WarnerMedia Wraps Upfront, Claiming Solid Results but Offering Scant Detail

New Filmmakers Los Angeles (NFMLA), supported by WarnerMedia’s OneFifty content innovation hub, has created NewNarratives, a program designed to identify emerging global artists from NFMLA’s talent pool to feed into WarnerMedia’s content resources, the organizations announced Monday.According to a statement, the NewNarratives initiative will “advance, fund and amplify unique, innovative creators whose narratives, stories and characters transcend borders and dismantle convention.”“We wanted

Jason Alexander, who tied the knot with Britney Spears, 39, at a Las Vegas chapel in 2004, appeared on the latest episode of the Toxic: The Britney Spears Story podcast, and recalled signing the legal documents to annul their marriage shortly after the news emerged. And now, he’s claiming he was tricked into ending their marriage with the promise that they could continue their relationship.

Iris Knobloch, WarnerMedia’s former president of France, Benelux, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, is launching a €250 million ($300M) European SPAC with Artemis, a holding company backed by François-Henri Pinault, the billionaire French businessman married to Salma Hayek.

Jamie Lang International sales, distribution and production company Axxon Media have closed a pair of deals with WarnerMedia for Latin America and the Caribbean, one for a finished feature and the other a project, both announced at this year’s Cannes Marché du Film.WarnerMedia has picked up Mireia Gabilando’s Spanish comedy “The Hive” and will bring the film to its HBO Max Latam channel in 39 territories in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish in early June predicted this year’s upfront ad-sales session would be “off the hook” for his company, and, in general, the media industry.

Britney Spears' father, Jamie Spears, claims he hasn't been involved in the pop star's personal conservatorship — making personal decisions on behalf of Britney — since 2019, but is greatly concerned about her care in new court documents obtained by ET. The court documents are in response to Britney's court-appointed lawyer, Samuel Ingham's, petition to appoint Jodi Montgomery as Britney's personal conservator, which Jamie is opposing.

WarnerMedia announced Wednesday it’s completed all major ad agency negotiations, concluding “the most successful Upfront marketplace in the company’s history but giving no details.

Anna Marie de la Fuente WarnerMedia OneFifty, WarnerMedia’s content innovation hub, has snagged the U.S. rights to the winner of the Sundance Film Festival Alfred P.

ViacomCBS has wrapped its upfront negotiations seeing “historic demand” that was solid across the board and benefitted from the conglom’s broad portfolio strategy.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAdvertisers’ continuing interest in live sports helped ViacomCBS close its upfront sales process even as the company met resistance from Madison Avenue over the rate increases it sought to bolster its business.ViacomCBS has come to the end of its sales effort, according to a person familiar with the matter, notching noticeable growth in sports, particularly the NFL.

Christopher Vourlias Bulgarian helmer Stephan Komandarev, whose critically acclaimed feature “Directions” played in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar, has wrapped production on the documentary feature “Life From Life,” the director announced this week during the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.The film explores the hurdles facing organ transplant recipients in Bulgaria, once among Eastern Europe’s leaders in the medical procedure, but now ranking last on the continent for the number of

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorIs it a pretty sure bet that the proposed WarnerMedia-Discovery combo will become a global streaming power — and successfully manage the transition from legacy media businesses? Or is the merger a risky play by two big companies that could go south?Wall Street analysts are divided on the prospects for the deal, which is expected to close in mid-2022. The proposed Warner Bros.

AT&T and WarnerMedia are selling Playdemic, the mobile games studio behind Golf Clash, to Electronic Arts for $1.4 billion in cash.

Naman Ramachandran In a landmark agreement that will have seismic repercussions across the Indian media landscape, the Times Group has affirmed that it will not publish or air anything defamatory to the Hindi language film industry, popularly known as Bollywood.After the death of popular actor Sushant Singh Rajput in June 2020, several Indian channels, including Times Now and Republic TV, had embarked upon blanket coverage of the event and its aftermath, largely hostile towards Bollywood.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorMadison Avenue has a lot to say about the current state of the TV industry — and more of it will need to be spoken in Spanish.Univision, the Spanish-language broadcaster that is operating under new ownership, has secured double-digit percentage increases in advance advertising commitments for its next programming cycle, the latest traditional broadcaster to benefit from an unusually speedy “upfront” market, when TV companies try to sell the bulk of their

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorFox saw increases in advance ad commitments for its primetime schedule and expanding digital venues as part of the industry’s annual “upfront” sales process, the latest of the nation’s big media companies to see robust activity as advertisers try to move forward as the coronavirus pandemic diminishes.The Fox Corporation unit saw advertising commitments rise across all areas of its portfolio, which includes the Fox broadcast network; Fox Sports and Fox News Media,

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterWithout Brian Wilson, the world would be devoid of West Coast anthems like “California Girls,” “Good Vibrations” and “Surfin’ U.S.A.”The musician and record producer, who founded the Beach Boys in 1961 with his brothers Dennis and Carl, as well as their cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine, is the subject of a new documentary, “Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road.”Directed by Brent Wilson, who has no relation to the singer, the film is premiering at this