10 Stories You Should Know: 06/06/2023

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 Tuesday, June 6th, 2023:

Warner Bros. Discovery CEE Boss Says He Is Supercharging “Original Documentaries That Push Boundaries” In The Region (Deadline)
Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) Jamie Cooke is supercharging “original documentaries that push the boundaries” from his Central & Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Turkey region by greenlighting around 10 docs per year.

Portugal: Netflix Subs Down 13% (Advanced-Television)
Netflix saw a drop of over 13 per cent in subscriber numbers in Portugal during the first four months of 2023 compared to the same period last year, according to Marktest’s BStream study published by Portuguese daily Público.

Six In 10 Spanish Households Paying For OTT Video (Digital TV Europe)
Six out of 10 Spanish households are paying for online audiovisual content, according to the latest study by markets regulator the CNMC. According to the watchdog, 59.2% of homes accessed OTT pay video services such as Netflix, HBO or Amazon Prime Video at the end of 2022, representing growth of 7.4% year-on-year.

Movistar’s Maria Valenzuela On Reinventing The Thriller Genre, The Next Stage Of Distribution & The Writers Strike (Deadline)
Movistar’s fledgling distributor has struck its first slew of sales and is moving to the next stage, GM Maria Valenzuela has revealed, as she discusses the Spanish giant’s attempt to reinvent the thriller genre and how the writers strike is gifting opportunities to spotlight international content.

Globo To Co-Produce Brazilian Films With Disney (Rapid TV News)
Brazilian production powerhouse Globo has reached what it calls an unprecedented partnership with Disney regarding the co-production of Brazilian films for streaming platforms.

‘Faithless’: Showmax Greenlights Kenyan Thriller About A Heist Gone Bad (Deadline)
African streamer Showmax has greenlit a Kenyan crime drama set in the aftermath of a heist gone bad. In Faithless, four church members are drawn into a life of crime and violence when their chama (women’s guild) is turned into  a money laundering operation by a vicious crime lord. Esther, a struggling waitress, stumbles upon the proceeds of a robbery and discovers that her brother, Benja, was one of the masterminds of the crime, and she is thrust into a dilemma that challenges her and her friends’ values.

Exclusive: Czech TV Eyes Crime & Copros ZDF’s 1980’s Paranormal Project Nears Debut (Television Business International)
The Czech Republic’s public broadcaster is looking to forge closer ties with international partners with particular focus on crime and family drama, following the commissioning of ZDF coproduction We’re On It, Comrades!. The procedural, which is from Barletta Productions’ Matěj Chlupáček and Maja Hamplová, tracks the activities of an investigative division that explores paranormal activities.

Paramount+ On VIDAA In LatAm, Canada (Advanced-Television)
VIDAA, the smart TV OS powering Hisense, Toshiba, and other regional OEM brands, and Paramount have announced a new partnership to bring Paramount+ to smart TVs powered by VIDAA in Canada and Latin America, including Brazil. VIDAA viewers in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela and Canada can now access Paramount+ extensive library of original content.

Netflix Users Discover A Way To Bypass Password-Sharing Ban (The Standard)
Resourceful Netflix users angry at the streaming service’s password ban have figured out a way to share their accounts with others for free. The trick — which Netflix is likely to frown upon — was first shared on Reddit’s Unethical Life Pro Tips channel, but has since surfaced on other places online.

BritBox Added To DStv (Tech Central South Africa)
MultiChoice Group has added BritBox – the streaming video joint venture between the UK’s BBC Studios and ITV – to the bouquets of content available on its DStv Explora Ultra and DStv Streama boxes.