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Foreign TV imports left out for international viewers

Indian import '24' not showing internationally
Indian import '24' not showing internationally

Two major foreign formats that had been acquired for Indian television have been left out for viewers internationally including the UK and USA.

Popular American thriller format ’24’, produced for Fox Network, is based on a day’s event in the life of a Jack Bauer. He is the Director of Field Ops for the Counter-Terrorist Unit of Los Angeles, who races against the clock to subvert terrorist plots and save his nation from ultimate disaster. The Indian version, bought by Viacom18 India’s Colors channel, launched on Friday at 22:00 (60 minutes) but viewers outside Indian were omitted from the launch.

A spokesperson for Colors India said the show’s rights did not include UK but things were still being worked out, so possibly a deffered launch for a later date.

On Star Life Ok, ‘The Bachelorette India- Mere Khayaalon ki Mallika’ has been left out for similar reasons. The show, which launches on Monday at 21:30 (60 minute slot) will not be shown internationally due to copyright issues. ‘The Bachelorette’ is a reality dating game show, which launched in 2003 on American network ABC. Star TV bought the rights to the show last year for its second entertainment channel, Star Life Ok.

The Indian version of the show sees Bollywood actress, Mallika Sherawat sift through 30 men vying for her attention to become her partner.

Time slots of both shows are being used in the UK for repeats and re-runs of others shows by their respective network.

Other succesful formats from international broadcasters have paved their way on Indian television, without any glitches for UK/USA transmission. ‘Bigg Boss’, which is the Indian version of hit reality TV show ‘Big Brother’ has been showing succesfully worldwide on Colors, plus fictions like ‘Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa’ (Dancing With The Stars), ‘Indian Idol’ (Pop Idol) and ‘The X Factor’ (The X Factor) just to name some.