Amazon has greenlit a third season of the Golden Globe Award-winning series Transparent, which will become available exclusively to members of Amazon Prime in 2016. In addition, series creator Jill Soloway has signed an overall deal with Amazon Studios where she will exclusively develop television projects for Amazon Prime. Soloway will continue in her role […]
ITV is set to acquire Boom Supervisory Limited, the holding company of the Twofour Group, as the commercial broadcaster continues to strengthen its global content business. The acquisition supports ITV Studios’ growth internationally by increasing its exposure to factual entertainment formats and drama. Twofour is a fast growing group of companies that produced over 1,200 […]
The BBC Trust has concluded that the Corporation’s current ‘Window of Creative Competition’, where in-house and independent producers compete for 25 per cent of eligible BBC TV commissions, is not sustainable in the long term and there is a strong case for increasing competition. The finding follows a review of the supply arrangements for BBC […]
Japan broadcaster Fuji Television Network has confirmed it will create original programmes for distribution by Netflix as the streaming streaming service makes its first foray into the Japanese market this autumn. The move will allow the unit of Fuji Media Holdings to distribute its content internationally using the streaming outlet, which boasts some 62 million […]
Richard Hammond and James May are said to be “very close” to turning down a £4.6 million (€6.3m) BBC offer to return to Top Gear without Jeremy Clarkson. The TV presenters have revealed their intentions to stick by their sacked colleague after Clarkson’s BBC contract was not renewed following allegations that he punched a producer. […]
Chinese online video and internet TV content provider LeTV has revealed that the company plans to invest HKD 6 billion (€0.7bn) on content production and copyright licensing in Hong Kong over the next three years. LeTV’s goal is to become the second largest premium channel in Hong Kong by the end of next year. Since […]
UKTV will launch its new production studios at its London headquarters next month. The facility will create 12 new job roles, forming an expanded team of 28 creatives and production staff, who will produce over 2,500 promos and 700 pieces of navigational content a year for the network. Previously UKTV had outsourced this work, but […]
UKTV Gold has ordered three new original comedies. Entitled Henry IX, Marley’s Ghosts and Bull, the shows will air on the channel later this year and early in 2016. Richard Watsham, UKTV’s Director of Commissioning, said: “The first three of our new commissions for Gold offer a fantastic range of different stories and comic styles. […]
This summer, Sky will launch a major initiative to bring the best of the arts to its 21 million customers across Italy, Germany, Austria, Ireland and the UK. The broad commitment by the company is one of the first major international content initiatives since the creation of the new Sky in November 2014. It signals […]
South Africa’s SABC public broadcaster says it will now only launch its digital transmissions with just five channels. In 2011 SABC told a parliamentary committee that digital TV would see it transmit 18 channels. Currently SABC transmits SABC-1 (Nguni languages, some English), SABC-2 (some English/Afrikaans), SABC-3 (English/Afrikaans) and SABC News (multi-lingual), and a ‘catch-up/best of’ […]