Fremantle Taps Manuel Marti as Head of Scripted Development, Latin America

MADRID —  In news that will move waves in the Spanish-speaking world, international actor, Latin Grammy and Billboard winning recording artist Miguel Bosé looks set to become the subject of a bioseries from Shine Iberia, Elefantec Global and Legacy Rock Entertainment.

By Erik Pedersen

Smithsonian Channel takes US rights to ‘Tower of London’ docuseries

“The only absolute in history is change,” said the Victorian historian Lord Acton. He might have been talking about the streaming platforms’ current international strategies. Since they launched internationally, Netflix and Amazon’s focus and priorities have been in constant evolution. Current pressures – evolving demographies, new regulation, new competition, still untapped growth  – mean that re-engineering won’t stop any time soon.

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By Greg Evans

The co-creator of the hit “Degrassi” television series, Christopher “Kit” Hood, has died.

MIAMI — During his November 2019 concert in front of 45,000 fans in his hometown of Medellín, Colombia, J Balvin did something he never had before: He gave a political speech.“I understand the situation the youth in this country are going through,” said Balvin, speaking for over three minutes to the crowd at Atanasio Girardot Stadium. “If they’re marching, it’s because something is not right.”The show coincided with a week of national strikes in the country.

Aiming to reduce its waste and emissions, London-based “Idol” producer-distributor Fremantle has formed a partnership with Albert, a collaborative industry-backed project aimed at tackling the environmental impact of the entertainment sector. 

By Denise Petski

Offering a snapshot of the new realities in Latin America’s Pay TV market, Buenos Aires-based data and marketing research firm Business Bureau (BB) has published a map of both the Pay TV and OTT landscape in Latin America for the first time.

By Dade Hayes

Before turning “Hamilton” and “In the Heights” into musical phenomenons, Lin-Manuel Miranda could have been found on stage, spouting off-the-cuff rhymes with his improv group, “Freestyle Love Supreme.”

Unscripted TV production company Magical Elves has made two key changes to its executive team, bringing on board veteran television producer and development exec Joel Zimmer as executive vice president of development, and promoting longtime Elves casting exec Samantha Hanks to executive vice president of casting and talent relations.

By Denise Petski

Global distributors group Cisneros Media Distribution has announced two telenovelas to be made available on Amazon Prime Video for Latin America, “Amore Secreto” and “Gata Salvaje,” as well as three Mobius.Lab-produced titles, “Cursed Bloodlines,” “Mysterious Earth” and “Super Genios.”

MIAMI — In a big, bold affirmation of the value of movies in a new TV world, WarnerMedia’s Turner Latin America, one of Latin America’s biggest pay TV operators, is launching Particular Crowd,  a film production-acquisition company with a 90 English-language movie slate for 2020.

Marta Kauffman, co-creator of the iconic show Friends, has reportedly said to Vulture during an interview that the makers of the famous sitcom will never do a scripted reunion. According to Vulture, the co-creator of the show Friends said that she is in for the show's reunion is it is meant to be a non-scripted one.

MIAMI — Televisa plans to launch a linear Univision-branded channel across Latin America later this year.