10 Stories You Should Know: 04/12/2023

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

Here are the global TV and streaming stories that should be on your radar for Wednesday, April 12th, 2023:

British Writers’ Guild Urges Members Not To Accept WGA Work In Event Of Strike (Variety)
In a statement, the WGGB said: “In light of the Writers Guild of America’s ongoing contract negotiations, including the recent announcement of a Strike Authorization Vote (SAV) from 11-17 April 2023, the WGGB’s Executive Council has supported the following motion: ‘The WGGB support the WGA in their ongoing negotiations. If a strike cannot be avoided, we will advise our membership not to work on projects within the jurisdiction of the WGA for the duration of the strike in line with our IAWG agreements.'”

Netflix And Lacoste Bring Fashion And Fandom Together With New Collaboration (WERSM)
Netflix and Lacoste unveiled a collaboration celebrating Netflix’s most loved shows, including Stranger Things, Bridgerton, Money Heist, and more. The collection represents a total of eight shows that were chosen for the values they convey and the diversity of their audiences: Stranger Things, Bridgerton, Lupin, Money Heist, The Witcher, Sex Education, Shadow & Bone, and Elite.

Disney Hotstar's Succession Problem (Rediff)
Disney Star, the Indian unit of Walt Disney, recently decided against extending its longstanding content deal with Warner Bros Discovery, resulting in the removal of 144 HBO Originals.

The disagreement on HBO's asking price of $10 million yearly for a five-year deal was a contentious issue between the two entertainment giants.

Netflix Has Spent R2.3bn In South Africa Since 2016 (Business Day)
On Wednesday, the world’s largest streaming service said it had invested $175m (R3.3bn) in SA, Kenya and Nigeria over the period on content production. Out of this, the lion’s share — $125m (about R2.3bn) — was for SA productions.

Poland Bans Russian Arabic channels (Broadband TV News)
Poland has added RT Arabic and Sputnik Arabic to the list of services not allowed to be distributed in the country.

BBC Children’s unveils raft of new commissions (Advanced-Television)
BBC Children’s has announced a host of new programming available across CBeebies, CBBC and BBC iPlayer.

Paramount+ Gears Up With Formula 1 Pact (Deadline)
Paramount+ has become an official partner of Formula 1, as it pushes deeper into sports content. The promotional partnership for the 2023/24 season will see Paramount+ series, movies and characters feature at Formula 1 events inside Fan Zone areas.

Sinclair Distribution Deal With YouTube TV (Advanced-Television)
Sinclair Broadcast Group has announced a distribution agreement with YouTube TV to add carriage of Tennis Channel, T2, CHARGE! and TBD to YouTube TV’s service offering in the US. The agreement also extends YouTube TV’s existing carriage of Sinclair’s CBS and MyNetworkTV affiliated television broadcast stations. 

Ved To Premiere On Disney+ Hotstar; Will Be A Rare Marathi Film To Also Have A Hindi Dubbed Version (BollywoodHungama)
“For the non-Marathi audiences, there's good news. Ved will also be available in the dubbed Hindi version. This makes Ved a rare Marathi film to have a dubbed release as well. Even Sairat (2016), the biggest Marathi hit ever, is not available in Hindi. Ved will be an exception and it makes sense to do so. After all, both Riteish Deshmukh and Genelia Deshmukh are popular Hindi actors as well. The audiences in non-Marathi markets are aware of Ved and how well it did in cinemas. They might not be comfortable watching it with subtitles and they’ll lap it up in the Hindi version.”

Curiosity Signs New Distribution Partnerships (World Screen)
Curiosity has lined up new partnerships helping to expand its global footprint in Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America and Australia. Recent launch partners include Amazon’s Prime Video Channels in India; Telstra- and Astro Malaysia-backed Fetch TV in Australia; the Netherland’s Ziggo, owned by Liberty Global and Vodafone; NLziet, the Dutch streamer operated by NPO, RTL and Talpa; Mexico’s Izzi Telecom, owned by Grupo Televisa; and Central and Eastern European distributors MTS, Telekom Slovenia and Megafon.