10 Stories You Should Know: 05/03/2023

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, May 3rd, 2023:

Rushed Scripts, Confusion & Blacklisting Threats: How The UK Is Responding To The Writers Strike (Deadline)
The impact of the momentous WGA strike is still being digested by the UK industry with professionals we’ve spoken to in the past 24 hours expressing a combination of solidarity, uncertainty, and the view that the strike will be less problematic than other macro issues affecting their businesses.

Viaplay Ups Filippa Wallestam To Chief Commercial Officer (Digital TV Europe)
Viaplay Group has named Filippa Wallestam as EVP and chief commercial officer, Nordics, as Kim Poder exits the company after 24 years to “pursue new challenges”. Promoted from her role as EVP and chief content officer, Wallestam starts the role effective immediately, based in Stockholm. She will continue to lead Viaplay’s content operations and be be a member of the group executive management team. She will also hold overall responsibility for the Group’s largest commercial region, which spans Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland.
Bonus Link: An interview with Filippa Wallestam when Viaplay launched in the U.S. last year.

Forecast: FAST revenues to triple in 2028 (Advanced Television)
Global FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) revenues for TV series and movies will reach $18 billion (€16.4bn) in 2028, triple from $6 billion in 2022, according to the Global FAST Forecasts report from analyst firm Digital TV Research.

NBCU’s Bravo New Zealand Orders Reality Series ‘Snow Crew’ And Season 4 Of ‘The Circus’ (Deadline)
NBCUniversal’s New Zealand network Bravo has ordered a reality show set in the country’s top ski resort and Season 4 of The Circus. Snow Crew shot at the Cornet Peak and The Remarkables resorts following a young, charismatic crew across the winter 2022 season.

DAZN Unveils Two Global FAST Channels (Digital TV Europe)
Sports streamer DAZN has launched two global FAST channels, DAZN Combat and DAZN Women’s Football. DAZN Combat will be centered on boxing and MMA, including live events, highlights, archive fights, documentaries and much more. The channel will house DAZN’s roster of boxing and combat properties including Matchroom Boxing, Golden Boy, MF & DAZN: X Series, PFL Archive, Ansgar Fighting League, Naciones MMA, Muay Thai for Life, Primetime Wrestling, KOK, MMA Bushido and Dream Boxing.

Growth In SVOD Slows In SE Asia (World Screen)
Growth in SVOD subscribers in Southeast Asia has slowed, according to new data from Media Partners Asia (MPA), with just 300,000 new additions in Q1 2023, as compared with the 4.6 million additions in Q4 2022, boosted by the World Cup.

Mech TV Continues FAST Channel Expansion With Rakuten TV (Rapid TV News)
Remastering the classic Robot Wars and bringing it to a wider audience, Mech TV has announced the launch of its Mech+ free ad-supported streaming (FAST) channel in the UK, Ireland, Netherlands & Nordics on the Rakuten TV streaming platform.

"We Won't Let Go": A Mother Of "Large Families: Life in XXL" Wants To Take Legal Action Against TF1 (Pure Medias)
" My life in XXL ", documentary or reality TV? It will be up to the courts to decide. As Céline Saffré announced on Instagram, the mother of a tribe of ten children who appeared in season 4 considers herself cheated on her participation in the TF1 show The protagonist from Gironde shared her extraordinary daily life for a few weeks ...and no more. In question, the strong criticism of which she and her family would have been the object.

Australian & Canadian Guilds Tell Writers To Down Tools In U.S. As International Film & TV Unions React To WGA Strike (Deadline)
The Australian and Canadian film and TV unions have joined the UK’s writers’ guild in telling their writers to down tools on U.S. shows during the strike. International sources have pointed to the possibility of the Hollywood studios looking to Australian, Canadian and UK writers to pick up U.S. work during the industrial action, but each guild has strongly advised its members against that course of action.

Belgium’s Eén Rebrands As VRT 1 (Broadband TV News)
The flagship channel of the Flemish public broadcaster in Belgium, VRT, has changed its name from Eén (One) to VRT 1.