France 4th territory to acquire rights Marble Mania
John de Mol’s Talpa closed a deal with TF1 for a local production of the highly successful format only 8 weeks after its initial launch on SBS6 in the Netherlands. Four episodes will be produced by Talpa Entertainment Productions in co-operation with Arthur Essebag’s production company Satisfaction. The first season of Marble Mania scored great ratings in the Netherlands. With an average market share of 24.8% in the 18-44 target group and 22.5% in 25-59, it was the biggest hit on SBS6 in five years.
Julien Degroote, Head of Content Development at TF1, says: “With Marble Mania, TF1 continues to affirm its strategy of offering original and premium co-viewing content. We are confident that Marble Mania will find its place alongside our family entertainment shows such as The Masked Singer, District Z, The Voice and Survivor. What we love about this format is the way John de Mol has reinvented a universal game like marbles with impressive visuals, addictive gameplay and a little bit of craziness.”
On each self-contained episode of this marble spectacle, three celebrities take each other on. Each round starts with a skill assignment, such as bowling, mini golf or a special version of penalty shooting. The three celebrities need to prove their skills in order to win the most marbles to start the second game of the round: the game of luck. This marble race is all about speed, gravity…. and luck. The celebrity whosemarble crosses the finish line first, earns the most points. After three rounds, the celebrity at the top of the ranking will get the most marbles to start in the finale, in which the celebrities can win money for a charity of their choice. The finale is the most impressive and nerve-wrecking round of them all, with no less than 6000 marbles racing down the track. The first episode is set to air this summer.
Marble Mania is produced by Talpa Entertainment Productions and distributed by Talpa Concepts.
About the TF1 Group
The TF1 Group is a major player in the production, publication and distribution of content. Our ambition is to use our content to positively inspire society. Our operations are organized around the following complementary divisions:
- Broadcast with 5 free-to-air channels (TF1, TMC, TFX, TF1 Séries Films, LCI), 4 theme channels (Ushuaia TV, Histoire TV, TV Breizh, Série Club), 3 on-demand content platforms (MYTF1, TFOU MAX), and the TF1 PUB advertising airtime sales house.
- Production via Newen, home to 9 studios in France and around the world.
- Digital via Unify, home to our web natives activities and to high-powered digital communities including aufeminin, Marmiton, Doctissimo and My Little Paris.
- Music via Muzeek One, home to our music and live shows business.
The TF1 Group has operations in 10 countries and nearly 3,200 employees, and generated revenue of €2,337.3 million in 2019. (Euronext Paris : ISIN FR0000054900).
About Talpa
Talpa is a global content house for non-scripted formats based in the Netherlands and founded by John de Mol. The company empowers creativity to produce next-level content that connects people within their homes and around the world. Talpa holds exclusive access rights to premium broadcast and streaming channels in the Netherlands and Germany and has proven to be a successful breeding ground for content creation since the dawn of the industry. Many of today’s evergreen entertainment brands originated at Talpa and are now blueprints for the international market.