Thursday round-up: Latest news, deals & hires

Fox extends Simpsons, Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers, returns American Dad!

Fox Entertainment has made an unprecedented four-season renewal for 20th Television Animation’s series The Simpsons, Family Guy and Bob’s Burgers, and announced the return of American Dad! to the network.

The series, all produced by Disney-owned 20th Television Animation, have each received four additional seasons, meaning they will run until at least the 2028-29 broadcast cycle.

The renewals encompass the 16th through 19th Seasons of Bob’s Burgers, the 24th through 27th Seasons of Family Guy and the record-setting 37th through 40th Seasons of The Simpsons.

American Dad!, created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman, debuted on Fox in 2005 and was a part of the network’s animation lineup through 2014. The animated comedy will return to the network for Seasons 20 through 23. Disney+ and Hulu remain the exclusive global streaming home of the four shows.

Earth Touch expands in US

Wildlife and factual entertainment producer Earth Touch is partnering with Sling Freestream to bring its premium FAST channel – Earth Touch TV – to the US streaming platform.

The channel’s slate of entertaining natural history programming will soon be available on Sling Freestream, a free, ad-supported streaming service that offers 600+ diverse live TV channels and on-demand shows and movies.

Shows that will be made available include Cheetah Speed Trap, Queen of Taru, and Diary of a Teen Leopard, as well as seasonally-themed specials introduced over the coming months. The channel will also feature four seasons of the hit wildlife reality series Snakes in the City.

Earth Touch TV launched in the US earlier this year on DirecTV and has UK deals with Samsung TV Plus, LG Channels, TitanOS, Vidaa, and Bolt+.

Netflix expands language options

With nearly a third of all viewing on Netflix being non-English stories, the streamer has confirmed it has expanded its subtitles and dubbing capabilities.

Netflix’s TV shows and movies are now available in over 30 languages on all platforms, extending a service that had only been available on mobile devices and web browsers,

Additional features will allow subtitles to be customised, enabling viewers to watch a Mexican show with Korean dubbing and English subtitles, for example. 

Prime Video reveals Clarkson’s Farm launch plan

Amazon’s Prime Video is to launch the fourth series of Clarkson’s Farm on 23 May.

The first four episodes will drop at once on Prime Video, with two additional episodes released a week later on 30 May, followed by the final two on 6 June.

The show show tracks Jeremy Clarkson’s attempts to run his farm, Diddly Squat, as he battles ongoing challenges. It is produced by Expectation and is executive produced by Peter Fincham and Andy Wilman. Zoe Brewer is director of production and Peter Richardson is series producer.

Production has already started on fifth series of the Prime Video UK original.

ODMedia expands reach in Nordics

Digital media firm ODMedia has expanded into the Nordic region through a new strategic partnership with Danish company Sofie’s Choice. 

The move builds on ODMedia’s broader European expansion strategy, which sees it attempting to combine local market insight with technical delivery expertise to support regional producers and platforms.

ODMedia will work with Sofie’s Choice to offer localised servicing, including platform delivery and metadata to monetization and playout, directly to Nordic clients across SVOD, AVOD, and TVOD.