Netflix-style CEE service, 1+1 take Hostages

A new Netflix-style SVOD service in central and eastern Europe and Ukrainian broadcaster 1+1 are the latest buyers of Israeli drama Hostages.

SVOD service Pickbox.tv acquired the Armoza Formats-sold 10x60mins show earlier this summer and is offering it to customers in territories such as including Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Montenegro.

1+1 will begin running it this autumn, following suit from broadcasters in Australia, the UK and France.

In further news, Endemol has licensed the Hostages format in Russia.

A US version of the scripted format, which follows a surgeon whose family is taken hostages while their captors demand she botches routine surgery on the president, for CBS launched concurrently with an Israeli one in October last year.

“Hostages really caught our interest when we saw it, due to the originality of the storyline and episodes that keep the audience on the edge of their seats,” said 1+1 programming director Andrey Koval.
“We are excited to be one of the first channels to be bringing non-Russian and non-Western content to our viewers and to be providing them with new and exciting dramas.”