Endemol Creating A Division To Exploit Shows Through Games
Having decided to concentrate less on the emerging genre of web-native interactive social drama, TV producer Endemol UK is creating a new online gaming division to exploit both its existing an third-party TV formats in the games world.
Endemol UK’s product and brand exploitation head Jurian Van de Meer is being named MD for Endemol Games, reporting to Endemol UK’s COO Lucas Church.
The company reckons its shows, which include Deal Or No Deal and Big Brother, “seamlessly cross over in to branded gaming”.
In truth, Endemol is not a stranger to gaming. A Deal Or No Deal title is already on the shelves, last year it deployed its 1 Vs 100 gameshow as an experimental games-TV crossover on Xbox live and there’s a Deal casual game on Facebook, too.
We’re seeing big opportunities open up for shows like Doctor Who and X Factor on Wii and beefier games consoles.
Endemol disbanded its dedicated digital unit recently when global digital media and new business head Adam Valkin and UK digital head Peter Cowley left.
DOND is a highly profitable game online and for some gambling companies contributes to more than 40-50% of their profits. No doubt endemol wants to exploit this space for themselves. They license the game to all the gambling companies. Imagine a scenario where they don’t renew the licenses and just promote one brand- their own. Amazing business opportunity, could get them millions of players overnight.