New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAB, VIA) announced today that it will open a two-stage, 88,000 square foot, state-of-the-art production facility in Miami, Florida. The new studio, which was built by the Miami Omni Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) as a public-private partnership with EUE/Screen Gems Studios, will serve as a production hub for Viacom's global entertainment brands including Nickelodeon, MTV and Comedy Central.
"We are creating more content than ever before across all of our brands at Viacom," said Robert Bakish, President and CEO of Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN). "The Viacom International Studio in Miami will offer a turnkey facility where we can create even more original, high quality content to meet the increasing demand for long-and-short-form content on all of our global platforms."
"We have had terrific success with the recent live action productions we have coming from Miami, and we are very excited to be committed to doing more," said Cyma Zarghami, President, Viacom Kids and Family Group. "We are constantly looking for new creative ideas and content formats that allow us to tell stories in a completely different way, and this facility will certainly forward that effort."
"Viacom has demonstrated again and again that hits come from all over the world," said Pierluigi Gazzolo, President, VIMN Americas and Executive Vice President, Nickelodeon International. "With an established track record of multi-lingual hits including Every Witch Way and Talia in the Kitchen being produced in Miami for multiple audiences simultaneously, in global collaboration with the US and local Latin American teams, we're excited to have the opportunity to further expand our production capabilities in the market."
Located in central Miami, the studio location offers access to a highly skilled, multi-lingual talent pool essential to creating global productions in multiple languages. The facilities will include two modern sound stages equipped to create a variety of content simultaneously, from daily scripted series, music specials and game shows to short form content for mobile, digital and on-air.
"We welcome Viacom as a long-term partner at our new Miami studios," said Chris Cooney, Chief Operating Officer of EUE/Screen Gems Studios. "Our company has worked closely with Viacom to develop a facility worthy of a dynamic content producer. Today, we celebrate our relationship with Viacom, and we applaud our partners at the Omni CRA, whose vision and efforts have made this building possible."
VIMN Americas' Miami headquarters is responsible for driving Viacom's businesses across Latin
America and Canada and is the production hub for VIMN Americas production unit which creates content for Viacom International's brand portfolio including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and Paramount Channel. Within the past five years, VIMN Americas has increased its production output in Miami three fold. Viacom global hits produced in Miami include Nickelodeon's Every Witch Way, now in its fourth season, and its newest English-language production Talia in the Kitchen, a spin-off of the Spanish-language Toni, La Chef initially produced for Latin America, and WITS Academy, a spin-off of Every Witch Way, which premieres on Nickelodeon in the US on Monday, October 5th.
The building offers 88,000 square feet of production space, featuring:
Two 15,000-square-foot sound stages with ceiling clearance 40 feet to the grid
Lighting dimmer systems with cabled and powered lighting grids
Lighting, electric and grip on site
12 post-production rooms
16 dressing rooms, including six star dressing rooms, plus two make-up rooms
Two green rooms
Technical equipment, prop, and set storage
Designated spaces for the art department
Production offices
Conference and break rooms
Commissary seating for up to 200
Audience holding areas
Mill shop, warehouse space
Wardrobe rooms with washers and dryers
EUE/Screen Gems has entered into a long-term lease with Miami's Omni CRA to operate the new facility. Viacom has worked with EUE/Screen Gems to host its Atlanta offices and shows for BET Networks.
About Viacom
Viacom is home to premier global media brands that create compelling television programs, motion pictures, short-form video, apps, games, consumer products, social media and other entertainment content for audiences in more than 165 countries and territories. Viacom's media networks, including Nickelodeon, CMT, Nick Jr., TeenNick, Nicktoons, TV Land, Nick at Nite, MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, SPIKE, Logo, BET, CENTRIC, Channel 5 (UK), Tr3s, Paramount Channel and VIVA, reach a cumulative 3.2 billion television subscribers worldwide. Paramount
Pictures is a major global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment.
