MOSCOW — The Russian TV content producer Comedy Club Production (CCP) is entering a joint venture in China to adapt its shows for the Chinese market.
CCP’s co-owner and general producer Artur Dzhanibekyan told the Russian business daily Vedomosti that the company’s Chinese partner is the financial group MNC Eurasia, the investment in the project is to be between $1.1 billion and $1.4 billion over the next two years and the first Chinese adaptations are to be aired this summer.
CCP started out producing the stand-up comedy show Comedy Club, which adopted a general concept of the American show Saturday Night Live, and is now producing several other top-rating shows, primarily for the entertainment channel TNT.
According to Dzhanibekyan, all of CCP’s main shows, including Comedy Club, another stand-up comedy show Nasha Russia and the youth-oriented reality show Dom-2, are to be adopted for Chinese audiences.
To date, the only successful attempt by a Russian TV company to enter the Chinese market was the children’s cartoon series Smeshariki, adopted in China alongside a half dozen other countries. It has been aired on the state-run channel CCTV since early March.
