MUMBAI: Finland and The Netherlands have become the latest countries to make local versions of ?The Great Bake Off? after licensing the format from BBC Worldwide.

The Love Productions format has now been licensed to 10 countries by BBC Worldwide including France (M6), Australia (Nine Network), Poland (TLC), Belgium (VTM), Ireland (TV3), Denmark (DR), Norway (TV3) and Sweden (TV7/Sjuan) with a further format licence to CBS in the US by Love Productions meaning the format has now been commissioned in 12 countries including the UK.

Commissioned by the public broadcasting company Max, the Dutch version will be an eight episode series airing on Channel 1 and produced by Blue Circle. Casting has now commenced and the show will premiere in primetime in June under the name ?Heel Holland Bakt? (The Whole of Holland is Baking). Max has also acquired BBC Two?s ?The Great British Bake Off?.

Finnish commercial broadcaster MTV3 has commissioned a 10 episode series to be produced by Nordisk Film TV Finland. Casting has commenced and the local name and date of premiere is yet to be announced. MTV3 has also acquired the UK series.

BBC Worldwide VP format licensing Europe, Middle East and Africa Elin Thomas said, "We?ve seen broadcasters around the world put their own special twist on the format to great success, for example with the speciality cakes that are associated with different countries.Baking is a tradition everyone can relate to so I have no doubt this brilliant format will only continue to win more fans around the world."

Max CEO Jan Slagter said, "I?m very proud that Max will broadcast this series in The Netherlands. We have a rich baking tradition; from Fries Suikerbrood (Fries sugar bread) to Brabandse worstenbroodjes (Brabandse sausage rolls). We want to inspire our viewers, so that the whole country will start baking"

MTV3 head of formats Pete Paavolainen said, " ?The Great Bake Off? is probably the hottest lifestyle format in the world right now and we?ve been following closely when it has triumphed in other Nordic countries. Now it?s our time to also make it a great hit here in Finland."

MUMBAI: BBC In-house Entertainment has announced the appointment of Vincent Dijkema as programme consultant for Format Entertainment.

Between 2007 and 2012, Vincent was a Senior Creative at Talpa in the Netherlands and co-developed numerous entertainment titles, including ?The Voice Of Holland?; ?I Love My Country?; ?The Voice Kids?; and ?My Man Can?t Dance?.

His first job in television production came in 1994, when he joined Endemol in The Netherlands as a Production Assistant. After two years, he joined K&B Events and Television in the Netherlands where he was Production Manager. When K&B merged with indie D&D Production in 1997, he became a Programme Developer.

In 1999, the company was sold to IdtV (a part of All3Media). Vincent left IdtV in 2005 to set up his own production company, Screenyard, which in 2007 set a first look deal with Talpa. After six months, he became a freelance senior creative for Talpa, and in 2008 he joined as Senior Creative in the content department.

He said, "I had some great years with Talpa, but I needed a new challenge. To get the chance to develop formats for peak time BBC is a dream come true. And I thank Katie Taylor for having faith in my creative talent.

BBC controller, Entertainment and Events Katie Taylor said, "It?s fantastic news that in such a competitive global market we can tempt someone of Vincent?s calibre to join In-house Entertainment. As co-creator of such an iconic show as The Voice, he will bring a different dimension to an already talented team that created the highest rating entertainment show of 2012 with the Strictly Final."

MUMBAI: Mobile application provider Nimbuzz has shifted its headquarters from the Netherlands to India and is now strategising to introduce innovations in the segment to create more business values and a new paradigm of mobile advertising.

Nimbuzz said the internet boom in the mobility space is expected to happen in India in the next five years, which was the main reason to shift its global operations to India.

The other reason to shift base is the Smartphones and Tablets adaption rate and the burgeoning growth in the telecom subscriber base in India (currently at 926.53 million). This opens up new, personalised advertising opportunities for brands to reach a vast segment of the diverse consumer base.

The company is operating on the notion that "SMS-based advertising is not even close to what the industry is expecting from mobile advertising."

Nimbuzz is now focussing on driving its revenue through location-based mobile advertising, Nimbuzz Bots (popular as Nimbuzz Chatbuddies) and analytics.

Brands across sectors like FMCG, retail, healthcare and technology are increasingly using the mobile medium to advertise and interact with their customers. In order to provide these advertisers with an effective approach to invest their marketing spends in a cost effective and more impactful manner, Nimbuzz has introduced personalised advertising.

The company is the pioneer in offering hyper-local targeted ads (HLTA) on the mobile platform across the globe. This tool allows the advertiser to advertise according to the location of the mobile phone user. For example, when the Nimbuzz user is in one of the malls, he sees a location based ad which prompts him to visit a pub within the mall for happy hour discounts.

Nimbuzz has also introduced the Chat Buddy Developer Program (CBDP) recently which is expected to help brands, publishers, and independent developers get access to the 85 million Nimbuzz users across more than 200 countries.

Nimbuzz has also collaborated with the many established brands and publishers like IBNLive for news update, Cricbuzz for live cricket update, Twitter for tweeting from within Nimbuzz, VantageTrade for stock updates, Wikipedia for ready-information, Youtube for searching and viewing videos and IMDB for movies reviews.