Disney Plus has amassed 28.6 million subscribers after just three months in business. Walt Disney chief exec Bob Iger disclosed the figure on the company’s earnings call following its quarterly earnings release on Tuesday, the first subscriber figures for the streaming service that is leading the charge for Hollywood as the entertainment industry embraces the
Television
Disney Plus’ “Star Wars” original spinoff series “The Mandalorian” is returning for Season 2 in October, said Disney chief Bob Iger on the company’s earnings call Tuesday. Marvel’s “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” will premiere in August, while “WandaVision” will make its debut on the streaming service in December. Iger also floated the possibility
Showtime has canceled the drama series “Ray Donovan” after seven seasons. The series starred Liev Schreiber as the title character, a fixer for the rich and famous at first in Los Angeles and later in New York. The news comes just weeks after the seventh season concluded on Jan. 19. The cliffhanger finale for Season
February 4, 2020 1:32PM PT Disney is getting the year off to a strong start, beating Wall Street’s expectations for the quarter that encompassed the company’s giant leap into the new era of direct-to-consumer business operations. Disney Plus delivered an impressive 26.5 million subscribers, starting from Nov. 12 through year’s end. The Mouse’s earnings per
NBCUniversal and its affiliates have been trying to resolve an early argument about new plans for its late-night lineup. NBCU has made plain its intentions to stream Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonight Show” and Seth Meyers’ “Late Night” on its new Peacock streaming-video service a few hours before the programs normally debut for linear TV viewers after
The Iowa caucus which, for the Democratic Party at least, devolved into a disaster involving delayed numbers and a faulty app, drew a total of 8.5 million viewers across the three major cable networks. That number is down roughly 17% on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC’s coverage of the last Iowa caucus in 2016. During
David Kessler, a well-respected French media industry veteran who had been heading the content division of the telco group Orange since 2014, died on Feb. 3 at his home in Paris. He was 60. Kessler’s death was confirmed by his family to the newswire AFP. The cause of his death hasn’t been reported but sources
MADRID — Rolling off the success of “El Pueblo” on both Spain’s Amazon Prime Video and Telecinco, the main commercial channel of top Spanish broadcast network Mediaset España, the U.S. online giant has clinched pay/TV and SVOD rights to four Mediaset España dramas and two docu series. The deal was clinched by Amazon Prime Video
After signing pacts with Altice’s SFR in August and Free in October, Amazon Prime Video has scored a distribution deal with another leading French telco group, Bouygues Telecom. Amazon Prime Video will be distributed on Bouygues’s android set-top boxes and will be included in the telco’s plan priced at €5.99 ($6.62) a month. Amazon Prime
February 4, 2020 4:20AM PT A second season of the Japanese adaptation of hit drama show “Suits” has been green-lighted at leading broadcaster Fuji Television. NBCUniversal Formats, which handled the deal, says that it is the first time ever that a U.S. drama adaptation is renewed. Production of the second season will begin this month,
February 4, 2020 2:11AM PT Rodolphe Buet has joined Newen, the TF1 Group-owned production and distribution company, as head of distribution. Buet is joining Newen from On Entertainment (“Playmobil”) where he worked as head of the film division for two years. The executive previously held a 12-year tenure at Studiocanal as president of international distribution
European pay TV company Sky is planning to go net zero carbon by 2030 by transforming the way it does business, the company announced on Tuesday. In order to achieve that goal it will implement a sweeping range of green initiatives that will impact everything from the way its programs are produced to the relationships
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the fifth episode of “The Bachelor” Season 24. Monday night brought us the first of five (!!!) hours of “Bachelor” related content this week, where viewers picked up from the Alayah Benavidez controversy of last week’s “To Be Continued…” In the wise words of contestant
Given just how colossal the video game industry is, it’s pretty wild that more TV shows haven’t tried to delve deeper into it (except, of course, when in need of inspiration from some previously established and particularly valuable IP). But it’s maybe for the best that one of the first series to take it seriously
Netflix has canceled the figure skating drama “Spinning Out” after just one season, Variety has confirmed. The news comes just over a month after the show premiered on Jan 1. The 10-episode series follows Kat Baker (Kaya Scodelario), a talented, up-and-coming elite figure skater who’s ready to turn in her skates after a disastrous fall
In today’s TV News Roundup, J.K. Simmons and Bruce Dern joined “Goliath” Season 4 and Netflix released a teaser for “I Am Not Okay With This.” CASTING J.K. Simmons and Bruce Dern have been cast as series regulars in the fourth and final season of Amazon‘s “Goliath.” Simmons will play George Zax, the head of
“Lost” alumna Kiele Sanchez has joined the cast of the “Lincoln Lawyer” series from David E. Kelley at CBS. The show, based on the series of bestselling novels by Michael Connelly, received a series production commitment and hails from A+E Studios in association with CBS TV Studios. It centers around Mickey Haller, an iconoclastic idealist
Fox’s Super Bowl is done. ViacomCBS’ starts today. Viewers of any of 24 TV networks owned by the newly-merged media company Monday are likely to witness a promotional blitz for Super Bowl LV, which is slated for broadcast on CBS from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Florida on February 7, 2021. The game may be
Warner Bros. Television Group president and chief content officer Peter Roth has inked a contract extension with the company that will make him chairman of the unit, a newly created position. In this role, Roth will continue to lead the group’s TV production, including U.S. production of scripted, unscripted and alternative series for broadcast, cable
Toni Collette is set to star in her second Netflix series. Collette has signed on for the lead role in the upcoming drama series “Pieces of Her,” based on the Karin Slaughter novel of the same name. She previously starred in the critically-acclaimed Netflix drama “Unbelievable,” which was released back in September. In “Pieces of
Sunday’s Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers drew 102 million total viewers across Fox and all its platforms. The game drew a hair under 100 million viewers on Fox, up barely 2% on last year. For comparison, last year’s low-scoring matchup between the New England Patriots and the Los
“Mayans MC” co-creator Elgin James has signed a multi-year overall deal with Fox 21 Television Studios. The deal encompasses development, writing and directing for TV and streaming projects. News of the deal comes around four months after James was named as the sole showrunner for the FX series’ upcoming third season, following the firing of
Jen Welter, who made history as the first woman to serve as a coach in the National Football League, is partnering with Amelia Baker and Mackenzie Munro’s Blonde Mamba and independent producer Casey Russell Hanley on the original series “FanGirl,” a half-hour single-camera comedy about best friends who become the first-ever female assistant coaches for
Welcome back to Tune In: our weekly newsletter offering a guide to the best of the week’s TV. Each week, Variety’s TV team combs through the week’s schedule, selecting our picks of what to watch and when/how to watch them. This week, the Oscars air on Sunday night on ABC, and “Homeland” returns for its
Filmlance International, the Swedish production company owned by Endemol Shine Group, is set to produce “Tsunami,” a psychological drama mini-series directed by Henrik Georgsson (“Bron/Broen”). “Tsunami,” which is being co-produced by Swedish broadcaster SVT, is set in Stockholm in the aftermath of a tsunami. The gripping drama explores how humans behave when faced with a
A Milan judge on Monday gave Italian broadcaster Mediaset a significant but not definitive victory in its legal battle with French media conglomerate Vivendi by ruling that there are no legal grounds in Italy to a Vivendi motion to suspend Mediaset’s plan to form a pan-European media company based in Amsterdam. The ruling by judge Elena
The BBC license fee is set to rise again during one of the stormiest chapters in the public broadcaster’s history. The U.K. government confirmed today that from April 1, the annual television license fee – which is used to fund BBC content across television, radio and catch-up services – will rise from £154.50 ($201.03) to
Sky Studios has signed a first-look script deal with comedy and entertainment indie Ranga Bee, the production company founded by BAFTA-nominated comedian Romesh Ranganathan and Emmy-winning executive producer and director Benjamin Green. Ranga Bee will work directly with Sky Studios to develop projects for Sky, with co-developed projects to be executive produced by Jon Mountague,
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead, if you have not watched the Season 3 premiere episode of “The Masked Singer,” which aired on Feb. 2 after the Super Bowl on Fox. Weezy, we hardly knew ye. Hip-hop superstar Lil Wayne became the first celebrity to be unmasked on Season 3 of “The Masked Season,” which
Some commercials can bring the world together. Chances are no one was betting on a Super Bowl spot from Snickers to take on the task. Dozens of characters from different walks of life complained in a 30-second ad from the famous candy bar about being spied on by gadgets, guys riding scooters and babies being