10 Global TV Stories You Should Know: 04/24/2024

Here are the stories that should be on your radar for Wednesday, April 24th, 2024:

‘One Piece,’ ‘My Hero Academia,’ ‘Chhota Bheem,’ ‘Jai Jagannath’ In The Mix As Warner Bros. Discovery South Asia Unveils Kids Summer Slate And Strategy (Variety)
WBD has two immensely popular Indian IPs in “Chhota Bheem” and “Little Singham” who met in 2023 in the film “Aag Aur Pani Ki Takkar.” The sequel to that, “Aag Aur Pani Ka Badla,” is also due on Pogo. In addition, the channel has several films and mini-series featuring the individual characters coming up during the summer.

Australian Police Searching For ‘Home And Away’ Star Orpheus Pledger (Deadline)
Australian police has called on the public to help in a manhunt for Home and Away star Orpheus Pledger. According to a public notice, a warrant for Pledger’s arrest has been issued after he failed to appear in court over an “assault-related matter.”

Spain: RTVE To Invest €4.6 million In OTT (Advanced-Television)
TVE, the Spanish public broadcaster, has allocated a €4.6 million budget to reshape and personalise its OTT service RTVE Play. The broadcaster says it will rely on original productions to expand the service, improve its free registration wall and search engine.

Stephen Chow To Produce ‘King of Comedy’ Variety Show With China’s iQiyi (Variety)
Stephen Chow, the once iconic Hong Kong comedian, actor and director who had a string of hit films in the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century, is to produce a variety show in mainland China.

About Turn As MultiChoice Chair Steps Down After All (Broadband TV News)
MultiChoice has reversed an earlier plan for chairman Imtiaz Patel to remain in place while the proposed buyout by Canal+ is completed. Under a plan first announced in September, Patel was to have initially handed over to his deputy Elias Masilela on April 1.

UK’s Channel 4 Expands Voltage TV’s ‘Tempting Fortune’ As Roku Drops Out (TBI Vision)
Tempting Fortune follows 12 strangers who spend 19 days in a tropical jungle, arriving only with basic survival gear and modest rations. However, their wilderness home will also be full of expensive enticements but each will eat into the final prize fund.

AzamTV Secures LaLiga Rights In Sub-Saharan Africa Until 2028-29 (Sportcal)
African pay-TV giant SuperSport currently holds English-language rights to LaLiga in the region until the end of the 2023-24 season. Canal Plus holds French-language rights under a multi-year deal signed at the start of the 2022-23 campaign.

Channel 4 Bows To Pressure & Commits To Making More Shows Outside England (Deadline)
Channel 4 has bowed to pressure from producers and will slowly start making more shows outside of England, its boss Alex Mahon revealed today. Producers have been ramping up calls in recent months on the nation’s youth-skewing pubcaster to increase its commitment to make 9% of its shows in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which has stood since 2020.

Ireland: Large Increase In Adult BVoD, SVoD Users (Advanced-Television)
Kantar’s TGI ROI has published figures on Irish adults’ evolving viewing / listening habits. The sample is representative of 4,000 adults aged 16+ in Republic or Ireland, based on fieldwork from March 2023 – February 2024. The data uncovers that Irish adults spend 24.2 hours a week watching TV.

Hungary’s TV2 & 1+1 Ukraine Join ‘The 1% Club’ (TBI Vision)
Hungary’s TV2 and 1+1 Ukraine have both licensed local versions of BBC Studios quiz format The 1% Club, with both shows to debut later this year. These latest two deals are the first for the format in the CEE region and bring the total number of adaptations to 12 worldwide, following the recent licensing agreements with Greece’s Star Channel and TV Azteca in Mexico. TV2 will produce the Hungarian version of the format.