Lionsgate to co-develop TV, mobile, Web game show

Instantly Rich will award $1 million per weekly episode

By Danny King -- Video Business, 3/10/2009

MARCH 10 | Lionsgate has joined Madrid-based mobile- and Web-content developer Zed Group to create an hour-long reality-TV program to air on traditional TV as well as mobile- and Web-video formats.

Lionsgate and Zed, which first reached an agreement to co-develop content last September, will launch an English-language version of Spain's Rico al Instante (Instantly Rich) for the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the companies said in a statement last week. Zed launched Rico on Spain's Antena 3 TV network in January.

Lionsgate is trying to build sales at its TV-production unit after revenue from that segment surged 82% to $69.2 million on the AMC's Mad Men, Starz' Crash and VH1's Scream Queens, the studio said last month. The division also produces Showtime's Weeds.

The studio took a loss during its most recently completed quarter from lower-than-expected sales related to theatrical releases such as The Spirit and Transporter 3 and its North American distribution agreement with U.K.-based children's programming producer Hit Entertainment.

Lionsgate also is banking on a mobile-messaging industry that's expected to jump 72% to $224 billion within the next four years, Lionsgate and Zed said, citing Portio Research statistics.

With Instantly Rich, Lionsgate and Zed will give contestants who are contacted via text messaging a chance to win $1 million each week by completing certain challenges and winning votes from the viewing audience. The show will air through both the Internet and traditional TV, though the companies didn't specify which networks would run the new show or when it would debut in the U.S.

In January, Zed reached an agreement with Discovery Communications to distribute mobile content such as ringtones and mobile-device graphics related to Discovery brands such as Animal Planet.