Kevin Mayer Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Disney has taken another big step toward realigning its India strategy. The company has signed a non-binding term sheet with Reliance Industries that would see the two merge their Indian operations, the completion of which would create one of India’s biggest entertainment empires. The news was first reported by The Economic Times.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Moonbug Entertainment, the kids’ entertainment powerhouse behind the hit “CoComelon” franchise, is bringing on board its first chief marketing officer: Peter Stone, a nine-year veteran of Netflix. In the new role, Stone will be responsible for Moonbug’s global marketing strategy, as well as the evolution and growth of its brands. He will be based in Moonbug’s London office and starts Dec.

Streaming‘s challenging economics will make industry consolidation “inevitable,” in the view of Candle Media Co-CEO Kevin Mayer, but Big Tech and Hollywood are likely to remain in separate camps.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief With the global entertainment industry still rocked by the impact of streaming, the pandemic – and Hollywood’s twin strikes – the APOS conference will next month examine disruption and the responses to it from a senior executive Asian perspective. After being held virtually during the COVID era and then last year making a stop in Singapore, the conference itself will return to Bali, Indonesia, and be held 26-28 Sept.

Media Partners Asia has announced the full line-up of speakers for its APOS Summit in Bali, which includes Canal+ Group’s Asia Pacific chief Manuel Rougeron, Bodhi Tree Systems director Uday Shankar and Amazon Prime Video head of international Kelly Day. 

Disney CEO Bob Iger shook up the entertainment industry and Wall Street last month when he declared to CNBC at Sun Valley that linear television may be non-core and that he’s looking for partners for ESPN as the company pivots to streaming.

S&P today affirmed its A- investment grade credit rating for Disney after CEO Bob Iger, in a recent interview with CNBC, injected a big dose of uncertainty into what the company may look like going forward.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Tom Staggs and Kevin Mayer, two former high-ranking Disney execs, are working for the Mouse House again — in a consulting capacity. The duo, who are the co-CEOs of media-rollup play Candle Media, have been retained by Disney to help analyze and develop strategic options for ESPN, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement. Staggs, formerly Disney’s chief operating officer, and Mayer, previously chairman of Disney’s Direct-to-Consumer and International and briefly CEO of TikTok, will work with Jimmy Pitaro, chairman, ESPN and Sports Content, on developing a plan for what Disney will do with ESPN going forward.

Bob Iger, with pressure mounting on multiple fronts, has turned to former top Disney executives Tom Staggs and Kevin Mayer, hiring them as consultants to the media giant as it defines its strategy.

TikTok and Candle Media have entered a strategic partnership wherein Candle Media’s business units will create custom creator-focused opportunities for the TikTok platform’s users.Chiefly, Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine (which Candle Media acquired in 2021) will help elevate underrepresented indie authors of the #BookTok community. Authors will be able to support the development of film, TV, and audio projects.“TikTok continues to experience explosive growth and has become a critical platform for storytelling and marketing,” said Kevin Mayer & Tom Staggs, Candle Media’s co-founders and co-CEOs.

Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs’ Candle Media has struck a partnership with TikTok, with an initial focus on Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine to uncover underrepresented independent authors and literary material from the #BookTok community.

EXCLUSIVE: Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs’ Candle Media has hired a UK development boss for its fledgling True Stories label.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Former ABC News president James Goldston is joining Candle Media, founded and led by ex-Disney execs Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, to head a new division focused on TV shows and movies based on true stories. Goldston will serve as president of the new division, which will produce scripted and nonscripted features and series “inspired by true stories,” according to Candle. Goldston spent 18 years at ABC News, including seven years as president, before exiting in 2021. overseeing all aspects of America’s number one news division, including #1 rated “Good Morning America” and “World News with David Muir.” He also led ABC News into the streaming era with a series of successful podcast and documentary projects for Hulu and Disney+, including “The Dropout,” produced by Rebecca Jarvis and her team, which became a successful podcast, documentary and Emmy-award winning scripted series for Hulu, and John’s Ridley’s “Let it Fall,” a duPont-Columbia Award-winning documentary on the LA riots. His teams have won five Edward R. Murrow Awards for Overall Excellence, and numerous other prestigious honors in journalism, including a Peabody, duPont-Columbia, and Emmy awards.

Former ABC News Chief James Goldston has joined Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs’ Candle Media to head up a new division focused on scripted and non-scripted features and series inspired by true stories. Goldston will serve as President of the new group. 

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has learned that Hello Sunshine is shuttering its kids and animation business as part of a strategic decision to focus Candle Media’s kids and animation efforts under Moonbug, the family production studio the corp snapped up for a near $3 billion in November 2021.  

Media vet and Emmy-nominated producer Evan Shapiro will keynote this year’s Mip TV in April.

Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment is selling a majority stake to Paris-based Mediawan, Deadline has confirmed, following news several months ago that the company was seeking a buyer.

Fauda creators Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff are attending the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa for the world premiere of the fourth season of the show. Since the first season started streaming on Netflix, the Israeli political thriller has built up a huge following in India, and also has a Hindi-language remake, produced by Applause Entertainment for local streamer SonyLiv. 

Jeff Zucker, who left WarnerMedia last February just before its merger with Discovery, is in discussions with RedBird Capital to lead a $1 billion sports investment fund backed by the private equity outfit.

EXCLUSIVE: The Hitman’s Bodyguard and Has Fallen outfit Millennium Media is partnering with Will Smith’s German film and TV distributor, Telepool, to co-develop three English-language features over the next three years. Millennium Media is set to produce with Telepool serving as executive producer.

The Oscar winning producer of 12 Years a Slave, The Departed and Moonlight and recent awards season movies like Blonde and She Said, is exploring deals with potential investors, including an outright sale.

Hello Sunshine has added two senior executives. Stefanie Markman is joining the Candle Media company as General Counsel and EVP, Business and Legal Affairs, and Wifreddy Chiang as EVP, Finance and Accounting.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Kevin Mayer says that the investment strategy at Candle Media, the hard-charging entertainment startup that he heads with Tom Staggs, is product of his career time at Disney and TikTok. While those two companies are behemoths and Candle Media a newcomer, the claim is not as outlandish as it seems. At Disney, Mayer was largely responsible the launch of the direct-to-consumer streaming businesses that became Disney+. And as Disney, Pixar and other group content was made exclusive and contained within a walled garden, it stoked demand for premium independently-made content. Candle Media sets its sights on becoming just such a supplier.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Online video is taking up the role of growth engine for the Asia Pacific video industry as free-TV in the region moves into long-term decline, says a new report. The video sector is forecast to remain robust this year, but recession could deal a blow to sector performance in 2023. Video sector revenues – defined as subscription fees and advertising generated by free TV, pay-TV and online video platforms – in 14 Asia-Pacific markets are forecast to will grow by 6.4% in the current year to reach $143 billion, according to Media Partners Asia.

José Andrés has joined TheGrill 2022 for a Spotlight Conversation about his work providing meals in crisis zones including Ukraine and Puerto Rico, as well as his recent foray into entertainment with an unscripted travel series, podcasts, and newsletter. Earlier this year, Andrés and his remarkable non-profit World Central Kitchen were the subject of the Emmy-nominated Ron Howard documentary “We Feed People.” He also launched his own production company José Andrés Media (JAM) with an upcoming Discovery+ series along with the podcasts “Longer Tables” and “Pressure Cooker. Other speakers just added to TheGrill conference taking place on October 11-12 in Los Angeles include actress-activist Jodie Sweetin, who will talk about Hollywood post-Roe; actress-podcaster Becca Tobin, who will talk about navigating between the screen and audible storytelling, and blockbuster producer Roy Lee (“Godzilla vs.

EXCLUSIVE: Candle Media-backed Spanish-language powerhouse Exile Content Studio has promoted Nando Vila to succeed Daniel Eilemberg as Head of Studio.

EXCLUSIVE: Faraway Road Productions, the production label founded by Fauda creators Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff and which was acquired this year by Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs’ Candle Media, has hired Salome Peillon and Adi Ezroni, as Chief Operating Officer and EVP of Content, respectively.  

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefBig name executives including Kevin Mayer, Uday Shankar and Punit Goenka are among the headline speakers confirmed at APOS, the Asian media and entertainment conference, in September.Having been held in various online formats during the COVID pandemic, APOS is to return as an in-person event this year. However, it shifts from its usual April slot to Sept.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Latin-focused content powerhouse Exile Content Studio has snagged a majority stake in the Lil’ Heroes NFT Franchise which will soon spawn a toon series with NBA star Carmelo Anthony.He will voice and exec produce the show through his company, Creative7 Productions.The news comes in the wake of Exile’s acquisition in late May by Candle Media, the next generation media company founded by Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs. Said Mayer and Staggs, who serve as co-CEOs: “We are excited to expand Exile’s partnership with Lil’ Heroes, a dynamic new franchise with a deeply engaged community, and a great example of how digitally-native IP can engage audiences through various platforms, products and experiences.” Created by Spanish contemporary artist Edgar Plans, Lil’ Heroes was launched through an NFT collaboration with Exile and NFT studio, Curatible.

EXCLUSIVE: Former Disney exec David Levine is exiting kids entertainment powerhouse Moonbug Entertainment, Deadline has learned. The well-liked exec has been Head of Studios since December 2020.

EXCLUSIVE: Global sports streaming outfit DAZN is to make around 50 redundancies in its London headquarters, Deadline can reveal.

“The Coup” in partnership with AP productions. Exile also holds the IP for the character Manolito Gafotas, whose books have been translated into more than 20 languages in 22 countries.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterKevin Mayer and Tom Staggs’ Candle Media has acquired Spanish-language producer Exile Content Studio.Per Candle Media, “Exile’s mission is to create content featuring the experiences and voices of diverse Spanish-speaking communities from around the world.”The company was founded in 2019 by Isaac Lee, formerly the chief content officer for Univision and Televisa. The production company specializes in feature films, scripted and unscripted television, music and audio storytelling and commerce activities for digital media.Exile, which is has its headquarters in Los Angeles and offices in Mexico City, Madrid, and Miami, will continue to be overseen by Lee and Exile’s senior management team for day-to-day operations.

Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs’ Candle Media has acquired its latest company, Spanish-language content powerhouse Exile Content Studio.

Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs’ Candle Media has hired seasoned executives Courtney Cappa and Kendall Ostrow as, respectively, SVP, Finance & Accounting, and SVP, Business Development & Community.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorA bright-red, child-size magical morphing creature is heading to Disney platforms.Disney Branded Television inked a deal with Moonbug Entertainment for 52 episodes of 7-minute CG series, “Morphle,” based on the YouTube short-form hit My Magic Pet Morphle. It’s the first partnership between Disney and Moonbug, whose properties include the CoComelon kids’ content juggernaut.The comedy adventure series is slated to debut in 2024 exclusively on Disney+ and Disney Junior globally, excluding China.