Thursday’s London TV Screenings, MIP London news

4pm: Fox hires Apple alum for streamer

Former Apple exec Pete Distad is to join Fox Corp to head up its soon-to-launch streamer.

Distad will report into Tubi chief Paul Chessbrough and oversee the news and sports focused streamer, which was touted by Fox Corp chief exec Lachlan Murdoch earlier this month.

Distad was most recently chief exec at Venu, the now-scrapped sports streaming service from Fox, Disney and Warner Bros Discovery.

Thursday, 1pm: Apple TV+ extends Where’s Wanda?

Apple TV+ has extended its first German-language original, Where’s Wanda?, into a second season.

The eight-episode second season is again being produced by Fremantle’s UFA Fiction and follows a family who attempt to prove their daughter’s innocence after she is caught seemingly red-handed, standing over a dead body.

The dark comedy has been created, written and executive produced by Oliver Lansley (Flack), alongside executive producers Nataly Kudiabor (Arthur’s Law) and Sebastian Werninger (The Physician).

It stars Heike Makatsch (Love Actually), Axel Stein (The Vault), Lea Drinda (The Gryphon) and Leo Simon.

Thursday, 10.10am: Finland’s IPR.VC lands £20m investment

Finland-based fund manager IPR.VC has secured a €25m (£20.5m) injection from the European Investment Fund (EIF), which will be used to finance TV and film productions.

The funding is part of the strategy of the EIF, which is part of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group, to support Europe’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by helping them access finance.

The goal is for EIF’s investment to help boost investments in a sector that they say has traditionally faced market obstacles to financing. It also means the EIF has so far committed around €75m to three investment funds that will invest in EU production and distribution companies, since its first in 2023.

The EIF investment has been made into IPR.VC’s Fund III, which now exceeds €100m for the production of film and TV. It aims to raise €120m in total by its closing on 31 March. Read more

Thursday, 10.06am: BBC’s Charlotte Moore joins Left Bank

BBC content chief Charlotte Moore has stunned UK TV land by confirming she is leaving the public broadcaster to become chief exec at Sony Pictures Television’s Left Bank Pictures.

She replaces Andy Harries, who stepped down yesterday to become chairman, and will be joining The Crown producer later this year.

In an additional dual capacity to her new role, she will also be appointed exec vice president, creative director across SPT’s International Production Group.

The newly created role will see Moore lead the group’s creative strategy. She will work closely with president, Wayne Garvie and Matthew Justice, exec vice president and head of UK & Europe, as well as group production company and label heads, and the wider Sony Pictures and Sony Corp groups. Read more

Thursday, 8.59am: Stan, Prime Video buy Boarders

Stan in Australia and Prime Video across Africa are among those to have picked up Studio Lambert drama, Boarders.

The show, which returned for its second series recently on the BBC, has also been picked up by Discovery in New Zealand, EITB (Spain), RTP (Portugal), RTL Hrvatska (Croatia), YLE (Finland) and VRT (Flemish Belgium).

The acquisitions add to continuing co-production partnerships with Tubi, which is the exclusive home of Boarders in North America and Latin America, and with ZDFneo in Germany.

Boareders is produced by All3Media’s Studio Lambert and sold by All3Media International. It follows five talented black inner-city teens transported to a British boarding school after gaining scholarships.

Thursday, 8.34am: Blue Ant names Schouela COO

Canada’s Blue Ant Media has rejigged its senior team with promotions for Jamie Schouela, Carlyn Staudt and Mitch Dent.

Schouela has been named chief operating officer, Staudt becomes president of global channels and streaming, and Dent is now president of Canadian media.

All three roles report directly to Michael MacMillan, Blue Ant’s chief exec, with Schouela and Dent continuing to be based out of Toronto, and Staudt remaining in Washington, D.C.

Thursday, 8.25am: Fox extends medical drama Doc

Fox Entertainment has renewed medical drama, Doc, for a 22-episode second season.

The show is co-produced by Sony Pictures Television and Fox Entertainment Studios, with Molly Parker (House of Cards), Omar Metwally (The Affair), Amirah Vann (How to Get Away with Murder), Jon Ecker (Firefly Lane) and Anya Banerjee (The Blacklist) starring. 

The story follows the life of a doctor who must navigate a new reality when she returns to work after a brain injury erases the past eight years of her life. Barbie Kligman serves as showrunner and executive producer. Hank Steinberg and Erwin Stoff are executive producers.

The show is inspired by a true story and is based on the Italian series, Doc – Nelle tue mani, which was created and is produced by Fremantle-owned Lux Vide. The US remake also airs next day on Hulu.

Thursday, 8.22am: Max extends Margarita time

Warner Bros Discovery has extended its fantasy teen comedy-drama Margarita into a second season, after the show became the most watched Argentine series on Max in Latin America, according to the streamer.

The show debuted in 2024 having been created and developed by producer Cris Morena. Season two is to begin filming shortly, with the story a sequel to Morena’s Argentine telenovela Floricienta, which ran 20 years ago. The new show has also spawned a run of 14 live shows.