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IN THE NEWS

Lionsgate is on track to spin off its film and TV studios business in a Special Purpose Acquisition Company. In an SEC filing, SPAC Screaming Eagle Acquisition Corp. said the registration for the proposed merger has been declared effective by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The deal creating Lionsgate Studios is expected to close in early May.

“Bob Hearts Abishola” is wrapping its run after five seasons on CBS, but the Chuck Lorre comedy will live on in syndication. Station groups including Nexstar Media Group, Sinclair, Hearst Television, Tegna, E.W. Scripps, Weigel Broadcasting, Sunbeam Television, Gray Television, Mission Broadcasting, Lockwood Broadcast Group and Bahakel Broadcasting will carry the show, said Warner Bros. Discovery Content Sales. “From the authentic perspective our cast brings to their roles to the rich cultural experience our writers and crew bring to life each week, ‘Bob Hearts Abishola’ has truly shown that immigrants make America great, and that love comes in many forms,” said Lorre. “I’m happy that audiences will be able to continue to enjoy these beautiful stories in syndication for years to come.”

IPG Mediabrands has launched an initiative to escalate its efforts to protect its clients from misinformation in media, particularly social media, with technology developed by its Kinesso unit. Kinesso has developed custom video algorithms that can identify the “suitability” of brand advertising placed in various media that also optimize video campaign-specific outcomes and KPIs. The effort also includes an expansion of the relationship between IPG Mediabrands’ Magna and brand safety platform Zefr that includes two new features, “pre-campaign media responsibility profiles” leveraging AI technology to block unsuitable categories flagged for misinformation, and “custom misinformation avoidance” for user-generated content to avoid sensitive categories such as the US elections and climate denialism.

Omnicom reported 1Q24 revenue of $3.6 billion, with organic growth of 4.0%, and raised its estimate for yearly growth from 4-5%, up from 3.5-5%. “Omnicom began the year with solid organic revenue growth of 4.0%, led by continued strength in our advertising & media and precision marketing disciplines, including Flywheel Digital,” said John Wren, Chairman and CEO. “Our industry-leading tools and platforms, combined with the strength of our operating leadership, has led to our excellent new business performance and, when combined with the new opportunities we are pursuing, give us great confidence in the future.”

Apple TV+ has renewed space drama “For All Mankind” for a fifth season, and announced spinoff series “Star City.” “For All Mankind” creators Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi will showrun the new series, produced for Apple TV+ by Sony Pictures Television “Our fascination with the Soviet space program has grown with every season of ‘For All Mankind,’” said executive producers Wolpert and Nedivi. “The more we learned about this secret city in the forests outside Moscow where the Soviet cosmonauts and engineers worked and lived, the more we wanted to tell this story of the other side of the space race. We could not be more excited to continue building out the alternate history universe of ‘For All Mankind’ with our partners at Apple and Sony.”

INSP greenlit a second season of “The Tall Tales of Jim Bridger,” set to begin production this quarter. Rib Hillis stars the legendary mountain man.

HITN-TV, the network of educational and informative media in Spanish, announced the launch of a linear children’s channel for pay TV, as well as programming blocks for broadcast television. The new service, named EDYE TV, will be available to the Hispanic market in the United States, Latin America, and Brazil. EDYE TV will be programmed with a system selecting content as a “surprise” for its viewers instead of a set programming grid. Programs will be announced by Ray, EDYE’s mascot, just before the start of each episode. The system will operate under an algorithm that will provide exposure to all series and reduce the perception of repetition.

The writers of MTV clip show “Ridiculousness,” who voted to organize under the Writers Guild West of America West last year, scored a contract that covers minimum compensation, residuals, benefits, AI regulations and more. “The writers of ‘Ridiculousness’ have shown incredible unity, courage and resolve throughout their organizing campaign for a Guild contract,” said WGAW President Meredith Stiehm. “I’m proud to welcome them into our union.”

PBS KIDS is integrating American Sign Language interpretations into six series that will be available for free on PBS KIDS digital streaming platforms starting today. Series include “Work It Out Wombats!”, “Pinkalicious & Peterrific,” “Arthur,” “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” “Donkey Hodie” and “Alma’s Way.”

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National Geographic greenlit “The Stanford Prison Experiment: Unlocking the Awful Truth” (w/t), following the story of Dr. Philip Zimbardo, who in 1971 paid two dozen college-aged participants to live in a mock prison, observing how randomly assigned “prisoner” and “guard” roles influenced behavior. The series “pushes the boundaries of storytelling while shedding new light on a pivotal moment in psychological history,” said Tom McDonald, EVP of Global Factual and Unscripted Content, National Geographic. “Through the voices of those who lived it, we, along with our longtime partners at Muck Media, invite audiences to reexamine the Stanford Prison Experiment and confront the truths that lie beneath the surface.”

Comedy Central gave a 10-episode order to “Golden Axe,” an animated series based on the 1989 Sega video game series. Matthew Rhys (“The Americans”) stars as a grumpy battle dwarf with exceptionally poor hygiene and a chip on his shoulder. The series is produced by CBS Studios in association with Sony Pictures Television and Original Film.

Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook, cowriter and director of “Oldboy,” and his producing partner Syd Lim are developing an English-language series adaptation of the film with Lionsgate Television. “Lionsgate Television shares my creative vision for bringing ‘Oldboy’ into the world of television,” said Park. “I look forward to working with a studio whose brand stands for bold, original and risk-taking storytelling.”

Critical Content is launching an international growth initiative that calls for the Critical Content formats to travel to international territories. The initial round of alignments includes a first-look production deal with France’s ITV Studios France and a first-look distribution deal with Belgium’s Be-Entertainment for formats landing on their DPG Media Channels. Stéfanie Gelinas, Critical Content’s recently appointed EVP of Global Formats & Development, will help oversee the slates and procure further deals.

Hallmark Media has added new participants to its Make Her Mark Women’s Directing Program during its inaugural year. Kay Metchie recently shadowed director Mike Rohl on the set of Hallmark Mystery’s “The Cases of Mystery Lane: Death is Listening,” while Eva Tavares will shadow director Peter Benson on an untitled 2024 Countdown to Christmas movie heading into production this month.

Independent television studio Future Shack Entertainment, along with Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe’s production company, A Touch More, are partnering to develop the novel Cleat Cute from author Meryl Wilsner. “Sports is a universal language and breeding ground for world class storytelling. As women’s sports captivate audiences around the globe, we’re proud to partner with two of the most iconic athletes of our time, Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird, to bring Meryl Wilsner’s delightful world to life in a bold, sexy and fun ensemble show,” said Jeff Wachtel, Future Shack’s CEO.

Joining the cast of FX’s “Dying for Sex” in recurring roles are Rob Delaney (“Catastrophe”), David Rasche (“Succession”) and Esco Jouley (“State of the Union”). The drama stars Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

Paranormal investigators Zak Bagans, Aaron Goodwin, Billy Tolley and Jay Wasley return for a new season of “Ghost Adventures,” premiering Wednesday, May 15 at 9p on Discovery with a special two-hour episode.

National Geographic will honor overlooked Allied soldiers of color with two new specials airing Monday, June 3. “Erased: WW 2’s Heroes of Color,” a four-part docuseries executive produced and narrated by Idris Elba (“Hijack”), airs at 9p, following “The Red Tails,” a documentary narrated by Sheryl Lee Ralph (“Abbott Elementary”) at 8p.

Season three of game show “Don’t Forget the Lyrics” premieres Thursday, May 23 at 9p on Fox. Niecy Nash hosts.

The third and final season of fantasy drama “Sweet Tooth” debuts Thursday, June 6 on Netflix. Kelly Marie Tran (“Sorry For Your Loss”) is joining the show as a series regular.

New episodes of docuseries “Behind the Music” will premiere on Paramount+ on Wednesday, May 1. The new episodes profile Bell Biv DeVoe, Trace Adkins and Wolfgang Van Halen, while remastered episodes feature 50 Cent, Bobby Brown, Ice-T, Milli Vanilli, The Notorious B.I.G. and Sinead O’Connor.

COMING UP

ABC’s “Time 100: The World’s Most Influential People” special will air Sunday, May 12 at 10p. Taraji P. Henson (“The Color Purple”) is set to host the show, for its fifth year on ABC.

The Dutton Ranch from MTV Entertainment Studios, 101 Studios and Paramount Network’s “Yellowstone” returns to the desert for country music’s sold-out Stagecoach Festival, taking place April 26-26 in Indio, CA. Stagecoach attendees will have the opportunity to take part in photo moments from “Yellowstone” and “1923,” meet cast members and more.

Iliza Shlesinger will tape a comedy special for Prime Video on November 2, as part of her The Get Ready Tour. It’s Shlesinger’s first special for the streamer, but the comedian has racked up six for Netflix.

STREAMING

Frndly TV is adding four SVOD services to its programming offerings, and launching the Frndly TV Channel Store. Lifetime Movie Club, HISTORY Vault, A&E Crime Central and Great American Pure Flix will join Hallmark Movies Now as add-ons for Frndly TV customers. “By making these SVOD services available to our subscribers in one central location, we are further serving our customers with more options for their enjoyment — and providing these services with a national distribution outlet that makes their programming available to millions of potential viewers,” said Michael McKenna, Co-Founder and Chief Programming Officer of Frndly TV.

Ad-supported video-on-demand and streaming media platform Plex boasted it now offers 1112 free-to-stream live TV channels featuring movies, series, news, and more. More than 800 free FAST channels are streamed in the U.S., with others in major international markets, including Canada, the UK, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, and Germany.

Scandinavian video streaming service Viaplay, which shuttered its service in North America last year, has launched a channel on Prime Video Channels for $5.99/month. “We’re thrilled to increase the Viaplay subscription channel’s distribution in the United States,” said Vanda Rapti, Viaplay Group, Viaplay Select & Viaplay Content Distribution EVP. “This shows the universal appeal of high-quality Nordic and European content and will make these titles more accessible to viewers across the United States than ever before, including Viaplay’s record-setting Swedish-English drama series ‘Börje – The Journey of a Legend’ coming May 2.”

ChaiFlicks, a streaming platform for Jewish storytelling, has signed a deal with Chicago-based Music Box Films, licensing fifteen titles, among them “Ida,” “Gett: The Trial of Vivane Amsalem,” “Memoir of War,” “Golden Voices” and “Aida’s Secrets.”

RETAIL MEDIA

Vericast has named its in-store media platform “nCountR,” created to help brands and retailers deliver the benefits of a traditional retail media network, but in the physical world where most retail transactions occur. Commercially available later this year, the advertising platform is designed to seamlessly integrate in-store digital programmatic advertising with digital screens, merchandising, data analytics, and measurement technology. “Our research indicates retailers are enhancing the in-store technology footprint to personalize customer experiences,” said Hans Fischmann, VP and GM of nCountR. “At the same time, structural shifts in the ad marketplace have turned in-store retail media into a powerful marketing channel. nCountR will empower brands and retailers to engage shoppers at decision time with contextual experiences through fully integrated display technology, measurement, and attribution. This enables marketers to fully track Return on Ad Spend.”

Nonprofit marketing consultant organization Alliance Retail Group has teamed with software company Swiftly to launch a retail media network that enables more than 1,400 independent retailers to connect more personally with their 22 million unique consumers via digital and in-store campaigns. “What sets our retail media network apart is that our retailers will receive 100% of the dollars we collect on their behalf for running the promotions,” noted Jena Sowers, CEO of ARG. “It is also at no cost to our retailers – we feel that is business critical in today’s competitive grocery landscape.”

In-store digital advertising network Grocery TV shared the results of a meta analysis that showed, on average, consumer packaged goods brands achieve a 14% incremental lift in sales by advertising on their network. The meta analysis included studies from the last 5 years for a range of CPG products sold in grocery stores where Grocery TV has digital advertising displays. “We’ve been seeing positive incremental sales from endemic brands on our network for years now,” said Marlow Nickell, CEO of Grocery TV. “As we continue to grow our measurement offering and expand to different parts of the store, it’s important to look back and provide advertisers with a baseline.” The meta analysis revisited 16 sales lift studies for CPG brands sold throughout the store including categories such as confection, gum & mint, snacks, and produce. The top performing achieved a 17.6% sales lift by running a campaign on Grocery TV’s advertising network in stores where the product is sold.

TECH

TransUnion and GrowthLoop announced a new partnership that aims to help solve the problem of overspending on ad campaigns, by pairing GrowthLoop’s unified audience layer with TransUnion’s TruAudience® Marketing Solutions. Through the partnership, new and existing GrowthLoop customers will have the option to toggle on Enhanced Match Rate within the platform, enabling greater reach and better engagement for GrowthLoop’s enterprise customers in industries including financial services, healthcare, technology, telecommunications, sports, entertainment, retail, consumer packaged goods, and more.

SPORTS ROUNDUP

The NHL and National Hockey League Players’ Association highlighted their goal, along with all 32 NHL Clubs, to make hockey more accessible for all fans. This season, through numerous community impact programs and initiatives, more than $14 million was invested in cities across the US and Canada. On the ice, more than 40,000 boys and girls, a record number, tried hockey for the first time, and in the locker room, the first-ever Leaguewide inclusion educational tour was completed.

BODYARMOR Sports Drink struck a new multi-year North American partnership with the NHL and National Hockey League Players’ Association to become their “Official Sports Drink” partner. The BODYARMOR brand will be featured for the first time across the League on Saturday, April 20, the opening day of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Great Clips, the Official Hair Salon of the NHL and NHLPA, has launched its annual Show Your Flow campaign, encouraging hockey fans to share photos and videos of their Hockey Hair flows for the chance to be inducted into the Hockey Hair Hall of Fame. Last year, Great Clips and a panel of judges selected six winners from nearly 4,000 submissions. As part of the renewal of their multiyear North American partnership with the NHL and NHLPA that began in April 2019, Great Clips will receive broadcast exposure through Digitally Enhanced Dasherboards, the League’s approach to dynamic dasherboard advertising during marquee NHL events and all Stanley Cup Playoff game broadcasts.

Chipotle Mexican Grill is holding a “Wear Your Hockey Jersey” day, offering a buy one, get one free deal on entrees to in-restaurant diners who don a hockey jersey on Monday, April 22 after 3p local time. The promotion is valid at all participating Chipotle restaurants in the US and Canada.

Professional rugby team Old Glory DC announced its 2024 partners for the Major League Rugby season, including the return of Events DC, which is expanding its support this year in a new role as the team’s official Events and Cultural Partner. Cuisine Solutions also returns as the presenting sponsor alongside founding partner ECS, legacy partner The Supply Room, and alliance partner Sheehy Auto Stores. New partners include Paisano’s, the official pizza provider of Old Glory DC, Taffer’s Tavern, which was recently named the official watch party location for fans in the DMV, and the team’s new home venue, the Maryland Soccerplex. Vision Security has also signed on as a partner for Young Glory, the nonprofit arm of Old Glory DC that serves as the official pathway to the pro squad.

GOING GLOBAL

MBC GROUP, a media company in the Middle East and North Africa, has renewed its strategic partnership with Parrot Analytics. By working with MBC RESEARCH, Parrot Analytics has expanded its database, ensuring comprehensive coverage of all MENA content across all platforms during the month of Ramadan.

NL Film, a Banijay Benelux company, has struck a deal with Searchers and Prime Video to distribute their latest feature film, “Full Moon.” The first Dutch film to be filmed entirely in Thailand, “Full Moon” will be released in local cinemas in 2025, as well as Prime Video.

ESPN’s broadcast of the WNBA draft on Monday drew a record 2.45 million viewers, according to Nielsen. That’s up 304% over the second-most-viewed WNBA draft, in 2004.

“Live with Kelly and Mark” reached the one-year anniversary of Kelly Ripa and Mark Conseulos co-hosting together to continue as the number one entertainment talk show on television, and increasing in Total Viewers by 3% year over year (2.288 million vs. 2.229 million).

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Continuum Media has named Becky Lofstrom as Head of its Managed Service Platform (MSP). Lofstrom brings over 20 years of media expertise from companies including Cadent, MTV (Viacom), and Dish.

Guideline has named former GroupM Global Chief Digital Officer Rob Norman and Greg Coleman, former President of Buzzfeed and Criteo, to its board of directors. Norman and Coleman will help inform and aid Guideline’s effort to provide transparency and accuracy across the global media ecosystem to inform planning, buying and selling.

B2B communications agency DiGennaro Communications announced a partnership with marketing industry veteran Jon Bond, who joins forces with DGC Founder and CEO Samantha DiGennaro to expand DGC’s proprietary Marketing to Marketers offering to help CMOs, CROs, Founders, CEOs and company leaders build enterprise and personal brands in support of business growth.

Lisette Schlippe has joined Insight TV as Commissioning Editor. Schlippe was most recently Head of Global Content Partnerships at Red Bull Media House.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
Where did Ted and Alexis meet on “Schitt’s Creek” (2015-20)? Cafe Tropical. Kudos to: Eric Grapatin-Music Theatre Int’l/NYC; Gerry Bixenspan-TV Marketing Inc./NYC; Rev. Mark Wajda-Clermont, FL; Cortney Kellogg-Nielsen/Tampa, FL; Justin Pierce-JP Consulting Group/LA; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Credit Union/Burbank

Today’s Trivia Question
On “Veep” (2012-19), what was the name of Clovis’ smart watch? (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.)