News round-up: Prime Video remakes ‘Good Luck Guys’; BBC buys Hulu’s ‘Love, Victor’; ProgramBuyer hires Vubiquity alum

Good Luck Guys

Prime Video remakes Good Luck Guys

Amazon’s Prime Video has ordered a local remake of reality show Good Luck Guys for its service in the Benelux.

The show is being produced by Banijay-owned SimpelZodiak and will premiere next month with three episodes, followed by a new episode weekly on the streamer.

Good Luck Guys was originally created by Banijay Productions France, where it airs on W9.

The format is sold by Banijay Rights and has already been remade in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, with further European deals set to be announced shortly.

The show follows 12 well-known influencers who travel to Thailand in an attempt to survive on a deserted beach without the usual trappings of celebrity life.

BBC buys Hulu’s Love, Victor

The BBC in the UK has acquired all three seasons of US teen comedy-drama Love, Victor from Disney Entertainment.

The show, which was created by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, was inspired by and set in the same world as the 2018 film Love, Simon.

The TV spin-off focuses on a new student at Creekwood High School, as he faces challenges at home and struggles with his sexual orientation. It is produced by Temple Hill Entertainment, No Helmet Productions, The Walk-Up Company and 20th Television.

Dani Karas

ProgramBuyer hires Vubiquity alum

ProgramBuyer.com, the online screening portal that showcases TV content, has hired Dani Karas as head of sales having secured additional investment from Robert Halmi’s Great Point Media.

Karas has previously worked at Vubiquity Management, Sparrowhawk Distribution and Hallmark Entertainment.

She joins co-founders Roz Parker and Edwina Thring at ProgramBuyer, which now claims shows from more than 160 sellers and a database of more than 5,000 buyers, who contact sellers directly with interest in their programming.

Details of the latest funding round have not been revealed but Great Point and South Africa’s Telemedia both invested in the three-year-old company, which is aiming for further growth as a global B2B marketing site and content provider to FAST and VOD channels.

Parker said: “With Dani officially onboard as Head of Sales, our new strategic investment partnership and some site changes in the pipeline for this year, we are well placed to propel ProgramBuyer to the next stage as a critical tool for global buyers to find niche or bulk content on a single site.”

Karas added: “My focus will be on bringing new content onto the platform and putting it in front of the relevant industry buyers. We also want to work closely with our existing 160 distributors to ensure we are doing everything we can to promote their content, whilst giving buyers the ability to find the latest programming, search for niche subjects or source content in bulk.”

Mittens & Pants

Thunderbird takes Mittens & Pants

France TV, Warner Bros. Discovery’s Cartoonito and DR in Denmark are among a raft of buyers of live-action preschool series, Mittens & Pants.

The show, which is produced by Windy Isle Entertainment and sold by Canada’s Thunderbird Distribution, has also been picked up by WBD’s Cartoon Network and Boomerang channels in Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as Hop! in Israel.

The show debuted on CBC Kids in Canada and the UK’s Sky Kids earlier this year. It features best friends Mittens the kitten and Pants the puppy who accept that they are different and know that being different is good. A second season is in the works.