Amazon And DirecTV Reach Multi-Year Deal For ‘Thursday Night Football’ Carriage In Sports Bars, Hotels, Casinos And Other Sites

Canadian distributor Sphere Film has signed a multi-picture deal with A24 under which it will handle the release of nine of its titles in Canada.

Manori Ravindran International Editor Canada’s Sphere Films has signed a multi-picture deal with A24 that will cover nine of the U.S. studio’s films in the Canadian market. Under the deal, Sphere Films will theatrically release pics including Charlotte Wells’ Cannes breakout “Aftersun,” which is currently screening as part of TIFF, and Ari Aster’s “Disappointment Blvd.” starring Joaquin Phoenix. The latter is believed to be A24’s biggest production to date. The A24 deal comes off the back of Sphere Films’ acquisition of MK2 Mile End in April. Charles Tremblay, former boss of MK2 Mile End and now the president of Sphere Films, said: “We felt that by joining a larger media company like Sphere that would help our chances of being a larger distributor than on our own.”

A new 30-minute NFL comedy show will air every Wednesday on Prime Video, with actor, comedian, writer, and Saturday Night Live alum Taran Killam hosting.

A tribute from across the pond. The NFL will reportedly honor the late Queen Elizabeth II with a moment of silence during the league’s season opener.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Amazon will bow a new laugh lead-in for its exclusive “Thursday Night Football” NFL games package, enlisting “Saturday Night Live” alum Taran Killam as the host of “The NFL Pile On” — the league’s first official comedy show. “The NFL Pile On” will premiere Sept. 14 at 7 p.m. ET on Prime Video, airing each Wednesday throughout the NFL season one day before Amazon’s “Thursday Night Football” coverage. In the half-hour show, Killam will riff on “funny and unexpected moments” from the across the NFL the week prior, from mic’d up players during pregame warmups to postgame press conference zingers, and from epic fumbles to off-the-field blunders — according to Amazon, “everything from studio shows, social media and fashion faux pas will be fair game.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor NBC has new teams leading both “Sunday Night Football” and “Football Night in America.” And it will serve up new logos for both shows as well. For 16 years, viewers of both football broadcasts have seen their titles arranged in a “shield” design. This season, the programs are getting a new look, with title logos that can be displayed more readily no matter the venue on which each program is being watched. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all design direction. It’s far more nimble and less limiting than what a metallic shield was able to offer,” says Mark Levy, the NBC Sports senior vice president of original productions and creative who oversees the design of the division’s programming. “It just offers a flexibility that allos designers and animators a level of creativity” they didn’t have in the past.

dropping weekly, the premiere of a highly anticipated prequel series, plus plenty of movies and TV shows, new and old alike, arriving this month.Amazon's $465 million fantasy series,, takes fans thousands of years into Middle Earth's past. kicks off September 15 and will stream exclusively on Prime Video for the 2022 NFL season.Access to Prime Video is a perk included in an Amazon Prime membership, available for $15 monthly or $140 for the year. If you aren't already subscribed or just want access to the Prime Video library, a membership to Prime Video is available for $9 monthly.

Naman Ramachandran Indian actor Rasika Dugal is on a roll, with season 2 of Emmy-winning Netflix series “Delhi Crime” streaming, season 3 of Amazon Prime Video series “Mirzapur” filming and several other series and films in the works. Dugal describes season 2 of “Delhi Crime” as “very different from season 1, but still very sensitively and beautifully told,” adding that the series is minutely detailed. While the first season revolved around an horrific 2012 rape case, which caught the attention of the world, the second season follows multiple murders, which are similarly done, and the police investigates.

EXCLUSIVE: Today at the Star Trek convention The 56-Year Mission: Las Vegas put on by Creation Entertainment, the Gene Roddenberry Estate and and the cloud graphics company Otoy Inc. offered Trekkies a first look at the results of a year of production work on the Roddenberry Archive — unveiling the first interactive, life-sized recreations of the famed spacecraft known as the Starship Enterprise. 1:1 scale Enterprise models and sets have been recreated according to Star Trek canon, to visualize the history of Star Trek in new holographic mediums, so that future generations can experience franchise creator Roddenberry’s legacy with the highest levels of immersion and historical fidelity.

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros is going all in on The Batman director Matt Reeves and his 6th & Idaho production company. He has become the first filmmaker given an overall first look film deal since Warner Bros Pictures Group Co-Chairs/CEOs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy were hired by Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav to steer the film division. In addition, Reeves has re-upped with the Warner Bros. Television Group and Chairman Channing Dungey, where he is also working on The Batman spinoff series The Penguin with Colin Farrell.

The Hollywood Reporter. Endeavor PR consulted the Big Ten on the agreement.“The Big Ten Conference media rights agreements are more than just dollars and deals.

Nielsen and Amazon have signed a three-year agreement to measure Prime Video’s exclusive NFL “Thursday Night Football” beginning this fall.The deal marks the first time a streaming service will have one of its live programs measured as part of Nielsen’s National TV measurement service.“Thursday Night Football” will be “processed” like other NFL agains, per Nielsen, using the company’s panel, allowing for the same metrics to be reported across all other national networks, continued trending, and comparability, Nielsen said in a release.“Nielsen is the long-time leader in the measurement space, providing gold-standard currency to the media industry and we’re thrilled that Amazon recognizes that and is working with us to bring a streaming service into our National TV measurement for the first time ever,” Deirdre Thomas, managing director, U.S. Audience Measurement Product Sales, Nielsen, said in a statement.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorThe NFL’s “Thursday Night Football” may be moving to Amazon, but it’s going to be measured as if it were still playing on traditional TV.Nielsen and Amazon have struck a three-year deal to measure Prime Video’s new season of “Thursday Night Football” and stack it up against TV programs with national audiences tabulated by the media-measurement giant. The pact comes as many of the nation’s big media companies have vociferously expressed disapproval of Nielsen’s efforts in the streaming era and tried to prod advertisers to consider other forms of audience measurement.Nielsen said the agreement marks the first time a streaming service will have one of its live programs measured as part of the company’s measurement of national TV audiences.

Nielsen and Amazon have reached a landmark deal for measuring the viewership of Thursday Night Football, which begins an unprecedented run next month as a streaming exclusive on Prime Video.

Shudder — AMC’s streamer for horror, thriller and the supernatural — has inked a deal with The Boulet Brothers to expand their Dragula franchise with a new season, a new spinoff series and an additional special to air in the next year.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorCarrie Underwood doesn’t have to open NBC Sports’ “Sunday Night Football” all by herself.The show, one of TV’s most-watched programs each year, hopes to take on new relevancy this season by incorporating scenes from each week’s host city and activity from the stadium in the opening segment starring Carrie Underwood.Fans have seen the famous singer belting out “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night” for years. NBC hopes dedicating a film crew to capturing the action around the game on the day it’s played will add a boost to the proceedings and get fans more engaged.“This season, with stadiums full again, we wanted to get that sense of reality and optimism and energy – and the more authentic connection that comes with that,” says Tripp Dixon, creative director for the show open for each of the past 10 years.

EXCLUSIVE: PodcastOne, a leading podcast platform and a subsidiary of LiveOne, has entered into a multi-year agreement with Kevin Connolly’s boutique media network ActionPark Media (APM).