PwC Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Wilko's future has been hanging in the balance after the homeware retailer fell into administration in August.

One of the largest NHS trusts, operating some of the biggest hospitals in Greater Manchester is being forced to make huge savings amid a multi-million pound deficit. The NHS trust has announced that it has opened a ‘voluntary resignation scheme’ - but bosses deny this is a redundancy scheme, the Manchester Evening News can exclusively report.

Greater Manchester’s NHS has plunged a further £100m into debt - meaning the deficit has spiralled by more than £800,000 a day over the last four months, the Manchester Evening News can reveal.

The date the final Wilko stores will close for good has been announced. The collapsed retailer will shut its final 111 stores on Sunday October 8.

A number of Wilko stores have been snapped up by rival brands after the popular retailer fell into administration last month.

Poundland owner Pepco will buy up to 71 Wilko stores as the chain sets to close indefinitely.

Hundreds of Wilko stores will close throughout autumn and winter.

A student accommodation block in Salford, which features a panoramic roof-top terrace, a "Sky Sanctuary" communal study space and a festival zone, has been sold for almost £70m.

All 400 Wilko stores will close by early October with the loss of thousands of jobs, the GMB union has said.

More than 10,000 workers have been thrown into an uncertain situation after a deal that could have saved Wilko fell through.

More than 50 Wilkos stores are to close with the loss of 1,016 jobs, administraors have confirmed.

I'm sure there aren't many people who haven't shopped at Wilko at some point.

Online shoppers have been warned to be aware of some fake Wilko websites that are currently being operated by scammers.

Wilko administrators have given potential bidders a Wednesday deadline to table offers to buy the firm.

Dozens of retail jobs have been placed at risk across two Ayrshire stores with the news that Wilko has been plunged into administration.

Naman Ramachandran India’s media and entertainment industry is expected to reach $73.6 billion by 2027 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.48%, says consultancy firm PwC’s “Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2023-2027” report. In terms of growth percentage, streaming leads the way with revenue surging 25% in 2022 to reach $1.8 billion. The market will continue to grow at 14% CAGR to produce revenue of $3.5 billion in 2027. This will be driven by the competitive SVOD sector, which accounted for 78% of sector revenue in 2022, the report says, adding that while subscription service revenues will expand at 13% CAGR to reach $2.6 billion, ad-supported services (AVOD) will grow at a higher rate, albeit from a lower base.

Allen & Co.’s annual Sun Valley Conference is known for drawing an A-list roster of execs from across the media and tech realms, with a generous sprinkling of sports commissioners, politicos and other notables added to the mix.

Naman Ramachandran The U.K. will maintain its position as the leading entertainment and media market in Europe over the next four years, ahead of Germany and France, according to PwC’s Global Entertainment & Media (E&M) Outlook 2023-2027 report. U.K. E&M revenue is expected to reach £85 billion ($108 billion) this year with growth forecast at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4% over the next four years to generate revenue of £100 billion overall by 2027. The report predicts that the next biggest European E&M markets – Germany, which is expected to reach £83.1 billion in 2023 and France, set to touch £54.6 billion in 2023 – will grow to £90.8 billion and £61.1 billion by 2027 respectively.

By 2027, the U.S. television industry will see $30 billion less annually from traditional subscription and advertising revenue than it did a decade earlier amid ongoing cord cutting, according to a new forecast by PwC published today.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Listen up! While podcast advertising revenue remains relatively small, it’s growing quickly — and the sector is poised for a strong double-digit gain this year, despite economic headwinds. In 2023, U.S. podcast ad revenue is expected to total $2.28 billion, up 43% year over year, according to new research conducted by PwC for the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB). Last year, the segment increased 26%, to hit $1.8 billion, per the study. By 2025, podcast advertising revenue in the U.S. is projected to reach about $4 billion. Overall, podcasting continues to be one of the fastest-growing digital channels, growing two times faster than digital advertising overall — although for 2022 it remained less than 1% of the total pie (which PwC pegged at $209.7 billion).

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After record-breaking growth in 2021, U.S. internet ad revenue slowed last year — but continued to show double-digit growth. That’s according to the 2022 annual ad revenue report from the Internet Advertising Bureau trade group, conducted by PwC. Between 2021-22, U.S. internet advertising revenue grew 10.8% year-over-year to a total of $209.7 billion, compared with 35.4% surge the previous year, per the study. In 2022, digital ad spending saw the highest growth in Q2 (21.1%) followed by Q2 at 11.8% before slowing in Q3 (8.4%) and Q4 (4.4%). By comparison, U.S. TV advertising revenue in 2022 grew 2%, to $71 billion, according to estimates from PwC’s Entertainment and Media Outlook 2022-2026 report.

Ben Croll As director Alex Ruhl’s “Rock, Paper, Scissors” continues an international festival tour, the project’s funder has sent out a message to other immersive titles considering public support: BFI Network is open for business. “We are open for all applications, and accepting narrative fiction VR projects,” says BFI Network talent exec Alexzandra Jackson. “I had such a good experience working with Alex [Ruhl] on ‘Rock, Paper, Scissor’ that I would certainly love the opportunity to work on more.” The new and emerging talent arm of the BFI, BFI Network looks to invest in filmmakers outside of London and Southeast England, keeping scouts in a number of English regions and satellite offices in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Since 2018, the development org has held an annual call for projects, offering up to £25,000 ($31,500) for short narrative fiction development titles.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Oscar voting is kicking off, and 366 films are vying for the Academy’s attention for best picture, in addition to their selections in their respective branches. One important note to Academy members: Fill out your ballots in full. Every Academy member votes for best picture, outside of their respective branch association. For best picture, the member is invited to list up to five films in preferential order. In the days of paper ballots, there were horror stories of voters writing the same film five times on their entries, but those days are gone with electronic voting. However, listing five films is crucially important based on the Academy tabulation methods, which involves a lot of math. As we remain in the final year of the “sliding scale,” where the results can produce any number of nominees between five and 10, simply put, all lines matter.

Menaka Evans has been hired as the CFO of ITV America and ITV Studios America, ITV Studios America president and managing director Philippe Maigret and ITV America CEO David George announced on Wednesday. Evans will oversee all financial planning, accounting and business operations for ITV America and its labels: ITV Entertainment, Leftfield Pictures, High Noon Entertainment, Sirens Media, Thinkfactory Media, and Good Caper Content; as well as ITV Studios America and its label: Bedrock Entertainment, Circle of Confusion Television Studio, Tomorrow Studios and Work Friends.“Menaka brings deep experience in entertainment industry finance, as well as acute understanding of the complexities involved in producing unscripted and scripted programs in today’s content landscape.

Scotland is creating more green jobs as a proportion of the workforce than anywhere else in the UK, stats show.

After record deal-making in 2021, the number and dollar value of M&A in media and telecommunications fell during the past 12 months through November, according to the latest report by PwC.

Customers who bought items from Made.com before it went into administration are being advised to submit a claim to get their money back if their order doesn't arrive by November 25.

The rate stores are closing in Scotland is at its lowest since 2019, a report has shown.

PwC is part of a group of employers in the North West who are collaborating to combine forces to grow and diversify the pool of tech talent in the region.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorSubscription streaming video is cooling down from torrid growth rates seen in 2020 and ’21 — fueled by pandemic lockdowns — but is still experiencing healthy expansion in the U.S., one of the segment’s most mature markets.In 2022, SVOD services in the United States will generate revenue of $25.32 billion, up 13% from last year, according to PwC’s Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2022–2026 report, released Monday. The segment is projected to reach $33.59 billion by 2026, representing an 8.5% compound annual growth rate from 2021-26.The 13% uptick projected for this year is down from 19.5% annual growth in 2021 and a whopping 27% increase in 2020 for U.S.

Morrisons has announced it will buy McColl's in a move that will save as many as 16,000 jobs. McColl's confirmed last week that it has been forced to go into administration, which would see mass job losses and store closures.

Convenience chain McColl’s has confirmed it will collapse into administration, putting 1,100 shop and 16,000 workers at risk.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentDubai-based cryptocurrency-based content platform MContent has partnered with  PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Middle East to launch its documentary “Ripple vs SEC Saga” in a virtual theater in the metaverse.Produced by MContent and Amsterdam-based Insight TV in tandem with Villain Studios, “Ripple vs SEC Saga” (first look image above) delves into the ongoing case being brought by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) since 2020 against blockchain company Ripple Labs.In this landmark case the SEC has accused Ripple of raising $1.3 billion in unregistered digital asset securities by using its digital coin, called XRP. The SEC’s key claim, which is being refuted, is that XRP is not a currency, but a security and therefore subject to strict securities laws.

take part in a poll featuring the last 10 Best Picture winners.Just as this year’s Oscar voters are doing with this year’s nominees beginning Thursday, the poll’s participants are asked to rank the 10 past winners in order of preference. Then the ranked choice voting (RCV) system will be used to determine which of the films has the broadest across-the-board support, just as the Academy’s accounting firm of PwC will do with Oscar ballots.The 10 films are, in chronological order, “The Artist,” “Argo,” “12 Years a Slave,” “Spotlight,” “Moonlight,” “Birdman,” “The Shape of Water,” “Green Book,” “Parasite” and “Nomadland.”The poll is now open here.Early next week, we will reveal the results and explain in detail how the process worked to arrive at those results.The ranked-choice system has long been used in the nomination round of Oscar voting, but it was extended to the final Best Picture vote after the category expanded from five to 10 nominees in 2010.

Tickets for this year's MEN Business Awards have gone on sale as the finalists for the glittering event have been revealed.

Ten per cent of Scottish chain shops remained closed six months after 2021's lockdown, research has shown.