Scripted


HBO Max crashes as ‘House Of The Dragon’ causes streamer outages

Warner Bros. Discovery’s streamer HBO Max suffered major outages on Sunday night due to the premiere of House of the Dragon. The series is a spin-off from HBO’s iconic Game of Thrones, and has been one of the brand’s most hotly-anticipated launches in years. However, the streaming app suffered technical difficulties – particularly for users […]

Warner Bros. Discovery cuts OWN execs, with head of programming among those departing

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has cut four key positions at Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) in the US, including head of programming Mary Beth Cunin. She departs alongside general counsel Karen Grant-Selma, chief marketing officer Jennifer Giddens and comms chief Nicole Nichols, as WBD’s ongoing cuts continue to be felt across its operations. Nichols will remain […]

Content Innovation Awards 2022 entry deadline extended

The Content Innovation Awards 2022 entry deadline has been extended, following overwhelming demand from distributors and producers around the world. The CIA’s will honour the TV industry’s best producers, distributors and innovators at a luxury gala held at London’s Church House Westminster, with the entry deadline now extended to 24 August. Find out more here! Now in their eighth […]

UK’s Pact publishes ‘Red Book’ of terms & conditions as Bectu stand-off continues

UK trade body Pact has published its own set of terms and conditions for indies to use in engaging crew on scripted productions, as the ongoing stand-off with broadcast union Bectu rumbles on. Pact said its conditions would “provide clarity” when the existing agreement ends on 1 September, which will see the UK trade body without a mandate […]

‘Goode Stuff’ prodco Nevision names CEO & creative director

Transatlantic producer and financier Nevision has promoted its producer, Anne Morrison, to become CEO and creative director. Morrison’s remit will be to focus on the future growth and strategic expansion of the company, working with both established and up-and-coming global talent. She remains creative director of factual, having worked on shows such as The Missing Children, a co-production […]

HBO Max drops 36 titles as WBD cost-cutting continues

HBO Max is to remove 36 more titles from its service, including both original and acquired content, as parent company Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) continues to cut costs. The newly merged WBD leadership has pledged to make at least $3bn in savings within two years and removing programmes with lower viewership could help the company […]

Yellow Bird UK hires Red Arrow, Heyday TV alums amid development drive

Banijay’s Yellow Bird UK has hired Red Arrow Studio and Heyday Television alums to its expanding devlopment team. Sally Rowberry joins as development producer, having been a development executive at Red Arrow where she worked on the first and second seasons of Endour Production’s Vienna Blood. Prior to Yellow Bird UK, she was a freelance development […]

Disney+ Canada names Telefilm alum as director of content

The Walt Disney Company has appointed former Telefilm Canada exec Stephanie Azam as director of content for Disney+ Canada. Azam joins the streaming service from a short stint at MK2 Mile End, the Quebec-based independent distribution firm, which she joined in September 2021 as VP of development and acquisitions. Prior to that, Azam spent more […]

Netflix orders 14th century drama, based on Boccaccio’s ‘The Decameron’

Netflix has commissioned The Decameron, a new period soap drama series, set in 14th century Italy during the Black Death. Based upon the short story collection of the same name by Italian writer and poet Giovanni Boccaccio, the eight-part series is created by Kathleen Jordan (Teenage Bounty Hunters, American Princess), who will serve as showrunner, […]

‘Lord Of The Rings’ rights sold to Swedish gaming firm Embracer

Swedish gaming firm Embracer Group has struck a deal to acquire a swathe of rights to IP contained in J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary classics such as The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit, ahead of the big budget drama from Amazon Prime Video set to debut next month. The Saul Zaentz Company is selling rights to create motion […]