A £250 million (€287m) TV and film studio plan set to transform an abandoned railway works in the southeast England town of Ashford, Kent has been approved by the local council. The Ashford International Studios scheme, aimed at attracting the likes of Netflix and Amazon, has been given the green light following a planning meeting […]
Vivendi, following the recent sale of 10 per cent of its 100 per cent share capital of Universal Music Group (UMG) for an enterprise value of €30 billion, has announced the acquisition of 10.6 per cent of the Lagardère share capital. Vivendi says the acquisition is “a long-term financial investment reflecting its confidence in the […]
Netflix and Italian Film Commissions have announced the establishment of a new Covid-19 Film and TV Emergency Relief Fund to provide emergency short term relief to the active workers in the TV and cinema industry – fitters, electricians and make up artists – who have been directly affected by the closure of productions across Italy […]
With Netflix about to unveil its all-important quarterly results amid expectations that the ongoing pandemic will boost subscriptions, analyst firm Futuresource Consulting has reflected on 2019 as being Netflix’s best ever year for net subscriber additions (net adds), highlighting countries which are showing significant momentum as well as looking at factors that may see a […]
Netflix and The Netherlands Film Fund have announced a relief fund for Film and TV productions to help the hardest hit workers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Netflix will make €1 million available in the Netherlands to launch the fund. The production of films and series in the Netherlands has been severely affected by the […]
UK commercial PSB ITV has commissioned a series of four short dramas from Oscar nominated writer and producer Jeff Pope, inspired by true stories and reflecting life in lockdown across the country. Isolation Stories, produced by Pope’s Factual Drama label, part of ITV Studios, will feature a “stellar” cast (TBA) and comprise of four 15 […]
HBO Max, the SVoD platform set to launch in May, has given production commitments for three dramas from J.J. Abrams and Katie McGrath’s Bad Robot Productions and Warner Bros Television Group. The programmes mark the first new Bad Robot–produced television projects for HBO Max under the exclusive, wide-ranging content collaboration partnership formed by Bad Robot […]
Netflix has signed a first-look deal for live-action and animated series with BOOM! Studios, the publisher behind best-selling Eisner Award-winning comic book franchises, including Lumberjanes, Something is Killing the Children, Once & Future, and Mouse Guard. BOOM! Studios CEO and Founder Ross Richie and President of Development Stephen Christy will Executive Produce all shows developed […]
Chinese online entertainment platform Bilibili has confirmed that Sony Corporation of America (SCA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation, has entered into a definitive agreement with Bilibili such that SCA will invest an aggregate amount of approximately $400 million in cash in Bilibili at the closing of the transaction. Pursuant to the share purchase agreement, […]
Research from consultancy firm Ampere Analysis on commissions, renewals and cancellations in 2019 has found that Reality was the second-most commissioned genre for linear services and third-most commissioned genre for video on-demand (VoD) services. Data from Ampere’s Analytics service indicates that Netflix has ramped up production of Reality content compared to previous years. While in […]