Friday round-up: Latest news, deals & hires

Friday, 2.45pm: UK’s BBC licence fee to rise next year

The UK government is to return to raising the BBC licence fee in line with inflation as it set outs its plans on reviewing how the broadcaster should be funded in the future.

The cost of the BBC licence fee will increase by £5 next year, and will rise with the annual CPI inflation measurement until the end of the charter in 2027, as required by the Licence Fee Settlement in 2022.

Friday, 1.39pm: UK’s Pact launches production support initiative for HETV drama

Pact has launched a production initiative designed to support all aspects of high-end TV drama, from broadcasters and streamers to unions, guilds, production companies and crew members.

The resource has been developed by Karl Liegis who serves as head of production at Slow Horses indie 60Forty Films, working alongside Pact. Find out more via a downloadable PDF available on the PACT resource hub here.

Friday, 11.53am: Glassriver options Elma crime novels 

Icelandic film & TV production firm Glassriver, whose credits include hit series Black Sands, has optioned Eva Björg Ægisdóttir’s crime thriller novels Elma for TV.

The deal will see the first book of the series, The Creak on the Stairs, being adapted by screenwriter Karen Björg Eyfjörð Þorsteinsdóttir. It was first published in French in 2021 and became a bestseller.

The series as a whole have been translated into 23 languages and are set in the small port town of Akranes in Iceland, tracking the life of a police detective named Elma who finds herself assigned to her hometown police station after years away. “When a woman’s body is found lying at the foot of a lighthouse, terrible secrets could well resurface from the past,” reads the logline. The deal was negotiated with David Headley at D H H Literary Agency in association with The Artists Partnership.

Friday, 11.32am: Korea’s CJ ENM & SK Group invest to power Netflix competitor

South Korean media giant CJ ENM and the investment arm of domestic conglomerate SK Group are investing more than W250bn (£140bn) in local streamer Wavve, as the companies look to create a merged service to compete with global rivals such as Netflix. Read more

Friday, 11.12am: Married to the Game scores second run on Prime Video

Amazon Prime Video is to retrain the cameras on footballer’s WAGs after recommissioning ob doc Married to the Game for a second series.

The documentary, which follows the lives of Premier League footballers’ wives and girlfriends, will return exclusively to Prime Video UK & Ireland next year with three new WAGs on board. Read more

Friday, 10.12am: Sky returns to the oche for Mindhouse darts doc

Sky in the UK has ordered its latest sports-themed documentary series, with a second show focusing on the world of darts.

Exploring the ‘golden age’ of darts, the three-part series titled Dart Kings is from Mindhouse Productions and will spotlight some of the sport’s heroes including Eric Bristow, Jocky Wilson and Phil Taylor.

It comes after Sky earlier this year ordered a docuseries about darts from Dorothy St Pictures, following the PDC Darts World Championship which reached 4.8m viewers to become the highest viewing figures for darts on Sky Sports and Now ever. Read more

Friday, 9.24am: Chinese period drama goes global on Netflix

Netflix has added a Chinese-language period drama to its roster. Perfect Match is produced by Huayu Entertainment, with Yu Zheng (Story of Yanxi Palace) exec producing and Yang Huan (Lost You Forever) directing.

The show, which will become available around the world exclusively on Netflix, follows a family follows five daughters of the Li family whose mother moves them to Bianjing to start a teahouse while looking for spouses, encountering “comedic twists and heartfelt moments” along the way. It is set during the reign of Renzong (1022-1063) in the Northern Song Dynasty.

Friday, 8.20am: UK exports dip but international production blossoming, says Pact

Sales of British shows dipped by 2% to hit £1.82bn in 2023/24 although there was a surge of international productions by UK companies, according to Pact’s annual TV Exports Report. 

Despite the marginal reduction from 2022/23’s record high of £1.85bn and a significant drop in revenues from streamer co-productions, international productions grew almost a third (29%) year-on-year to hit £325m, up from £252m last year. Read more