10 Global TV Stories You Should Know: 06/18/2024

Here are the global TV stories that should be on your radar for Tuesday, June 18th, 2024:

‘So You Think You Can Dance’ Host Cat Deeley Apologizes For Seizure Joke On UK’s ‘This Morning’ (Deadline)
Cat Deeley, the presenter of Fox competition series So You Think You Can Dance, has apologized for making a seizure joke during hosting duties on UK show This Morning. Deeley, who was installed as This Morning’s main presenter in March, began dancing during Monday’s episode of the ITV show. Asked by her co-host Ben Shephard if she was ok, Deeley responded: “I’m fine, I’m just having a seizure.”

Portuguese TV Fiction Moves Into Premium Scripted, Expands Co-Production Path (Variety)
With a small domestic market – some 10 million inhabitants – Portuguese TV production is making a virtue of necessity. The region possesses a diversity of TV fiction offerings, ranging from commercial telenovelas to an increasing number of premium TV dramas, and is rapidly opening up to international partnerships.

Volleyball World And United Media In Rights Extension Through 2032 (Sportcal)
Volleyball World, the sport’s commercial vehicle, has unveiled an extension of its media rights tie-up with United Media across six Balkan countries in southeast Europe until 2032. The deal, stretching across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia, runs between 2025 and 2032. United Media owns the Sport Klub subscription broadcaster in those territories.

Lionsgate Promotes Chase Brisbin To Global FAST Channels Head (The Hollywood Reporter)
The promotion, announced by Lionsgate president of worldwide television distribution Jim Packer, will see Brisbin manage Lionsgate’s stable of over two dozen FAST channels worldwide. That includes the MovieSphere premium movie channel for which Nielsen recently struck a deal with Lionsgate to provide audience measurement for the FAST channel.

Fremantle Launching 25 FAST Channels On Pluto TV (Advanced-Television)
Fremantle has signed a global deal with Pluto TV to distribute 25 FAST channels across 13 countries, with each channel being specifically curated for individual markets.  The expansion of Fremantle’s partnership with Pluto TV will see 24 of the company’s most popular FAST channels premiere in the UK, the US, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, San Marino, Demark, Norway, Finland and Sweden.

Mo Elshehri Signs Up For Season 2 Of Neom-Shot ‘One Million Dollar Land’ Survival Show (Deadline)
Saudi actor and rising star Mohammed Elshehri has signed to host the second season of MBC's reality-survival game show One Million Dollar Land (Ard Al Malyon). The show is a spin-off of Million Dollar Island, from Netherlands game show stalwart Talpa Studios (The Voice, Big Brother).

Online Replaces Television As Main Source Of News In Ireland (Broadband TV News)
More people in Ireland consume their news online than through any other medium, including television, according to the annual Digital News Report Ireland. The report, published by media regulator Coimisiún na Meán, also reveals that the number of Irish news consumers who paid to access news content increased in 2024.  

India: Excitel Partners With Amazon Prime (Advanced-Television)
Excitel, the Indian home internet start-up, has partnered with Amazon Prime to offer Prime benefits to its customers. Subscribers of Excitel’s Cable Cutter plan will be able to subscribe to Prime Lite, and access Prime Video’s  content library, as well as enjoy shopping incentives on Amazon.

Kathleen Finch Talks Factual Innovation (World Screen)
“When we schedule our very specific genre-based networks—like Food Network, TLC or ID—we will stack a show that is very similar in nature over and over, knowing that our length of tune can sometimes be two or three hours because the content is just so addicting,” Finch said. “We know we have these super fans. We really try to super-serve those fans with a lot of content that is sometimes very iterative of other hits that they love. In a way, it’s comfort food. We’re making about 3,000 hours of content a year. We have figured out what our audiences want from our various genres. So, when we find something that works, we will double down on it, because those super fans will come back for more.”

HBA Media Secures Slate Of Global Broadcasters For Royal Ascot (Sportcal)
Horse racing media rights agency HBA Media has announced that the upcoming annual Royal Ascot horse racing festival will be broadcast in 180 global territories by over 30 broadcasters. HBA Media, which sells broadcast packages for the Ascot Racecourse, stated that the event attracted “significant” broadcaster interest that resulted in the expansive global broadcast mix.