Jon Steinberg, founder and CEO of Cheddar and president of Altice News, likens the process of developing digital media companies to “the drug discovery business.” Steinberg tells Variety‘s “Strictly Business” podcast that developing Cheddar as a startup digital TV service offering business and entertainment news aimed at a millennial audience was similar to how pharmaceutical
Television
AT&T and CBS are already locked in a battle over whether or not the telecom giant will be able to carry programming from local CBS stations. Now they are fighting about the fight. Speaking during a call with investors Wednesday, AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson suggested the two companies are not that far apart
AT&T chief Randall Stephenson told investors Wednesday that the HBO Max streaming service set to launch next spring will eventually include live sports and news programming. Stephenson talked up his enthusiasm for WarnerMedia’s nascent direct-to-consumer platform during the telco giant’s second-quarter earnings conference call with Wall Street analysts. “You should assume that ultimately HBO Max
MADRID — Spain’s premier soccer organization, La Liga, held a high-profile presentation in Madrid on Tuesday evening for a new anthem as part of its “Latidos del futuro” (Heartbeats of the Future) program, which will be used for years to come as a soundtrack at each of its fixtures and during league TV programming, similar
July 23, 2019 11:25PM PT ITV’s revenues and profits slid into negative territory in the first half of the year, but CEO Carolyn McCall said the results were better than expected. The boss of Britain’s largest commercial broadcaster had previously warned that 2019 would partly be about mitigating losses for the company, as major advertisers
The 2019 Television Critics Association summer press tour kicked off on Tuesday with presentations from DC Universe, A+E Networks, and Nat Geo. DC Universe, the DC-branded streaming service, brought their adult animated series based on “Harley Quinn,” while A+E brought along a range of projects from across their portfolio. It was also announced that A+E
In today’s roundup, USA releases the trailer for the second season of “The Purge” and Amazon drops the final trailer before “The Boys” launches. RENEWALS Viceland has renewed the pro wrestling docu-series “Dark Side of the Ring” for a second season. The upcoming season will feature 10 hour-long episodes chronicling the lives of wrestlers inside
The WGA West has unveiled the slate of candidates for officer posts and board seats in the election that reflects the divisions among members over the guild’s handling of the campaign to reform its rules governing talent agents. Scribes Phyllis Nagy (“Carol”) and William Schmidt (“Yellowstone”) are set to challenge David Goodman for the president’s
July 23, 2019 4:29PM PT Freshman military drama “The Code” is officially done at CBS. The news comes just one day after the show’s season finale, which will now serve as the show’s series finale. “Thank you to all you wonderful people who watched [‘The Code’],” series star Dana Delany wrote on Twitter. “Last night
July 23, 2019 2:00PM PT Amazon is developing a series inspired by the true story of a man who sold shares of himself to investors, Variety has learned. In a competitive situation, Amazon has landed the project, titled “JNNA.” It is described as a half-hour comedy about the next big investment craze — humans. It
NBCUniversal projected it would sell more than $1.2 billion in advertising for its 17 days of broadcasts of the 2020 Olympics from Tokyo, citing the event as a rare opportunity for Madison Avenue to reach big audiences without the worry of politics getting in the way of a commercial message. The Olympics is “one of
July 23, 2019 10:08AM PT Janelle Monáe has been tapped to star in the second season of “Homecoming.” Monáe’s character is described as a tenacious woman who finds herself floating in a canoe, with no memory of how she got there or who she is. Monáe takes over the top spot on the Amazon series
Fazekas & Butters, a production company led by Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters, has named Juan Alfonso as the new head of television. There, he will develop and produce projects, and seek out and engage with writers, intellectual property and creative partners, “matchmaking talented people and ideas,” according to Alfonso. The pod, which launched in
David Spade at the helm of a new late-night show? Viewers probably think they know what to expect. Yet Spade’s new program on Comedy Central will also be notable for what it doesn’t have to offer. Yes, this is the guy who served “Hollywood Minute” zingers on “Saturday Night Live,” made millions laugh with movies
The season 2 finale of “Big Little Lies,” headlined by a tense courtroom scene, was watched by just under 2 million total viewers during its initial broadcast. The 1.98 million figure is the highest initial viewership for the series to date. By comparison, the show’s first season concluded with 1.9 million total viewers in linear
HBO Europe has greenlit original series “Tuff Money” (“Bani Negri”), a six-part crime caper from Cristian Mungiu’s Mobra Films, the company behind Mungiu’s Palme d’Or winner “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” and HBO Europe’s “Hackerville.” “Tuff Money” has been written and will be directed by Daniel Sandu, the writer and director of the
Adding to the momentum of Chile’s energetic push into upscale TV production, the Santiago Intl. Film Festival (Sanfic) is adding a TV strand, Sanfic Series. Focusing on drama series and part of the Sanfic Industry forum – after Ventana Sur now one of the biggest of any festival in South America – the section will
Former Filmstruck International general manager Kerensa Samanidis has been appointed Acorn TV’s first international chief. As general manager, international, she will spearhead the growth of the AMC Networks-owned streamer outside of North America and Latin America. Last year, Acorn TV expanded into Australia, and New Zealand, Argentina, Mexico, Spain, and Scandinavia. In the newly-created international
MipTV is moving inside the Palais des Festivals in Cannes as market organizers attempt to ensure that the April vent remains relevant in the face of falling attendance, increased competition and wider industry changes. Reed Midem organizes MipTV and its better-attended sibling, Mipcom, in October. After this year’s MipTV, it reached out to distributors, many
MADRID — Amazon Prime Video has announced a slate of three new Spanish original series set for 2020, which will strengthen the streamer’s domestic catalog in the country. It also shared the first trailer for its second Spanish soccer docu-series “El corazón de Sergio Ramos” (The Heart of Sergio Ramos). In “El Cid,” popular Spanish
Robin Buckley shocked viewers everywhere when she came out as a lesbian to Steve Harrington on the floor of a bathroom stall, but actress Maya Hawke says the twist wasn’t always set in stone. Hawke tells Variety that it wasn’t until episode four or five that she and the Duffer Brothers came to a final decision
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “The Bachelorette: Men Tell All” that aired Monday, July 22. “The Bachelorette” Hannah Brown says that she’s proud of a lot of things she’s done on-screen this season, but she feels most gratified knowing that she was able to inspire millions of girls to
Derek Waters loves TV history — so much so that he even keeps a collection of old TV Guide magazines at home. As the co-creator and host of Comedy Central’s Emmy-nominated “Drunk History,” it’s perhaps no surprise that Waters reveres classic TV — particularly from his childhood era of the 1980s. But here’s where he
Two weeks have passed on “Love Island” and plenty of singles have coupled and uncoupled in their bid for love and a fat $100,000 pay check. However, there’s one couple that doesn’t seem to be hitting it off: CBS and “Love Island.” Ratings for the show have been far from paradisiacal, and with the network
In today’s roundup, HBO drops the first trailer for its forthcoming limited series “Catherine the Great” and Variety obtains an exclusive sneak peek of the next episode of TV Land’s “Younger.” DATES CNN Films will premiere its documentary “Halston” on Aug. 18. The doc, which tells the life of the legendary design and lifestyle icon,
Nickelodeon has hired two new executives, tapping Jenny Wall to become chief marketing officer and Eryk Casemiro to become senior vice president of Nickelodeon Preschool. Most recently CMO at Spotify-owned Gimlet Media, Wall will be responsible for all on- and off-air consumer marketing, brand creative and content launches across all of Nickelodeon’s platforms, including Nicktoons,
By the time Liz Garbus’s two-part documentary “Who Killed Garrett Phillips?” debuts on HBO, there could be a new public lead in the case of the murdered titular 12-year-old. As least, that’s what many may hope after the new St. Lawrence County district attorney admitted a new tip earlier this spring. Garbus says she would
Those working on “The Bachelor” and its sister shows are in wait-and-see mode as a domestic incident involving creator Mike Fleiss continues to be investigated in Kauai, according to sources close to production. The results of the police investigation are still pending, after Fleiss’ wife, Laura Fleiss, had accused him of attacking her in their
Among media companies, “going dark” was once a matter of last resort. Now it’s an option that is seeing more light. CBS is not currently available on DirecTV or AT&T’s U-verse, the result of a battle over how much the two outlets’ owner, AT&T, ought to pay for the right to send CBS into millions
Maria Elena Salinas, one of the best-known anchors in Spanish-language broadcasting, will join CBS News as a contributor, Susan Zirinsky, the unit’s president, told staffers Monday. Salinas stepped down from her role at Univision at the end of 2017 after an on-air tenure of more than three decades. She is expected to contribute reports across