NBCUniversal’s Saturday Night Live format has been adapted for Central and Eastern Europe, and this is the first time that video on demand service Showmax has added live streaming capabilities to the platform.

In Warsaw, tensions ran high as the clock moved towards 21.00 on December 2. The cast and crew of Saturday Night Live Polska nervously waited for the curtain to be raised in front of the live studio audience for the first outing of the world-famous SNL format in Central and Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, Showmax’s technical team braced themselves to flip the switch for the company’s first live-streaming event following months of preparation.

Speaking about the debut of SNL Polska, Akash Bhatia, Showmax Chief Financial Officer and member of the project team, said:

“As an American, I grew up on SNL – it’s become part of our cultural identity. Working with NBCUniversal and the Showmax Poland team to bring the format to Central Europe was a privilege but also brought an extra layer of anxiety. The show is of course famous for airing live, which is something Showmax had never done before.

“Our engineering team pulled off a massive coup, turning Showmax from an on-demand only platform to having live-streaming capability in just three months. In addition to all the late nights and weekends worked to get us to this point, the engineering team also had a fully staffed war room working through the night on Saturday to make sure everything ran smoothly.”

SNL Polska streamed live simultaneously on YouTube and on www.showmax.com. The show was then uploaded to Showmax for on-demand viewing.