owned and controlled by the group such as “The Bachelor”, “The World’s Strictest Parents” and “Who Do You Think You Are?” Where WBITVP has no local production capability it licenses Warner Bros. formats to 3rd parties.

WBITVP has already taken significant steps by acquiring a majority stake in UK production group Shed Media, one of the UK’s largest and most successful independent production companies, which operates both in the UK and the US. Most recently it has acquired a majority stake in BlazHoffski Holding B.V., a leading independent television producer in The Netherlands and Belgium.

Renegade Pictures
For the past six years the now Shed Media-owned indie has been supplying broadcasters around the world with ground-breaking, high quality television content across many genres.

Productions range from the global format hit Don't Tell The Bride to the renowned World’s Most Dangerous Roads series and encompasses big entertainment shows like Popstar to Opera and insightful documentaries like Closing Guantanamo.

Renegade has built series around some of the biggest names in British television including Sarah Beeny, Claudia Winkleman, Cherry Healey, Rhod Gilbert, Greg Davies and Heston Blumenthal.  The company is also one of the UK's leading producers of 3D content, having created Britain's first 3D comedy for Sky and the acclaimed Safari Park Adventure for Discovery.

Renegade hasn't restricted itself to television, producing cinema documentaries including the mischievous The Yes Men Fix the World and has branched out into radio with the scandalous Hot Gossip.

Whatever the media or genre, Renegade prides itself on having sharp, contemporary ideas, produced to the highest standards that appeal to audiences around the world.

GroupM Entertainment
GroupM Entertainment Worldwide produces, finances and distributes entertainment properties for the international market. The company's primary business interests extend across all media platforms and a variety of genre, including entertainment, scripted, factual and factual entertainment.

GroupM Entertainment is part of GroupM, the leading global media investment management operation, serving as the parent company to agencies including Maxus, MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare.

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