PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
Science Channel has a 3-part docu-series in the works pairing historical and contemporary figures from similar fields (think Alexander Graham bell and Mark Zuckerberg). Innovators (wt), is slated for a 4Q18 premiere.
New series Hard to Kill (wt), starring Special Forces Sniper Tim Kennedy, was ordered by Discovery Channel. From Karga 7 Pictures, the show has Kennedy taking on some of the country’s most dangerous jobs.
T Group Productions has partnered with comedian Wanda Sykes and Page Hurwitz and their production company Push It Productions (Last Comic Standing) for competition format, Throw Mama from the Game Show, for the US television marketplace. The companies will be pitching the adult comedy project to broadcast and premium outlets this week.
Mother Media Group, a recently formed content production company co-founded by former Endemol Shine president Eden Gaha and Fox Studio attorney Wynn Rees, inked a first-look deal with STXtv that will see the companies working to create, produce and distribute unscripted and hybrid series for broadcast networks, new media and cable in the U.S., China, India and other international markets.
The Baxters, the first scripted digital series from LightWorkers Media, a joint venture owned by Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Mark Burnett (Survivor) and Roma Downey, is beginning production in LA. The ensemble family drama consisting of 6 half hour episodes will be available exclusively on LightWorkers later this year.
COMING UP
Showtime set a premiere date for Kevin Smith: Silent but Deadly, the stand-up special shot February 25. Smith was supposed to tape a second special that night but suffered a massive heart attack; he has since lost 26 pounds. Special airs Friday, May 11 at 9p.
Carrie Underwood will perform the world TV premiere of her soon-to-be-released single on CBS’s 53rd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards on Sunday, April 15 at 8p. Underwood is nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year and Vocal Event of the Year.
In the latest collaborative project between Smithsonian Channel and production partner EBS Korea, China’s Dragon Emperor tells the story of how China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, ascended at age of 13 and dedicated his life to unifying China. Two-parter premieres Monday, May 21 at 8p.
Epix is shaking things up with a Bond-A-Thon on Memorial Day weekend, featuring 2 days of James Bond films. First up: Live and Let Die on Sunday, May 27 at 2:30p.
CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King and Entertainment Tonight co-host Kevin Frazier will anchor CBS’s live, multiplatform coverage of the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on Saturday, May 19, beginning at 4a. King will have done her homework anchoring primetime special Meghan Markle: American Princess, airing Friday, April 20 at 10p.
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
Exclusive: Animal Planet is bringing back Pit Bulls & Parolees for a new season, slated to premiere later this year. Last season the show, which premiered in 2009, was up +9% among A25-54 versus the season prior, averaging over 1 million viewers, regularly driving the network into ad-supported cable’s Top 5 and Top 10 in its timeslot in demos including A25-54, W25-54 and Total Viewers P2+.
New immersive-reality drama Reverie debuts on NBC Wednesday, May 30 at 10p. Thriller follows a former hostage negotiator-turned-college-professor brought in to help save ordinary people who have lost themselves in a VR program in which you can live out your wildest dreams. Also coming up on the peacock net: season 2 of Marlon, premiering Thursday, June 14 at 9p and 9:30p.
Oxygen is adding 10 new original true crime series to its slate, along with the U.S. premiere of event series Serial Killer with Piers Morgan, featuring Morgan exploring the minds of depraved murderers. Since its 2017 rebrand, “The response from the true crime community has been overwhelming,” said Rod Aissa, EVP, original programming and development. “We’ve had some tremendous early ratings successes since our rebrand, and this new slate adds to our mission of providing best in class investigative docu-series from the top producers and talent in the genre, while continuing to offer exclusive access and compelling storytelling that have become paramount to our viewers.”
AMC’s Preacher returns on Sunday, June 24 at 10p. In season 3, Jesse Custer’s quest for God takes him back to the place he’s been avoiding his whole life: home.
Netflix renewed tween comedy Alexa & Katie for a second season. Creator and exec producer Heather Wordham will serve as show runner, taking over from Matthew Carlson.
OWN welcomes back Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s for its fifth and final season with a sneak preview on Tuesday, May 1 at 10p. Series slips into its regular slot on Saturday, May 5 at 9p and celebrates its 100th episode finale Saturday, June 9 with a 10p aftershow.
Discovery Channel is bringing weapons of the past to life in weapons building competition Master of Arms (wt). In each episode, builders face off in challenges that call upon era-specific weaponry. Matador Content is producing.
Season 3 of Bill Nye Saves the World launches on Netflix Friday, May 11. Among the guests this go-round are Arnold Schwarzenegger and Karlie Kloss.
Travel Channel’s Alaska Treasure Hunters arrives tomorrow, April 11 at 11p. In the docu-series, a group of explorers – dog included – brave the wilderness in search of lost gold.
Have you checked out the Cynopsis Upfronts/NewFronts portal? This must-have guide for media buyers and planners showcases the latest events, programming and news this Upfront season. (For information on submission, email [email protected].)
ADVERTISING & AGENCIES
Procter & Gamble is looking to cut costs and boost efficiency by building a dedicated creative agency for its North America fabric care business that includes team members from different companies. The plan calls for employees from Saatchi & Saatchi, Grey, Marina Maher Communications and Hearts and Science to all work together in offices in New York and P&G’s HQ, Cincinnati, starting in July. “We need to continue to raise the bar on creativity and the ability to reach consumers in a new way,” said Marc Pritchard, chief brand officer at P&G. “The way things are moving, it’s much more mass reach but with greater one-to-one precision and far more creative engagement with consumers. It’s a new model. That requires new agency models.”
Hive, an advanced tech company that uses AI and deep learning techniques to identify and capture metadata related to TV content through its Hive Media platform, has partnered on a joint offering with 605, an advanced data and analytics company focused on the media and entertainment industries. “Hive Media’s deep learning approach to identifying and tagging in-show branding is truly unique,” Ben Tatta, co-founder and president of 605, tells Cynopsis. “By combining their rich meta-data with 605’s audience measurement solutions we can provide deeper insights into the effect of brand exposure both within and outside of a TV program.”
DIGITAL DATA
YouTube is under fire from consumer watchdog groups, who are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the service’s parent Google for alleged violations to the children’s privacy laws. The complaint alleges Google is violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and has made “substantial profits” corralling information about tens of millions of kids and targeting advertising toward them. YouTube yesterday issued a statement saying it’s reviewing the complaint, and pointing out its terms of service state the service is not for kids younger than 13. “Protecting kids and families has always been a top priority for us,” a YouTube spokesperson said. “Because YouTube is not for children, we’ve invested significantly in the creation of the YouTube Kids app to offer an alternative specifically designed for children.”
A new version of the YouTube Kids app will include only videos that have been curated, rather than algorithmically suggested, reports BuzzFeed. Parents would be able to choose the whitelisted version, and presumably not have to worry about their kids being exposed to profanity, sexually explicit material or conspiracy theorists.
Cinedigm has launched a 24/7 digital-first gaming and esports WHAM Network on Xumo, Twitch, and web and mobile devices. Programming includes original content like UMG Gaming, compilation series Clip Blip, and Retro Gaming From the Strong Museum. “Gaming lifestyle and eSports content will be a multibillion-dollar industry within the next few years,” said Erik Opeka, EVP of Cinedigm Networks. “We’re excited to tap into this flourishing market with the launch of WHAM Network.”
Companies looking for a piece of that multibillion-dollar esports pie can find out how to profit from the phenomenon at the Esports Business Summit, taking place October 1-3 in Las Vegas. For info, go here.
Amazon spent more money – $22.6 billion – on research and development in 2017 than any other U.S. company. That’s up 41% from last year, when it was also the biggest spender. Amazon was followed by Alphabet ($16.6B) Intel ($13.1B), Microsoft ($12.3B) and Apple ($11.6B).
There’s a new iPhone 8 in town. Limited edition red models of iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus will benefit (RED), a non-profit dedicated to fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Phones will be available for pre-order today, and hit stores on Friday. Since 2006, Apple has donated over $160 million to the charity, founded by U2’s Bono.
Acorn TV, the SVOD service specializing in British and international television, is now available on Xfinity On Demand. The launch of the service is the first time Acorn TV is available on an MVPD set-top box.
FlimRise has acquired worldwide TV and digital rights to Ready Set Productions’ short-form docu-series, Modern Hero, celebrating female role models of all ages, careers and walks of life.
ITN Holdings licensed its end-to-end ProVantageX platform to the stations owned by Gray Television, Hubbard Broadcasting and The E. W. Scripps Company. This announcement follows the recent news that FOX Television Stations has licensed PVX for both traditional and programmatic business solutions.
TEGNA Inc. and Premion launched a proprietarily-built data management platform called Premion Audience Selects, which includes 2,000 first-party unique OTT audience segments. The first-of-its kind DMP is aimed at increasing the value of OTT ad impressions and provide accuracy, trust and transparency as well as cross-platform reach and measurement for advertisers.
Armoza Formats announced the international release of 10Cash, the first time that the content creator and distributor has launched an application to the market. Produced by Israel’s largest online platform Walla!, 10Cash will debut this month on the app store in the Israeli market.
Who won the Twitter feud between Jimmy Kimmel and Sean Hannity? Let us know what you think in the new Cynopsis poll: http://cynopsis.com/poll/.
NAB NOTES
Redrock Micro, Disney|ABC Television and Disney Research are showing off DigiBoom, a new gimbal-stabilized camera rig that merges jib, gimbal, Steadicam, drone and handheld into a single highly mobile platform. DigiBoom can be used by solo operators and small production teams for a cinema-style feel to live and pre-recorded news, sports and events.
Local TV news is in a strong position, with increased staffing (unlike newspapers), strong revenue and dropping costs, according to a study from the Knight Foundation, “What’s Next for Local News?”, that was the topic of a discussion at NAB. “One of the top findings of our study was that social doesn’t appear to cannibalize the newscast,” said Deborah Wenger, a university professor who worked on the report, adding, “there is a clear relationship between high levels of Facebook engagement, as defined by total actions and higher newscast ratings.”
In a SmithGeiger survey, the news was also good for local news, with 53% of respondents saying local news programs were their #1 most trusted source of news, significantly more than any other outlet. And the difference across age groups was minimal – 56% of A18-24, 53% of A25-34, 54% of A35-54 and 51% of A45-54 rated local news their top source.
With live event viewing expanding well beyond sports, Comcast Technology Solutions announced new Live to IP offerings as part of its end-to-end Live Services portfolio. Video content providers and global operators will be able to reach consumers with linear and live events available for streaming on any device, using a turnkey solution to ingest content via satellite, fiber, or over the Internet; manage and protect the content; and distribute live streams to any device. Linear Rights Metadata Management services ensure accurate delivery, entitlement, and representation of content across digital screens and live multichannel broadcasts. “Comcast Technology Solutions has years of experience delivering live content via broadcast and now we can enable customers to benefit from this expertise across all screens,” said Bart Spriester, GM and VP at Comcast Technology Solutions.
CASTING
Anson Mount (Hell on Wheels) has joined the season 2 cast of CBS All Access series Star Trek: Discovery, as Capt. Christopher Pike. Mount called the job “a dream I’ve had since around the age of 8.”
MIPTV MENTIONS
At the MIPTV opening in Cannes, Avril Blondelot, content insight director at Eurodata TV Worldwide, talked about trends in TV content. “Local productions are more popular than ever, making it very hard to reach a consensus on one or two titles,” noted Blondelot. “The priority for 2018: to create content that is able to break away in search of a particular audience, rather than desperately seeking the mass audience.”
On the first day of MIPTV, Japan’s Nippon TV announced that STB TV Channel acquired the scripted format rights to Mother and will be remaking the series in either Ukrainian or Russian (to be announced shortly)….Viasat World inked a deal with Metro Goldwyn Mayer to make ViP Premiere, its movies and series focused channel proposition in Russia, home to a raft of current film features and television series titles, including Tomb Raider and The Handmaid’s Tale….Keshet International sold talent show Masters of Dance to Vietnam’s HCM City Television channel 3, Norway’s NRK, Poland production company Rochstar and EndemolShine in Spain…New content company Connect3 Productions announced a number of format deals including SOS: Stories of Survival, an original French-language series created and produced by Productions Lustitia for Bell Media’s Ztele.
Banijay Rights licensed a package of more than 65 hours of programming to Ovation, America’s arts network….Studiocanal licensed family relationship drama Ride Upon The Storm M-Net Africa; TVNZ New Zealand; SBS Australia; Lumiere Benelux; RTVS Slovakia; NC+ Poland; LRT Lithuania and RTE Ireland along with a previously announced sale to Telefonica in Spain….all3media international is partnering with FLX, C More, TV4 and Filmregion Stockholm – Malardalen/ Film Capital on new coproduction Blinded. It’s all3’s first major investment in Scandinavian language drama.
UK prodco Spun Gold Television’s The Real Full Monty is heading to Australia following a deal with Seven Network for the format…. Global Road Entertainment has acquired global rights to game show format Idiotest, as well all the original episodes which aired in the US on GSN….Globo added thriller miniseries Thirteen Days Away From the Sun to its MIPTV catalogue….Cineflix Rights signed a first look partnership deal with UK factual indie producer Talesmith….TCB Media Rights sold The Private Lives of the Monarchs, World’s Wildest Weather and Abandoned Engineering into the US.
GoQuest Media Ventures concluded a distribution agreement with leading Nordic creative solutions group ANTI INC…. HBO licensed US rights to 2 of FilmRise’s theatrical releases, My Friend Dahmer and the Boy Downstairs…. Electus International has secured global distribution and US remake rights to reality dating format Matchmakers from Belgium-based Roses are Blue and will be shopping the series this week.
Kew Media Group sold paranormal series Haunted Hospitals to Discovery’s Quest Red in the UK and Ireland…. Blue Ant International announced more than 140 hours of programming will land on premium linear television channels across Germany via the distributor’s roster of content providers…. 9 Story Distribution International acquired worldwide distribution rights to the new stop-motion animated children’s series The Diary of Bita & Cora from Spain’s TV ON Producciones. The program is TV ON’s first series aimed at children.
