Friday round-up: Latest news, deals & hires

Friday, 12.30pm: Mip London lands Netflix’s Bela Bajaria & Beckham

Netflix’s chief content officer Bela Bajaria and David Beckham have been confirmed as headline guests at Mip London next year.

Bajaria and Beckham, who is owner of production firm Studio 99, will take part in a special ‘in conversation’ fireside chat taking place Tuesday 25 February at the IET Savoy Place.

The pair worked together on Netflix’s Emmy-winning documentary series Beckham through Studio 99, which is also in production on the forthcoming series following the story behind Victoria Beckham’s fashion business. Read more

Friday, 11.24am: Fox extends Farmer Wants A Wife

Fox Entertainment has ordered a third series of dating competition series Farmer Wants a Wife.

Actor, author and former participant Kimberly Williams-Paisley will join the show as host, guiding four young farmers and daters who will leave city life behind to experience country living as they look to find love.

The format, which has been remade in 34 countries, is produced by Eureka Productions with Paul Franklin, Chris Culvenor, Ben DeNoble, Jayne Parker and David Tibballs as executive producers. Tibballs is the showrunner of the series, which is set to premiere on 20 March.

Friday, 10.23am: BuzzFeed sells Hot Ones producer for £65m

BuzzFeed has sold the studio behind YouTube smash interview format Hot Ones for more than £65m.

First We Feast has been bought in an $82.5m (£65.3m) all-cash deal to a consortium led by the show’s host Sean Evans and First We Feast founder Chris Schonberger.

Following the deal, Evans will take on the new role of chief creative officer and Schonberger will become chief executive at First We Feast, which will now operate as an independent company with plans to expand into live events. Read more

Friday, 10.01am: Downton Abbey’s Fellowes preps 20th TV crime drama

Downton Abbey scribe Julian Fellowes is partnering with 20th Television on a new crime drama.

Fellowes will write and exec produce an adaptation of Donna Leon’s Detective Brunetti series of novels, which were first published in 1992.

The stories track the aforementioned detective attempting to solve crimes in Venice, with the series running to more than 30 novels.

Fellowes, whose projects inlcude the third season of The Gilded Age for HBO, had been working on the project with friend Ileen Maisel, who had a deal with 20th TV. Maisel died in February but is to be credited as an exec producer on the show according to Deadline, which broke the news.

Friday, 9.12am: YouTube & ITV strike commercial & distribution deal

YouTube viewers will soon be able to access hundreds of hours of shows from the UK’s ITV, following a distribution and commercial pact between the companies.

ITV’s commercial team will join YouTube’s partner programme and sell the full range of advertising opportunities around ITV and ITV Studios channels on the streamer.

The deal includes content made by both ITVS and shows commissioned by ITV from other production companies.

Full episodes and series of shows, including current programmes, will be available to view on YouTube with IP ranging from Bandicoot’s The Masked Singer to reboots such as You Bet! And Bullseye.

Friday, 8.43am: UK’s ITV recommissions trio from Love Island star

Former Love Island star and presenter Olivia Attwood has tied up a trio of recommissions with ITV, including a second series of reality show Bad Boyfriends.

The reality show will return on ITV2 and ITVX, where it has amassed over 11m streams.

The Optomen-produced series follows eight unsuspecting lads – aka bad boyfriends - who head to a Greek island under the premise of filming a series about manhood and bromance, only to discover that Attwood will be tasking them with a series of challenges and revelations to make them better partners to their long-suffering girlfriends.

Olivia Attwood: Getting Filthy Rich, which explores the sex industry, is also returning, along with The Price of Perfection, which has become ITVX’s biggest factual entertainment launch ever.