Maarten Meijs, managing director of Talpa Distribution, says: ‘The last countries where The Voice has been aired are Russia, Spain, Georgia in Europe, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil and Mexico in Latin America, China and Vietnam in Asia, Australia. We can say we already are present in the most important markets worldwide, in 50 different territories with local versions. The Voice is something unique, we can’t expect so success every day, but we have a rich group of very good and fresh formats that with the push of The Voice, we expect to turn into very successful franchises from now’.

Directly from The Voice, Talpa manages The Voice Kids, which ‘faces the same magic and extend the audience to younger targets. We have already sold it in ten countries’, Meijs comments. ‘Also, in game shows, we have The Winner is, which is being broadcast in NBC USA as The Voice with very good ratings, and it is sold to 10 countries, too. Another show is I love my country, which makes people game but showing very interesting places and matters of the country they live, reinforcing the local push. We’ve already sold it in 30 territories’.

What is the difference about Talpa facing the global format titans? Meijs: ‘Every company has its own advantages, but we think we are a good combination of the push of a new company, the experience of experts as John de Mol (the founder of Endemol that then created Talpa) and his creative team, plus a company that is flexible enough to adapt better the operation and the products to the different customer needs. Facing the big format titans and the new companies, we may say we want to provide the best of the two worlds’.