Top Gear


BBC’s Top Gear gets new home in China

Top Gear has a new home in China after BBC Worldwide struck a deal for hundreds of hours of the motoring series with Shanghai Media Group’s BesTV service. The exclusive agreement will see BesTV become the only place, from early next year, that Top Gear fans will be able to see the show in China. […]

Amazon claims Grand Tour smashes ratings record

New Jeremy Clarkson vehicle The Grand Tour has become Amazon Prime Video’s biggest premiere launch, the streaming site has claimed. E-commerce giant Amazon reported “millions of Prime members” in the US, UK, Germany, Austria and Japan had streamed the series’ first episode over the weekend. This means the big-budget petrolhead series replaces Frank Spotnitz-created drama […]

Amazon undercuts Netflix with Grand Tour offers

Amazon has slashed its Prime subscription rate in tandem with the launch of it £160 million Top Gear rival The Grand Tour. The Grand Tour, presented by the former team from BBC motoring series Top Gear, launched on Amazon in the US, Germany and UK today. Amazon slashed the price of a Prime subscription, which […]

Amazon preps global launch for The Grand Tour

Amazon’s Top Gear rival The Grand Tour will hit 200 countries later this year, but the launch does not mark the global rollout of the Amazon Prime SVOD service, TBI understands. The Grand Tour will launch in Amazon Prime Video territories Germany, Japan, the UK and the US this Friday (November 18), it was revealed […]

Starz Play Arabia raises funding to expand service

Starz Play Arabia has raised a “multi-million dollar” funding round, which it plans to use to expand its services and partnerships. Existing investors including SEQ Capital Partners, and new investors including Delta Partners Capital, led the funding in the Middle East and North African streaming service. Starz said that Starz Play has achieved double-digit month-on-month […]

BBC extends Matt LeBlanc’s Top Gear journey

UK pubcaster the BBC has confirmed Matt LeBlanc will remain as host of motoring series Top Gear for two years, providing a major boost to the ailing format. LeBlanc was a hit with viewers in the first season of Top Gear not to feature Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May since 2002, though co-host […]

Fox invests $6.5m in Clarkson’s digital venture

21st Century Fox has invested US$6.5 million in DriveTribe, a new digital venture from the former presenters and producer of Top Gear. Former Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are planning to launch the DriveTribe digital portal in November. Ex-Top Gear executive producer Andy Wilman and tech entrepreneur Ernesto Schmitt are […]

Top Gear host’s show heads for US cable

A motoring show from one of the presenters of the Top Gear reboot has been picked up by BBC America. The US cable net has ordered Chris Harris on Cars. Harris (fourth from the left) is one of the presenting team on the new Top Gear, which like previous series of the motoring show has been in […]

BBCWW series for Brazilian SVOD service

Brazilian SVOD service Looke has scored a 200-hour programming deal with BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC. Looke launched last September as a hybrid SVOD and pay-per-view platform comprising 7,500 titles, and will soon have a number of BBCWW shows on offer. This includes an exclusive two-month window on Sky 1 drama Critical, […]

RTL’s Nitro buys new Top Gear

RTL has acquired the Top Gear reboot for its digital channel RTL Nitro. The deal sees the Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc version of car series move to the RTL net from Discovery’s DMax, which licensed the older Clarkson, May and Hammond-fronted seasons, with that channel still holding rights to that incarnation of the show. […]