Know What's Happening in Television
Know What's Happening in Television
China regulator cracks down on TV dramas obsessed with beauty
China’s National Radio and Television Administration warned that domestic TV dramas are overly fixated on physical beauty and traffic‑driven popularity, urging producers to prioritize stronger acting and storytelling. The directive was delivered at a conference attended by major streamers including iQIYI, Tencent Video, Mango TV and Youku.
TNT Sports has secured a multi‑year English‑language partnership with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), bringing men’s and women’s World Cup events to its linear channels and HBO Max streaming platform. Live coverage kicks off on March 11 with the FIBA Women’s World Cup 2026 qualifying games, featuring top U.S. talent. The agreement also guarantees future rights to the 2027 Basketball World Cup and EuroBasket 2029, expanding TNT’s basketball slate after the loss of NBA games. Additional analysis and highlights will be supplied by Bleacher Report and B/R W.
Peter Diamandis, founder of XPRIZE, announced a $3.5 million Future Vision XPRIZE aimed at encouraging optimistic science‑fiction storytelling. The contest, backed by Rod Roddenberry, Marc Benioff, Cathie Wood, Google and other high‑profile donors, will award a $2.5 million production fund to the grand‑prize winner. Submissions consist...
Sports Video Group (SVG) announced its Cloud & Content Workflows Summit for July 28 in New York City, merging its previous cloud production and content management events into a single day. The summit will feature a morning program followed by...
Aamir Khan’s sports comedy‑drama Sitaare Zameen Par, which grossed over ₹250 crore in its 2025 theatrical run, will stream on Sony LIV in March 2026, becoming the platform’s first Hindi theatrical title. The film follows a coach working with neuro‑divergent players, echoing...
NBC Sports is broadcasting the 2026 Milan‑Cortina Paralympics using a cloud‑first workflow, bypassing the traditional IBC connectivity. Signals are transported via SRT over the internet to two OBS cloud instances in Virginia and Frankfurt, with redundancy built in. Stamford, Connecticut...
Netflix is developing two new animated Ghostbusters projects with Sony Pictures Animation: a feature film tentatively titled "Ecto" that will be told from a ghost's perspective, and a companion series set in the 1990s featuring a new generation of teen...
CBS announced that veteran producer Eric Guggenheim will take over as showrunner for Fire Country’s fifth season, replacing departing executive Tia Napolitano. Guggenheim brings experience from leading Magnum PI and co‑running Hawaii Five‑0, signaling a potential shift in tone and storytelling. The...
Live Nation reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, ending a high‑profile antitrust lawsuit that sought to split Ticketmaster from its parent. The agreement requires Live Nation to divest certain amphitheaters and to open its ticketing platform to...
At Streaming Media Connect 2026, Team Whistle and Intersection explained how CTV contextual advertising now hinges on AI‑driven tools and real‑time data pipelines. Team Whistle has built proprietary Looker‑based analytics that feed production, programming, and ad teams with live‑event and audience...
Seth MacFarlane confirmed there are no plans for a third season of Peacock’s “Ted” series. The comedy prequel, which debuted in early 2024 and saw its second season launch in March 2026, became Peacock’s most‑viewed original within three days. MacFarlane...
beIN Sports has appealed a Paris Commercial Court ruling that ordered it to pay roughly €15 million to LFP Media for its Saturday Ligue 1 rights package. The broadcaster had withheld €4.71 million from each of three €18 million installments, arguing that contractual restrictions...
New Zealand and Brazil have signed a landmark co‑production agreement, the first between New Zealand and a Latin American nation. The treaty, signed by foreign ministers Winston Peters and Mauro Vieira in Brasília, grants filmmakers access to domestic funding and...
Paramount Skydance is pursuing the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery’s portfolio, which includes the news network CNN. CNN projects $1.8 billion in revenue for 2026, making it a valuable asset. Critics warn that CEO David Ellison’s close relationship with former President...
Talpa Studios announced that Marloes Sturkenboom will assume the role of Managing Director Global IP, Strategy and Operations on April 1, 2026. The veteran media executive arrives with more than 15 years of experience in content acquisition, business affairs, and...
HBO Max and Prime Video have added high‑profile keynotes to the Series Mania Forum in Lille on March 24, 2026. Prime Video’s session, led by Nicole Morganti and Thomas Dubois, will spotlight the platform’s 2026 slate of non‑English International Originals...
INBOX: Uncensored founded by Piers Morgan, appoints Rashida Jones as CEO, and secures capital raise to fund expansion.
BetWright, a UK‑licensed online bookmaker launched in December 2024, has signed a sponsorship deal with Sky Sports Racing. The agreement places BetWright branding on idents during the channel’s live horse‑racing broadcasts across the UK and Ireland. The partnership is the latest in a...
GB News has appointed Ross Sergeant as chief revenue officer to bridge the gap between its rapidly expanding audience and advertising sales. Sergeant arrives from Allwyn, where he served as global media director, and brings experience from Asahi, Diageo and...
Gravity Media has launched a remote production gallery in Covent Garden to support ITV Studios’ MultiStory Media output, delivering 900 hours of live daily programming across shows like Lorraine, This Morning and Loose Women. The facility features a 360‑degree LED set, 13...
The Royal Television Society Technology Centre is hosting an event titled “Accessible by design—How inclusive production is transforming the screen industries” on 12 March. The program will showcase CAERUS, the world’s first wheelchair‑based camera system, and feature a panel with founder...
ESPN’s March 3 spring‑training game between Team USA and the San Francisco Giants attracted 677,000 viewers, the network’s most‑watched spring‑training broadcast in a decade. The matchup lifted ESPN’s 2026 spring‑training average to 580,000, a 101 % increase over 2025, according to Nielsen. The surge...
Mandy Chang, former head of BBC Storyville and senior executive at Fremantle, has been appointed the first chief executive of the UK Documentary Film Council (DFC). The council, launched in 2023 as a member‑owned body, is entering a critical growth...
Foos Gone Wild and Combate Global announced a new amateur MMA series called Foos Fighting Championship, debuting March 26 in Burbank, California. The event will be broadcast live in Spanish on EstrellaTV and in English on Foos Gone Wild’s YouTube channel,...
Sportz Interactive (SI) has teamed with the WRC Promoter to launch an interactive Rally Predictor on Rally.TV, built on SI’s proprietary Predictor Engine. The tool lets fans forecast stage results, driver performance and head‑to‑head battles throughout the World Rally Championship...
UKTV has struck a new partnership with Samsung that places its free linear channels on Samsung’s internet‑only TV platform across the UK. The agreement creates a dedicated rail on Samsung’s home screen and deep‑links the U app through the Universal...
The British Film Institute reported that UK film and high‑end television production spend reached £6.8 billion in 2025, a 22 % year‑on‑year rise and the third‑largest annual total on record. Inward investment drove the surge, accounting for £5.8 billion (85 % of spend), while...
wedotv has introduced its documentary channel wedotv BIG stories on Freeview UK, occupying channel 275, while wedotv movies now broadcasts as a full DTT channel on slot 98. Both services are built on Synapse’s FAST architecture, server‑side ad insertion and...
Roland Weißmann stepped down as Director General of Austria’s public broadcaster ORF after a staff member accused him of sexual harassment, allegations he denies. The ORF Foundation Council will install Radio Director Ingrid Thurnher as interim chief, with a plenary...
Pegasus 3 continued to dominate the Chinese market over the March 6‑8 weekend, pulling in RMB 168.9 million ($23.8 million) in its third full weekend. The racing‑comedy’s cumulative gross now stands at $578.7 million, putting it on track to breach the $600 million milestone. Competing releases such...
ESPN and the Southern Conference have signed a multi‑year media rights extension that will run through the 2031‑32 academic year, deepening a partnership that began over two decades ago. The deal guarantees a record slate of national linear broadcasts on...
Senior YouTube executives will appear before the UK Culture, Media and Sport Committee on March 10 to answer questions about the platform’s role in children’s television and video consumption. Ofcom data shows YouTube is now the most‑used app or site among...
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most lucrative film isn’t a sci‑fi or action blockbuster—it’s the 1988 comedy *Twins*, which grossed $112 million domestically. Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito and director Ivan Reitman forwent upfront salaries, instead taking a 40 percent share of the film’s backend profits. That profit‑participation deal...
Sky Media has named eBay as the headline partner for the UK launch of Saturday Night Live, bringing the American comedy brand to British screens on March 21. The deal centers on eBay Live, the platform’s interactive shopping experience, with eBay‑branded...
TVNZ’s latest six‑month results reveal 1News At Six as the clear leader across both its TVNZ+ streaming app and traditional broadcast, attracting 726,000 viewers and nearly 20 million streams. News programmes such as Seven Sharp and Breakfast also rank among the...
The ongoing Middle East conflict threatens to erase between Rs 200 crore and Rs 250 crore of advertising spend from Gulf brands in IPL 2026, which is projected to generate roughly Rs 4,900 crore in ad revenue. Airspace closures and security concerns have prompted several Middle Eastern...
AMC Networks has renewed Jonathan Glatzer’s drama “The Audacity” ahead of its Season 1 debut on April 12, with a world premiere slated for SXSW. The History Channel will launch the 20‑part documentary “World War II With Tom Hanks” on May 25, airing three...
Foxtel Media announced that 39% of advertisers for the 2026 NRL season are brand‑new, joining returning partners such as Westpac, McDonald’s and Toyota. New sponsors include Red Bull, Bunnings, Club 4×4 Insurance and Youi, while programmatic inventory expansion lets small regional...
Acast has inked a multi‑year agreement to host The Aunty Donna Podcast and the newly created Grouse House Podcast Network on its platform. The deal consolidates Australia’s leading independent comedy collective under one roof just as Aunty Donna prepares to...
Barb has added pre‑campaign planning to Barb Ads Hub, turning it into a single platform for UK advertising buyers and sellers to forecast and evaluate campaigns across linear and VOD services. The new planner, previously called Advanced Campaign Hub, merges...
Australia is set to enforce new age‑verification laws for online pornography on 9 March, requiring users to prove they are over 18 through facial scans, digital wallets or photo ID. In protest, Aylo, the Canadian owner of Pornhub, RedTube, YouPorn and...
Australian designer and environmental advocate Jamie Durie has signed a partnership with global streaming platform LeadStory to produce original lifestyle programming. The new series will focus on sustainability, architecture and design, drawing on Durie's decades of experience in television and...
Apple TV+’s *Monarch: Legacy of Monsters* season 2 quickly rose to become the second‑most‑watched show on the platform in the United States, according to FlixPatrol, trailing only *Hijack* and *Shrinking*. The series introduces a new sea‑monster antagonist, Titan X, while keeping the...
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said the league will not centralize local broadcast rights like MLB and the NBA, allowing each club to choose its own distribution model. Teams may stay on regional sports networks, move to direct‑to‑consumer streams such as...
The industry is rapidly moving from hardware‑based cable boxes to app‑only streaming platforms, a shift accelerated by smart‑TV saturation, faster broadband, and mature IPTV infrastructure. Deloitte reports over 80% of U.S. homes now subscribe to at least one streaming service,...
Pixar’s new animated feature *Hoppers* opened to a $46 million domestic weekend, bringing its global debut to $88 million. The launch marks the studio’s strongest opening for an original title since *Coco* in 2017 and the best domestic start for a Pixar...
Fox’s Baywatch sequel adds three new characters—Jessica Belkin as Hobie Buchannon’s long‑lost daughter, Hassie Harrison as Olympic‑trained lifeguard Nat, and Thaddeus LaGrone as Marine veteran Brad—joining Stephen Amell and David Chokachi. The network has ordered a 12‑episode second season, confirming the series’...
The syndicated game show *25 Words or Less* has been renewed for an eighth season. Production will relocate from Atlanta to Jersey City, with casting now focused on New York City and surrounding areas. The series will continue to air...
New pod: Gary Bettman on the Olympics, local media, and the NHL's ESPN and TNT deals. https://t.co/6z46IxChiO
Prime Video will pull the 2001 thriller *Don’t Say a Word* from its catalog on March 14, giving viewers just six days left to stream it. The film stars Sean Bean as villainous thief Patrick Koster, alongside Michael Douglas and...
Cable networks such as ESPN, CNN and AMC continue to rely on subscriber carriage fees rather than moving to free over‑the‑air (OTA) television. In 2024 they collected over $40 billion in carriage fees, while advertising revenue declined about 10 % year‑over‑year. Technical...
