PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
Hemisphere Media Group, targeting the U.S. Hispanic and Latin American markets with broadcast and cable television and digital content platforms, has acquired a 75% interest in Snap Global, independent distributor of content in Latin America to broadcast, pay TV and OTT platforms. As part of the investment, Hemisphere signed a co-production joint venture with MarVista Entertainment, an independent film and TV production company and minority owner of Snap TV, to co-produce new original productions.
Shook Up, centered on a rough group of girls in 1950s NYC, is in development at Epix. Drama comes from Timberman-Beverly Productions and CBS Television Studios.
Top 10 Weekend Domestic Box Office Estimates: May 4-6, 2018
Avengers: Infinity War (Buena Vista) $112.5 million (week 2), cume revenue $450.8 million
Overboard (PNT) $14.8 million, opening weekend
A Quiet Place (Paramount) $7.6 million (week 5), cume revenue $159.9 million
I Feel Pretty (STX) $4.9 million (week 3), cume revenue $37.8 million
Rampage (Warner Bros.) $4.6 million (week 4), cume revenue $84.8 million
Tully (Focus) $3.2 million, opening weekend
Black Panther (Buena Vista) $3.1 million (week 12), cume revenue $693.1 million
Truth or Dare (Universal) $1.9 million (week 4), cume revenue $38.2 million
Super Troopers 2 (Fox) $1.8 million (week 3), cume revenue $25.4 million
Blockers (Universal) $2.9 million (week 4), cume revenue $53.2 million
Bad Samaritan (Electric) $1.8 million opening weekend
Source: comScore
UPFRONT UPDATES
In advance of its experiential advertiser Upfront showcase on May 14 and 15 in New York, Univision Communications Inc. held a press briefing Friday, where Tonia O’Connor, UCI’s CRO, spoke about the company’s modern consultative approach, built on the intersection of distribution, data and advertising. “UCI’s credibility and reach can help brands make meaningful connections with the nearly 60 million Hispanics driving the culture and economy of this country. We have built a trust with our audience over the past half-century that is unmatched in the marketplace.”
UCI announced 20 digital content initiatives with brands including ACE Media, the content and production arm of the NFL Players Association, Facebook Watch, Oath, POPSUGAR, Snapchat, TED, and The Players’ Tribune, noting UCI’s ability to customize content for a variety of platforms.
A new brand for UCI’s data-driven marketing services, Aperture by Univision Communications, was also introduced. “We have always been serious about the business of data and audience insights,” said O’Connor. “We see this newly launched unit as the next generation of our existing resources – an efficient and effective way for clients to gain much needed access to the Hispanic audience and build out impactful campaigns with reach and scale.”
CYNSIDERS
“Creating on Tongal means you’re not looking for projects and ideas in the same place everyone else is looking—and then only seeing them after Netflix does,” says Tongal cofounder and president James DeJulio. “Basically, we’ve flipped the entire development process on its head so that the needle in the haystack can find you.” Learn more about how the global creator network is rewriting the rules in the latest Cynsider.
HONOREES
2018 honorees at the Television Academy Honors, celebrating programming that addresses social issues in a compelling and impactful way, include Andie Mack, Daughters of Destiny, Forbidden: Undocumented & Queer in Rural America, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, LA 92, One Day at a Time and 13 Reasons Why. Event takes place May 31 in LA.
Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel took home the Audience Award for favorite among new series at the Series Mania Festival Lilly/Hauts-de-France.
Among the TV winners at the GLAAD Media Awards were Nat Geo doc Gender Revolution: A Journey with Katie Couric, as well as segments on HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Anderson Cooper 360, NBC Nightly News, CNN en Espanol and Entravision.
COMING UP
NBC celebrates Sweden’s most famous pop group with ABBA: Thank You For the Music, An All-Star Tribute. Two-hour special, to air in December, will include artists performing ABBA classics, as well as ABBA debuting their first new song in 35 years.
The Voice coach Kelly Clarkson, Charlie Puth and 5 Seconds of Summer will perform on The Voice’s Top 10 live shows this week. Clarkson takes to the NBC singing competition’s stage tonight, while Puth and 5SOS show ‘em how it’s done on Tuesday.
NBC’s Chicago Fire ends its season with a 2-episode finale on Thursday, May 10 at 9p and 10p.
Fuse is celebrating Future Asian/Pacific History throughout May with a look at emerging Asian and Pacific Islander leaders making waves across music, film, TV, sports, and pop culture. Fuse.tv will feature listicles and galleries each week throughout the month, spotlighting up-and-coming history makers.
Fox Business Network’s Liz Claman will speak with Warren Buffett today at 3p from the Berkshire Hathaway headquarters, part of FBN’s coverage of the company’s annual shareholder meeting.
CASTING
Michelle Monaghan (True Detective) landed the female lead in Netflix drama Messiah, from Mark Burnett and Roma Downey.
ADVERTISING
NBCUniversal has partnered with iSpot.tv, the real-time analytics company that measures attention and conversions for TV advertising, to provide attribution services for Audience Studio clients across its portfolio of broadcast and cable networks. “For generations, TV has been bought and sold by the gallon,” Mike Rosen, EVP of advanced advertising and platform sales, NBCUniversal, tells Cynopsis. “Now, with rich data and advanced targeting, we are increasing the miles delivered per gallon, and with innovators like iSpot in the attribution space, we can clearly demonstrate that targeted TV more effectively reaches the marketer’s desired destination.”
Facebook is making it tougher for foreign governments to use its platform to meddle in elections. Before midterm voting begins, advertisers on Facebook will have to verify they’re U.S. citizens or permanent residents, and disclose who is paying for the ads. A searchable library will disclose information about purchased ads.
Traffic on retailer websites increased by 9%. in 1Q18, according to Salesforce, but time spent during the quarter decreased, from 6 minutes to 4 minutes on mobile phones and from 7 minutes to 5 minutes on a PCC. Still, the amount shoppers spent rose 6%.
DIGITAL DATA
Univision Communications Inc. introduced a new digital-first brand initiative based on the launch of culinary vertical Delicioso. Rolled out to UCI’s 87 million Facebook fans in December 2017, Delicioso has over 350,000 Likes, a reach of 14.9 million and the most popular posts regularly generating over 3 million views. The Delicioso brand lives across the UCI ecosystem from digital series to radio integrations and linear integrations. In addition to a slate of social-first content paired with integrations across linear, there will be two major Delicioso food festivals this year.
CNBC announced the launch of the Warren Buffett Archive, digital home to a video collection of the Oracle of Omaha speaking about business, investing, money and life. The exclusive content from the site, which is built around 24 years of Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meeting footage as well as CNBC interviews, curated short-form videos and more, is being made available to the public for the first time. This should make the cut: Speaking at the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting Saturday, Buffet said he made “the wrong decisions” on Google and Amazon. “I made a mistake in not being able to come to a conclusion where I really felt that at the present prices that the prospects were far better than the prices indicated,” said Buffett, who also confessed Microsoft founder Bill Gates had to tell him to stop using Altavista as a search engine and use Google.
In related news, UCI also announced today a partnership with Walmart, anchored by a cooking-centered live format with two generations of chefs in a cooking challenge across different cities. Sabores Frescos de Verano will be filmed in front of a live studio audience and streamed on Facebook.
OTT tech company OWNZONES Media Network unveiled ProRes IMF support to its Post Production suite of features in the cloud for IMF (Interoperable Master Format). “Today’s legacy industry platforms are offering antiquated processes that are too expensive and time consuming,” said Dan Goman, CEO of OWNZONES. “We are radically disrupting the marketplace by creating new ways to distribute content without it continuing to break the bank.”
Just in time for advance ticket sales for Solo: A Star Wars Story, Fandango has launched an Action on the Google Assistant that lets users purchase movie tickets using their voice.
GOING GLOBAL
UK factual entertainment format Tough Old Landlords has scored its first international dead, with Dutch broadcaster NPO. Simpel Media, part of Endemol Shine Netherlands, will produce.
Jean-Benoit Gillig and Gub Neal, along with fellow executive producer Justin Thomson, are teaming to develop a new miniseries, following their first collaboration, Insoupconnable, the French version of UK hit The Fall. Disruptive thriller Faceless, focused on blackmail, betrayal and cyber crime on both sides of the Channel, will launch on TF1 later this year.
