Merlini Established New Underwater-World-Record

David Merlini performs stunt at opening-night party

Munich, October 14, 2008. SevenOne International presents Hungarian escape artist David Merlini and markets the outstanding performances of the 30-year-old to international TV channels. Yesterday, David Merlini has left audiences spellbound when he set up a new underwater-world-record at the MIPCOM Opening Cocktail at the Majestic Hotel in Cannes. Merlini held his breath for a spectacular 20 minutes and 39 seconds, breaking the previous record of 17m and 19s. Before the casing was smashed, leaving Merlini to stumble to the ground, blood poured from his arm. The new record has been verified by the “Guinness World of Records”. Uri Geller provided mental support.

Whether spending 33 hours frozen in ice while restrained, strapped in a straitjacket under a speeding helicopter, or trapped in a burning car and dropped 300 feet, Merlini has taken the craft of mystification and escapology to a new and extreme level. In 2005 Merlini had himself shot into the sky in a rocket – a scud missile – escaping by parachute just seconds before the rocket exploded.

Said Jens Richter, Managing Director of SevenOne International: “All of David Merlini’s performances are truly spectacular. They astonish and thrill people all over the world. We’ll work with him and TV stations to develop concepts targeting specific audiences, and market his shows in effective ways for the media.”

Footage

You can order footage material from yesterdays underwater-world-record with David Merlini. Please contact [email protected] .

David Merlini was discovered by Uri Geller, whose own show “The Successor” (“The next Uri Geller”) is already a huge success in countries worldwide, including the US (NBC), Canada (CTV), Australia (Nine Network), Iceland (365), Turkey (Star TV), Hungary (TV 2), the Netherlands (SBS 6) and all over Pan-Latin America (ANE). On ProSieben, the show drew an average market share of 17.3 percent, and a second season is planned for next spring. And last Friday, October 10th, Uri Geller celebrated the final episode on TV Channel Russia – “Fenomen” was the first live show ever aired on TV Channel Russia. Originally, the format came from Israel, where the TV station Keshet earned an average market share of 50 percent  – the highest audience share of any TV show in the history of Israeli TV. Uri Geller is also presenting a new live prime time show for ProSieben („Uri Geller live – Ufos & Aliens: Das unglaubliche TV-Experiment“), on Saturday, 15th November.

SevenOne International

SevenOne International is the international programming sales company of the ProSiebenSat.1 Group, one of the largest pan-European media corporations, which owns 26 free TV channels and 24 pay TV channels in 13 countries. SevenOne International offers an extensive portfolio of TV events, TV movies, telenovelas, prime-time series and miniseries, as well as magazine shows and light entertainment concepts. It also markets and co-finances programming made by third-party providers. It is headquartered in the Munich suburb of Unterföhring, and managed by Jens Richter.

Stefanie Prinz

Referentin Unternehmenskommunikation / Corporate Communications

ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG

Medienallee 7

85774 Unterföhring

Phone: +49 89 9507 1199

Fax: +49 89 9507 91199

Email: Mailto:[email protected]