A major carriage deal battle has broken out in the US between content/channel provider Disney and pay TV giant Charter Communications. With Disney channels unavailable to 15 million customers on Charter platforms since last Thursday, some observers have suggested the dispute represents the end game for the ailing US pay-TV market. Both companies have seen […]
Spectrum Originals, the US content brand behind dramas such as Joe Pickett, is to close as parent telco Charter Communications exits the original programming business. The move comes just a month after Sony Pictures Television appointed Katherine Pope, the head of originals at Spectrum Originals, to take over from the outgoing Jeff Frost as president. […]
Sony Pictures Television (SPT) Studios has appointed former Charter Communications’ Spectrum Originals exec Katherine Pope to take over from the outgoing Jeff Frost as president. Reporting to Ravi Ahuja, chairman of global television studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment corporate development, Pope will join the studio on 22 August to take charge of all domestic scripted […]
UK broadcaster ITV has partnered with Charter Communications’ US-based streamer Spectrum on a new psychological thriller exploring domestic abuse, to be produced by Liar prodco Two Brothers Pictures. Angela Black (6 x 60 minutes) is described as a “Hitchcockian thriller” and will star Golden Globe winner Joanne Froggatt, Michiel Huisman and Samuel Adewunmi. The show delves beneath […]
Spectrum Originals, part of US media giant Charter Communications, is developing a scripted show based on the hit Netflix docuseries Last Chance U, with Courteney Cox attached to star. The untitled project is being developed for Spectrum’s streaming service and will be based on the life of Brittany Wagner, who featured in the first two […]
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has given Byron Allen and his Entertainment Studios the go-ahead to pursue discrimination lawsuits against Comcast and Charter Communications. The lawsuits, which were filed in 2015 and 2016 for violating the Civil Rights Act of 1866, requests $20bn in damages from Comcast and $10bn from Charter. […]
US cableco Charter Communications has poached Cablevision exec Tom Montemagno. He has been named executive VP, programming acquisition at the Conneticut-based cable group, working out of the corporate headquarters in Stamford. Montemagno will oversee negotiations with Charter content providers, including major media groups, local broadcasters and “niche” international distributors. Charter noted these negotiations “increasingly extend […]
Hispanic US broadcaster Univision has promoted the exec who oversaw the creation of subsidiary Fusion Media Group to a top entertainment role. Isaac Lee (pictured), who was most recently chief news and digital officer, has now added entertainment and music to his duties. He will continue to report to Univision president and CEO Randy Falco. […]
One of US cable’s biggest-ever merger is set to go ahead after the antitrust regulators okayed Charter Communication’s US$78 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable. The Department of Justice said it had permitted the deal, and Charter’s related US$10.4 billion acquisition of Bright House Networks from Advance/Newhouse Partnership, with conditions. Comcast was stopped from buying […]
Dish Networks has joined a coalition that aims to stop Charter Communications’ big-money acquisition of Time Warner Cable. The Stop Mega Cable Coalition comprises 13 bodies, including AT&T-owned cable firm Dish, public interest groups, the Writers Guild of America (East and West) and a telecoms-broadband association. The SMCC aims to “highlight both the stunning scale […]
