Tuesday round-up: Latest news, deals & hires

Tuesday, 6.01pm: Keith Le Goy appointed chairman of Sony Pictures Television

Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) has upped distribution chief Keith Le Goy to become chairman of Sony Pictures Television (SPT).

Le Goy will now lead all of SPT’s domestic and international production, including the gameshow business and GSN (Game Show Network).

He continues to report into Ravi Ahuja, who became SPE’s president and chief executive earlier this month following the exit of Tony Vinciquerra. Read more

Tuesday, 5.33pm: Banijay’s Endemol Shine Boomdog and A Fábrica launch scripted label

Banijay Americas companies Endemol Shine Boomdog and A Fábrica have launched a Spanish-language scripted label, based out of Mexico City.

A Fábrica Mexico & U.S. Hispanic will focus on developing and producing original scripted shows for the respective regions, with the company set to launch later this year.

The new unit will be led by Luiz Noronha, chief executive of A Fábrica, which became part of Ben Samek-led Banijay Americas in December 2022. Read more

Tuesday, 4.36pm: UK’s Normal Girl preps Above the Clouds adaptation

UK-based Normal Girl Productions has started early development of Swan Girls, a TV series inspired by Gabriella Santos de Lima’s novel series, Above the Clouds.

The company has secured the option rights to the popular German series, which chronicles the lives of three flight attendants navigating friendship, love, and the challenges of being in your 20s living in London.

Jasmin Batler, co-founder of Normal Girl Productions, said the rights deal marked “an exciting step in our mission to produce compelling, female-driven narratives for a global audience.” The company is exploring opportunities to collaborate with investors, networks, and creative partners on the adaptation. 

Tuesday, 4.34pm: Liverpool FC docuseries to debut on Prime Video

Prime Video has revealed that Lorton Entertainment’s Doubters To Believers Liverpool FC: Klopp’s Era docuseries will be premiere on 28 February in the UK, Nordics and Benelux.

Lorton produced the series, and it was executive produced by Ed Barratt, Julian Bird, Lucy Hardy, Angus Paskin-Orr, Kenneth Shepherd and Jonathan Smith. Richard Cooke was showrunner.

The four-part series charts Liverpool’s rise to the top of European football under manager Jurgen Klopp, featuring extensive interviews with the man himself both while he was manager and since he has left the club. It will also feature interviews with current players and coaches such as Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alisson Becker, Pep Lijnders, Andy Robertson, Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott and Jayden Danns. Read more

Tuesday, 4.14pm: FilmRise snags Taken TV show rights in US 

US-based streamer and producer FilmRise has picked up exclusive digital distribution rights to prequel TV series Taken in the US.

The show, inspired by the film franchise of the same name, aired on NBC in 2016 and was most recently streaming on Netflix.

The TV series ran for two 13x60 minute seasons and stars Clive Standen as a younger, hungrier version of the character played by Liam Neeson in the films. As a former Green Beret, he becomes swept up in a quest for vengeance after he fails to protect his sister.

The deal was negotiated by Jonitha Keymoore, head of content for FilmRise and David Spieglman on behalf of rights owner Europacorp.

Tuesday, 3pm: Apple TV+, Amazon Studios exec joins Mediapro Studios

The Mediapro Studio (TMS) has hired Apple TV+ and Amazon Studios alum Francesca Ricagni as its head of US Hispanic Content.

Ricagni reports into former Paramount exec JC Acosta, who was appointed head of TMS US and Canada last year, and will oversee creation and production of Spanish-language shows for all platforms in North America.

Tuesday, 12.11pm: Big UK dip in viewership for Trump’s second inauguration

The inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States drew a much smaller average audience across UK channels than the 7m (53%) who watched his predecessor Joe Biden in January 2021.

Trump’s ceremony peaked with 5.3m across the BBC, ITV, Sky News and Channel 5, compared to Biden’s ceremony which peaked with 9.3m at a similar time in January 2021.

BBC1 led the way with its 3.30pm-6pm coverage averaging 2m (22.3%) and peaking with 2.9m. It was followed by ITV1, where coverage from 4pm-6pm averaged 1.1m (11.5%) and peaked with 1.5m.

Tuesday, 11.35am: BBC follows young Gazans in ‘truly observational’ film

The lives of four young people living in Gaza will be documented in a BBC2 single which the producers have described as the “only truly observational film in Gaza”.

Gaza: How to Survive A Warzone (w/t) hails from Jamie Roberts’ indie Hoyo Films. Narrated by 13-year-old Abdullah, the film takes viewers into locations that have been out of reach to foreign press to meet 10-year-old Renad, 11-year-old Zakaria and 24-year-old Rana as they go about their daily lives.

Roberts and Yousef Hammash remotely directed two Gazan cameramen, Amjad Al Fayoumi and Ibrahim Abu Ishaiba, in a collaborative effort to make the documentary.

Tuesday, 11.20am: Lat Am’s TIS Studios re-launches distribution arm

Spanish-language outfit TIS Studios is re-launching its sales arm and has hired the director of production at Colombia’s RCN to oversee commercial operations.  

TIS Studios will offer more than 5,000 hours of programming to global buyers, including scripted series such as Cecilia, Los Enviados and El Capo, as well as reality shows, formats and documentaries. Read more

Tuesday, 11.10am: BBC orders from The 1% Club producer

The UK’s BBC is prepping a non-TX pilot for a gameshow that is being produced by the indie behind well-travelled ITV1 format, The 1% Club.

Hailing from Magnum Media, Wisdom Of The Crowd has been described by the producers as being “all about making educated guesses”.

“Think of a ‘guess how many sweets are in a jar’ competition but on a big Saturday night TV show scale,” they added.

Magnum has so far been commissioned for five series of The 1% Club, which is ITV’s biggest original gameshow in a decade. The format is sold globally by BBC Studios, which has secured remakes across Europe, as well as with Australia’s Seven Network and in the US with Prime Video.

Tuesday, 10.15am: Freeform Productions launches factual label

A Place in the Sun indie Freeform Productions has launched a production label named Double FTV, which is getting underway with commissions from Channel 4 and Channel 5.

C5 has ordered a four-part series from the fledgling indie led by Michelle Heeley. The series titled Bomb Squad: Trigger Point, follows the men and women who put their lives on the line to disarm and detonate thousands of bombs each year.

Double FTV’s ambition is to create new original factual and factual entertainment formats, with the company also landing a whopping 15-part series for C4 titled Jasmine’s Renovation in the Sun. Read more

Tuesday, 9.31am: Viaplay Content Distribution expands drama offering

Viaplay Content Distribution has picked up international sales rights to Swedish drama series Vanguard.

The 5x45 minute drama is produced by FLX for Swedish pubcaster SVT, in collaboration with regional commissioning club, the New8 Alliance. Those broadcasters (Norway’s NRK, DR in Denmark, Finland’s YLE and Iceland’s RUV) will debut the show this year, along with additional co-production partners ZDF in Germany, NPO in the Netherlands and VRT in Belgium. Viaplay controls distribution in RoW.

The show explores the life of Swedish media mogul Jan Stenbeck, chronicling high-stakes deals, groundbreaking innovations and the family rivalries that shaped his life. It is based on Per Andersson’s biography Stenbeck: A Biography of a Successful Businessman.

Tuesday, 8.54am: Endemol Shine Poland alum Ryszard Sibilski dies  

Ryszard Sibilski, the former chief executive at Endemol Shine Poland and co-founder of the country’s TVN channel, has died aged 69.  

Sibilski, who was suffering from an undisclosed illness, was married to Polish singer Ewa Bem, who paid tribute to her late husband on social media. Read more 

Tuesday, 8.35am: Cinefilx Rights lands 340 hours in Lat Am

Cineflix Rights has closed multiple deals with broadcasters and platforms across the Latin America and US Hispanic regions, with sales of more than 340 hours of programming confirmed.

TVN Panamá has bought 284 hours of long-running hits Property Brothers (Cineflix Productions for HGTV US and Canada), Mayday: Air Disaster (Cineflix Productions for Discovery Canada, Smithsonian US, and National Geographic Channels International), and Holiday Homes in the Sun (Raise the Roof Productions and Group M Motion Entertainment for Channel 5, UK).

Elsewhere, Teletica in Costa Rica has acquired three seasons of Property Brothers following deals struck with Daniel Rodriguez, sales consultant for Lat Am and Hispanic US at Cineflix Rights.