Endemol is bringing its reality show "Big Brother" to China in cooperation with Youku Tudou Inc., which is the country's leading digital video platform generating over 200 billion views a year from its more than half a billion active users across screens, WN reported.
With the show's production starting soon, the breakthrough Chinese version of "Big Brother" will premiere in early 2015 and will run for 10 weeks.
Endemol's Asia operations chief executive Arjen van Mierlo said that the internationally known reality show can reach the Chinese audience efficiently "in a market that annually generates hundreds of billions of video views."
"Partnering with the number one digital video platform will allow us to bring Big Brother to a young audience and deliver the most immersive, interactive and unique experience to fans across the nation," van Mierlo explained.
The collaborative show between Endemol China and Youku Tudou has been established in Beijing.
According to Youku Tudou chairman and chief executive Victor Koo, they are "delighted to be joining forces with Endemol to finally bring this ground-breaking format to China."
It will debut on Youku Tudou, which has a market capitalization worth approximately $4 billion and is publicly listed in New York.
Created by John de Mol, "Big Brother" was originally based on a TV show of the same name from the Netherlands. The premise of the reality game show is that a group of people called "housemates" or "houseguests" live together in a specially built house guided by Big Brother, who is identified only with his voice.
So far, 25 series of "Big Brother" have aired in more than 70 countries.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, a deal to license "Educating the East End" was inked and issued to Hunan TV, which will give the Chinese viewers their own version of the hit documentary format from the United Kingdom, The Guardian reported.