10 Global TV Stories You Should Know: 07/25/2024

Here are the stories that should be on your radar

Here are the global TV stories that should be on your radar for Thursday, July 25th, 2024:

Sky’s Zai Bennett Heading To BBC Studios To Run Production Arm (Variety)
Sky Content MD Zai Bennett is heading to BBC Studios. The UK programs chief of the Comcast-owned pay-TV giant will run BBC Studios Productions, a job that has been vacant for several months and one of the most talked about in the British industry.

Netflix Korea Team Hopes 'Sweet Home' Opens A New 'K-creature' Genre (Korea Joongang Daily)
The Netflix Korea production team reflects on the success and challenges of the 'Sweet Home' series, paving the way for new genre fields and season systems in Korean entertainment.

ITV Content Boss Criticizes BBC For “Peculiar” Decision To Buy ‘Suits’ & ‘Gossip Girl’ (Deadline)
The head of programs at ITV has criticized the BBC for the “peculiar” decision to buy splashy U.S. shows like Suits and Gossip Girl amid the downturn. Kevin Lygo said he was “surprised” to see airtime during the BBC’s coverage of the Euros soccer tournament given to promoting these U.S. shows, which the corporation has been in the market for of late.

Portugal: RTP Questions Viability Of TV Offer (Advanced-Television)
The president of Portugal’s public broadcaster, RTP, has called for a review of the company’s channel structure. In a parliamentary hearing, Nicolau Santos questioned the viability of RTP’s current eight television and seven radio channels in today’s rapidly changing media landscape.

Smart TV Transformation: Showmax Partners With QVWi To Launch Innovative Streaming Devices (News 24)
MultiChoice's video streaming service Showmax has partnered with Skyworth's QVWi to launch a Leap S2 streaming stick and a Leap S3 streaming TV box. These streaming devices transform older and incompatible TVs into smart TVs.

Swedish Film & TV Bodies Criticise “First-Come, First-Served” Government Funding Process (Screendaily)
“The first-come, first-served principle has meant that speed in filling out the application form has been rewarded,” states the letter, that was delivered to Swedish culture minister Parisa Liljestrand last month. ”The application period to receive support has shortened with each occasion. It is now clear that the funds in the latest announcement [50m SEK in March 2024] ran out after 1 minute and 7 seconds, with a margin of 327 milliseconds to the next applicant. We question the reasonableness of this and of an application procedure that appears to require extensive investments in IT consultants and technical aids to have a chance to receive funds.”

Sony Pictures Television Inks Co-Production Deal With Anxo Rodríguez’s Espotlight In Spain (Variety)
Rodríguez is a Goya Award-winning producer with a background in law and business affairs. He produced and exec produced documentary “Paco de Lucia: La Búsqueda” and worked as head of legal and business affairs on Netflix’s breakout Spanish hit “Money Heist” (“La Casa de Papel”) and HBO’s “Foodie Love.” He launched Espotlight in early 2020 with the intent of making Spanish content for international markets. Current projects in development include “Dime tu Nombre” for Prime Video.

WBD’s SharePlay Now On Max Globally (Advanced-Television)
Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) has announced that SharePlay is now available to Max subscribers globally (Ad-Free and Ultimate Ad-Free tiers) with adult profiles, allowing users to watch shows and movies on Max alongside friends and family over FaceTime and iMessage.

‘Sherlock’ Star Amanda Abbington Says BBC Failed To Take Her ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ Abuse Concerns Seriously & “Blocked” 50 Hours Of Evidence (Deadline)
Amanda Abbington, the Sherlock actress who has sparked a duty of care scandal on Strictly Come Dancing, has criticized the BBC’s handling of her concerns. In an emotional 45-minute interview with Channel 4 News, Abbington accused the BBC of failing to take seriously her complaint about dance partner Giovanni Pernice, who strongly denies wrongdoing.

ZEE5 To Soon Launch Pause Ads (Afaqs.com)
ZEE5 will soon be launching pause ads on its platform. A pause ad is an advertisement that appears when a user has paused the content. Manish Kalra, chief business officer, ZEE5, said only AVoD users will be shown these ads. In June, Disney+ Hotstar introduced ‘Pause Ads’ exclusively for its Connected TV (CTV) feed, becoming the first platform in the country to implement this format.