IN THE NEWS

ViacomCBS streaming service CBS All Access will be rebranded as Paramount+ in early 2021, expanding to feature content from the company’s portfolio of broadcast, news, sports and entertainment brands. ViacomCBS will also bring Paramount+ to international markets with an initial debut in Australia, Latin America and the Nordics in 2021.

Despite talk that some Saturday Night live cast members might leave at the end of their contracts, the entire cast of season 45 will return to Studio 8H for the October 3 season premiere. Featured player Ego Nwodim was promoted to repertory player.

The pressure for a cross platform measurement solution has resulted in lots of involvement in establishing best practices, protocols and standards. However, people are often speaking different languages that can be at odds. This moment of peak fragmentation is the perfect time to hear from Amazon, CBS, Discovery, Publicis, OMD, Starcom, WarnerMedia, USIM, and more, on where we stand on the road to a solution. Learn more: cynopsis.com/events/measurement-data-conference-2020.

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HBO Max ordered to series period comedy Our Flag Means Death, loosely based on the life of a pampered aristocrat who abandoned his life of privilege to become a pirate. Taika Waititi (What We Do in The Shadows, Jojo Rabbit) will executive produce. Series creator and showrunner David Jenkins (People of Earth) executive produces with producer Garrett Basch (The Night Of, What We Do in the Shadows) and Dan Halsted.

Showtime picked up 10 episodes of dark comedy The End, starring Francis O’Connor (The Missing) and Harriet Walter (Succession) as an Australian-based specialist in palliative care and her mother, who feels strongly about the right to die. A coproduction between Sky UK and Foxtel Australia, the series was created and written by Samantha Strauss and is directed by Jessica M. Thompson and Jonathan Brough.

Tracee Ellis Ross (black-ish) signed a multi-year overall deal with ABC Signature, for her Joy Mill Entertainment to produce content across platforms. “As an executive producer, I am able to build stories, gather creatives and shape worlds as a way to illuminate different realities,” said Ross. “This deal continues my journey as a storyteller and content creator. I am thrilled to finally be sharing the news and expanding this part of my artistry at my home studio, ABC Signature.”

Also cementing an already solid studio relationship is The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus, who inked a two-year, first look development deal with AMC Studios, reports Deadline. Reedus is launching his production company, bigbaldhead, alongside AMC and Blackstone Publishing.

David Hyde Pierce (Frasier) is replacing Tom Hollander (The Night Manager) as Julia Child’s husband in HBO Max pilot Julia. UK-based actor Hollander was cast pre-pandemic, and the switch was reportedly caused by travel concerns and scheduling issues.

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Scout Productions (Queer Eye) is adding a documentary division, to be overseen by SVP of Strategic Development Joel Chiodi. The first two docs in the works are The Equal, chronicling the fight for LGBTQ rights, for HBO Max, and Get Real, a look at the history of reality TV, for Quibi.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

Season 16 of The Bachelorette premieres on a new night, Tuesday, October 13 at 8p. This time around, ABC promises “an explosive turn of events that will have all of Bachelor Nation in an uproar.”

Showtime comedy Moonbase 8, starring Fred Armisen (Portlandia), Tim Heidecker (Tim and Eric Awesome Show) and John C. Reilly (Stepbrothers) premieres Sunday, November 8 at 11p.

In tandem with its announcement that CBS All Access will be rebranded Paramount+, came details about new original series. Shows include scripted limited series The Offer, about the making of The Godfather; spy drama Lioness; MTV’s Behind the Music – The Top 40; true crime docu-series The Real Criminal Minds; and a revival of The Game, part of BET’s programming on the service.

Travel Channel has two new series coming up in October. World’s Most Unexplained makes its US debut on Sunday, October 4 at 11p, followed by Paranormal: Captured on Wednesday, October 7 at 10p.

COMING UP

ABC’s The Wonderful World of Disney returns Wednesday, September 23 at 8p with the network broadcast premiere of Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy. Disney’s anthology series first aired in 1954.

A supersized episode of South Park premieres on Comedy Central on Wednesday, September 30 at 8p. In “The Pandemic Special,” the kids happily return to school (except Cartman) but nothing resembles the normal they once knew.

Fox scheduled election-themed satirical puppet special Let’s Be Real for Thursday, October 1, after the first 2020 Presidential debate. Executive produced by Robert Smigel, creator of Triumph the Insult Dog, the comedy is the first collaboration between Fox Entertainment’s scripted and unscripted departments to air.

New special Goodfellas: Behind Closed Doors, following real stories behind the 1990 gangster film, premieres Saturday, September 26 at 8p on Reelz.

The annual REVOLT Summit x AT&T is going virtual, from October 23-25. Leading up to the event, starting September 19, REVOLT and AT&T will premiere digital content series Road to Summit – The World Is Yours, co-produced by Teyana “Spike Tey” Taylor & the Aunties.

The story of a cursed cookbook is the focus of Food Network’s Good Eats special, The House That Dripped Chocolate. Alton Brown stars the black-and-white show, premiering Thursday, October 8 at 9p.

Short-form series True Colors premieres Tuesday, September 29 as part of Peacock’s Hispanic Heritage Month celebration. A spotlight will fall weekly on trailblazers including baseball player Alex Rodriguez, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mario Lopez, Ellen Ochoa, Laurie Hernandez, Lele Pons, Ángela Aguilar and John Leguizamo.

Fuse is celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month with programming and initiatives focused on rising Latinx leaders. “These rising stars in the Latinx community are using their voices and influence to propel positive change across our nation, and their impact on society has only just begun,” said Fuse Media CEO Miguel (Mike) Roggero. “At our core is a mission of inclusion and empowerment, and Fuse is proud to have spent 2020 celebrating the voices that make the biggest impact.”

STREAMING SCOOP

Signups for Peacock jumped 50% in six weeks, from 10 million to 15 million, landing the app on the #2 spot on Xfinity Flex behind Netflix, shared Comcast CEO Brian Roberts at a Goldman Sachs media conference. The streamer launched nationally in July.

Loop Media, focused on premium short-form video, announced the addition of 19 new music video channels to DistroTV, the free streaming television service catering to multicultural, globally-minded viewers in the US, Canada, and UK. DistroTV viewers will have the option to select channels based on a specific musical genre, mood, time of day, or popularity.

FuboTV Inc. raised its subscriber guidance for 3Q20 as a result of the start of NFL and the fall sports seasons, with an expectation or 370,000-380,000 paid subscribers, up from 340,000-350,000. Revenues for the third quarter are expected to be $50-$54 million, a 27% to 38% increase year-over-year, driven by continued subscriber growth, an increase in subscription Average Revenue Per User and growth of advertising sales. Additionally, fuboTV’s common stock has been approved to list on the New York Stock Exchange, conditional upon successful pricing of the offering. “The current quarter has been very strong for fuboTV with double digit revenue and subscription growth year-over-year as well as improvement in retention – all achieved during the ongoing pandemic,” said Co-founder and CEO David Gandler.

MAVTV Motorsports Network inked a distribution deal with YouTube TV. The content will be part of YouTube TV add-on package, Sports Plus.

TECH TALK

Verizon Media announced the launch of OTT Smart Auction, a header bidding-like solution for OTT publishers. The server-to-server container integration, enabling OTT programmatic demand to compete with reserved demand in a real-time, unified auction in a publisher’s ad server, was created to meet the needs of premium video publishers that deliver longform on-demand or live streaming content through CTV or mobile apps, including broadcasters, cable networks, DMVPDs, and more.

Synacor announced that Epix has deployed Cloud ID, the consumer identity and access management platform. The rollout was completed via a migration that did not disrupt subscriber viewing sessions, replacing a legacy identity management solution at the TV network. “Identity management has become critically important to overall subscriber experiences and after considering all options, ranging from in-house development to a number of competitive solutions, Synacor’s Cloud ID emerged as the ideal platform for Epix,” said Sacha Stanton, CTO, Epix.

Ad tech company Centro announced an integration with Deep Root Analytics, an audience-powered analytics company. The combined solution allows advertisers to activate against Deep Root’s proprietary audiences across the video advertising ecosystem. Deep Root’s audiences are leveraged across multiple verticals including corporate reputation, public affairs, issue advocacy, and political, and anonymized in order to protect privacy and identity. “Deep Root has invested heavily in building best-in-class audiences for corporate reputation, public affairs, issue advocacy, and political advertisers. Aligning with Centro gives us opportunities to showcase the power of our technology in the most active and competitive places,” said David Seawright, CRO of Deep Root.

With at-home workouts on the rise due to the pandemic, Apple is starting a remote fitness service. Fitness+ will be available before the end of the year for $9.99/month, shared Jay Blahnik, Apple’s Senior Director for Fitness Technologies during an online company event. Blahnik said the service would offer new online workouts each week, with 10 types of exercises, including yoga, cycling, strength training and “even mindful cool downs.” The service will be integrated with an updated Apple Watch and Apple’s music service.

Bundle up: Apple is also launching new service bundles later this fall. The “Individual” plan ($14.95/month) will include Apple TV Plus, Apple Music, Apple Arcade and iCloud with up to 50 gigabytes of storage. The $19.95 “Family” plan offers those services, with access for up to six members per account, and up to 200B of iCloud storage. For $29.95/month customers can get the Apple One bundle, which adds Apple News Plus and the aforementioned Apple fitness service, as well as 2 terabytes of iCloud storage.

Data solutions company Kochava and Univision announced the addition of deep linking technology to Univision’s ongoing multi-platform, voter registration campaign, Vota Conmigo. SmartLinks for TV powered by Kochava enables a quick response code for deployment across Univision’s linear and digital platform; users will be able to scan the campaign QR code with their mobile device from their television and computer screens within relevant Vota Conmigo content, and be dynamically linked to Univision’s Vota Conmigo portal where they can register to vote, learn about mail-in ballot options, and find out where they can vote early and on election day.

GOING GLOBAL

RTÉ Programme Sales has sold an 80-hour package of lifestyle programming to AMC Networks International – Central and Europe, including several of the Irish public broadcaster’s home renovation, design and cooking titles. In addition, Poland’s Polsat has acquired My Trans Life, produced by Zucca Films and That’s A Wrap TV.

SOCIAL GOOD

Entravision has launched its Juntas Votamos (Together We Vote) civic engagement campaign, focused on empowering Latina women to register and vote in the 2020 election. It is running in conjunction with Hispanic Heritage Month, through October 15.

Telemundo kicks-off Hispanic Heritage Month with the launch of Nuestras Voces Cuentan (Our Voices Matter), a multiplatform campaign under the banner of its corporate social responsibility initiative, El Poder En Ti. (The Power in You). The initiative will recognize and highlight the culture, spirit, triumphs, and extraordinary contributions of Latinos living in the US.