E4


Worldwide sells BBC America royal comedy back into the UK

UK channel E4 has acquired Almost Royal, the first original comedy to come out of BBC Worldwide’s commissioning drive. The series was made for Worldwide’s US cable channel BBC America and follows two fictional young minor royals on their first trip to the US. Worldwide sells the series internationally and senior sales executive Kate Childs […]

ITV recruits Julian Bellamy

ITV has poached Julian Bellamy from Discovery and he will replace the outgoing Denise O’Donoghue as managing director of its content unit ITV Studios. Bellamy is currently creative director and head of commissioning at Discovery Networks International and has been instrumental in the factual channel operators original programming drive. At ITV he will succeed Denise […]

TV4 poaches E4, More4 channel manager

Swedish pay and free TV broadcaster TV4 has named Channel 4 executive Karolina Stallwood as channel head for its TV4 Film, TV4 Gold and TV4 Comedy services. Stallwood was previously channel manager of UK broadcaster Channel 4’s E4 and More4 channels, having joined from Comedy Central, where she was programme director, in 2012. She has […]

News brief: Glee’s Kevin McHale gets UK panel show pilot

UK digital channel E4 is piloting Virtually Famous, a panel show that will be hosted by Glee star Kevin McHale. The US star will preside over the celebrity-themed show with Jessica Kanppett (The Inbetweeners Movie) and UK comedian James Acaster the team captains. The pilot was filmed this week in London. The producers said the […]

E4 tries out ALT drama

UK youth-skewed channel E4 has commissioned a psychological drama-comedy in which “the worst case scenario is actually only just the beginning”. ALT comes from writer Jamie Mathieson (Being Human) and a pilot will TX in the spring. Ben Caron is directing. The drama follows a young everyman character (Gethin Anthony, Game of Thrones), who is […]

Channel 4 pulls YouTube shows

UK broadcaster Channel 4 has taken down all of its programming from Google-owned streaming service YouTube. Users attempting to access shows such as Peep Show, Big Fat Gypsy Weddings and Gogglebox from the Channel 4, E4 and More4 YouTube pages were met with a message informing them the shows had been pulled in order to […]

Russell T. Davies dramas to spotlight gay life

Queer as Folk creator Russell T. Davies is creating a pair of TV dramas and an online series that will explore gay life in the 21st century. Cucumber will be an 8x60mins series for UK broadcaster Channel 4 about a 46 year-old man, his long-suffering boyfriend and a disastrous life altering date night; while Banana […]

TVCatchup ordered to drop channels in copyright case

UK internet TV firm TVCatchup has been ordered to stopstreaming channels from broadcasters ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 after being found guilty of copyright infringement. In a high court ruling, issued last week, Catchup TV was found to have infringed broadcast copyrights by streaming 21 digital channels owned by ITV, Channel 4 and Channel […]

New hire for NBCU’s Monkey

NBCUniversal-owned Monkey Kingdom has recruited a new executive producer, Ollie Brack, from FremantleMedia’s UK prodco Talkback. Brack will work across UK-based producer Monkey’s entertainment and alternative formats for the US and UK markets. NBCU said he will play an instrumental role in creating talent-led shows along the lines of NBCU’s shows with Girls Aloud, Charlotte […]

Pact: Channel 5 attitude toward indies ‘worrying’

UK producer body Pact has labelled the terrestrial broadcaster Channel 5’s relationship with local indies “worrying” following results from a new survey. Pact’s membership survey rated Channel 5 as ‘disappointing’ at best in key areas of concern – ‘appreciation of cash flow issues’, ‘dealings regarding terms of trade’ and ‘getting paid on time’. This compared […]