Prime Video Deals, TIFF & Venice Insights & More!

2 years ago

Prime Video’s Mega Deal, TIFF & Venice Shortlists, Walking Dead Spinoffs, Banijay’s Triumph, and more!

Join us in this week’s edition of Entertainment Supply Chain Digest as we dive into Prime Video’s groundbreaking mega deal, discover the exciting shortlists from prestigious film festivals TIFF and Venice, explore the latest developments in The Walking Dead universe with its thrilling spinoffs, and much more.

We at Vitrina AI, the global sourcing hub for the entertainment supply-chain, strive to keep you informed of the latest happenings in the industry, so you don’t have to spend countless hours researching and keeping up to date.

Know more about Vitrina’s partner and content discovery here.

IP Deals

Hottest IP Stories, Formats, Books, Games, Podcasts to be turned into the next big blockbuster

Spanish broadcaster, La Sexta, owned by Atresmedia, has commissioned a local version of the German format “My Restaurant Rocks,” produced by Banijay’s Zeppelin TV. The adaptation, titled “Juego de cartas,” will be hosted by renowned Spanish chef Alberto Chicote 🇪🇸
Slovenian author Suzana Tratnik’s book is to be adapted into the film “Ida Who Sang So Badly Even the Dead Rose Up and Joined Her in Song”. Directed by Ester Ivakič, it follows Ida, a tone-deaf 10-year-old girl in a Slovenian village. The film is a Slovenian/Croatian co-production supported by the Slovenian Film Centre 🇸🇰
Sony LIV and Rana Daggubati’s Spirit Media announce “Lords of the Deccan,” a Telugu historical action-drama series based on Anirudh Kanisetti’s bestseller, which depicts the rise of the Chalukyas dynasty in Southern India 🇮🇳
RTL4 in the Netherlands has commissioned a local adaptation of Be-Entertainment’s adventure reality format, “Destination X.” This marks the sixth territory to pick up the show. The format follows 10 contestants on a road trip of a lifetime, who have no idea about their destination 🇳🇱
German streamer Joyn partners with Banijay Productions Germany to create the first international adaptation of the docu-soap format, ”Party Workers”. Filmed in Majorca, Spain, it follows young people as they explore party hotspots, face challenges, and adapt to the local culture 🇩🇪

Production Deals

Sneak peak into recently announced production projects worldwide

Hulu greenlights docu-series on Sherri Papini’s disappearance, and explores her six-year journey, reappearance, and national impact. The show is produced by Erin Lee Carr, Michael Beach Nichols, and Marwar Junction Productions 🇺🇸
Dante Lam, renowned for his hard-hitting action films in Hong Kong, is working on the sequel “Operation Red Sea 2,” following the success of the 2018 box office hit. The sequel will be produced by Bona Film Group and Qingdao Movie Metropolis 🇨🇳
Director Stefano Lorenzi has begun shooting “Aphrodite”, a film that follows Ludovica, a diver facing financial troubles. The film is a Dakota Film Lab and Rai Cinema production and will be shot in Sicily, including Trapani and areas near the Egadi Islands 🇮🇹
Brooklyn-based Roller Coaster Road Productions and Paris’ Mad Films are collaborating on the project “High Pressure”. it is a live-action underwater survival thriller with a VR viewership option for certain scenes 🇺🇸 🇫🇷
French director Antoine Raimbault helms “Une affaire de principe,” a political thriller investigating the mysterious dismissal of the European Health Commissioner. Co-produced by Agat Films, Memento Films Productions, La Cie Cinéma – Panache, and France 3 Cinéma 🇫🇷 🇧🇪

Season Renewals

More episodes on the way! Season Renewal Announcements

AMC has officially renewed two “Walking Dead” spinoffs, “Dead City” and “Daryl Dixon,” for their 2nd seasons. The announcement made at San Diego Comic-Con comes ahead of the first season finale 🌐
GNT has started production on the 3rd season of “Avisa Lá Que Eu Vou.” Hosted by Paulo Vieira, the show takes viewers to diverse destinations, including regions in the Amazon, with humor as its travel companion 🇧🇷
Stan greenlights “Bump” season 4, continuing Oly and Santi’s journey with their seven-year-old, Jacinda. Production is underway in Sydney 🇦🇺
Apple TV+ has greenlit the 3rd season of its popular sci-fi series, “Foundation” 🌐
M-Net in Nigeria has ordered two more seasons of “Big Brother.” Season eight, produced by Red Pepper Pictures, will premiere soon on M-Net. Season nine of the show set to air in 2024 🇿🇦

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Distribution Deals

Distributors securing worldwide content across different genres, languages and format types

ZDF Studios has secured global distribution rights for the award-winning children’s series “Housemates – Vacation Without Parents.” A popular show with a strong following on social media platforms, it has become a beloved classic on German TV 🇩🇪 🌐
Beijing-based Rediance acquires global rights to “Snow Leopard,” the last film by late Tibetan director Pema Tseden. The Tibetan drama revolves around a father-son dispute triggered by a snow leopard killing nine rams in a nomad’s sheep pen. It will premiere at the 80th Venice International Film Festival 🇨🇳
French distributor Friday Entertainment has acquired rights to distribute Indian film “Rocky aur Rani ki Prem Kahani” in France 🇮🇳 🇫🇷
Vienna-based Square Eyes acquires Tana Gilbert’s debut documentary “Malqueridas,” set to premiere at Venice’s International Critics’ Week. Filmed with cell phones by women inmates in a Chilean prison, it portrays the resilience and love of mothers facing life in jail, away from their families 🇦🇹 🇨🇱 🇩🇪
“A Normal Family,” a South Korean drama by Hur Jin-ho, secures international distribution deals ahead of its premiere at TIFF. Korean sales outfit, Finecut, sells the film to Diaphana Distribution, Lumix Media Co., and worldwide inflight rights via Encore Inflight Limited 🇰🇷 🇫🇷 🇨🇭 🇻🇳

Acquisition Deals

Streamers & channels acquiring latest content across the world

Tubi acquires “Lloyd Of The Flies,” an animated comedy series from Aardman. The show follows Lloyd, a young fly, and his life with 450 siblings, his parents, cheeky little sister, and 224 maggots in an apple 🇺🇸 🇨🇦
Acamar Films’ popular pre-school series “Bing” continues to expand its reach with new broadcasters and platforms acquiring different seasons of the show, including MiniMini, JimJam TV, CT Decko, LMT, LTV, SVT Barn, and ABC Kids 🇮🇹 🇵🇱 🇨🇿 🇱🇻 🇸🇪 🇦🇺 and the CEE region
New distribution partners acquired “Caillou’s New Adventures” series from Wildbrain, Canal Infantil (S01), Semillitas (S02 & 03), JOJKO (S01 – 05). MiniMini+(S02-04) and 5 specials, while YLE acquired all five specials Latin America, US & Central America, 🇸🇰 🇵🇱 🇫🇮
Amazon’s Prime Video acquires 450 episodes of kids’ content for German-speaking territories from Studio 100 Media. The package includes beloved series like “Heidi,” “Maya the Bee,” “Mia & Me,” “Nils Holgersson,” “Vic the Viking,” and “House of Anubis.” 🇩🇪 🇦🇹 🇨🇭
SBS On Demand, the OTT service of Australian public broadcaster SBS, acquires two Korean drama series – “Chimera” and “Blind” from CJ ENM. “Chimera” stars Park Hae-soo and aired on OCN in 2021, while “Blind” was shown on tvN in 2022 🇰🇷 🇦🇺

Partnerships/M&A

Cross-Border Collaborations, Joint Ventures, M&A and Partnerships!

WildBrain acquires House of Cool, a pre-production company in the animation industry. This acquisition is a strategic move by WildBrain to bolster its focus on creative excellence, as it significantly enhances the company’s pre-production capabilities for top-tier animated series, specials, and features 🇨🇦 🇬🇧
Midwich acquires HHB Communications Holdings Ltd, a prominent supplier of professional audio equipment and music technology in London. HHB represents renowned manufacturers like RØDE, Genelec, and Avid, serving notable post-production facilities, recording studios, and broadcasters 🇬🇧
MX Player partners with DistroTV, a FAST TV app, enabling users in India to access DistroTV’s content lineup for free. DistroTV offers a variety of channels, including news, sports, movies, music, entertainment, and lifestyle content 🇺🇸 🇮🇳
Banijay Italia partners with Rome-based Greenboo Production, known for producing premium scripted series, documentaries, and films for TV, streaming, and cinema. The collaboration aims to expand their audience reach both locally and internationally 🇮🇹

Companies Making Headlines

Launch and Expansions of facilities, studios, services & technologies

Kartoon Studios enters the Malaysian market through a branded block on Astro Ceria, the country’s top children’s channel. Set to premiere in August 2023, it is part of Kartoon Channel!’s Pacific-Asia expansion 🇲🇾
Elemental TV partners with Spanglish Movies for Spanglish DSP, the first DSP tailored for Hispanic and Latin American markets, transforming monetization on FAST channels 🇧🇬 🇺🇸
Pan-European prodco group Asacha Media has acquired a majority stake in UK-based factual prodco Arrow International Media. This move allows Asacha to expand into the factual space and enables Arrow to pursue growth in the UK and US while exploring co-pro opportunities with other factual producers within the group 🇬🇧 🇫🇷
Beyond Capture Studios expands with a new stage in Montréal, equipped with 145 Qualisys cameras for state-of-the-art performance capture and motion capture 🇨🇦
ZEISS has acquired Ncam Technologies, a UK-based camera tracking pioneer to enable ZEISS to broaden its technology portfolio and focus on the cinema, broadcast, and visual effects sectors. Ncam’s innovative hybrid camera tracking technology allows spatial tracking of cameras both indoors and outdoors 🇬🇧 🌐

SPOTLIGHT: Featured Company on Vitrina

Featured New Specializations

Global innovations & breakthroughs in the Entertainment supply-chain

Mavis Broadcast launches Mavis 2.0, a groundbreaking end-to-end live video production solution in collaboration with hardware provider Atomos 🇬🇧
ActionVFX launches AVFX+, a new subscription model providing VFX artists instant access to their high-quality stock footage library. Subscribers get affordable and royalty-free production-quality assets, with the option to purchase a la carte assets 🇺🇸
Orson’s StoryShop.ai introduces an automated director handling all aspects of unscripted video production, from interviews to engaging narratives. Its innovative StoryStrip technology automates editing and scoring, revolutionizing storytelling 🌐
FaceCake and RealmFX join forces to revolutionize visual effects with AI and AR. Their partnership aims to enhance creativity and efficiency, delivering cutting-edge solutions for movies and TV shows 🇺🇸 🌐
Cineverse Corp. introduces MatchpointAI, an AI-based platform to transform streaming. Streamlining content preparation, optimization, and future-proofing for producers, platforms, and OEMs 🇺🇸

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Localization & Post-Production

Latest updates in the world of content Localization & Post-Production

Deepdub introduces Deepdub Go, an AI-powered dubbing and language localization platform, enabling creators to dub in 65 languages with emotion-prompting AI and personalized voices 🇮🇱
DupDub AI pioneers AI dubbing with human-like speech replication, fueling higher conversion rates and increased ROI in marketing campaigns 🌐
Post House Harbor introduces content mastering & distribution led by Director Dan Clark, offering content owners and distributors solutions for content creation, localization, QC, and delivery to cinemas, broadcasters, and multi-media platforms from its facilities in London, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Los Angeles 🇬🇧 🇺🇸
castLabs set to disrupt content protection with single-frame forensic watermarking. Hidden info in frames ensures authentication, copyright protection, and content leak tracking 🇩🇪

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Animation, VFX & Virtual Production

Latest global updates in Animation, Visual Effects VFX & Virtual Production

Software platform, Pixotope, expands its global network with JB&A as distributor, to offer real-time virtual production solutions in North American 🇳🇴 North America
Mo-Sys unveils StarTracker Max updates, enhancing real-time camera tracking with lightweight design, improved accuracy, and user-friendly features 🇬🇧
Pier59 Studios unveils world’s largest virtual production stage for fashion & advertising. It is equipped with Planar’s flexible LED walls and offers captivating backdrops 🇺🇸
Bristol’s Moonraker VFX delivers 100 minutes of science-led visual effects for BBC’s Earth series. 30 artists create 13,600 CGI elements in their largest TV project 🇬🇧

Fast Channels

World of FAST channels & related market moves

E.W. Scripps Co. is adding two new channels, Court TV Legendary Trials and Laff More, to its roster of FAST channels, bringing the total to nine. Legendary Trials will showcase top cases from 30 years of Court TV archives and can be found on platforms like Fubo, Amazon Freevee, Xumo Play, and Plex 🇺🇸
Plex has joined forces with content provider The Soul Publishing to introduce three FAST channels on its platform. The channels include 5-Minute Crafts, Ideas En 5 Minutos, and 123 GO! 🇺🇸
Rushlake Media, a company based in Germany and Kenya, launches TidPix, an English-language FAST channel showcasing African content, specifically curated and managed by their Nairobi team 🇰🇪 North America
Common Sense Networks has launched three new FAST channels (Sensical Jr, Sensical Makers, and Sensical Gaming) as part of its AVoD brand for kids called Sensical. The goal is to provide a secure space for kids, offering them a wide selection of suitable content 🇺🇸