Netflix’s unprecedented transparency in detailing its documentary strategy at this week’s Sunny Side of the Doc market in France has provided “global inspiration” to producers while raising the bar for broadcasters. A year into his role at Netflix, former Canal+ exec Diego Buñuel, who serves as a director of original documentary at the streamer, took […]
Channel 5 is adapting James Herriot’s iconic collection of stories All Creatures Great And Small with US public broadcaster PBS. The Viacom-owned channel has commissioned Colin Callender’s Playground, producers of Wolf Hall and Howard’s End, for a six-part series and Christmas special, which will be co-produced with PBS’s ‘Masterpiece’ strand. The drama marks the second […]
After months of delay, French subscription video-on-demand joint venture Salto is finally in the hands of the country’s competition watchdog, the Autorité de la Concurrence. The regulator has until 19 July to reach a decision on the project, which is a JV between public broadcaster France Télévisions and commercial broadcasters TF1 and M6 that is […]
Acorn TV has grown its distribution footprint, expanding to Apple TV, Roku, Amazon and Android TV. The AMC-owned SVOD – which is focused on British programming and international drama – is now available on Apple TV channels in the Apple TV app, Roku Channel, Amazon Channels Canada and Android TV. For Apple, customers in the […]
Huawei’s European video chief has called on the creative community to bring the Chinese mobile giant innovative, 5G-targeting ideas akin to Black Mirror: Bandersnatch as the business prepares to roll out its OTT service worldwide. Fernando García Calvo, director of Huawei Video for Europe, tells TBI that the business’s OTT app Huawei Video is poised […]
As documentaries cutting through on SVODs begin to look glossier and more high-profile by the day, Manori Ravindran investigates who gets to build careers in documentary when the standards become unachievable Director Doug Block has made a number of films over the course of an almost 30-year career – virtually none of them featuring high-profile […]
UK media regulator Ofcom has provisionally given the BBC a green light for its planned changes to BBC iPlayer, subject to certain conditions and guidance. The regulator said that it accepts that the BBC needs to keep pace with changes in consumption habits. “We have provisionally found that the proposed changes to BBC iPlayer would […]
Blue Planet II production exec Katie Hall has departed the BBC’s Natural History Unit to join James Honeyborne’s Netflix-backed production outfit. TBI understands that Hall, who left the NHU last month, has joined the Blue Planet II creator’s fledgling production unit Freeborne Media as head of production. Hall will be based out of Bristol, where […]
Facebook Watch has struck a deal with German commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 that will secure a raft of digital-first content for Facebook’s video service. Facebook Watch will work with ProSiebenSat.1 to bring digital content including pre-shows, after-shows, interviews and spin-offs of the German broadcaster’s content to Watch users. Facebook said that the deal would cover content […]
Disney-controlled streamer Hulu and cable channel FX have struck a two-year output deal with Lionsgate for films released in 2020 and 2021. The deal is understood to mark the first time an SVOD and cable channel have partnered on a theatrical output deal. The slate for 2020 includes such films as I Still Believe, a biopic […]
