Venevision International and Electus Partner to Exploit Telenovela Formats in the U.S. and Worldwide

CANNES, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)--(MIPCOM 2012) – Venevision International, a global entertainment company of the Cisneros Group of Companies, signed a deal with Ben Silverman’s multimedia entertainment studio Electus, an operating business of IAC (Nasdaq: IACI), for the national and international commercialization of the English-language formats of the telenovelas “The Black Widow,” “Millionaire Maid” and “Country of Women.”

“Electus has made a significant investment across all media platforms in developing content for and from Latin America, with telenovelas widely recognized as the quintessential and most successfully exported content tradition from the region”

“In the world of Latin entertainment, the Cisneros Group’s worldwide distributor, Venevision International, has a proven track record of more than 35 years in the commercialization of quality television programming, but now with the power of one of the industry’s most reputable studios behind these three exceptional and novel dramatic series, we can only expect our content to be at the forefront of the U.S. general market and, consequently, expand our reach into other English-speaking markets around the world,” stated Adriana Cisneros de Griffin, Vice Chairman & Vice President of Strategy of the Cisneros Group.

Led by founder Ben Silverman, Electus is the first integrated multimedia entertainment studio to unite producers, creators, advertisers and distributors under one roof and produce all forms of content for distribution across a variety of platforms around the world. Silverman, who has Executive Produced successful adaptations of “Ugly Betty” from the Colombian telenovela “Betty La Fea,” amongst a host of other noteworthy international formats, will adapt and Executive Produce “The Black Widow,” “Millionaire Maid” and “Country of Women” for English-language consumption in the U.S. and around the world. Venevision International will maintain distribution rights for Latin America, while Electus will handle all other markets, with the exception of “Millionaire Maid” in China where the format has already been sold. The deal was brokered by Eli Shibley, Vice President of International Media and Formats for Electus and Miguel Somoza, Sales Director, Venevision International.

“Electus has made a significant investment across all media platforms in developing content for and from Latin America, with telenovelas widely recognized as the quintessential and most successfully exported content tradition from the region,” said Ben Silverman, founder and Chairman, Electus. “These titles are perfect examples of universal concepts within the telenovela genre that can live on screens in the U.S. and around the world and we could not be more thrilled with this partnership.”