10 Global TV Stories You Should Know: 11/08/2023

Here are the global TV and streaming video stories that should be on your radar for Wednesday, November 8th, 2023:

RTL Group Revenue Hit As Weak Ad Market Counters Streamer Growth (The Hollywood Reporter)
A still-soft advertising market pulled down revenue at European broadcast giant RTL Group, Fremantle’s parent company, which reported a 6.9 percent drop in turnover from January to September 2023 to €4.66 billion ($4.98 billion).

ITV Reports Growth In Streaming, Studios (Advanced-Television)
ITV has reported total revenue up 1 per cent at £2.97 billion (€3.4bn) in the first nine months of 2023 to September 30th, with growth in ITV Studios and M&E digital revenues offsetting the decline in linear advertising revenue. Total external revenue was flat at £2.53 billion.

Warner Bros. Discovery Loses 700k Streaming Subscribers (Digital TV Europe)
Warner Bros. Discovery lost 700,000 streaming subscribers in the third quarter, taking its total down to 95.1 million. On the upside, ARPU per streaming sub increased by 6% to US$7.82. For Warner Bros. Discovery as a whole, Q3 total revenues were US$9.979 billion.

Red Bull Studios Sells Afghanistan Doc ‘Riders On The Storm’ To Canal+ For France (Deadline)
The film by Jason Motlagh and Mark Oltmanns – which originally world premiered at SXSW – captures the events around the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in 2021 and the Taliban’s rise to power, through its national horsemanship sport of Buzkashi.

Disney+ Hotstar's CMO On Winning Rural And Urban Viewers Through Ads For The Cricket World Cup (AFAQS)
The marketing challenge for Disney+ Hotstar was to make sure everybody knew from day one that they could stream the World Cup for free so that it would not lose viewership at the beginning of the tournament, as catching up later could prove challenging.

India’s Sony Entertainment TV Reacquires BBCS Format ‘Dancing With The Stars’ (TBI Vision)
Sony Entertainment Television has acquired the Indian rights to BBC Studios dance reality format Dancing With The Stars, known locally as Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa, which is returning to the network after 12 years. The first four seasons of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa were aired by Sony from 2006 to 2011 before it moved to Colors TV.

Showmax Streamlines Focus To African Markets (Tech In Africa)
Showmax announced it will no longer operate outside Africa, marking a strategic refocusing on its domestic customer base. The service first launched internationally in 2015, providing South African ex-pats and travellers access to local content.

FilmBox Adds Paramount, Prorom Titles In CEE (Advanced-Television)
SPI International, a Canal+ company, and the operator of the movie services brand FilmBox, has announced a new lineup of titles from Paramount and Prorom set to grace the screens in selected Central and Eastern European countries such as Poland, Romania, Czechia and Slovakia, Hungary and Adria region.

India's OTT Landscape: Exploring The Surge And Saturation (DeccanChronicle)
The Indian OTT audience experienced a remarkable 20% growth in the period spanning 2021 to 2022. However, when compared to the previous year, the growth rate exhibited a moderate slowdown, increasing by 13.5%.

Rakuten TV Expands In Luxembourg (Broadband TV News)
Rakuten TV’s VOD catalogue of international films has launched on Alteo’s streaming platform Alteox.stream.