Aito lures buyers with Fake News format

The concept of fake news, which was a divisive issue in the recent US presidential election, is headed for television screens as a factual entertainment format.

Finnish production company Aito Media has used the controversial topic, which is focused on the mass manufacture and distribution of emotive and politicised news that is demonstrably untrue, to create a new format, Fake News.

Small World IFT, which is also backed by Content, will distribute the format internationally, and will launch it at the Realscreen Summit in Washington DC today.

Fake News will see celebrity contestants tasked with separating real news reports from false ones, and creating their own untruths while telling incredible stories from their own lives.

“The audience is addicted to bogus and totally fake news,” said Aito creative director and chairman Eero Hietala. “We want to harness this addiction with a show that is at the same time entertaining but also exposes the way we consume media.”

“Fake News builds on a phenomenon highlighted by the past US presidential elections,” added Ilkka Hynninen, CEO of Content Media Corp-backed Aito, which is behind shows such as All-Star Lifeguards and Night Patrol. “It is getting increasingly hard to separate real news from fake news. The timing for our show is perfect.”