Canal+ Increases Stake In Asian Streamer VIU To 36,8% With The Option To Get Majority Ownership

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French media and telecom conglomerate Vivendi’s pay-TV unit Canal+ Group has increased its stake in Asian streamer Viu to 36.8 percent, the company said on Thursday.

“After satisfaction of key business milestones, Canal+ Group has released the last installment of its $300 million staggered investment,” it explained. “A further investment, at Canal+ election, could result in an increase of Canal+’s stake in Viu to 51 percent.”

The company didn’t immediately outline what would be needed for it to make such a decision to go for a majority stake in the Hong Kong-based video streamer. But it did highlight its interest in Asia. “This investment is a renewed testimony to Canal+’s commitment to develop Asia as one of the group’s growth engines and underlines Canal+’s confidence in Viu and its team.”

Canal+ first bought into Viu, led by CEO Janice Lee, in a June 2023 deal with Hong Kong telecom powerhouse PCCW Group, taking a 26.1 percent stake. As part of that deal, Canal+ secured the option of paying an additional sum to increase its stake to a 51 percent majority. 

Launched in 2015 with backing from PCCW, Viu’s video service offers both advertising and subscription-supported options in 16 territories in Asia, the Middle East and South Africa. When it unveiled the Canal+ deal last year, he company said it had more than 66 million monthly active users and 12 million paid subscribers, the bulk of which is believed to be based in Asia. Viu has specialized in licensing and producing original Korean content, but it also creates original content in Southeast Asian territories including Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.  

Canal+ has 26.4 million subscribers worldwide, including 17.1 million in Europe, 8.1 million in Africa and 1.2 million in the Asia-Pacific region. Beyond its investment in Viu, it is also the largest shareholder in African pay-TV giant MultiChoice and in Viaplay, the Scandinavian pay-TV and streaming company. Earlier this year, it also took a stake in leading Senegalese production company Marodi TV.

Totally Spies! Live-Action Series In The Works At Amazon

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A live-action TV series based on the cult classic French cartoon “Totally Spies!” is in development at Amazon with Will Ferrell as executive producer.

Described as a YA adaptation of the long-running Banijay Kids animated show of the same name, the new “Totally Spies!” will follow iconic best friends Clover, Alex and Sam as they navigate saving the world as international spies, while trying to survive the ups and downs of first year college life.

No writer or talent is currently attached to the potential “Totally Spies!” series, which is a collaboration between Amazon MGM Studios and Banijay Kids & Family, shepherded by Amazon’s head of Pan-English original series Rola Bauer.

Executive producing the project alongside Ferrell, under their Gloria Sanchez Productions banner, are Jessica Elbaum and Alix Taylor. Banijay Kids & Family CEO Benoît Di Sabatino is executive producer for the studio.

Created by Vincent Chalvon-Demersay and David Michel, the original “Totally Spies!” has aired nearly 200 episodes since debuting in 2001 and spawned a prequel film, “Totally Spies! The Movie,” and a spinoff series, “The Amazing Spiez!” The show recently premiered its seventh season in France and will air in the U.S. on Cartoon Network later this year. “Totally Spies!” is currently streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video.

“’Totally Spies!’ is a huge success for Banijay Kids & Family, having been translated in 60 languages and sold to more than 220 territories,” Di Sabatino said. “With a social media base of 3 million, the series continues to thrive in its animation form with the recently launched 7th season. Rola Bauer approached me for a live-action adaptation, and we were thrilled to partner with Amazon MGM Studios. With her, Ludovic Attal, and Punit Matoo’s support, we are honoured to join such a stronghold of female-focused producers in Gloria Sanchez Productions to produce for Prime Video.”

“Will, Alix and I are thrilled to be joining our partners at Amazon and Banijay to bring ‘Totally Spies!’ to life as a live-action show,” Gloria Sanchez president Elbaum said. “Gloria Sanchez was originally founded to tell stories about complicated characters and empower female voices and storytellers. As longtime fans of the animated show, we couldn’t think of a story more fitting to our ethos. The themes of girl-power, never sacrificing friendship, fun, or your true self to be successful resonated with us then, and feel ripe to revisit now.”

Sanlam To Buy 60% Of MultiChoice's Insurance Business

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Sanlam will buy a 60% stake in MultiChoice's insurance business for R1.2bn in cash up front and a potential performance-based earn-out of up to R1.5bn, the groups said on Tuesday.

MultiChoice, Africa's biggest pay-TV company, said while its insurance business has demonstrated substantial growth in South Africa, its ambition to expand locally and in Africa “requires a step-up in resources, expertise and technology”.

“Sanlam's extensive presence and expertise in the African continent, coupled with its track record of success in insurance ventures with non-insurers, positions it strongly for a strategic venture with MultiChoice,” the companies said in a joint statement.

The potential cash earn-out payment is contingent upon the total gross written premium generated by the insurance business for the year ending December 31 2026, they added.

A pre-acquisition dividend of R59m will also be declared by MultiChoice's insurance business.

Shares in Sanlam were up nearly 5% up on Tuesday morning, while MultiChoice inched up 0.36%.

MultiChoice will retain a 40% interest in the insurance business and 40% in the broader commercial venture with Sanlam.

The deal gives Sanlam an opportunity to further expand its insurance and financial services business in Africa, the companies said. Opportunities outside South Africa will be facilitated through its SanlamAllianz business.

MultiChoice has a subscriber base of 21-million households in 50 African countries, while Sanlam operates in 31 countries, including eight of the top 10 largest African economies.

BENOIT. Wrestling With The Horror That Destroyed A Family And Crippled A Sport (PDF)

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Featuring the Canadian WWE wrestler Chris Benoit. Over a 3 day period ending on June 24, 2007, Benoit killed his wife Nancy, strangled his 7yr. old son, and subsequently hanged himself. The personal and the public remifications; the fallout for "sports entertainment" and sports in general; the role the media has played and whether professional wrestling as we know it will survive the scrutiny of fans and lawmakers alike - in this book four of the industry's most respected commentators weigh in on the horrific murder-suicide that outraged the nation, making wrestling's macho but fake cartoon world all too vulnerable and chillingly real.

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Becoming Batman The Possibility Of A Superhero (PDF)

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Battling bad guys. High-tech hideouts. The gratitude of the masses. Who at some point in their life hasn't dreamed of being a superhero? Impossible, right? Or is it? Possessing no supernatural powers, Batman is the most realistic of all the superheroes. His feats are achieved through rigorous training and mental discipline, and with the aid of fantastic gadgets. Drawing on his training as a neuroscientist, kinesiologist, and martial artist, E. Paul Zehr explores the question: Could a mortal ever become Batman? Zehr discusses the physical training necessary to maintain bad-guy-fighting readiness while relating the science underlying this process, from strength conditioning to the cognitive changes a person would endure in undertaking such a regimen. In probing what a real-life Batman could achieve, Zehr considers the level of punishment a consummately fit and trained person could handle, how hard and fast such a person could punch and kick, and the number of adversaries [...]that individual could dispatch. He also tells us what it would be like to fight while wearing a batsuit and the amount of food we'd need to consume each day to maintain vigilance as Gotham City's guardian. A fun foray of escapism grounded in sound science, Becoming Batman provides the background for attaining the realizable -- though extreme -- level of human performance that would allow you to be a superhero.

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Disney TV Announces New ‘Prep & Landing,’ ‘Moon Girl’ Shorts, ‘Kindergarten: The Musical,’ ‘Big City Greens’ S5 & Much More

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Today, during the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Disney Branded Television (DBT) announced a lineup of new animated projects and shared first looks from its preschool and kids slate. The announcements were made by Ayo Davis, President of Disney Branded Television, alongside DBT animation leaders Meredith Roberts, EVP of Disney Television Animation; Alyssa Sapire, SVP of Development, Series and Strategy, Disney Junior; and Orion Ross, VP, International Animation.

Additionally, Disney Television Animation commemorated its illustrious 40-year anniversary at the festival with a special panel highlighting the studio’s dominance in kids’ animation over four decades — with beloved titles like Phineas and Ferb, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Monsters at Work, The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, Sofia the First and more — as well as current and future hits ranging from Kiff to Big City Greens, ZOMBIES: The Re-Animated Series, Hamster & Gretel and StuGo.

Disney Junior, Disney Television Animation and International Animation teams will feature several additional panels throughout the week, including one that highlights the power of storytelling through music and features Disney Junior’s Ariel, Kindergarten: The Musical, ZOMBIES: The Re-Animated Series, Kiff and Big City Greens, as well as a panel for the upcoming global series The Doomies.

“Disney Branded Television is proud of our four-decade legacy of creating magical and visually stunning animation beloved by young audiences around the world,” said Davis. “It’s a momentous year at Annecy, as we celebrate our studio’s milestone anniversary and showcase some of our most exciting new projects and creative talent that are ushering us into a new era of storytelling.”

Among the new Disney Junior and Disney Television Animation titles and first looks announced at Annecy are the following:

New Series & Specials

Prep & Landing: The Snowball Protocol (22-minute special)

Produced by: Disney Television Animation

Executive Producers: Kevin Deters and Stevie Wermers-Skelton

Story Editor/Co-Producer: Colleen Evanson

Producer: Melissa Kurtz

Director: Shane Zalvin

Writer: Hilary Helding

In this new installment of the Emmy-winning holiday specials, the high-tech team of elves from the elite unit known as Prep and Landing is back! When their holiday missions go awry, Wayne thinks he is in BIG trouble with Santa, which opens a vault of merry mishaps from the past. It’s going to be hard to dig their way out of the snowbank this time in Prep & Landing: The Snowball Protocol. The special will debut next year.

Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: Moon Girl’s Lab (Shorts)

Produced by: Disney Television Animation

Executive Producers: Laurence Fishburne, Helen Sugland and Steve Loter

Co-Executive Producers: Rodney Clouden and Pilar Flynn

Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: Moon Girl’s Lab is a new musical S.T.E.M.-focused short-form series in which Moon Girl is dropping knowledge and dropping bars as she uses the power of science to take down some serious baddies. Each of the eight shorts will feature a new song by Grammy Award winner Raphael Saadiq, who serves as executive music producer on the series, and a science theme, including adaptations, states of matter, plants, force and motion, light, echolocation and coding.

The shorts will premiere Friday, June 28, on Disney Channel and Disney Channel YouTube. All eight shorts will be available on Disney+ the same day.

SuperKitties: Sup-Purr Adventures (Shorts)

Produced by: Sony Pictures Television – Kids in association with Disney Junior

Creator: Paula Rosenthal

Executive Producers: Sarah Mullervy, Kirk Van Wormer and Audu Paden

Supervising Producer: Bryan Korn

SuperKitties: Su-Purr Adventures is a new short-form series inspired by 2023’s No. 1 new preschool series, SuperKitties. It features Bitsy, Ginny, Sparks and Buddy as they showcase their superhero skills and kitty kindness that they use to work together as a team to make their town of Kittydale a great place to live.

The shorts will premiere Wednesday, August 7, on Disney Junior and Disney Channel and next day, Thursday, Aug. 8, on Disney+ and Disney Junior YouTube.

Series Renewal 

Big City Greens (Season 5)

Produced by: Disney Television Animation

Creators/Executive Producers: Chris and Shane Houghton

Executive Producer: Anna O’Brian

Co-Executive Producer: Stephen Sandoval

Producer: Michael Coughlin

Greenlit for a fifth season today, Big City Greens was the No. 2 most-watched kids animated series of 2023, with more than 2 billion hours watched across linear and streaming since it debuted in 2018.

The series follows the offbeat adventures of 10-year-old Cricket Green (voiced by Chris Houghton), a mischievous and optimistic country boy who moved to the big city with his wildly out-of-place family. The show is heavily influenced by the brothers’ childhood growing up in St. Johns, Michigan, a small rural town north of Lansing, also known as the mint capital of the world. Many of the characters are inspired by real-life family members and childhood townsfolk.

This summer also marks the premiere of Big City Greens the Movie: Spacecation, which will be screened at Annecy as part of the prestigious Le Pâquier lawn screening series. Additionally, Anna O’Brian, director of the movie, has joined the series for season five as executive producer.

First Look

Disney Junior’s Ariel

Produced by: Wild Canary in association with Disney Junior

Executive Producer: Lynne Southerland

An exclusive first-look clip from the highly anticipated new series Disney Junior’s Ariel was released today.

Inspired by the beloved story of The Little Mermaid, the series debuts Thursday, June 27, on Disney Junior in the U.S. with an initial batch of eight episodes available on Disney+ the following day, Friday, June 28.

The series follows 8-year-old mermaid princess Ariel as she and her friends embark on fun-filled, action-packed underwater adventures throughout their Caribbean-inspired fairy tale kingdom of Atlantica and beyond.

Kindergarten: The Musical

Produced by: Oddbot Entertainment in association with Disney Junior

Creators: Michelle Lewis and Charlton Pettus

Executive Producers: Tom Warburton, Michelle Lewis, Kay Hanley, Charlton Pettus and Dan Petty

Co-Executive Producer/Story Editor: Laurie Israel

The main title theme song — performed by Grammy Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated actress and singer Eva Noblezada (The Great Gatsby) — and key art for Disney Junior’s upcoming new series Kindergarten: The Musical was also released today.

The series follows five-year-old Berti, who, along with her new friends, is navigating all the exciting and emotional experiences that come with starting school for the very first time. Taking place in a kindergarten classroom at Porter Elementary, the series features fantastical Broadway-style song and dance numbers that help kids express their big feelings and provide a peek into their incredible imaginations. The series is set to debut on Disney Junior and Disney+ later this year.

StuGo

Produced by: Titmouse in association with Disney Channel

Creator/Executive Producer: Ryan Gillis

Co-Executive Producer: Sunil Hall

Story Editor: Craig Lewis

The main title theme song for StuGo was also released today. The series is set to premiere this fall on Disney Channel and Disney+.

The series follows six overambitious middle schoolers tricked into attending a fake academic summer camp by a mad scientist. Now they’re stuck for three months on a wild tropical island with mind-reading manatees, giant fighting fungi and fashion-forward mutants ― less academia than they’d hoped for but a lot more adventure.

The Doomies

Produced by: Xilam in association with Disney+

Co-Creator/Director: Andrés Fernandez

Co-Creator/Head Writer: Henry Gifford

Co-Creator/Art Director: Rémi Zaarour

An exclusive first look of Disney’s new spooky comedy animated series, The Doomies, was released today.

The chilling series follows best friends Bobby and Romy, who mistakenly open a gateway to the underworld and turn their sleepy coastal town into a hotspot for terrifying creatures of doom. As they try to cover up their mess, they get roped into an epic monster mystery, which will see them battle both literal and inner demons.

Shari Redstone, Paramount End Talks With Skydance

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After months of negotiations, Paramount‘s controlling shareholder Shari Redstone has broken off merger talks with David Ellison‘s Skydance, according to the WSJ.

The two sides have been deep in discussions during and after a one-month exclusive negotiating period in April and Redstone at one point had favored the deal, which would have paid her a premium, and kept the businesses together, at least initially. The transaction was for Skydance to acquire Redstone’s family holding company NAI, which controls Paramount, and then see Par and Skydance merge.

As of this weekend talks were intense but there were a few major sticking points, one said to be over which party party would assume legal liabilities in the case of shareholders lawsuits.

Paramount Global stockholders vocally disliked the deal from the start and threatened to sue. Skydance, backed by Larry Ellison and Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital, revised the deal several times to sweetened the pot for them, but they still weren’t enamored.

Meanwhile, a few other bidders had emerged to acquire Shari Redstone’s controlling stake in a deal that would be a change of control of the publicly traded company, but not a merger. Producer Steven Paul put together a group of deep-pocketed investors and is interested. And former Universal chief Edgar Bronfman, Jr., backed by Bain Capital, is also looking at a deal.

Rogers Communications Creates Content Partnership With NBCUniversal For Bravo And Warner Bros. Discovery For Factual Entertainment

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Rogers Communications has agreed to bring content from NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery to streaming platforms in Canada.

The Canadian telecommunications company said Monday that it has penned multi-year deals with the two U.S.-based mass media and entertainment companies

Starting in September, Rogers will Launch NBCUniversal's Bravo channel in the country and will become the English-language television content rights holder in Canada.

A few months later in January, Rogers will be the distribute Warner Bros. Discovery's U.S. lifestyle and factual brands, including HGTV and The Food Network.

Rogers said it will work with Canadian distributors to make the content widely available, and that it will increase its investment in original Canadian content and collaborate with Canadian independent producers.

The Death Of WCW Explained

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Really, the answer is Jamie Kellner. He was the one who made the call to pull the plug and kill the promotion. But, really, Kellner only made that call because WCW was losing so much money. If it was profitable, there’s a chance he never would have closed its doors. 

And why wasn’t it making money? Well, because Vince Russo made lots and lots of bad decisions. He took a company that turned a profit of $30 million dollars, and made it one that lost over $60 million dollars. 

But, Russo was only there to fix the mess that Bischoff had put the company in. Russo is an easy scapegoat, but Bischoff’s refusal to look past Hogan is a huge contributing factor to the death of WCW.

Hogan had a shelf life, and Bischoff – and Hogan – couldn’t see that. And giving Hogan creative control from the get go did lead to a lot of issues on what were supposed to be big shows.

He also spent big on contracts.

Contracts that were so big that when WWF bought WCW, they didn’t pick up a lot of the TimeWarner contracts for the likes of Hogan, Hall, Nash, Goldberg etc because it would have upset their own pay structure in the WWF.

But perhaps the person who killed WCW was the man who created it in the first place.

A lot of WCW’s problems can be traced back to Ted Turner’s decision to merge with Time Warner in 1995.

If Turner hadn’t made that merger, they wouldn’t have been involved in the AOL merger of 2000 which wouldn’t have brought in Jamie Kellner who pulled the trigger on the Death of WCW

Turner lost a lot of power after the TimeWarner merger, and even more from the AOL one.

Eric Bischoff even argues that once Turner lost his power after the TimeWarner merger, he no longer was able to have Eric’s back and sign off on his big money spending, and he had other people to answer to who didn’t like the way he spent money, like giving wrestlers big contracts.

You could make the argument for any one of these people being the ultimate reason for the downfall of WCW, but in actuality, it was all of them.