Cineflix Productions has gone to Britain to get ahead of American network TV.

With a seemingly endless supply of entertainment formats like Dancing with the Stars and X Factor being remade on U.S. networks, Cineflix has ramped up its London production arm to spin out game shows and other studio-based entertainment series that may have a crack at the Canadian and U.S. markets.

‘Often the best way to get a show on a U.S. network is to hang on a British network first of all, and try to improve it there. What we’re hoping to do is to have hits in Britain, and we’re hoping that some of those hits will then migrate into the U.S.,’ Cineflix CEO of programming Simon Lloyd tells Playback Daily.

For example, the Montreal-based shop is doing a series for Channel Five entitled Family Food Fight with Flora, where families that need help in the kitchen go head-to-head in a studio-based TV cooking show.

Sky has ordered another untitled studio-based format, and a third untitled game show format is close to a green light, Lloyd says.

The Channel Five entertainment series, with a big studio set and a host and audience, contrasts with Cineflix’s U.S. production arm, headed by New York City-based Charles Treymayne, and its efforts on the factual programming front.

Cineflix’s U.S. expansion also comes by way of British talent: Lloyd, Treymayne and creative director Rob Carey are all native Brits with extensive experience serving the U.S. TV market.

Their big factual series breakthrough to date is American Pickers, the antique hunting docuseries for The History Channel stateside that is currently the top-rated new series on U.S. cable in the 25-54 demo since its January bow, according to the U.S. specialty.

Another new American show is Holiday Battle on the Block, a Christmas 2010 competition series for HGTV U.S. where three households in each of four North American cities battle to design, source and build the best seasonal display in their homes.

To break through on U.S. cable, Treymayne says reality shows need to be big on out-sized characters to which ordinary people can relate. So Cineflix is putting dollars and effort into casting the next generation of characters for future series.