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PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
Endemol Shine Boomdog signed an overall development deal with Kate Del Castillo (La Reina del Sur) and her Cholawood Productions team. Del Castillo will produce and star in projects that will be jointly developed between Endemol Shine Boomdog and Cholawood Productions. Del Castillo, along with her partners, Carmen Cervantes and journalist Jessica Maldonado, lead Cholawood Productions, which will be housed at Endemol Shine’s LA offices. The two sides are currently exploring scripted and unscripted development opportunities in both English and Spanish.
HBO Max is ordering two reimagined seasons of animated series The Boondocks, from creator Aaron McGruder. Show is slated to launch in Fall 2020 with a 50-minute special. “There’s a unique opportunity to revisit the world of The Boondocks and do it over again for today,” said McGruder. “It’s crazy how different the times we live in are now – both politically and culturally – more than a decade past the original series and two decades past the original newspaper comic. There’s a lot to say and it should be fun.” All 55 episodes of the original series, which ran on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, will also be available on the direct-to-consumer offering at launch.
Donick Cary inked a first-look animation deal with Comedy Central to develop and produce animation projects across all platforms for the network and its new studio-production arm, Comedy Central Productions. As part of his deal, Cary will develop his own ideas, and work with other talent and creators to identify and develop animated properties for Comedy Central and other platforms.
Joel Stillerman has launched LA-based production company Content Superba, backed by Endeavor Content. “We believe the changes in how we access our content are just the tip of the iceberg,” said Stillerman, former Chief Content Officer at Hulu. “The real change that’s upon us is a reimagining of storytelling itself as these new platforms emerge and evolve. There has never been a better time to be the new kids, and along with our partners at Endeavor Content, we’re formally inviting the dreamers, rule breakers, innovators, and inventors to come and play with us.”
Food Network has plenty cooking for the holidays, with 40% more seasonal episodes planned overall in 2019 versus last year. Over 100 hours of holiday programming is slated through the end of the year, with December holidays seeing the biggest increase in associated programming – almost 70% more planned than last year – while Thanksgiving-related programming will increase nearly 40% and Halloween-related programming will be up more than 10% year over year.
Content development company TRIO TV has attached singer-songwriter Jennifer Paige as host of 15 Below, a music competition aimed at 12- to 15-year-old viewers and their families, featuring musically talented young performers ages 15 and younger. Series is being shopped to networks and streaming services.
Writer/producer John Glenn is out as showrunner at CBS’s SEAL Team, as well as his overall deal with CBS Television Studios. The exit follows an unspecified investigation by the studio; Glenn’s lawyer said his client “disputes any findings.”
ABC put two dramas in development from Mandeville Television, reports Deadline: Committed, an anthology series based on the iHeartMedia podcast, from Jerome Schwartz (Once Upon a Time) and Shannon Goss (The Terror), and an untitled family drama restaurant drama from Zahir McGhee (For the People).
Nahnatchka Khan (Fresh Off the Boat) landed a multi-year first-look deal with Netflix. Khan also has a four-year overall producing deal with Universal Television for series projects.
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
PBS’s four-part series Life From Above, telling stories about Earth from the perspective of space, debuts Wednesday, October 23 at 10p (check local listings).
Disney Junior ordered a third season of Fancy Nancy, cable’s #1 series among Girls 2-5 and Girls 208 during its first year. The order comes ahead of the start of the show’s sophomore run on Friday, October 4 at 11:30a.
Rotten Tomatoes has launched an original video series aimed at helping viewers “break through the noise” and discover what critics and fans are buzzing about. Couch Tomatoes, hoisted by entertainment journalist Naz Perez, will debut every other Wednesday on the Rotten Tomatoes website, YouTube channel, Facebook Watch and IGTV.
Crackle original Going From Broke, a new series from executive producer Ashton Kutcher, Matador Content and Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, launches Thursday, October 17 on the streamer. Host Dan Rosensweig, Chegg CEO, and financial expert Danetha Doe help young people living LA change their habits and gain financial confidence.
COMING UP
AXS TV’s Real Money finishes its second season in memory of Eddie Money, who passed away Friday, September 13 at the age of 70. Final three episodes feature a conversation with the rocker’s friend, comedian Louie Anderson (October 3), Eddie and his wife Laurie renewing their wedding vows (October 10), and a look-back at the two seasons of the show (October 17).
Beth Stern and James Denton (Good Witch) will return to host the 9th Annual American Humane Hero Dog Awards, honoring outstanding working dogs from around the country. The awards gala, sponsored by the Lois Pope LIFE Foundation and Zoetis, will also feature Trevor Donovan (Snowcoming), Danielle Fishel (Girl Meets World), Kellie Martin (Hailey Dean Mysteries), Debbie Matenopoulos (Home & Family), Cameron Mathison (Home & Family), Wendi McLendon-Covey (The Goldbergs), Brandon McMillan (Lucky Dog), Barbara Niven (Christmas in Evergreen), Roselyn Sanchez (A Taste of Summer), Eric Winter (The Rookie), and Larissa Wohl (Home & Family) as presenters. Ceremony will take place on Saturday, October 5 and be broadcast as a two-hour special on Monday, October 21 at 8p on Hallmark Channel.
John Cena will go undercover on Nick hidden camera prank show The Substitute, on an episode premiering Friday, October 4 at 7p. Airing after The Substitute will be Cena-hosted Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader.
People and Entertainment Weekly celebrate the 71stannual Emmy Awards weekend with two red carpet live stream shows from LA: On Friday, September 20, EW offers a livestream from Sunset Tower Hotel at 8:30p, followed on Sunday, September 22, by the Television Academy’s official two-hour “People and Entertainment Weekly Red Carpet Live Pre-Show” at 6p.
The Indian National Finals Rodeo will be televised on Ride TV on Saturday, October 26. Showcasing the action from previous rounds, Ride TV will also air five highlight shows in December on dates to be announced. The 44th annual Indian National Finals Rodeo include over 400 Native American athletes from 50 tribes in the U.S. and Canada.
STREAMING NEWS
Facebook is releasing Portal TV, a connected TV streaming device priced at $149. The device, shipping on November 5, allows users to download apps including Amazon Prime Video, CBS All Access, Starz, Showtime, Pluto TV, Red Bull TV and Neverthink, with more apps coming soon. Portal TV also has a smart camera, powered by AI, that allows for video and WhatsApp calling, AR effects and a co-watching feature.
Subscriptions represent nearly 86% of online spending on TV and movies in the US and Canada, according to Parks Associates’ “OTT Video Market Tracker,” versus just over half in 2012. How will upcoming services from Disney, HBO and more affect the numbers? “The amount of money consumers spend per month will spike, at least in the short term, as new services such as Disney+ and Apple TV+ become available,” said Brett Sappington, Senior Research Director and Principal Analyst. “Trade-off decisions will come later.” To keep consumers spending at this higher level, adds Sappington, “services will have to consistently deliver volumes of compelling content within an engaging user experience.”
Streaming TV should surpass pay TV viewers by 2024, according to Roku’s 2019 Cord Cutting study, which reports two million Americans have cut the cord so far this year. Seventy-three percent of video streamers in the tudy watch AVOD and 45% watch more free TV than any other streaming video option, while another 74% say streaming is more convenient than pay TV services.
Comcast’s internet-only customers will have free access to Xfinity Flex, once priced at $5/month, as well as NBCUni streaming service Peacock, set to spread its wings in April. Among the options via Flex are Pluto TV, Cheddar, ESPN3, YouTube and subscription options via Neflix, Amazon Prime Video and HBO.
Mark Soradi, CEO of movie theater chain Cinemark, says his company has “a good relationship” with Netflix, despite controversy over traditional theatrical windows. “We have open communication and we welcome Netflix products to play in our theaters,” said Zoradi at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference. “We really only ask for one thing, and that is that they would play by the same window designation as our major content providers….We like them. But we can’t have a different deal for Netflix than we have for all the other major studios.”
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie will have a theatrical run from October 11-13. The film, starring Aaron Paul reprising his Breaking Bad role, debuts on Netflix at midnight on October11.
TECH TALK
DoubleVerify announced the launch of its Semantic Science division, combining AI textual analysis with human insight and expertise to understand the “meaning” of language so it can be classified at a more granular level. With the launch of the division, DV is integrating the technology gained from acquiring contextual intelligence and content classification platform, Leiki, in 2018. Leiki’s semantic AI software engine provides high-definition analysis of any piece of text or contextual video data. DoubleVerify then uses the analysis data to protect brand reputation throughout the media transaction and to enable proactive contextual targeting of content aligned with a brand’s equity or target audience profile. “Just as our Fraud Lab detects fraud schemes, identifying solutions to new and advanced threats, our specialized Semantic Science team – combining AI and human expertise – will focus on understanding the language and the meaning of content and context,” said Dan Slivjanovski, CMO, DoubleVerify.
Marketo Engage, part of Adobe Marketing Cloud in Adobe Experience Cloud, announced an extension to its partnership with Vidyard built on the integration of Vidyard’s video marketing capabilities directly within the Marketo Engage application. The new video marketing capabilities allow Marketo Engage users to fully customize a responsive playback experience; gain a detailed view into video analytics; upload, download and store unlimited assets; optimize videos for discoverability; and showcase videos in an organized, branded channel.
Count ISM Connect as a new member of DPAA. ISM Connect’s digital out-of-home network delivers video engagement and audience measurement with a combination of 4K screens, high-resolution sensors, and artificial intelligence. Said Barry Frey, DPAA President & CEO, “ISM Connect is enhancing fan and retail consumer experiences at stadiums and other high-traffic venues, and does a terrific job at providing attribution metrics that offer invaluable insights to brands. We are delighted that the ISM team will be attending our Video Everywhere Summit for the first time as members.”
ADVERTISING AND BRANDS
Local broadcast TV trade association Television Bureau of Advertising is pushing the industry to convert local broadcast audience measurement from a ratings-based to an impressions-based measurement system. “As technology continues to weave its way into how and where we watch local broadcast television, it’s imperative for the industry to measure the entire audience, no matter where they watch,” said Steve Lanzano, president and CEO of TVB. “The use of Impressions simplifies how we evaluate media across platforms and makes it easier to include local TV in the cross-platform consideration set.”
Said Julio Marenghi, president, Sales, CBS Television Stations, “We welcome the switch from ratings to Impressions-based measurement here at the CBS Television Stations. We see this as the future currency and have already started working with clients using CPM modeling, giving us the ability to compete with other mediums. Spot TV has a history of CPM usage that went away and can now return to help keep local TV in the conversation with advertisers.” ABC Owned Television Stations are onboard, too. “The strength of our owned stations is in our commitment to serving our local communities across platforms,” said Wendy McMahon, President. “We see the transition from ratings to Impressions as aligned with the consumer shift to cross-platform viewing, a shift we have taken advantage of to grow total audience.”
Also heeding TVB’s call is Hearst Television, serving media markets across 39 states. Hearst TV announced its stations will immediately begin transacting advertising-sales agreements based on audience impressions, simplifying the collective buying of various video advertising offerings. “This is without question one of the most dynamic times in the history of our industry,” said Eric Meyrowitz, Hearst Television SVP, sales. “Helping facilitate a change that ultimately allows for easier transaction across multiple platforms is something we are excited and eager to be a part of.”
As the search for work/life balance grows increasingly elusive, personal passions and interests often take a backseat to professional work. Lee Nadler, the new Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Advertising Club of New York, has found happiness by merging his passion for philanthropy with his career. He shares his story in Cynsiders.
Social media and video advertising is still a winning combination, according to a survey conducted by Twitter, Publicis Media, Firefish and The Numbers Lab. Consumers who saw in-feed video ads were more likely to consider taking brand actions, according to the research, and two weeks after seeing video ads, 89% of consumers who made purchases remembered seeing the ads.
Microsoft announced new audience targeting solutions in open beta, combining customer data with new Microsoft technology. Product Audiences helps connect customers to products by creating remarketing lists for specific products in shopping campaigns; unique product IDs track what a customer interacts with while an ad display matches that product ID, helping reach more customers who have a clear purchase intent. Microsoft reports customers using the Product Audiences feature pilot study saw up to double the conversion rate and a 40% lower CPA. Similar Audiences automatically finds new customers who have similar interests to existing remarketing lists; in early pilot studies, customers saw 70% higher conversion rates from Similar Audiences when compared to non-targeted users for the same ads.
GOING GLOBAL
London-based TCB Media Rights announced that it will be unveiling 40 new releases at MIPCOM, 15 of which are returning series. Headlining the line-up are are show launches How Did They Build That?, How I Created A Cult, Shipwreck Secrets, Lords of the Oceans and Hitched in Vegas.
UK’s Zig Zag Productions has been commissioned by A+E Networks UK to produce a branded content spot for Kia Motors. The two-minute video and a 30-second version coincides with the launch of the new Kia Seltos SUV, and follows the work of a 3D artist who travels to Australia from the UK to paint a version of the car which suddenly comes to life.
Endemol Shine Brazil have struck a deal with Globosat’s GNT to produce a primetime run of reality show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Casting is underway in Brazil with the series set to air in 2020.
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