BBC Four and CBBC to end as audiences ‘watch streaming shows instead’

Manori Ravindran International EditorSkyShowtime — the joint venture between Comcast and Paramount Global — has unveiled key hires for the European streaming service, including its head of programming.BBC Select executive Jon Farrar has been named head of programming, Variety can reveal. The executive joins from BBC Studios, where he led the direct-to-consumer programming strategy in his dual role as global VOD director and editor-in-chief of North American SVOD service BBC Select.Farrar was also part of the team that developed BritBox, the streaming joint venture between BBC Studios and ITV.Reporting into SkyShowtime CEO Monty Sarhan, Farrar will be responsible for programming strategy, overseeing the platform’s pipeline of studio content, and building a programming team across SkyShowtime’s 20 markets to develop original and local content.

This year’s line-up includes Scotland’s Strongest Man, Tom Stoltman, as well as actor Damian LewisRunning since 2006, Soccer Aid is an annual charity event that has raised over £38 million for UNICEF UK so far, fundraising money via ticket sales and donations from the public. It was first begun by Robbie Williams and involves a charity football match played by celebrity volunteers. This year will mark the 11th charity match, which will focus on the crisis in Ukraine and specifically the 7.

Sky Ferreira made her live comeback this week – watch her debut a brand new song called ‘Innocent Kind’ below.The singer returned last month with new single ‘Don’t Forget’, her first new music since 2019’s ‘Downhill Lullaby’ and latest teaser of second album ‘Masochism’, which has been promised for nearly a decade.On Thursday evening (June 9), she played the NOS Primavera Sound festival in Porto, Portugal debuting ‘Don’t Forget’ live as well as a new unreleased track.According to the show’s Setlist.fm listing, Ferreira started her set 20 minutes late and subsequently had to cut the set short.She did manage to play ‘Don’t Forget’ and ‘Innocent Kind’ in that time though, finding space for highlights from 2013 debut album ‘Night Time, My Time’ too.Watch footage below.The follow-up to Ferreira’s 2013 debut, ‘Night Time, My Time’, was first scheduled for release in 2015, and has been pushed back multiple times since. Last October, she said a release date for the album had been confirmed, teasing its arrival this March.

Taylor Hill is enjoying a picturesque vacation with fiance Daniel Fryer!

This year’s Wimbledon tennis tournament will see the end of an era. No, Roger Federer has not announced he will be zipping up his racquet – instead, the BBC’s veteran presenter Sue Barker has confirmed she will be hanging up her microphone after 30 years. 

A unique moment happened on America’s Got Talent tonight – Howie Mandel gave his Golden Buzzer to an audience member!

EXCLUSIVE: The BBC’s digital-first transformation/slimdown is gathering pace and the latest team to be affected is the Children’s & Education department’s digital unit, coming a few weeks after the shock announcement that CBBC linear channel will move online.

If it feels like the sheer volume of noteworthy television has been overwhelming so far this year, that trend continues going into the summer months. Both new and returning shows are given an equal spotlight, with fan anticipation for series such as “The Umbrella Academy,” “The Boys,” and “Westworld” at all-time highs considering the long wait in between seasons.

BBC to be “digital-first”.The corporation has confirmed that the two channels will stop airing in no less than three years’ time, with content continuing to be produced for its streaming service BBC iPlayer.As part of the shake-up, the BBC’s news channels will be merged into one, while Radio 4 Extra will move off the airwaves and exclusively to BBC Sounds.The BBC said the changes are aimed at “creating a modern, digital-led and streamlined organisation that drives the most value from the licence fee and delivers more for audiences”.The changes will lead to cuts of £200million per year, with job losses of up to 1,000 expected over the next few years.“This is our moment to build a digital-first BBC. Something genuinely new, a Reithian organisation for the digital age, a positive force for the UK and the world,” said director-general Tim Davie.“Independent, impartial, constantly innovating and serving all.

Disney Plus.  He stressed, however, the changes won’t come in for at least another three years. Speaking to BBC staff on Thursday, Davie said: ‘This is our moment to build a digital-first BBC.

The BBC has announced it will be bringing some major changes after revealing BBC Four and CBBC will no longer be TV channels.

The BBC has announced it will axe up to 1,000 employees across the next few years while also stopping the broadcast of smaller, but much-loved, linear channels such as children’s channel CBBC and BBC Four. The move comes as director general Tim Davie laid out initial plans as to how the BBC will save around £1.5B ($2B) across the next few years as a result of a government-enforced license fee freeze across the next two years.

The UK government has officially launched the mid-term Charter Review into the BBC, with a focus on whether the corporation is representing people from working class backgrounds.

Sky Ferreira has finally returned...and there's a fire on her street.