PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
MTV renewed Jersey Shore Family Vacation for a second season, ahead of the reality show’s global premiere on Thursday, April 5 at 8p. The net is counting down to the launch with 4 “Road to Vacation” specials airing Thursdays at 8p starting March 15.
Jeff Franklin is out as Fuller House showrunner, amid accusations of verbal abuse and inappropriate comments in the Netflix revival’s writers room. “We are not renewing Jeff Franklin’s production deal and he will no longer be working on Fuller House,” said Warner Bros. Television in a statement.
ITV America is producing docu-series Dark Web for Netflix, focused on internet dirty dealings.
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
Dr. Pimple Popper (you read that right) will be back on TLC this summer. The one-hour special featuring dermatologist/YouTube sensation Dr. Sandra Lee in January was seen by 1.2 million P2+ viewers and was in the top 5 most social shows on Prime cable for the night.
Travel Channel’s Legendary Locations, hosted by Josh Gates, premieres Wednesday, March 28 at 10p and 10:30p. Series kicks off in Transylvania, with the bloody story of 2 castles.
Archer’s back for season 9 in FXX’s Archer: Danger Island, premiering Wednesday, April 25 at 10p. Animated comedy centers on semi-functioning alcoholic seaplane pilot Sterling Archer in 1939 South Pacific.
Season 8 of Golf Channel’s Feherty launches with golfers Jack Nicklaus and Rickie Fowler and tennis doubles champ Bob Brian on Monday, March 5 at 9p. The series is transitioning from one-on-one interviews to a roundtable setting this round.
Nat Geo’s One Strange Rock, hosted by Will Smith, tells the story of Earth, starting Monday, March 26 at 10p. 10-parter from Darren Aronofsky & Jane Root features 8 astronauts who know what it’s like to go out of this world.
COMING UP
Starz is airing a marathon of the first 9 episodes of new espionage thriller Counterpart on Sunday, March 25, starting at 12:35p. Season finale airs the following week at 8p.
Good Morning America co-anchor Michael Strahan, Wendi McLendon-Covey (The Goldbergs), Sara Haines (The View), Vanity Fair editor Krista Smith and IMDb special correspondent Dave Karger share hosting duties for ABC’s Oscars Opening Ceremony: Live From the Red Carpet on Sunday, March 4 at 6:30p.
2017 Documentary Joe Satriani: Beyond the Supernova premieres on AXS TV Tuesday, March 6 at 10p. The film captures rocker Satriani during his “Surfing To Shockwave World Tour.”
On the season 4 finale of Startalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson, airing Sunday, March 4 at 11p, deGrasse Tyson interviews legendary physicist Stephen Hawking about mysteries of the universe.
DEALS
Discovery Communications has the U.S. Department of Justice’s go-ahead for its proposed acquisition of Scripps Networks International, a $11.9 billion agreement announced in July 2017. With that regulatory hurdle cleared, the companies expect to close the deal on March 6.
Is TiVo’s going private? It’s possible. “TiVo’s stock price is at a level that the company and its board do not believe reflects the true value of the business,” said TiVo in a release. Rovi Corp. bought TiVo Corp. for $1.1 billion in 2016; TiVo hired LionTree Advisors to explore its options.
Meanwhile, Spotify just filed with the SEC to offer its shares to the public on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares of the music streamer will trade under the SPOT ticker symbol.
Baidu-owned Chinese streaming service IQiyi has filed for an IPO with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, with plans to list its American Depository Shares on the NASDAQ. Initial offering is up to $1.5 billion. In its filing, the company said it has 50.8 million subscribers, and plans to use half of the net proceeds from the IPO on content.
DIGITAL DATA
Senator Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) and Representative Mike Doyle (D-Pennsylvania) on Tuesday introduced resolutions to revoke the FCC order repealing net neutrality rules. The Senate effort has support from 50 senators, while the House resolution has 150 Congress members onboard.
A new report from Strategy Analytics TV and Media Strategies, “Home Video and OTT Video Forecast – Global,” estimates that the number of homes paying for streaming video services will hit nearly 300 million by the end of 2018, having already passed 250 million. By the end of 2017, the U.S. had the largest percentage of SVOD households (59%), followed by Canada (51%), Norway (46%), Sweden (45%) and Finland (44%).
TEGNA struck a content partnership with digital media company Independent Media, which launched The Outline in 2016. TEGNA and The Outline will collaborate on mobile-first storytelling and investigative content across platforms, to appear across TEGNA’s digital channels and The Outline’s digital platform.
Netflix nabbed rights to Shirkers, winner of a directing award at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, and 10-minute film Zion, centered on a wrestler born without legs who grew up in foster care.
The upcoming slate for Legendary Digital Networks’ interactive streaming platform, Alpha, includes new originals Bizarre State: Declassified, Key Question, week in review Nerdist News: What the Friday, and post-apocalyptic adventure We’re Alive: Frontier.
Mixed-martial-arts fans in the U.S. can now pre-order UFC pay-per-view events on Amazon’s Prime Video without a Prime membership. First up: UFC: 222 Cyborg vs. Kunitskaya, $64.99 for non-subscribers.
SpotX has been chosen by Vewd to power the monetization of its OTT products and services. As their first programmatic video advertising partner, Vewd will leverage SpotX’s video supply side platform and ad serving to allow media companies to optimize video advertising strategies and maximize revenue.
Epix is adding a VOD library of 4K Ultra HD titles, including James Bond films and original series Get Shorty. “It has been widely reported that the adoption rate of Ultra HD TV sets in the U.S. is far outpacing the adoption rate of HD at its launch, indicating that there is a significant opportunity to provide audiences with the best possible viewing experience,” said Jon Dakss, EVP and chief digital officer.
Sports-first live streaming TV service fuboTV added another 19 stations, bringing the total to 221, including those owned & operated by CBS, Fox or NBC, plus Fox programming in 45 additional markets.
GOING GLOBAL
Pernel Media sold docu-drama series The Real War of Thrones; A History of Europe to Foxtel for History Channel in Australia; Viasat World will broadcast the series in multiple free TV and pay TV channels across 29 territories in Eastern Europe, Russia, the Baltic States and Scandinavia and 20 territories in Portuguese-speaking and sub-Saharan Africa, while TV5 has also acquired the series for broadcast in Quebec.
all3media international has concluded a deal for its Constructed Reality slate, with Filmpool’s Families at the Crossroads acquired for local adaptation by Chilean national broadcaster TVN.
Wildlife series Wild Britain, from Plimsoll Productions and narrated by Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville, and event series Nocturnal Britain, from Pioneer Productions, are headed to UK’s Channel 5.
New ITV CEO Carolyn McCall announced a “strategic refresh” for the broadcaster, with a focus on online, content and distribution and advertising, she said after an earnings announcement. “The reason we have called it a refresh is because genuinely we are not trying to uproot everything because we don’t need to,” said McCall. “The world has changed since the last strategy was set out, so it’s really identifying any gaps.”
CASTING
Adam Scott, James Tupper, Jeffrey Nordling and Iain Armitage will be back for season 2 of HBO’s Big Little Lies, joining returning cast members Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley and Laura Dern.
Sarah Shahi will return to NBC’s Chicago Fire in a story arc as one of Severide’s ex-girlfriends.
Pilot lights: Breckin Meyer (Designated Survivor) and Merrin Dungey (Once Upon a Time) will star in ABC legal drama pilot The Fix….Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter) and Morris Chestnut (Rosewood) landed the leads in NBC drama pilot The Enemy Within….Christina Moses (The Originals) won a leading role in ABC pilot A Million Little Things.
ADVERTISING
Advertising intelligence company MediaRadar has added Snapchat ad insights to its platform, to collect and analyze data from brands advertising on Snapchat’s Discover Channels. Some findings: 73% of Snapchat advertising is from entertainment, tech and retail brands, and the average ad duration on Snapchat is 8 seconds. “It’s important for a sales rep to know if a brand is buying in Snapchat,” said Todd Krizelman, CEO & Co-Founder, MediaRadar. “This helps them more accurately understand an advertiser’s full media mix.”
“It’s not business as usual at Papa John’s,” said CEO Steve Ritchie during the company’s 4Q17 earning call, where he announced the food chain is dropping its pizza brand sponsorship of the NFL. “We have determined that there are better ways to reach and activate this audience,” said Ritchie. Papa John’s says it will focus on relationships with local teams.
And the NFL will focus on its new relationship with Pizza Hut, which jumped in as sponsor. “With a focus on family, friends and fun, Pizza Hut has the creativity we are looking for in a partner,” said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
SOCIAL GOOD
77% of 9-11-year-olds said it would help kids be kinder if there was someone who would give them ideas about what to do or say in tough situations, according to a survey by VJR Consulting commissioned by Cartoon Network. “Our main mission at Cartoon Network is to provide fun and entertainment, but we also have a long- standing commitment to use our platform responsibly,” said Christina Miller, net president. “Now more than ever we need to step up and support kids learning how to be kind, caring, and empathetic, so we can stop bullying before it starts.” Cartoon is expanding its “Stop Bullying: Speak Up” initiative with new PSAs and short-form content, reaching out to parents and offering a new microsite with resources to help kids speak up and develop greater empathy skills.
