Formula 1 Signs New Multi-Year Contract With ESPN And Walt Disney Company

Formula 1 races will continue on ESPN Networks in the United States through the 2025 season.

A new multi-year contract renewal was announced in Austin at the second of two US stops for F1 during the 2022 season.

Under the renewal, at least 16 races will air on ABC and ESPN each season, more than in the previous five years since F1 returned to ESPN networks in 2018. Also, all race telecasts on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 will continue the commercial-free presentation used over the past five seasons.

In what may be a harbinger of an as-yet unannounced but long-rumored online gambling venture, the new agreement also gives ESPN flexibility to roll out additional ways for US fans to explore F1 content over the next three years, including on ESPN+. The companies said details on that are to be announced later.

“Formula 1 and ESPN have been a strong and successful team and we’re delighted to extend our relationship,” said Burke Magnus, ESPN President, Programming and Original Content. “We look forward to serving fans in some new and innovative ways in the next three years as we continue to bring the reach and relevance of the Walt Disney Company networks and platforms to Formula 1.”   

After setting a record in 2021 for the most-viewed F1 season on US television, with an average of 949,000 viewers per race, the average has moved into seven figures in 2022. Through 18 races, live F1 telecasts are averaging 1.2 million viewers on ESPN networks – with multiple events attracting race-record television audiences.

Earlier this year, the telecast of the inaugural Miami Grand Prix on ABC generated an average viewership of 2.6 million, the largest US audience on record for a live F1 race.

“We are delighted to announce that our partnership with ESPN will continue,” said Stefano Domenicali, President and CEO at Formula 1. “Formula 1 has seen incredible growth in the United States with sold out events and record television audiences, and the addition of Las Vegas to the calendar next season, alongside Austin and Miami, will see us host three spectacular races there. The ESPN networks have played a huge part in that growth with their dedicated quality coverage. We are excited to expand our relationship and continue to bring the passion and excitement of Formula 1 to our viewers in the US together.” 

“After Formula 1 returned to the ESPN networks five years ago, the popularity of the sport has grown impressively,” said Ian Holmes, Director of Media Rights and Content Creation, Formula 1. “The extension and expansion of our partnership is a reflection of exciting times ahead and a result of our shared desire to bring Formula 1 to as broad and diverse an audience as possible in the U.S. The popular commercial-free broadcasts ensure that viewers continue to engage with F1 before, during and after the race. From next year we will have six races in the Americas, which means more favorable time zones to fans in the region, making the Formula 1 offering more compelling than ever.”

All race weekends will continue to include live telecasts of all three practice sessions and qualifying (including the F1 Sprint) as well as pre-race and post-race coverage. The new agreement includes an increased focus on qualifying, with more sessions airing on ESPN or ESPN2.

ESPN Deportes will continue as the Spanish-language home of F1 in the US, and ESPN’s coverage of F1 includes a dedicated website that reports on the championship year-round. 

In addition, ESPN studio shows including SportsCenter will continue on-site coverage from races in the US, including the new event in Las Vegas for 2023, with coverage at other races potentially added. ESPN also will be creating additional ancillary programming on its platforms to support its F1 coverage over the next three years. 

During each of the five seasons that F1 has been on ESPN networks since its return, the amount of F1 content on ESPN television and digital platforms has steadily increased. This year, the Sky Sports F1 programs Ted’s Qualifying Notebook and Ted’s Race Notebook were added, airing on ESPN3 during race weekends, and the video podcast program Unlapped began appearing on the ESPN YouTube channel.

Formula 1 returned to its original US television home in 2018 – the first race aired in the country was on ABC in 1962. F1 races also aired on ESPN from 1984-1997. 

Sunday’s U.S. Grand Prix will air live on ABC with coverage beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET. The next event in the 2022 F1 season is the Formula 1 Mexican Grand Prix on Sunday, Oct. 30. The race will air live on ESPN at 3:55 p.m. ET.

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Matthew Perry Credits Jennifer Aniston For Being There For Him In His ‘Friends’ Drinking Days

Matthew Perry remembers one Friends costar who tried to help him with his drinking problem – Jennifer Aniston.

Speaking to ABC News journalist Diane Sawyer in a trailer advancing his Oct. 28 sit-down, Perry recalls the time Aniston — whom he calls “Jenny”— confronted him on his problem. She said, Sawyer reminded Perry, “We know you’re drinking.”

Perry confirmed the incident.

“Imagine how scary a moment that was,” he said. “She was the one who reached out the most, you know. I’m really grateful to her for that.”

Perry has been forthcoming on his struggles with addiction. The actor tells all in a new book, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir, which comes out Nov. 1.

Perry told People earlier that he was in the early stages of alcoholism when Friends began. That problem grew worse in the ensuing years, to the point where four years ago, his colon burst from using opioids. Perry was in a coma for two weeks, hospitalized for five, and wore a colostomy bag for nine months.

The clip reveals Perry telling Sawyer that he also was once taking “55 Vicodin a day,” as well as Methadone, Xanax and a full quart of vodka.

“At the time, I should have been the toast of the town,” Perry said. Instead, “I was in a dark room meeting nothing but drug dealers, and completely alone.”

Perry claims he’s sober now during the interview, but won’t reveal a time line on that transformation.

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‘The Watcher’: Ryan Murphy Takes Pride In Having Cast Older Women In His Limited Series For Netflix

Ryan Murphy sat down with the female cast members of The Watcher to reflect on the true crime genre and discuss who may have been the true voyeur who inspired his Netflix limited series.

But first, Murphy was happy to take credit for accomplishing what few — if any — Hollywood projects try to accomplish these days: casting not one, but five women of a certain age.

“People are always writing articles about how there are no roles for women over 40,” Murphy said to stars Naomi Watts, Jennifer Coolidge, Margo Martindale, Mia Farrow and Nova Dumezweni. “That’s not true … I try. I love the scenes that you women all have together.”

He also told the cast members that for the first time in his career, every one of them was his first choice for the seven-parter that dropped Oct. 13. Watts plays Nora Brannock, the co-owner of the house (with Bobby Cannavale) that’s being watched; Martindale and Farrow play a pair of creepy neighbors; Coolidge is the ambitious local realtor, and Dumezweni is the compassionate private investigator who attempts to help the Brannocks.

When asked by Murphy who everyone suspects is the real watcher, three of the women pointed to Martindale.

“I point my finger at everybody,” Martindale shot back.

“By the design of the show which I love is that at the end of every episode, you pretty much think that you figured out who is the watcher, the person who wrote the letters … and suddenly there is a cliffhanger aspect to it,” Murphy said.

Since its debut last Thursday, The Watcher landed in the No. 1 spot on Netflix with 125.01m hours viewed on the English TV List. The 7-episode series was in the Top 10 in 90 countries and took the No. 1 spot in 20 countries.

The Watcher is Murphy’s second No. 1 series debut in four weeks after Dahmer, Netflix’s biggest series debut on record, which has now accumulated 824.15m total hours. Murphy created The Watcher with Ian Brennan, and executive produced the limited series alongside Alexis Martin Woodall, Eric Kovtun, Bryan Unkeless, Eric Newman, Paris Barclay, Watts, Ariel Schulman, Henry Joost and Scoop Wasserstein.

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‘The White Lotus’ Creator Mike White Hints At Season 3 Cast And Possible Location

The White Lotus creator Mike White is already thinking about the HBO show’s Season 3, even on the red carpet for Season 2.

“We just turned in our last episode to the network yesterday, so it’s hard to think about the next race,” White told Deadline. “But if we did, I think it’d be fun to maybe go to a whole different continent. You know, we did Europe, and maybe Asia, something crazy like that, that would be fun.”

If that happens, a familiar face from the series may be aboard in Jennifer Coolidge.

“Jennifer is my friend and everybody loved her in the first season, and I was like, ‘I can’t go to Italy without Jennifer.’ And maybe that’s still the case. Like, maybe you can’t go to Japan without Jennifer, either. There are so many fun actors we’ve worked with so far, so it’s just kind of like who’s available.”

The White Lotus was greenlilt for its second season in August after becoming a critical and audience hit in its first go-round. The second season follows a different group of vacationers as they book their stay at an Italian White Lotus property. Coolidge is one of the only original cast members from The White Lotus Vol. 1 to appear in the Sicily-based Season 2.

Actors joining the ensemble in Season 2 include Aubrey Plaza, Will Sharpe, Sabrina Impacciatore, Theo James, Meghann Fahy, F. Murray Abraham, Adam DiMarco, Tom Hollander, Michael Imperioli, Haley Lu Richardson, Leo Woodall, Beatrice Grannó and Simona Tabasco. White, David Bernad and Mark Kamine serve as executive producers for Season 2.

The White Lotus earned a total of 20 Emmy nominations in its first run. Watch White’s chat with us below.

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‘Dead To Me’: Garret Dillahunt To Investigate A Murder In Netflix Dark Comedy’s Final Season

EXCLUSIVE: Garret Dillahunt (Sprung) has joined the third and final season of Netflix’s acclaimed dark comedy series Dead to Me, debuting on the platform on November 17, as a recurring guest star.

With its first season in 2019, Dead to Me introduced viewers to the recently widowed Laguna Beach real estate agent Jen (Christina Applegate) as well as Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini), a free spirit with a shocking secret who came to befriend her via a support group. By the end of the show’s first run (*SPOILERS ahead*), we learned that it was Judy who killed Jen’s husband Ted in a hit-and-run, with Jen later killing Judy’s ex-fiancé, Steve (James Marsden). It seemed near the end of Season 2 that Jen and Judy’s concerns as to the consequences of their crimes might soon be put to rest, given Detective Perez’s (Diana-Maria Riva) decision to take pity on them. The season’s cliffhanger, though, suggested otherwise, with a hiker’s discovery of Steve’s body poised to create further issues for our protagonists. The new 10-episode season picks up in the aftermath of yet another hit and run as both Jen and Judy receive shocking news, and are ready to risk their lives for a friendship that’s above the law.

Dillahunt will be introduced in Season 3 as Agent Glenn Moranis, a top-notch detective who’s basically the MVP of the FBI. You better believe that if anyone’s gonna get to the bottom of Steve’s murder, it’s Agent Glenn Moranis.

Dead to Me has been a hit for Netflix from the outset, coming in as the streamer’s fourth most popular series of 2019 in the U.S., with its first season being watched by 30 million households in its first month and landing Applegate an Emmy nom. The show created by Liz Feldman then went on to notch four Emmy nominations for its second season, including noms for Applegate and Cardellini, with further recognition in the categories of Outstanding Comedy Series and Casting for a Comedy Series. Feldman returned as showrunner for Season 3 and exec produces the series alongside Jessica Elbaum and Will Ferrell for Gloria Sanchez, Christie Smith, Applegate and Adam McKay. Cardellini serves as co-exec producer.

Dillahunt is a Critics’ Choice Award nominee who exec produces and stars in the Amazon Freevee comedy series Sprung, created by Greg Garcia. He can also currently be seen in Andrew Dominik’s fictionalized Marilyn Monroe drama Blonde for Netflix, having recently appeared in Sony’s Where the Crawdads Sing, based on Delia Owens’ acclaimed novel of the same name. Other notable credits include Army of the Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, 12 Years a Slave and No Country for Old Men

Dillahunt will recur in the third season of Starz’s crime drama series Hightown, also soon appearing opposite Orlando Bloom in the Nelms brothers’ action-thriller Red Right Hand. Other upcoming projects include Viggo Mortensen’s Western The Dead Don’t Hurt and Prime Video’s drama A Million Miles Away.

Dillahunt is represented by D2 Management and APA.

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‘The Bear’ Creator Christopher Storer Signs With WME

Christopher Storer, the creator, executive producer, director and co-showrunner of FX’s breakout comedy hit The Bear, has signed with WME for representation.

Storer became one of the most sought-after comedy creators following the critical and commercial success of The Bear, which emerged as the hottest comedy series of the summer. I hear a team of WME agents — including Ari Emanuel, CEO of WME parent Endeavor, whose brother Rahm and Storer share a Chicago connection — were involved in wooing Storer, who developed and sold The Bear while at UTA. I hear this all came down today, and Storer’s IMDb Pro page already has been updated to reflect the agency switch.

FX’s The Bear, which streams on Hulu, follows Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), a young chef from the fine-dining world who comes home to Chicago to run his family sandwich shop after his brother’s suicide.

Chicago native Storer wrote and directed the pilot for The Bear, and executive produces and co-showruns the series with Joanna Calo. The comedy already has been renewed for a second season.

Before creating The Bear, Storer was an executive producer and director on Hulu’s Ramy and produced Bo Burnham’s feature film Eighth Grade. He also has executive produced/directed a slew of comedy TV specials including Bo Burnham’s Make Happy, Whitmer Thomas’s The Golden One, Jerrod Carmichael: 8, Ramy Youssef: Feelings and Hasan Minjah: Homecoming King. Storer continues to be repped by Kaplan/Perrone and attorney Erik Hyman at Paul Hastings LLP.

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Goodbye, 10 P.M. Hour Of Network Primetime? CBS And ABC Will Follow NBC’s Lead And Hand It Back To Local Stations, Hearst TV Chief Expects – NAB NY

Say goodbye to the 10 p.m. hour of network-controlled broadcast television.

That was the consensus among a panel of local station chiefs interviewed at NAB Show New York, including NBCUniversal Local Chairman Valari Staab. Her company has stunned the industry in recent weeks by confirming it is actively considering handing back the hour to stations, giving her division what she calls “a different sandbox” to explore. Asked if he expects other media giants to follow NBCU’s lead, Hearst Television chief Jordan Wertleib replied, “I expect they will and I hope they will.”

Wertleib and Staab said media companies are reckoning with the fact that in a world of secular ratings decline, with streaming services controlling the largest chunk of scripted TV viewing and attention, the economics of programming three hours every night make decreasing sense. (Other broadcast nets Fox and The CW have never had the full three hours.) Not only would the expense of programming and promoting an hour of primetime be eliminated, but the media companies could also benefit via their owned stations, as would major stand-alone groups like Hearst.

“Valari made a good point and it applies to all the networks,” Wertleib said. “Take those resources and invest it in a really strong 8 to 10 block and the entire ecosystem improves.”

NBCU CEO Jeff Shell, in an interview with CNBC this month, said no final decision has been made about the primetime shift, but he confirmed that the company is committed to “reallocating resources” in that area to make the most of the current operating environment.

Asked what might go in a 10 p.m. hour controlled by her division, Staab said “it will definitely look probably different than a traditional newscast, but it’s a huge opportunity for us across the board.” While many stations are looking to add more news, given the generally favorable return on investment, lifestyle programming, game shows or sports are all possibilities. Sinclair Broadcast Group CEO Chris Ripley addressed his company’s recent teaming with CSI creator Anthony Zuiker to mine the station group’s archives and work with staffers to create original programming for Sinclair as well as outside buyers.

Ripley didn’t go into detail about his company’s outlook on the 10 p.m. hour, but he didn’t mince words when describing the landscape. “Streaming has gutted the general entertainment and cable networks,” he said. “Literally gutted them. When you take a look at that, the core strength of the pay-TV bundle is live, day-and-date content, which is the strength of broadcast. Within the ecosystem, I think broadcast TV will continue to do quite well.”

Wertleib pushed back at a recent report by Wall Street investment firm MoffettNathanson that posited that linear television is in a death spiral, shedding 6 million subscribers a year (and counting). “The prognostication of the death of linear television has been going on for 40 years,” he said. While many Wall Street analysts say the bundle could shrink to half its current size of around 70 million U.S. households in the coming year, Wertleib sees the floor as more like 60 million. “Every year, we surprise the marketplace because the American public loves broadcast television.”

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‘RHOA’ Alum Claudia Jordan Shuts Down Meghan Markle Claims ‘Deal Or No Deal’ Treated Models Like Bimbos

Claudia Jordan, former star of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, is opening up about her own experience on the Deal or No Deal set after Meghan Markle claimed they treated her like a bimbo.

“Flor clarity — yes getting a modeling gig on a game show isn’t necessarily about your intellect but every show the executive producers picked five models with the most outgoing and fun personalities to place mics on who they knew would engage with the contestants,” Jordan shared on her Instagram Stories.

In a second post she continued, “And Deal or No Deal never treated us like bimbos. We got so many opportunities because of that show.”

“That’s the kind of opportunity that is what you make it. If you just show up and don’t engage then you’ll just get your check and not get much out of it but if you show up and seize your moments then there’s no limits to what you can do with the opportunity,” she added.

Jordan she enjoyed her “experience working on Deal or No Deal” as it was a good opportunity in her career and helped her pay “all her bills.”

She also clarified that her response was not an “attack on Meghan cause Lord knows I’ve been defending this woman in the media for years and I still will but I just didn’t want any misunderstanding about the climate and environment on the Deal or No Deal set.”

Jordan said she was “especially protective of Howie Mandel who was nothing but kind and respectful to all 26 of us.”

Markle opened up about her time on the NBC game show on the most recent episode of her Archetypes podcast.

“I was surrounded by smart women on that stage with me, but that wasn’t the focus of why we were there,” she said. “And I would end up leaving with this pit in my stomach, knowing that I was so much more than what was being objectified on the stage. I didn’t like feeling forced to be all looks and little substance. And that’s how it felt for me at the time, being reduced to this specific archetype.”

You can listen to Markle’s podcast below.

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Simu Liu To Headline ‘Seven Wonders’ Series Adaptation In Works At Prime Video; Justin Lin To Direct

EXCLUSIVE: Prime Video is developing Seven Wonders, an action-adventure series based on Ben Mezrich’s novel, headlined and executive produced by Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu. The project, written by Adam Cozad (The Legend Of Tarzan) and to be directed by Justin Lin (S.W.A.T.), hails from Lin’s Perfect Storm Entertainment, Beau Flynn’s Flynn Picture Company (Black Adam) and Universal Television, where Lin and Perfect Storm are under a deal.

Seven Wonders revolves around the brilliant botanist-adventurer, Dr. Nate Grady (Liu), who teams up with the slippery international fixer, Sloane Seydoux, on a breathless race to solve an ancient mystery tied to the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World.

Liu executive produces with Cozad. Lin, Salvador Gatdula and Andrew Schneider executive produce for Perfect Storm, along with Flynn via Flynn Picture Company. Scott Sheldon serves as co-executive producer. Universal TV, a division of Universal Studio Group, is the studio.

The idea for Seven Wonders originated with Flynn and Mezrich who developed the book together. Flynn’s feature producing credits include Disney’s Jungle Cruise, Netflix’s Red Notice and WB/New Line’s upcoming Black Adam, all starring Dwayne Johnson.

Liu, former star of CBC and Netflix comedy series Kim’s Convenience, became a global star with his role as the titular superhero in Marvel’s Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings. He’ll next be seen starring alongside Mark Wahlberg in upcoming film Arthur The King. Liu, who just did a cameo as Shang-Chi in the season finale of She-Hulk, is repped by CAA, Authentic Talent & Literary Management, and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.

Lin and Cozad previously worked together in developing the feature Snap Dragon at Warner Bros. Cozad co-penned the scripts for Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit and The Legend of Tarzan. On television, he recently served as a consulting producer on FX’s The Old Man.

Lin is best known for directing Universal’s Fast and the Furious franchise (The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6) and Star Trek: Beyond. He was recently tapped to direct One Punch Man, the live-action film adaptation of the worldwide hit manga series, for Sony Pictures. In TV, he executive produces CBS’ S.W.A.T. as well as Magnum P.I., which is moving to NBC after four seasons at CBS. He directed the pilots for both series.

Mezrich also is the author of The Accidental Billionaires about the founding of Facebook, on which The Social Network film was based, and Bringing Down The House, which was adapted into the films 21 and The Last Casino.

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From Bollywood To ‘Delhi Crime’: BBC Studios, Super-Indies And India’s Producers On How Streamers Are Supercharging Series Production In The Country And If Their Shows Can Travel

Meet any high-profile Indian director or producer these days, and the talk is all about bibles, writers rooms and showrunners, rather than making films. Driving down Mumbai’s main artery, the Western Express Highway, most of the billboards are promoting new premium drama series from Prime Video, Netflix and Disney+ Hotstar, rather than the latest Bollywood release.

Of course, the shift of talent from film to episodic is happening everywhere in the world, but in the fast-paced, opportunistic environment of the Hindi-language content industry, these trends have become supercharged. Netflix and Amazon moved in here around 2016, local broadcasters fought back with their own streaming services—Hotstar (now Disney+ Hotstar), SonyLiv, Viacom18’s Voot and ZEE5—and the demand for premium drama series started to skyrocket, as competitors tried to differentiate themselves in an overcrowded field. 

Most of the big international TV producers and distributors have a presence in India, producing Hindi versions of unscripted formats including The Voice IndiaIndia’s Got Talent and Bigg Boss, but when the streamers started raining budget on scripted series, they quickly moved into that space. 

So far, a large proportion of these shows have been Hindi-language remakes of U.S., UK and other international properties. 

Banijay Asia, a joint venture between Banijay and Indian TV veteran Deepak Dhar, recently worked with Sameer Nair’s Applause Entertainment on the Bollywood version of Call My Agent! for Netflix, and is currently producing Hindi-language remakes of both The Night Manager and The Good Wife for Disney+ Hotstar. 

The Good Wife India

Sister company Endemol Shine India, a joint venture between Banijay and CA Media, has also produced shows for Hotstar, including Aarya, a Hindi remake of Dutch series Penoza.

BBC Studios India is also active in this space, working with Applause on Hindi versions of Criminal Justice, Luther (Rudra: The Edge of Darkness) and Guilt (Bloody Brothers). Separately from Applause, it has produced local remakes of Doctor Foster (Out of Love) for Hotstar and Press (The Broken News) for ZEE5. 

The proliferation of remakes is not surprising, as both the streamers and producers are currently focused on speed and volume. “There’s so much demand for premium content, and everybody wants it fast, so formats become an easy turnaround for the streamers,” explains Sameer Gogate, head of BBC Studios India’s production business. 

In most cases, this means the potential for international distribution of these shows is limited, due to holdbacks in markets where the original English-language or other language versions are still on air. 

“The U.S. is always a big challenge, although you want your Hindi content in that market, because there’s a massive Indian diaspora sampling those shows,” says Dhar. 

But even Indian shows based on original material are unlikely to be syndicated in the international market, because their buyers—whether they’re global or Indian steamers—all have a global footprint and scoop up worldwide rights. This means that very few independent production companies have built a business in this space as IP-owning producers, as opposed to producers-for-hire or basic content vendors. 

Applause, backed by Aditya Birla Group, is the big exception as it has enough capital to finance its own shows and then shop them to the streamers. It made a splash with Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story, which it financed then sold to SonyLiv, and has continued with this model. It’s understood that SK Global, producers of the Emmy-winning show Delhi Crime, financed the show before selling global rights to Netflix. But while these companies may be retaining some IP or equity, they’re still not involved in exploiting international rights. 

For the market to mature, and export more shows that work internationally, the next step would be for producers to package and produce shows based on original material that they could then exploit themselves, in markets outside of India. Applause is probably the closest to achieving this, but others are trying: SK Global, Lionsgate’s Indian outpost; LA and Mumbai-based Locomotive Global, which is partnered with Applause on Gurinder Chadha’s Seeker; Contiloe Pictures, also working with Applause on historical epic Taj: A Monument of Blood; and Ronnie Screwvala’s RSVP

“There’s room to do this, so long as you can figure out the financing in India,” says Locomotive Global co-founder Sunder Aaron of the opportunity in the space. “But the banking sector is very conservative and we don’t have deficit finance.”

The big formats companies are also starting to develop shows based on original material. Banijay Asia has Donkey Route, a drama series about Indians attempting to migrate to the U.S. on foot, along with two unannounced shows based on historical incidents. Says Dhar: “We’re building out a bunch of shows we feel could really travel outside of India, because while we’re blessed with the Banijay catalogue, with the growth of streaming, we think it’s time to start developing Hindi IP.” 

Fremantle and BBC Studios India say they also have shows based on original material in the pipeline, while Endemol Shine India recently wrapped a series based on the book Trial by Fire: The Tragic Tale of the Uphaar Fire Tragedy, co-produced by former Hotstar executive Sidharth Jain, who is now active in the book adaptation space. 

But even these producers acknowledge there are many obstacles to overcome. India’s film and TV industries have always worked on fast turnarounds, so don’t have much of a development culture, and while a showrunner and writers room culture is developing, it’s still early days. 

There are also issues on the buyer’s side. Creative executives at the streamers usually come from a Bollywood or traditional television background, so tend to be risk-averse. But more importantly, the Indian media market is consolidating through a series of mergers, so the number of streamers is contracting, while at the same time international parent companies are scaling back costs. HBO Max is understood to be delaying its launch in the market and Disney+ Hotstar is moving towards ‘TV Plus’ rather than premium content, in an attempt to retain the mass audience after losing IPL cricket rights. 

“There’s still high demand for premium content, as the audience has tasted blood, but some level of consolidation and price rationalization is likely to happen,” says Gogate. Indie producers and talent agents say there are only four buyers to pitch big-budget shows to: Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ Hotstar and SonyLiv. 

Another issue is achieving scale when developing one’s own slate. Says one veteran producer, “If you develop three or four shows, there is a high probability a few may not get sold, and the cost will not be balanced out by profits from all of the others. Even if you sell them all, the markup is only around 10%, and that’s what you get without the risk of funding them. The IP might come back to you in 10 to 15 years, but is that really worth the risk?”

All of this will sound familiar to producers in many markets in the world. But those same issues that increase risk, could also open up the market to outsiders to come in and co-finance. “We may see some of the big streamers back away from doing a global deal,” says Datta Dave, co-founder of talent management company Tulsea. “They’ll be OK with paying 50% of the budget and letting you keep some of the rights to sell around the world.” 

Sameer Nair is already in pursuit of this strategy: “We want to do more adventurous and ambitious projects, and partner with more global co-producers, companies out of LA, London and Israel who are active in co-productions.”

If this international participation ends up happening at all, it could be some time in the future. With China now out of the picture, India is looking like the next potentially huge media market, and has frontiers that have yet to be explored. Gogate points out that, while the premium series space is booming in Mumbai, it’s only just starting to take off in the four content industries (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam) in the south. There’s also growth in original Indian content, rather than remakes, across docu-series and unscripted shows. 

Dhar points to the development of the Korean TV market as something that could eventually happen in India: “They’ve matured over 10 to 15 years of making premium dramas, while our market is just four to five years old. We have to give it time, but there are already a bunch of ambitious producers who are starting to think about how Indian content can evolve.”

Indians Welcome Overseas Languages As Streaming Brings In Foreign Content

As a result of India’s streaming boom, local audiences have become much more language agnostic. Not only are they sampling content in Indian languages other than the one they grew up speaking, they’re also more receptive to non-Indian language shows. 

Stanley Fernandes, BBC Studios’ VP of distribution, South Asia, explains that while the market share of English-language content is still small, compared to Indian-language content, the growth of streaming has made it more accessible. 

“We’ve seen a transfer of that English audience that used to sit on linear across to the digital space, and in the past couple of years there’s been growth for us amongst the digital platforms,” he says. “Whereas linear had to be generic viewing, because most households only have one television set, we’re now up on Netflix, Hotstar or Discovery+, catering to individuals rather than the whole family.” 

Earlier this year, BBC Studios sealed a content deal with AVOD service MX Player, which with 300 million users is considered mass market rather than a premium service. In August, Fernandes signed a TVOD deal with BookMyShow, for series including SherwoodRagdoll and Unforgotten, which will be available as part of a BBC branded space.

Meanwhile, Ganesh Rajaram, General Manager/EVP, Asia, at Fremantle International is seeing more acceptance of non-Indian content in languages other than English, selling Spanish-language thriller Senorita 89 to Lionsgate and Italian-language drama My Brilliant Friend to Viacom18. “Of course, English content is still the most accepted [amongst ‘foreign’ or non-Indian content], but with streaming we’ve seen audiences more focused on the storytelling, the acting and production values, rather than the language,” Rajaram says. 

Additionally, unscripted formats are now being produced across multiple Indian languages. “We were probably the first to realise the potential when Viacom18 didn’t pick up the Tamil rights for Big Brother, then [Tamil star] Kamal Haasan came on board and it became such a big hit for Star Vijay,” says Rashmi Bajpai, Executive Vice President, Asia at Banijay Rights.

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New Fox Entertainment CEO Rob Wade Says TMZ Can Become “Huge Entertainment Studio” – Mipcom Cannes

New Fox Entertainment CEO Rob Wade has talked up the potential for TMZ to become a “huge entertainment studio,” setting out his stall at Mipcom Cannes for the first time since he replaced Charlie Collier.

TMZ was acquired in a $50M deal last year from then-WarnerMedia, handing Fox control of TMZ’s linear, digital and experiential assets.

“We feel there’s an opportunity for TMZ to be a huge entertainment studio,” said Wade. “21st Century Fox has allowed us to invest and acquire at a time when other networks are consolidating and spending less.”

Wade has already been testing the waters with TMZ-produced content in his former job as reality chief with series such as UFOs: The Pentagon Proof, which aired on Fox last summer and Who Really Killed Michael Jackson?, which aired in September.

The tabloid’s syndicated TV show TMZ on TV has aired on Fox’s owned and operated stations since 2007 and has been renewed through the 2022/23 season.

TMZ was founded by former KCBS-TV Los Angeles correspondent Harvey Levin and the late Telepictures executive Jim Paratore in 2005.

Having bought the likes of Bento Box, MarVista and TMZ in recent years, Wade was pushed during the Mipcom keynote on whether more M&A is incoming, to which he said, “if there’s a company out there that we feel can help grow and scale our business, then we are in the market.”

Speaking alongside Fox Entertainment President Michael Thorn, who renewed animated series Grimsburg, and Fox Entertainment Global head Fernando Szew.

Wade was promoted to replace Collier, who joined Roku, earlier this month.

He said that he and his team had come to Cannes with the company’s checkbook to buy shows.

“We can be great partners, buyers and sellers and the good news is we have our checkbooks with us and are excited to share them with everyone in this room and market.”

He added, “While others are trying to hide content behind paywalls, we see the opportunity of working with networks, producers and distributors to get our content out further, and quite frankly to monetize it” he said. “Whereas before there were four networks there are now 1000 so you need to go to the platforms to monetize your content otherwise it’s just not possible.”

Mipcom, according to Wade, will become “ever more important as nimble, smart commercial deals focused on content become more necessary.”

Elsewhere, questioned on reports that Rupert Murdoch is considering merging Fox and News Corp again, Wade simply said: “That’s way above my paygrade”

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John Boyega Talks TV Ambitions, ‘Attack The Block’ Sequel & How Opportunities For Diverse Talent Have Improved Since His Impassioned Black Lives Matter Speech – Mipcom Cannes

John Boyega is one of a diminishing number of Hollywood film stars that hasn’t yet dived properly into the world of high-end TV drama. The 30-year-old actor has made several appearances on television—most notably winning plaudits for his searing portrait of a London policeman in Steve McQueen’s multi-award-winning BBC/Prime Video anthology Small Axe—but his career has largely been defined by roles in movies like Attack the Block and the third Star Wars trilogy.

This may all be about to change if closely held plans come to fruition: Boyega’s production company, UpperRoom Productions, has, in his words, “something potentially big brewing”.

“The project has got a big commercial footprint—I mean that in the best way—and I’m circling it now,” he hints. “It’s something as secretive as hell, but it’s something that’s a potential project if we can pull it off. All I can say is that it’s at the development stage.”

It’s a teasing prospect, but no doubt producers, distributors and streamers will be desperate to hear more as it emerges. Boyega himself has plenty of homework to do and he openly admits he hasn’t done enough small screen work to pinpoint exactly the fundamental differences between television and cinema.

“To a certain extent, I don’t know because I’ve never been the lead of an ongoing TV series,” he says. “I’ve never done a season of a show. The spot in 24 doesn’t count in that respect because I was just a guest for four episodes.”

Interestingly, it is that role in Fox’s 24: Live Another Day, the 2014 limited series that resurrected Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer character, that Boyega is most grateful for as it helped him out of a spot of financial bother. He chuckles as he recounts the “glorious spin” he had back in 2014 working with Sutherland on the four-part season, set four years after the original 24 storyline ended.

“I came in as guest as a young drone pilot who got into a jam and gets locked up. Jack Bauer bails him out. It was so cool.” Not so cool was the fact that Boyega’s car had been placed in a police car pound in London. “It was going to cost £600 ($680) to get it out and I didn’t have the money. I started shooting 24, and I got the car out. Result.”

By that point, Boyega had already starred in Joe Cornish’s horror satire Attack the Block, which became an international cult hit after its SXSW premiere, as well as Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens where he stars as reluctant stormtrooper Finn. While he’s increasingly keen to explore the TV world, the London-born star is adamant that he will continue with work that ends up on a big screen. On that front, he has recently starred in director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s scorching, kick-ass movie The Woman King (released last month) and Breaking, which sees him summon up the internal grief and scars of a Marine veteran who served his country in foreign wars but finds himself facing the threat of homelessness when he’s back home on U.S. soil.

Notably, it was the film’s co-writer Kwame Kwei-Armah, an actor, playwright and artistic director of London’s Young Vic Theatre, who gave him his first big break as a teenager in the UK back in 2009. Kwei-Armah cast him in a trilogy of plays under the umbrella title of Not Black and White at the then Tricycle Theatre, now known as The Kiln, in Kilburn, north-west London. (I personally played a miniscule role in this story, signing off on the Not Black and White season as a trustee and board member of the Tricycle.)

On the day we talk via Zoom, Boyega is holed up in Brooklyn and has been following the news from London about the killing of Chris Kaba, an unarmed 24-year-old Black man shot dead by an officer of London’s Metropolitan Police. The actor sighs.

“This hits a deep chord for people because there have been stories of Black men killed at the hands of the police while in custody, behind closed doors, that have gone unanswered for years.”

At the time of writing, the officer has been suspended from duty while a thorough investigation of the shooting takes place.

Boyega is cautious in his response. “You don’t want to get caught up in the crescendo of the media frenzy. We sometimes know how the British press can be to a certain extent. I want everyone to just listen to the facts as much as possible so we can reach a more nuanced and detailed reaction that can be about solutions rather than danger, or anything that’s going to distract from getting answers to a very serious situation.”

Black lives matter to Boyega, on and off screen. He was notably filmed giving an impassioned speech at a George Floyd protest in London, which he has said cost him friends, and was critical of how Disney marketed his Star Wars character. However, he says, there is evidence of more diversity in the industry. “There’s been steady growth, and each time we grow and get the opportunity to get into more [important] positions, we learn about those positions and about more opportunities for diversity.”

Learning what each position of responsibility means equals more experience and understanding, especially as an actor, he adds. “When you get to that stage you learn of the opportunities you have: that you develop certain roles, that you now have access to producers and directors. Then it’s an individual choice of how you spread that knowledge and those opportunities.”

Boyega speaks like a man who has chewed over this topic many times. Warming to the theme, he adds, “It’s a good thing that it’s happening to us, especially people of my generation who say, ‘We don’t want to leave this industry the same way we found it and we don’t want to exist in this industry being anything other than ourselves.’ We have to make it work. We must.”

Next steps

Boyega can be seen next in The Woman King, in which he plays an African monarch protected by an elite, all-women force including Viola Davis (How to Get Away with Murder), Lashana Lynch (No Time to Die), Sheila Atim (Bruised) and Thuso Mbedu (The Underground Railroad). Other upcoming projects include Netflix’s They Cloned Tyrone and a sequel to Attack the Block.

The actor believes prestige TV shows are competing with their film counterparts on an artistic level. Indeed, his starring role in the Small Axe episode Red, White and Blue, appeared on several critics’ top 10 movies of 2020 lists.

“They’re not single episodes anymore, they’re one-hour movies,” he says. “That’s about the scope of what’s put into a TV show on television. It could be the CGI, the story or epic quality. These one-hour movies definitely have cinematic elements, but I definitely feel at the same time that there’s nothing like going to the movie theater, for sure. Now we have two ways to experience one thing.”

Boyega acknowledges the “creative opportunity” TV offers and observes long running series give actors the “opportunity of being able to stretch out a character over a certain amount of time”, creating a level of familiarity “you can’t always create with one movie”. He muses this could be why feature film producers are increasingly seeking to create franchises out of characters.

In that sense, Red, White and Blue ticks both boxes. Director McQueen, making his first TV series, was adamant that his creations were films to be shown on both large and small screens, with Boyega’s film debuting at the New York Film Festival before its TV bow. However, it’s watched, Small Axe stands as a landmark production.

Boyega says he would have happily auditioned for the role of police officer Leroy Logan but McQueen had invited him to a lunch to talk through the job. “We ate and we spoke, and he explained to me the message of the story, about what he wanted to do as a director, and how he wanted to look into the elements of Black British history that we don’t normally explore. It felt so good that he even thought of me for something like that.”

Red, White and Blue began shooting in September 2019, almost a year before the global reckoning that was Black Lives Matter. “A lot of people thought it was shot after the BLM summer, like it was shot because of that, but it was down to crazy timing,” he recalls.

Another seminal TV show documenting the Black experience first drew him to possibilities of prestige television when he was still a teenager: David Simon’s Baltimore-based crime drama masterpiece The Wire. He noted British actors Idris Elba and Dominic West in their starring roles as Stringer Bell and Detective Jimmy McNulty.

“I saw an opportunity, man. I saw all different types of actors putting on these American accents and getting out to the States—and getting at that money,” he says gleefully.

Always savvy, Boyega started to look for opportunities to study and hone his chosen craft. “I knew how to do those over-the-top fake American accents, but I didn’t know how to do one that would hold an audience and convince them consistently for two hours where your voice is enhanced by Dolby,” he says. He’d soon enrolled at drama school and essentially watched everything he could, whether it be on stage, TV, or cinema to improve his skillset. Around a decade later, he is appearing opposite Michael K. Williams, the actor he’d seen playing stick-up man Omar Little on The Wire, in Breaking. Williams tragically passed in September last year, having left an indelible mark on his younger counterpart.

Boyega chuckles as he recalls first entering the business. “I loved it,” he says. “I didn’t fully understand what was going on as I was picked up off the stage, but that energy was dope. I was still living in Peckham at home and I was still getting used to being in the professional working environment. Now I had to be professional.”

The catalyst for Boyega was being plucked from the Tricycle Theatre to be the star of director Cornish’s cult classic Attack the Block, in which he played a teenager who defends his housing estate from aliens. “That was my first professional gig,” he says with pride, recalling how he would study the script backstage in between scenes during the Not Black and White season in Kilburn. Attack the Block 2’s production timestamps how far he has come: his UpperRoom production company is now among the producers, alongside Cornish’s Complete Fiction Pictures, Studiocanal and Film4.

The film will pick up the story of Boyega’s Moses as he nears 30. Boyega observes London has “changed between the first movie and now”, citing the London Riots that happened the same year the original movie landed, and widespread gentrification of the UK’s capital. “We go back and look at the locations where we shot the first movie [Southwark and Walworth in south London]—once dodgy areas—and we find that it’s all gleaming, high-end apartments and Starbucks. There’s a whole world that we’re about to explore here with a whole new take on that universe, building and revisiting those characters.”

As we continue the interview, Boyega is prompted to remember his first television appearance, which he recalls was 2011’s BBC3 supernatural teen drama Becoming Human, a spin-off of Being Human. “I didn’t know what I was doing,” he confesses. “I was probably trying to pay some bills.”

Having zero interest in joining the Marvel Universe as recently rumored, Boyega says he and his executive team at UpperRoom are more focused on developing their TV and film projects. “I want to see how that goes for me. I would like to have a schedule that makes me work with Gina Prince-Bythewood, Juel Taylor [They Cloned Tyrone] and Steve McQueen all in the space of two to three years. You can’t do that necessarily when you’re stuck to a franchise, unfortunately enough.”

No doubt, the TV and films worlds will be looking on at his next moves with the utmost interest.

This article is the cover feature from Deadline’s first ever Mipcom print edition, which is available this week in Cannes.

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