Original Programming


Fremantle hires scripted trio including ex-Weinstein Co. exec

FremantleMedia North America (FMNA) has added three industry veterans to its scripted division, including Oliver Jones from The Weinstein Company, Reid Shane (pictured) from Media Rights Capital and Jennifer Sherwood from Silk Road Productions. Shane has joined the company as executive VP of production, while Sherwood will be welcomed as the new senior VP of […]

TBI Weekly: Beauty is power for Netflix

This week, it was impossible to ignore Netflix’s seemingly unstoppable rise as the company’s value was shown to exceed US$100 billion and it reported its highest ever quarter for new sign ups – something it described as “beautiful”. Beating Wall Street expectations, Netflix reported US$245 million in operating income and a global streaming revenue which […]

Sky moves into original films in latest content push

Sky has announced plans to commission and acquire exclusive rights to original films, in its latest push into original content. Sky revealed the launch of Sky Cinema Original Films at the same time as its half year results, and said its plans involve showing its original films in cinemas at the same time as they […]

Hollywood Squares heads to India via Viu

Indian on-demand service and affiliate pay TV network Star MAA are working up a local version of classic CBS gameshow format Hollywood Squares. The series is hitting the localmarket through boutique content house Morris Street Advisors, which acquired the format from distributor CBS Studios International. The Indian version, shot in the Telugu language and which […]

Paramount & Anonymous land rights to Margaret Atwood trilogy

Paramount Television, along with Anonymous Content have acquired the rights to develop a series based on The Handmaid’s Tale author Margarate Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy. The trilogy is based on novels Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood and MaddAddam. Produced by Rock Paper Scissors Entertainment, Paramount and Anonymous procured the title through their first-look […]

Mark Burnett’s Contender boxes clever with Epix reboot

The Mark Burnett-created boxing reality series The Contender is returning to US television screens after almost a decade. MGM-owned premium cable channel Epix has commissioned a new run of the show, which has previously aired on NBC, ESPN and Versus (aka NBCSN). Epix is lining up a twelve-part season featuring 16 fighters, with production set […]

UKTV plotting to increase indie original hours by a third

British channels group UKTV is planning to increase the number of hours it commissions from UK indies by a third in 2018. The company, which counts BBC Worldwide and Scripps Networks Interactive as parents, is making the “significant increase” following strong results from original shows last year. These included thematic net Gold taking its highest […]

T Group goes Everywhere with copro deal

US-based T Group Productions has signed an overall coproduction deal with Everywhere Studios, which is owned by veteran television exec Tom Mazza and the founder of Helifilms, David Calvert-Jones. The prodco will serve as the production entity for Everywhere’s five-picture commitment with People Magazine at Disney-owned Freeform for a slate of true story movies under […]

Sharon Horgan’s Merman hires Fremantle production head

Merman, the production company founded by Catastrophe’s Sharon Horgan and Clelia Mountford, has appointed FremantleMedia UK’s Rebecca Parkinson (pictured) as its head of production. Parkinson joins Merman from Fremantle’s scripted comedy label Retort and will oversee the production of all Merman projects in the newly created role. She will work closely with Mountford. The appointment […]

Netflix picks up talk show from Community’s Joel McHale

Joel McHale, the former star of NBC/Yahoo comedy Community, is set to host a new topical series The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale, for Netflix. The unscripted title will launch globally on 18 February. McHale announced the project via Twitter with a short snapshot of what’s to come. Netflix has ordered 13 episodes to […]

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