Deadline Launches Its Sound & Screen: Television Streaming Site

William Earl Studio71, a digital content firm that works with social media creators, is set to launch two video game-oriented free streaming channels on Amazon’s Freevee platform. The Gameplay Networks outlets will largely revolve around the company’s gaming-focused creators with an emphasis on mega-popular platforms such as Minecraft and Roblox gameplay, reviews and tutorials. “Today, gaming content represents one of the top entertainment verticals, and we are proud to launch on Amazon Freevee,” said Adam Boorstin, co-CEO of Studio71. “We work with some of the top gamers in the world, and we look forward to bringing their content to connected TVs alongside legacy entertainment brands on Amazon Freevee.”

New York Post was told by media that $50 million wouldn’t be enough to launch a news site that would be able to reach 100 million monthly viewers, the goal put forward by The Messenger’s No. 2 exec Richard Beckman. And judging by the reaction from those who gave the site a look today, it’s nothing but bad news for Finkelstein.Peter Kafka, host of Recode Media, noted some of the headlines on Messenger for its launch Monday.

Two-dozen TV, film and animation companies have won funding from the BFI and UK government’s latest £2.1M ($2.6M) Global Screen Fund payout.

K.J. Yossman The U.K.’s National Film and Television School (NFTS) has launched a scholarship in memory of Channel 4 publicist Lesley Land. Land, a highly regarded publicist who worked for Channel 4, died unexpectedly last December at the age of 41. She was honored during the in memoriam segment at Sunday night’s BAFTA TV awards. Her parents Anita and Brook Land have now joined together with Channel 4 and NFTS to create the Lesley Land Scholarship, which will enable participants to study for two years on the school’s MA course in marketing, distribution and sales. The Lands will fund the scholarship, which will support the course tuition fees.

The Writers Guild of America has established a site on its Strike Hub where members can and must report strike breakers. Those who fail to report suspected “scabs” can face discipline themselves. After the last writers’ strike – a 100-day walkout in 2007-08 – a dozen members were brought up on trial for strike breaking, three of whom were found guilty. The current strike is now in its eleventh day.

Knowing producer Bill Lawrence has plenty of benefits, including access to his address book full of connections. That’s according to composer Tom Howe, who worked with Marcus Mumford and Ben Gibbard on the themes songs for two of Lawrence’s shows, Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso and Shrinking, respectively.

The pandemic complicated production on Season 1 of Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, so composer Siddhartha Khosla was elated to be able to assemble musicians to create his dream theme song for Season 2.

David Johansen wasn’t an easy sell on a documentary about his music, even from director Martin Scorsese. Johansen says it was his family that talked him into letting Scorsese film his performance for the documentary Personality Crisis: One Night Only.

In Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, the actor lets Davis Guggenheim inside his daily life with Parkinson’s disease. It represents the first time in the documentary space for composer John Powell, who said studying the way Fox moves led him to score the movie like a musical.

Sometimes fear can be just as strong a motivator as love. That was the case for Showtime’s George & Tammy music producer and engineer Rachael Moore.

The score for Apple TV+’s Bad Sisters features a collaboration between Tim Phillips and P.J. Harvey. Phillips recalled inventing a new instrument with Harvey so she could record most of her work ahead of her album and book tour.

Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard not only reunited all of the Next Generation crew, but also gave them a fitting sendoff for which fans have been waiting since the 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis. It wasn’t easy for anyone, including composer Stephen Barton.

The title theme from The White Lotus has become iconic, but composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer said he took a very experimental approach to crafting the music for the HBO series.

Yellowstone wouldn’t be complete without the sweeping orchestral sounds that open each episode. And naturally, it was all Taylor Sheridan’s idea to make the title sequences sound big and dramatic, said composer Brian Tyler, who joined his colleague Breton Vivian at Deadline’s Sound & Screen event that focused on the big of both the Paramount Network drama and the Paramount+ prequel 1923.

When it came to composing a grandiose score for Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, composer Bear McCreary knew he needed to write 17 distinct themes. “This show really needed 17 different ideas to carry it through it,” he said during a panel at Deadline’s Sound & Screen awards-season event.

Up Here composer Christophe Beck said the Hulu musical series’ score was intended to stand out from the musical numbers. Beck is an old college friend of co-writer Robert Lopez and already collaborated with Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez on the Frozen films.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel composers Thomas Mizer and Curtis Moore are used to being kept on their toes. So, when creator Amy Sherman-Palladino approached them about writing a few musical numbers for a variety act, which would culminate in a tune about the neighborhood trash man for Season 5, the composers knew they’d “figure it out.”

The latest edition of Deadline’s Sound & Screen Television gets underway Tuesday, when we will shine a spotlight on the musicians and their scores for some of this year’s most striking TV offerings. We know how integral music is when it comes to creating the mood of a project, and that’s why we’re delighted to be back in UCLA’s Royce Hall where we can put the music and its composers front and center — with the help of a 50-piece orchestra and panel conversations with the artists behind the work.

Greatest Hits Radio has revealed the Top 300 most-streamed songs by UK artists from the 1970s, 80s and 90s. 

Amazon Studios is launching Amazon MGM Studios Distribution.