WOESTIJNVIS (in English “Desert Fish”, which in fact refers to a famous mistake of a quiz-candidate in the Flemish version ‘Wheels of Fortune’) was founded in 1997 by three young TV-makers, Jan Huyse, Wouter Vandenhaute en Erik Watté in a close collaboration with Mark Uytterhoeven.

Notwithstanding the fact that Woestijnvis was contacted by the different broadcasters in Flanders, it has decided to conclude an exclusive agreement with the national broadcaster VRT in a first instance. In meantime Jan Huyse left to become programming director with the commercial broadcaster VTM whilst Woestijnvis further expanded. In 2000 one of the biggest Belgian publishing companies took a stake of 20 % in Woestijnvis with a call option for another 20% (which was executed in 2003, so that the VUM became 40% shareholder, the other 60% being in hands of Wouter en Erik).

In 97-98 Woestijnvis employed about 25 employees and had a turn-over of 5 million euro while in 2004 the turnover has increased to 20 million euro and the company has more than tripled its number of employees. The relationship which in meantime has been established with the VRT, has lead to some prolongations of the first exclusive contract and finally resulted in the conclusion, beginning 2004, of an exclusive contract with the VRT up to 2011.

The structure of the group is today as follows:

EW (COO) and WVDH (CEO) 60 % // VUM 40% shareholders of ‘De Vijver’ (holding company), holding 100% of WOESTIJNVIS. Other 100% daughter companies of Woestijnvis are : T.T.T.I. and DOC.FISH.

T.T.T.I. distributes the formats of Woestijnvis (represented by Wim TACK) and doc.Fish is a spin-off of Woestijnvis, which aims to make documentaries that are readily accessible to broader general audiences. A first program of doc.Fish is ‘Bal Mondial’, which is a perfect warm-up for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, and which shows how people around the world experienced soccer’s 2002 World Cup held in Japan and South Korea. This program has already been nominated for the 2003 Rose d’Or awards and the Prix Europa (Berlin) and was selected for the North-South Media Festival (Geneva).

As creativity is the main asset of the company, typical to the programs of Woestijnvis is that they are all based on formats which have been created internally and that this remains the aim of the company so that in the future there is no intention to start buying formats from abroad. At the other hand, the company is through T.T.T.I. distributing its formats abroad. The first big success was “De Mol – The Mole” which was the (first ever Belgian) winner of the Rose d’Or in 2000. This format has been sold in several countries all over the world however not always been produced; the main countries where The Mole has been broadcasted are : Australia (3 times), Sweden (3), UK (2), Norway (3), Denmark (1), Hungary (1), The Netherlands (5), Israel (1), Germany (2), Poland (3), New Zealand (2), USA (4), Italy (1),…

The Mole has started a revival with the celebrity versions which have already ran 2 times with success in the USA as well as in Italy while the Netherlands is coming up with one.

‘Man bijt hond’ (‘Man bites dog’) is a daily magazine running in Belgium for its 8th year with still increasing audience; the format of this program has also been sold to the Netherlands and is there running for its 6th year. It is the aim to intensify the distribution of this format internationally seen the know-how built up (containing approximately 30 mini-formats) during the past years.

Two recent game formats have been recently developed. “The Smartest Person in the World” in which three Flemish celebrities try to outscore each other in obtaining the title of smartest person in the world. Four nights a week, for 8 weeks, questions on high and low culture are fired away. It is an amusing and entertaining relay with one presenter and a funny know all juror. This program reached top ratings this autumn and was nominated for the Rose d’Or 2004. Another game format is ‘The Pappenheimers' – Know your kind’ which was also an instant hit in Flanders with a very impressive market share. This latter program has been nominated for the Rose d’Or 2003.