Fox Networks Group has acquired worldwide format rights to Chinese reality show “The Dunk of China.” Rights were sourced from streaming giant Youku, and the deal announced at MIPCOM in Cannes.
The show features up-and-coming basketball players who battle it out in team games and individual challenges to see who would come out on top. Judges and mentors include sports stars, including Jeremy Lin of the Brooklyn Nets, and Chinese acting-singing superstar Jay Chou (“The Green Hornet”). It premiered in August and earned over 50 million views.
Fox Asia aims to recreate and localize the basketball competition series for regional and global markets. A plan is already underway for a Dunk of Taiwan, in the territory which is notable for its huge population of passionate basketball fans, and where schools tournament games have aired on FOX Sports Taiwan.
Taiwan is also home to FNG Asia’s first Fox Creative Lab incubator program, which was launched in May 2018. The inaugural incubator program invited five fellows from Taiwan to fly to Los Angeles to take part in a week of masterclasses and immersive experiences.
The deal will “further empower FNG Asia’s ambitious strategy for boosting its overall acquired and original Chinese content strategy,” the company said. China is the MIPCOM Cannes Country of Honor 2018, with multiple events throughout the tradeshow highlighting China’s booming TV market.
“We are aligned with FNG Asia in our aim to drive more exposure and viewership for original Chinese content, in support of China’s burgeoning entertainment and creative talent industry,” said Judy Lu, Youku’s senior director of content cooperation.