The Story Lab

Community Music Format ‘100’ Being Launched by Asahi Broadcasting, Ditur and Empire of Arkadia

by · Variety

Japan’s Asahi Broadcasting Group, creative powerhouse Diturn Korea and Asia-based content incubator Empire of Arkadia have joined forces to co-develop “100,” a community-based music entertainment format.

The show will be distributed globally by EOA and will officially launch at MIP London (Feb. 23-24, 2025), by which time the first two iterations of the format will have taken to the air in Japan and Korea.

The show was designed to address a growing demand for prime-time music entertainment shows. It was conceived by EOA, and was led by Park Wonwoo, the creator of “The Masked Singer,” ABC Japan’s Shiba Satoshi, former producer of Japanese breakout hit “In the Middle of Nowhere” and international format specialist Fotini Paraskakis.

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The format leverages and blends the strengths of Korean innovation in creativity, execution and production with the alternative thinking of Japanese gameplay. “It boasts innovative interactive game play and fresh North Asian structural twists,” the trio said.

Paraskakis was previously Asia MD of Endemol Shine and joined The Story Lab, the Dentsu Aegis-backed content company that counts “Ninja Warrior” among its shows in 2018. Co-creator of recent reality game show format “Koso Koso,” she founded EOA in 2022.

“This is our biggest attempt at format co-development in the international arena. We have great partners in Diturn and EOA, and by taking a fresh, more strategic creative approach, we believe we have a format that has the potential to reach millions of viewers around the world. It’s a fantastic, fun show, pure entertainment,” said Shiba.

“We started out with an original premise from Korea, added creative strategies from Japan, plus ideas that resonate globally, building all this into a known international structure and we are absolutely delighted with the final result! We hope ‘100’ will unite generations, transcend language barriers and serve as another breakthrough for Asian creativity on the global stage,” said Park, Diturn founder and CEO.

“Being able to originate and scale a format internationally with two of the hottest creative industries in the world is an extremely exciting proposition and a tough one to beat,” said Paraskakis.