Today’s Finale
DIY: Beach Front Bargain Hunt Renovation at 8p

Saturday’s Finale
Ovation TV: Frankie Drake Mysteries at 7p

Sunday’s Premieres
AXS TV: The 1960s Rediscovered at 9a
Epix: Laurel Canyon at 9p
Food Network: Symon’s Dinners Cooking Out at 12:30p
HBO: I May Destroy You at 10:30p
HGTV: Renovation Island at 8p
ID: American Monster at 9p
Nat Geo: Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted at 10p
Weather Channel: Top 100 Weather Moments at 10p

Sunday’s Finales
HLN: The Killer Truth at 10p
Nat Geo: Wicked Tuna at 8:30p

IN THE NEWS

Speaking at a memorial service for George Floyd in Minneapolis on Thursday, Rev. Al Sharpton compared Floyd’s death in police custody to the experience of all African Americans in this country. “What happened to Floyd happens every day in this country in education, in health services and in every area of American life,” Sharpton said. “It’s time for us to stand up in George’s name and say get your knee off our necks.” Sharpton also asked attendees, which included prominent politicians and entertainers, to stand for eight minutes and 46 seconds the amount of time ex-officer Derek Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck.

Two-night special OWN Spotlight: Where Do We Go From Here? will simulcast on OWN and across all of Discovery’s 18 other US networks on Tuesday, June 9 and Wednesday, June 10 at 9p. The special features Oprah Winfrey speaking with a range of Black thought leaders, activists and artists about systematic racism and the current state of America.

The CW acquired Sky Italia drama Devils, starring Patrick Dempsey, to fill the Wednesday-at-8p slot ahead of Canadian drama Coroner in the fall. Devils takes the place of Two Second Horror Stories, which moves to Sundays, and Dead Pixels, which will likely air over the summer.

Connected TV usage remains well above pre-COVID-19 levels as states ease shelter-in-place orders, reports Nielsen. As the pandemic spread in the US, connected TV viewing grew from 2.7 billion hours the first week of March, to nearly 4 billion the week of April 6. After stay-at-home orders were lifted in early May, CTV usage had dipped to 3.5 billion hours, higher than pre-lockdown.

The NBA board of governors voted to resume the basketball league’s season on July 31 at a single site, ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Florida, with 22 teams and “stringent safety practices.” The playoffs, which usually conclude in June, would run no later than October 12 per the deal, which awaits a sign-off from the players union. The NBC suspended its season on March 11.

Gabrielle Union filed a discrimination complaint with California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing against America’s Got Talent producers Fremantle Media and Simon Cowell’s Syco, and NBCUniversal for “racist and misogynistic conduct.” The complaint also accuses NBC Entertainment Chairman Paul Telegdy of threatening Union over speaking out. After Union was let from AGT last fall, NBCU, Fremantle and Syco ordered an outside investigation which found no wrongdoing, but Union’s complaint alleges the probe was incomplete.

The Law&Crime Network inked carriage agreements with Chatmoss Cablevision and NK Telco. “We continue to see a significant level of interest from cable providers looking to diversify their channel packages,” said Alex Kopacz, Head of Content Distribution & Licensing at Law&Crime. “We’re not another news, sports, entertainment or kids network. The legal and true crime genre is powerful and Law&Crime’s daily live trial coverage, expert analysis and original programming stands out.” The network now reaches about 22 million households.

The Peabody Awards ceremony, originally set to take place June 18 in LA, has been canceled. The recipient of the Career Achievement Award will be revealed on June 8, and winners will be announced June 10 and accept via video.

Propelle, the new female-focused accelerator program from Realscreen and Everywoman Studios, announced the participants in this year’s program: Kelly Sallaway of Rushbrook Media; Meghan Duffy of Black Watch Entertainment; and Sharon Houston of MVP. Over the next six months, they will incubate and develop projects, with a winner selected and announced at Realscreen Summit in January 2021. Everywoman Studios’ Abby Greensfelder, Nutopia’s Jane Root and Julie Bristow will be the 2020 mentors.

Mobile video downloading is changing the OTT landscape dramatically.
The cause??
More Americans are downloading mobile streaming videos than they were last year – a 24% increase – which means there’s a real opportunity for OTT providers to monetize download functionality.

In a new white paper, Penthera dives into the issues plaguing U.S. viewers, how to solve them, and how to increase your revenue by improving the mobile video experience.

DOWNLOAD NOW

Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation) narrates The History of Home, premiering on CuriosityStream on Thursday, June 18. The three-parter explores the histories and mysteries of famous homes around the world.

STREAMING SCOOP

While 89% of sports fans have a pay-TV or subscription OTT service, 51% still watch pirate sports services at least once a month, according to Synamedia’s new “Charting Global Sports Piracy” report, drawing on results from a 10-country study of over 6,000 sports fans conducted by Ampere Analysis. The study also found that of those who regularly view illegal sports content, 42% watch sports fixtures on a daily basis, over 60% higher than the average sports fan. “Global spend on TV sports rights is set to total almost $50bn in 2020. Protecting these revenues and keeping sports on screens requires a deeper understanding of the evolving piracy landscape and a cogent response,” said Simon Brydon, Senior Director, Sports Rights Anti-Piracy at Synamedia.

TECH TALK

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey donated $3 million to Know Your Rights Camp, an organization dedicated to empowering people of color that was established by former NFL star Colin Kaepernick. The donation comes through Dorsey’s Small Grants fund. Dorsey also donated $5 million to World Central Kitchen; $1 million to DigDeep, which provides hot and cold running water to members of the Navajo Nation; and $500,000 to SisterHearts, a thrift store in Louisiana.

Apple posted a letter from CEO Tim Cook on its website on Thursday, in response to the protests over the killing of George Floyd. “At Apple, our mission has been and always will be to create technology that empowers people to change the world for the better. We’ve always drawn strength from diversity, welcomed people from every walk of life to our stores around the world, and strived to build an Apple that is inclusive of everyone,” Cook wrote in part. “But we must do more. We commit to continuing our work to bring critical resources and technology to underserved school systems. We commit to continuing to fight the forces of environmental injustice — like climate change — which disproportionately harm Black communities and other communities of color. We commit to looking inward and pushing progress forward on inclusion and diversity, so that every great idea can be heard. And we’re donating to organizations including the Equal Justice Initiative, which challenge racial injustice and mass incarceration.”

Univision announced the launch of VAMOS, a voter analytics and media optimization tool that consolidates the insights Univision has been offering, coupling it with richer data that has recently become available by leveraging new learnings regarding evolving viewing behaviors. “The nation’s Hispanic voters are not monolithic. It is key for each of the political parties and campaigns to speak to the 32 million eligible Hispanic voters across the US about the issues and candidates,” said Univision’s Michele Day, SVP, Political, Advocacy & Government Group. “If you are not speaking to them as part of your political buying strategy, then you are missing out on an opportunity to reach our exclusive audience, 83% of which don’t watch any of the top 10 English-language networks.”

GOING GLOBAL

Wildlife and factual entertainment producer and distributor Earth Touch acquired two documentaries, The Iran Iraq War, featuring newly discovered front-line archive footage, and one-off special Burning Sky,an in-depth look at the landmark nuclear tests in Bikini Atoll. Earth Touch holds global rights (excluding Arabic and Farsi languages) to The Iran Iraq War and represents Burning Sky for worldwide distribution.

NENT Studios UK announced that SIC in Portugal has acquired the rights to produce a localized version of relationship format Don’t Tell the Bride.

Keshet International has completed its first format sale for Singletown, ITV2’s primetime strip relationship-based reality series. Discovery Networks has commissioned Nordisk Film TV Denmark to produce a local adaptation of the relationship show, which sees five couples press pause on their partnerships.

The 4th edition of MIP China will be held entirely online July 28-31, announced Reed MIDEM. The one-to-one matchmaking format will be maintained, offering agendas of pre-scheduled meetings between distributors, buyers and producers with Chinese and Asian TV channels and platforms.

Friday Fun Fact
The unicorn is the national animal of Scotland.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
The opening music for which 1989-1991 sitcom was “Good Lovin’”? Doctor Doctor (1989-1991). Kudos to: An Cheng-Telepictures/Burbank, Paul Blutter-Walk and Talk Production Rentals/Burbank, Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA, Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA, Charles Lore/NYC, Rev. Mark Wajda/Lakeland, FL, Synda Kollman-Charter Marketing Group/Boca Raton, FL, Andrew Goldman-Fathom Events/NYC, John Kukla-KDFW/Dallas

Today’s Trivia Question
Who got married in the series finale of The Nanny (1993-1999)? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: a limit of four answers per time zone.)