10 Stories You Should Know: 03/02/2023

Here are the global TV stories that should be on your radar

Here are global TV and streaming stories that should be on your radar for Thursday, March 2nd, 2023:

FAST Channels Could Be Worth $500M In UK By 2027, New Research Shows (Deadline)
FAST (Free Ad-Supported TV) channels are set for big growth in the UK, according to new data. In fact, they could make up 20%, or $500M in revenues, of the country's ad-supported video market by 2027.

Research: Average Consumer Uses 11+ video Services (Advanced-Television)
Research from entertainment technology specialist TiVo finds that the average number of video services used by consumers has surpassed double-digits for the first time since TiVo started tracking this metric in the Video Trends Report in 2012, up to an average of 11.6 video services from 8.9 a year ago and 9.9 in Q2 2022.

Comcast’s NBCU And Sky Partner With MultiChoice On Showmax Streaming Service in Africa (The Hollywood Reporter)
African pay TV giant MultiChoice Group and Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Sky on Thursday unveiled a partnership that “will bring some of the world’s best content and technology to streaming customers across MultiChoice’s 50-market footprint in sub-Saharan Africa at a time when Africa is approaching an inflection point in terms of broadband connectivity and affordability.”

Profits Flat But ITV Sees Strong Revenues In 2022 (Rapid TV News)
Driven by double digit growth in its key Studios business and Media & Entertainment (M&E) digital revenues, the UK’s leading commercial broadcaster ITV has reported a strong 2022 where what it calls successful strategic execution saw rises in revenues across the company.

‘Krapopolis’ Could Spawn Next Homer Simpson, Bob Belcher Or Peter Griffin, Says Fox Scripted Boss (Deadline)
Krapopolis could spawn Fox’s next iconic animated figure to sit alongside Homer Simpson, Bob Belcher and Peter Griffin, according to the network’s President of Scripted Programming Michael Thorn. Dan Harmon’s show has been handed an unprecedented season three renewal prior to airing a single episode.

ITV Studios 2022 Revenue Jumps 19 Percent, ITV Ad Revenue Drops Slightly, First Quarter to Fall 11 Percent (The Hollywood Reporter)
U.K. TV giant ITV reported a slight advertising revenue decline for 2022 on Thursday as a strong fourth quarter followed declines earlier in the year, but it said ad revenue for the current first quarter was trending down 11 percent economic clouds.

MyZen TV And Museum TV Join Amazon Prime In India (Digital TV Europe)
MyZen TV and Museum TV, as part of the Amazon Prime Channels offering, will offer Prime members their mix of original and exclusive productions, as well as SECOM’s SVOD offerings across lifestyle, real-life documentaries, health and wellness, fine arts and photography.

‘Sing Again’: Korean Hit That Outperformed ‘The Masked Singer’ And ‘I Can See Your Voice’ Lands Third Season On JTBC And Discovery+ (Deadline)
Sing Again, a Korean singing competition series that’s outperformed The Masked Singer and I Can See Your Voice, has landed a third season on the JTBC network and Discovery+.

The series, a mix of reality and singing competition beats based around ‘forgotten’ singers, launched in 2020-21. It achieved ratings three times its usual slot size in Korea over its two seasons and Season One peaked with a 10% audience share – a significant number in Korea. That meant it became the top performing music competition show, outscoring the well travelled Masked Singer and I Can See Your Voice.

Spain: Record pay-TV Audience (Advanced-Television)
The existing 73 pay thematic channels in Spain drew 21 million viewers in February, representing 45.5 per cent of the population and breaking and a new audience record, according to Barlovento Comunicación.The most widely watched pay-TV channels are DAZN LaLiga, followed by LaLiga TV (Movistar Plus), AXN, Fox, Liga de Campeones (Movistar Plus), and TNT.

Latin America Shifts To IPTV, With 11.5 Million Paying IPTV Homes Expected By 2028 (Digital TV Europe)
Latin America pay TV subscriber base will stay steady at 61 million, down from the peak of 73 million in 2017, following a shift from from satellite TV to IPTV, reports Digital TV Research.

The research outfit predicts pay satellite TV will lose nearly 4 million subscribers between 2022 and 2028, with 11.5 million paying IPTV homes expected by 2028 which is up from 7.9 million in 2022.