10 Global TV Stories You Should Know: 05/14/2024

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, May 14th, 2024:

Warner Bros Discovery Names Buddy Marini As Japanese GM (Deadline)
Warner Bros. Discovery has named Buddy Marini as its Japanese GM, reporting to WBD Asia-Pacific president James Gibbons. Based in Tokyo, Marini’s role will involve leading WBD’s home entertainment, digital and TV licensing, consumer products, anime production, franchise and pay TV networks.

Channel4.com Offers ‘App-Like’ Streaming Experience (Advanced-Television)
Channel4.com is now bringing an ‘app-like’ Channel 4 streaming experience to mobiles, tablets, laptops and other connected devices. Channel 4 says the upgrades reflect Gen Z’s growing desire to watch its content on multiple screens, and advances its role in serving young audiences.

Streaming Or Linear, German Broadcasters Facing Old Fashioned Issues (Broadband TV News)
It seems that even in these days of streaming there is still a place for the German TV personality. Thomas Gottshalk is clearly missed by ZDF, the public network where he ended a five year run on Wetten, dass last September. Dr Nadine Bilke, the programme director, told the ANGA COM content panel that as a public broadcaster it wants to offer something for everyone, just that not everyone can find them. “For us, it wasn’t just the last Wetten, dass with Thomas Gottschalk, but also evergreens like the mountain series, which are not as unpopular with the young linear audience as those who don’t like watching them think. That’s a widespread prejudice.”

RTL Netherlands & FTV Prima Get ‘Stranded On Honeymoon Island’ (TBIVision)
RTL Netherlands and Czech Republic’s FTV Prima have both ordered local versions of Red Arrow Studios’ adventure dating format Stranded On Honeymood Island. The format follows couples who are matched by experts and marooned on a deserted island where they are left to fend for themselves for three weeks.

Showmax Announces Its First Docuseries In Kenya, Nilichoma (Showmax Stories)
“The story of starting from nothing, only to fall into immense wealth, is a dream shared by humanity. However, the accompanying fall from grace is a nightmare we dread,” says producer Ahmed Deen (Midlife Crisis). “Nilichoma is a collection of these dreams, shared by personalities we have grown up with and dreamt of being. These personalities either inherited, won or were awarded sums of money beyond their wildest dreams But these dreams turned into a nightmare with more spending and once they hit rock bottom, all that was left were hard lessons learnt.”

ViX Signs Exclusive First-Look Pact With Mexico’s Juanpa Zurita And His Arco Entertainment Media (Variety)
Leading Spanish-language streaming service, ViX, has inked a first-look pact with Emmy-nominated Mexican actor-producer Juanpa Zurita and ARCO Entertainment Media, the shingle he co-founded in 2022 with Brenda Tubilla.

India: Tata Play, Amazon Prime Collaborate (Advanced-Television)
Indian content distribution platform, Tata Play, has partnered with Amazon Prime to offer Tata Play DTH and Tata Play Binge customers multiple ways to access Prime Video’s content. Tata Play DTH subscribers can now choose from multiple packs starting from INR 199 per month (€2.21), that offer a variety of channels along with Prime Lite with Tata Play.

Andy Kaplan & George Chien’s KC Global To Shutter GEM In Japan (TBIVision)
Andy Kaplan and George Chien’s KC Global Media is shuttering its Japanese linear network GEM from August. KC Global, which was launched by former Sony Pictures Television (SPT) alums Kaplan and Chien in 2020, said the decision had been made to dedicate resources to the other channels in its portfolio: AXN, Animax and ONE TV Asia.

M6 Streaming Service M6+ Makes Debut (Broadband TV News)
French commercial broadcaster M6 Group has today launched its new streaming platform M6+.The RTL-owned channel is replacing the former 6play, in the process doubling the amount of free content to 30,000 hours, a third of which is exclusive to the platform.

BBC Secures Deal With TNT Sports For FA Cup (Advanced-Television)
The Emirates FA Cup will continue to be accessible to all fans following a new agreement that will see the BBC become the exclusive free-to-air broadcaster of the competition in a four-year deal starting from the 2025-2026 season.