English Entertainment
MIPCOM: Keshet gives New Form to digital scripts
MUMBAI: Global production and distribution powerhouse Keshet International (KI) and New Form, announced a partnership to distribute three of the latter’s millennial- and youth-targeted digital scripted series, launching them to buyers at MIPCOM. KI will seek out both linear TV and digital opportunities for the series internationally.
KI will offer New Form’s comedy, sci-fi adventure and dark thriller series, all of which are available or soon to premiere in the US on Verizon’s go90 mobile OTT platform, as part of a 20-plus title MIPCOM slate that is Keshet’s largest, most distinctive and diverse ever.
New Form produces content for mobile-friendly platforms and premium destinations hungry for high-quality content with great stories and value. In addition to go90, the destinations include Vimeo, Refinery29, Fullscreen, YouTube Red and CW’s The Seed.
“New Form has been at the forefront of creating original premium digital content for new OTT players in the US,” said Keshet International digital & acquisitions SVP Sebastian Burkhardt.
“With these three remarkable new series, we now have the unique opportunity to expand their reach beyond the booming US market to both linear TV networks – with reformatted 30- and 60-minutes versions – and OTT services throughout the rest of the world.”
“Partnering with Keshet on the international distribution of three of our signature series is a significant step forward for our long-term strategy of creating, producing and distributing high-quality programs that have wide millennial appeal across multiple viewing platforms around the world,” said New Form business development SVP JC Cangilla.
Two of the three New Form series appearing at MIPCOM have already premiered on go90 in the US: The high school comedy Mr. Student Body President – A charismatic student body president and his Machiavellian chief of staff give “high school politics” a new meaning as they battle for power over pep rallies, gossip, and grades, with all the ambition and fervor of hardened Washington operatives. Starring Jeremy Shada (Adventure Time, Parenthood, ParaNorman), Arden Rose (1.3 million YouTube subscribers) and Christina Moore (True Blood, That 70s Show, MADTV).
The Streamy Award-nominated sci-fi adventure MISS 2059 – An intergalactic sci-fi adventure about a beauty queen on Earth who is mistakenly selected to represent humanity in a life-or-death Galactic tournament. Starring Anna Akana (1.4 million YouTube subscribers, Ant Man, The Fosters), Nikki Soohoo (The Lovely Bones, Stick It, Private Practice) and Hartley Sawyer (Geek & Sundry’s “Caper”, The Young and the Restless, The McCarthys).
KI will also offer Cold, set to premiere in the US on go90 this month on October 13:
Her mother brutally murdered… her father in prison for the horrific crime… 16-year-old Isla Wallis returns to her remote hometown to discover the truth about what really happened to her family. Now, alone and abandoned in the icy wilderness, Isla will be pushed to the edge of survival as she fights to expose the killer and save more than just her own life. Starring Annalise Basso (Captain Fantastic, New Girl, Ouija 1 & 2, Oculus, True Blood), Todd Lowe (Gilmore Girls, True Blood, Criminal Minds, NCIS), Jim True-Frost (The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, Hostages), and Marcus Johns (6.5 million Vine followers, Expelled, Rock of Ages)
Additionally, Keshet will be adding a homegrown series, Aces to the list of digital offerings on their full MIPCOM slate. Created by Moti Adiv, Yoni Zicholtz and Jonathan Bar Ilan and produced by Keshet Broadcasting, Aces quickly became Israel’s number one digital series and subsequently migrated to Keshet’s linear channel. The show provides a hilarious fly-on-the-wall peek into the world of five poker buddies when they let loose during their Friday night card game.
English Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount deal
Investors wave through a $111 billion megamerger but deliver a stinging, if toothless, rebuke over half-a-billion-dollar goodbye packages
NEW YORK: The shareholders said yes to the deal. They said no to the cheque. At a virtual special meeting on Thursday that lasted barely ten minutes, Warner Bros. Discovery investors voted overwhelmingly to approve Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of the company — and then turned around and voted against the lavish exit pay packages lined up for chief executive David Zaslav and his fellow outgoing executives.
Not that it will make much difference. The compensation vote is purely advisory and non-binding. The Warner Bros. Discovery board can, and almost certainly will, pay out as planned.
But the symbolism stings. It is the second consecutive year that WBD shareholders have voted against the executive compensation packages, and this time they had good reason. Zaslav’s exit deal is, by any measure, extraordinary. Under the terms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he is set to receive $34.2 million in cash severance, $517.2 million in equity in the combined company, and $44,195 in continued health coverage — a total of at least $550 million. On top of that, Warner Bros. Discovery has agreed to reimburse Zaslav up to $335 million for taxes assessed by the Internal Revenue Service on his accelerated stock vesting, though the company says that figure will decline depending on when the deal closes. As of March 11, Zaslav also held $115.85 million in vested WBD stock awards — and last month sold a further $114 million worth of WBD shares.
Shareholder advisory firm ISS recommended voting against the compensation measure, citing “problematic” tax reimbursements to Zaslav and the full vesting of his stock awards.
Zaslav will be bound by a two-year non-competition covenant and a two-year non-solicitation of customers and employees after the deal closes.
His lieutenants are not walking away empty-handed either. J.B. Perrette, chief executive and president of global streaming and games, is in line for $142 million, comprising $18.2 million in cash severance and $123.9 million in equity. Bruce Campbell, chief revenue and strategy officer, will receive an estimated $121.5 million, including $18.8 million in severance and $102.7 million in equity. Chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels is set for $120 million, made up of $6.6 million in cash severance and $113.1 million in equity. Gerhard Zeiler, president of international, will get $82.6 million, including $11.9 million in severance and $70.7 million in equity.
The deal itself, clinched in February after Netflix declined to raise its bid for Warner Bros., still needs regulatory clearance from the Justice Department and European authorities. Several state attorneys general are also weighing legal action to block it.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, was unsparing. “The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger isn’t a done deal,” she said after the shareholder vote. “State attorneys general across the country are stepping up to stop this antitrust disaster. We need to keep up this fight.”
If it does go through, the combined entity would be a formidable beast, bringing together Paramount Skydance’s stable — CBS, CBS News, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, BET, MTV and Nickelodeon — with WBD’s portfolio of HBO, Max, Warner Bros. film and TV studios, DC, CNN, TBS, TNT, HGTV and Discovery+. Paramount has said it expects $6 billion in cost savings from the merger, which is Wall Street shorthand for mass layoffs on a significant scale.
The ten-minute meeting was presided over by chairman Samuel Di Piazza Jr., with Zaslav, Campbell, Wiedenfels and chief communications officer Robert Gibbs in virtual attendance. Di Piazza was bullish. “We appreciate the support and confidence our stockholders have placed in us to unlock the full value of our world-class entertainment portfolio,” he said. “With Paramount, we look forward to creating an exceptional combined company that will expand consumer choice and benefit the global creative talent community.”
Zaslav echoed the sentiment. “Over the past four years, our teams have transformed Warner Bros. Discovery and returned the company to industry leadership,” he said. “Today’s stockholder approval is another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction that will deliver exceptional value to our stockholders.”
Paramount Skydance struck a similar note. “Shareholder approval marks another important milestone towards completing our acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery,” it said in a statement, adding that it looked forward to “closing the transaction in the coming months.”
The shareholders have spoken on the merger. On the pay, they were ignored before the vote was even counted.
