The BBC announced two new platforms and a raft of new content for its youth network BBC Three, ahead of its move to online-only on February 16. At an event in London yesterday to preview the reinvented BBC Three, the broadcaster announced a new online home for the channel, The Best Of, and a new […]
Vivendi could ultimately take control of the soon-to-be-created Banijay-Zodiak group, according to Les Echos. Initially, Stéphane Courbit’s LOV Group will have 37.5% of the new group and five seats on the board, with Courbit the chairman. De Agostini will have about 36% and Vivendi 26%, and they will have three and two board seats respectively. […]
British studio Pinewood Group has moved into high-end drama creation and financing through a new joint venture with CTC Media founder Peter Gerwe. Pinewood and Gerwe’s StoryFirst PST have created Pinewood Television, which will “create, develop and finance high quality drama series for television for the international market”. It also plans to be involved with […]
How Morrissey’s brand of misanthropic indie rock inspired SVT’s Prix Europa 2015 award-winning miniseries Viva Hate Morrissey’s influence on today’s musicians is undeniable. SVT’s Viva Hate shows he’s also influencing the modern drama television producer, too. Unsurprisingly, the forces behind the drama-comedy have dabbled in music. Writer Peter Birro, a popular Swedish television and film […]
The merger of Zodiak Media and Banijay Group has moved a step closer to completion after the European Commission approved the agreement. Banijay’s French parent LOV Group and Zodiak’s Italy-based majority owner De Agostini will now form a joint venture that will house the new group, along with minority shareholder Vivendi, which has been given […]
MIPTV organiser Reed MIDEM has put together an advisory board of six top acquisitions executives for the confab’s drama events. The group comprises Sky director of acquisitions Sarah Wright (pictured), Canal+ senior VP of international SVOD and global acquisitions Aline Marrache-Tesseraud, ProSiebenSat.1 executive VP of group acquisitions and sales Ruediege Boess, TV2 Denmark head of […]
Canadian producer Temple Street Productions has hired a former Bell Media drama director to become its VP, scripted programming. Trish Williams (pictured) will focus on premium scripted entertainment in her new post, with CTV executive Lesley Grant also joining, as senior development producer, scripted programming. Williams, who was most recently a co-executive producer on CTV […]
Sky and CBS have agreed a European deal that sees the pay TV operator take exclusive rights to Showtime programming across its regional footprint. The programming pact, hailed as one of the most important ever for Sky and the most significant international deal ever for CBS’ Showtime, gives Sky all of premium cable net’s original […]
Netflix has gone for a ten-part sci-fi drama based on 2002 book Altered Carbon. The series, which has the same name, comes from Skydance Television and Shutter Island screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis. Richard K. Morgan’s original novel is set in the 25th century and is set in a world where the human mind has been digitised, […]
The Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) has threatened to block Netflix in the country, claiming the SVOD service is a “threat to our moral values and national security”. At a press conference KFCB chairman Bishop Jackson Kipkemoi Kosgei said Netflix must be must be subject to Kenya’s rules and regulations, and called for negotiations to […]
