Fremantle inks Japanese copro deal

FremantleMedia has inked a long term coproduction deal with Japanese production company TV Man Union, the first time UK and Japanese companies have done this.

Fremantle will look to launch formats such as Idols and Project Runway in Japan, while it also hopes to take international distribution rights to Japanese formats from Man Union, the company that created Test The Nation.

FremantleMedia CEO Tony Cohen said: "We want to jointly develop television content and look at each other’s content and see what would work in each other’s markets."

Yutaka Shigenobu, chairman and CEO at TV Man Union, added: "This is an alliance between two great production companies. This is just the start of ideas."

Meanwhile, Fremantle has also inked a deal with Singapore’s Media Development Agency to produce a number of shows in the country. This follows its production of cooking show Kylie Kwong: My China.