MUMBAI: There is a good reason why Buena Vista International Television Asia Pacific, the distribution arm of Walt Disney Television International, is confident that it will soon be able to bring its comedy drama Desperate Housewives to India. Which is that the smash-hit series is making waves around the world.

BVITV has now licenced the one-hour show to over 130 territories worldwide. This was announced today by BVITV Emea EVP and MD Tom Toumazis, BVITV Asia Pacific senior VP and MD Steve Macallister, and Fernando Barbosa, senior V-P sales BVITV Latin America.

Among the international performance highlights for the Asia Pacific region include:

Seven Network's Australian premiere on 31 January was the most-watched new drama programme in the country's TV history while the series debut on Channel 5 in Singapore on 24 January set a record as the highest-rated acquired drama in the last four years.

There are many international TV premieres to come for the series, which most recently launched on M-Net in South Africa on 7 April. It will have an early German free TV launch on Pro7 tomorrow (12 April and launches are scheduled on Canal+ in France and RAI in Italy in autumn and later this year on Spanish free TV on TVE.

As had been reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com Buena Vista is looking at licencing the formats of the reality shows The Amazing Race and Extreme Makeover in India.