10 Stories You Should Know: 02/08/2023

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 8th, 2023:

Paramount+ & Prime Video Strike International ‘Star Trek’ Deal (Deadline)
Paramount and Prime Video have struck a Star Trek deal for the former’s international streamer outside Canada. Previous seasons of Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Lower Decks will feature on the streamer later this month, while the third and final season of Picard will premiere day and date with the U.S. in Latin America on February 16 and in the UK, Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland on February 17. South Korea will premiere at a later date.

Anurag Kashyap Says Netflix Backed Out Of Producing ‘Maximum City’ (Indian Express)
Asked if he had an update about the project, Anurag said in Hindi, “It’s written, but we’re figuring out the next steps. Netflix was supposed to do it earlier, but they aren’t doing it any more. The project had been green-lit, but a lot has changed since then on streaming. Lots of projects have stalled, like Paatal Lok season two…” All of this, the filmmaker said, happened after Tandav was released in early 2021, and attracted controversy over one scene. Multiple police complaints were filed against creator Ali Abbas Zafar and stars of the show, leading Prime Video to make changes to the scene in question.

Fox Sees Q2 Profit Rise On World Cup, NFL, Political Ads (Variety)
The owner of the Fox News Channel and the Fox broadcasting network said it swung from a loss to a profit in the second quarter, largely due to advertising associated with its sports broadcasts and a flow of political advertising revenue at its local TV stations. The results seemed to lend ballast to Fox’s longtime operating stance of not investing as heavily in subscription-based streaming as its competitors and its focus on assembling large, concurrent audiences to its traditional TV assets.

Viaplay Sets North American Launch Dates (Broadband TV News)
Viaplay Group has announced that it will launch its streaming service on D2C basis in the US on February 22 and in Canada on March 7.

Viewers in the two countries will be able to stream more than 1,500 hours of premium European content through the Viaplay app at launch, with at least one premiere to follow every week. The service will be priced at $5.99 and C$6.99 per month in the US and Canada respectively.

‘Aftersun’ Becomes Mubi’s Most Streamed Movie Ever & Crosses Box Office Milestones (Deadline)
Arthouse streamer and distributor Mubi has traditionally been shy about revealing performance numbers for its movies, but today we can reveal that BAFTA and Oscar hopeful Aftersun has become the company’s most streamed release globally.

Will Digital Ad Revenue Overtake That On Linear TV In IPL 2023? (MediaNews4U)
It’s Star Sports versus Jio Cinema. Or linear TV versus OTT. Whichever way one looks at it, it’s war. Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 is the trending topic with the respective TV and digital rights holders out to snare their share of advertiser budgets.

Warner Bros. Discovery To Keep Discovery+, In Strategy Shift (Wall Street Journal)
Warner Bros Discovery Inc plans to keep Discovery+ as a stand-alone streaming service in a strategy shift, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

NFL Inks Global Game Pass Deal With DAZN (Rapid TV News
With the 2023 Super Bowl just days away, the National Football League (NFL) has given a massive boost to digital sports streaming service DAZN Group with a new 10-year partnership to deliver NFL Game Pass International (NFL GPI) to sports fans around the world.

Spain’s Movistar Plus+ And IKEA Forge Alliance Around Shoppable App (Digital TV Europe)
Telefonica-owned PayTV platform Movistar Plus+ has joined forces with IKEA to create IKEA Live; a new ‘shoppable’ app that goes live this week in Spain. Sitting within the PayTV platform’s Living App sections, the new IKEA-curated service offers live and recorded events where specialists share decorating tips and design ideas.

Starzplay Partners With Zain Kuwait (Arab News)
Starzplay has partnered with Zain Kuwait as the telecommunications provider’s commercial and retail distributor in Kuwait.

As part of the deal, Zain Kuwait will make Starzplay and the platform’s sports package available to customers with the new Max plans available through mobile and home internet packages.

The platform has already partnered with Zain in other markets such as Saudi Arabia.