Scripps Bets on Women’s Sports to Boost ION

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Cinephil has sold Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó’s feature documentary “Agent of Happiness” to a wide range of key international territories ahead of the film’s Hot Docs debut this weekend. Deals are confirmed in the U.K.

Any British broadcaster who breaches general election programing rules will be hit with an Ofcom sanction, the regulator has said, a warning likely informed by a number of GB News breaches over the past year.

The news last weekthat Participant Media would be shutting down shocked the entertainment industry, but it hit the documentary community with particular force. 

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent In a big move to plant their flag internationally, leading Hollywood talent agency CAA has appointed Alex McGuire to oversee the firm’s sports media representation efforts throughout the U.K. and Europe.

EXCLUSIVE: Betsy Brandt (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) is set to executive produce and star in the newly greenlit Lifetime movie The Bad Orphan. Chloe Coco Chapman will make her television debut alongside Brandt and additional cast members Mark Taylor (Reacher) and Eve Edwards (The Good Doctor).

Once again, TV usage was down in March with broadcast TV receiving the smallest percentage among the primary viewing categories.

“Molly at the start of Season 2 is nursing her wounds a bit, but has really taken charge of her life,” Maya Rudolph said of her Loot character at the show’s Deadline Contenders TV panel Saturday. “For her, that includes a wellness, a real growth at the Wells Foundation and really stepping into the role of being boss, which is really invigorating for her.”

Manchester City were boosted by the return of Kyle Walker and Nathan Ake against Luton but John Stones wasn't passed fit for the game.

Lise Pedersen In her first media interview published ahead of the world premiere of her debut feature “Fragments of Ice” at Swiss documentary film festival Visions du Réel, Ukrainian director Maria Stoianova tells Variety how her film’s intention shifted after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Based entirely on archival footage shot on a camcorder by her father, a figure skater in former Soviet Ukraine, the film is voiced by the director, who was born in 1986 and takes the viewer back to the mid 80s and early 90s through her family’s story, as they experience the dissolution of the Soviet Union and of their dreams of a Western paradise.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large If TV is all about football these days, so are the Sports Emmys. The New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences revealed the nominations for its 45th annual Sports Emmy Awards, and the NFL Network’s “NFL 360” led the pack with 11 nods — followed closely by the CBS and Nickelodeon coverage of Super Bowl LVIII, with ten. Also in the hunt: ESPN’s “E60” doc series and Amazon Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football, with nine each.

Avatar actress CCH Pounder and Academy Award-nominated producer Paul Garnes will attend the inaugural Cross Continental International Co-production Forum (CCF) in Barbados.

Cyriel Dessers is convinced Rangers can end their wait for a win at Celtic Park when the Premiership title thriller reaches fever pitch after the split.

Footage of Gary Neville’s reaction to Bruno Fernandes’ long-range equaliser against Liverpool in Sunday’s 2-2 draw has been released by Sky Sports.

E.W. Scripps, which acquired ION in 2020, is repositioning the broadcast network as a home for general entertainment and live sports.

EXCLUSIVE: The creative team behind Canneseries competition show Operation Sabre wanted to tell a “bigger truth” through their drama about the assassination of Serbia‘s first pro-democracy prime minister, an event that remains raw in the public psyche.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Pure Fiction Television, the independent production company helmed by Tom Winchester (“Shogun,” “Clickbait,” “The Capture”), has secured the rights to bestselling author Dolores Redondo’s Baztan Trilogy and the prequel, “La Cara Norte Del Corazón” (The North Face of the Heart), and is developing them into a returning, premium international TV series. The trilogy and prequel novel, which feature homicide detective Amaia Salazar, are gripping psychological thrillers infused with mystery, mythology and superstition, set in the beautiful Basque region of Northern Spain, as well as in New Orleans.

Brian Teta, the executive producer of The View, has signed a new contract for the show that will keep him at the often buzzy daytime talker for the next four years.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor U.S.-based global distributor PBS Intl. is bringing a squad of sports-themed documentaries to MipTV to tie in with the Olympic Games that’ll run this summer in Paris. “Olympic Dreams” travels to Sierra Leone, one of the world’s poorest nations, as it struggles to recover from its 11-year civil war.

An open letter to Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt MP, demanding a debate and vote in Parliament on compensation for Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign, has been signed by more than 156,000 people in just 10 days.

Lisandro Martinez is poised to return to the Manchester United squad for the first time in eight weeks against Brentford.