10 Global TV Stories You Should Know: 02/21/2024

Here are the stories that should be on your radar

Here are the global TV and streaming stories that should be on your radar for Wednesday, February 21st, 2024:

Zee Refutes Sony Merger Revival (Advanced-Television)
The past few days have seen just about every Indian business newspaper reporting that Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) was back in discussions with Sony’s India business about resurrecting their merger plan, valued at some $10 billion. Not so, according to ZEEL.

Warner Bros. Discovery: Zaslav Needs To Solve Core Issues Not Do Patchwork Quilting (Seeking Alpha)
As chaotic zigzagging has intruded in the sector, adding more confusion than illumination for investors, the stakes are getting higher to avoid big-time trouble ahead. WBD competitors appear to be addressing their problems by attaching partnership deals to existing platforms rather than facing the harder choices of rationalizing their business models from the ground up. That is why sector stocks are dead pooled and appear to be remaining so in the quarters ahead.

RTL Wins Court Case Against Cable Operator In IPTV Dispute (Broadband TV News)
The Munich Higher Regional Court has made a landmark judgement on retransmission rights for free-TV channels. The decision confirms the contractual practice of RTL, VOX, ntv, Super RTL and RTLzwei in this regard, as RTL Deutschland announced in Cologne. The broadcasters have always licensed their DVB-C cable retransmission rights and their IPTV and OTT redistribution rights independently of each other.

‘The Cleaner’ & ‘Taskmaster’ Star Greg Davies Wants Mandatory Two-Season Orders For New Comedy Series (Deadline)
If Greg Davies was running TV, new comedy shows would get a two-season order. The comedian and writer, who fronts fronts the hit series Taskmaster in the UK and writes and stars in sitcom The Cleaner for the BBC, was asked what he would change about the business during a the closing session of the Berlinale Series Market, and responded he would like to see new comedies given more time to hit their stride, adding that all-time classics such as Seinfeld needed multiple seasons to establish themselves.

Canal+ Renews Champions League Rights In French-Speaking Sub-Saharan Africa (Digital TV Europe)
Leading French pay TV outfit, Canal Plus, has renewed the rights to the UEFA Champions League in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa running until 2027. Canal+ will broadcast the first-pick Wednesday evening matches and highlights from the UEFA Champions League for the next three seasons.

Disney’s Top Asia Exec on Bob Iger’s Streaming Pivot and the “Gold Rush” for Korean Content (The Hollywood Reporter)
During the short period that Disney+ has been active across the major markets of the Asia-Pacific region — just a little over two years in most countries — the Walt Disney Co. has gone through a period of uncharacteristic turmoil.

UK Producers Call For Mandatory Channel 4 ‘Out-Of-London’ Commissioning Quotas (TBI Vision)
UK TV trade body Pact and TAC, the association for Welsh indies, have both called on industry regulator Ofcom to raise the out-of-London spend quotas for public comcaster Channel 4. Ofcom has been holding a consultation on the broadcaster’s licence renewal and has thus far not opted to raise the quota for commissioning productions from outside of London from its current level of 35%.

MultiChoice’s DStv Raising Prices (Advanced-Television)
South African pay-TV operator DStv will raise its subscription fees for South Africa-based subscribers on April 1st, and admits they rises are higher than in previous years. DStv is sweetening the pill a little by saying that clients who take out a 24-month contract will not face any further rises for the length of the contract.

Streaming Viewing In Poland Increases By 8% (Broadband TV News)
Polish viewers spent an average of 4 hours and 19 minutes a day in front of the home screen in January. Although this is just a minute more than in December 2023, Nielsen’s latest The Gauge report shows that while the time spent with linear TV remained the same as in December 2023, but time spent watching streaming content increased by 8%.