Artist International Group Inks Selectors, UK-Based IP Incubator

With Sam Ryder's Eurovision 2022 song SPACE MAN having been announced in early March last year, the rumour mill's in overdrive with whisperings of who might be the UK's 2023 entry.

Refresh for latest…: Coming out of its second weekend, Disney/Marvel’s Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania has grossed $363.6M globally. Of that, $167.3M is from domestic and $196.3M from the international box office.

The International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry has announced Taylor Swift as the recipient of its 2022 Global Recording Artist Of The Year Award – the third time she has been presented with the annual prize.“It is a great pleasure to award the IFPI Global Recording Artist Award to Taylor Swift for an unprecedented third time”, says IFPI chief exec Frances Moore. “Taylor is a truly magnificent international star, who continues to grow and evolve as an artist whilst maintaining an incredibly strong connection with her fans around the world”.The prize is handed to the artist who has the highest number of worldwide streams and sales of their music each year. As well as revealing Swift as the overall winner, the IFPI also revealed the top 20 most successful acts in 2022, which includes BTS, Bad Bunny, The Weeknd, Harry Styles, Ed Sheeran, Juice Wrld and young upstarts The Beatles.“It is exciting to see this year’s Global Recording Artist Chart reflect the increasingly diverse spectrum of music available to music fans today, with superstars from Latin America, Taiwan and South Korea as well as the US, UK and Canada represented”, says Moore.

Taylor Swift has been named IFPI's Global Recording Artist of the Year 2022, an annual honour celebrating the most popular recording act in the world based on streaming and sales; including vinyl, CDs and downloads.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International BritBox International has reached three million subscribers across its eight international markets, Variety can reveal. The “best of British” streamer, which is backed internationally by BBC and ITV, has reached its latest milestone across the U.S., Canada, Australia, South Africa, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. (The service launched in the U.K. in November 2019 but split off from the global operation in 2022 and is now integrated into ITV’s streaming offering, ITVX.) “Through what’s been a really challenging time for lots of SVODs, we’ve grown by 15% this year, which certainly exceeds that category growth for the U.S., and lots of our competitors in that set,” Reemah Sakaan, the London-based CEO of BritBox International, tells Variety.

The incoming Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD)/ BT Group UK sports streaming JV will be named TNT Sports, the U.S. media giant has revealed.

The countdown is on ahead of the country's largest indoor arena opening its doors in east Manchester. The 23,500-capacity Co-op Live arena is set to open its doors near to Manchester City's Etihad Stadium in December.

SZA's second album SOS has reached a major milestone on the US albums chart. 

EXCLUSIVE: Black Bear International has closed a raft of international deals on EFM titles Longlegs and Fred & Ginger, we can reveal. The two projects were among the most in-demand with foreign buyers and the deals account for the lion’s share of each film’s budget.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Protagonist Pictures has sold out international on Rebecca Miller’s Berlinale opener “She Came to Me.” The Peter Dinklage-led film has sold into Sky for the U.K. and Ireland, Belga for Benelux, Originals Factory for France, Lusomundo for Portugal, Trip Pictures for Spain, M2 Eastern for Europe, Cinesky for Airlines, Aud for South Korea and Shochiku for Japan. In addition, Universal Pictures Content Group has made a multi-territory deal that spans Germany, Austria, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Scandinavia, Iceland, Switzerland, Israel, Middle East, South Africa, Turkey, Australia and New Zealand, Latin America, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Asia pay-TV rights.

EXCLUSIVE: Avi Federgreen’sCanadian distribution company Indiecan Entertainment has launched an international sales division that will make its debut at the Berlinale’s EFM.

Refresh for latest…: The latest rerelease of James Cameron’s Titanic 3D has buoyed the big boat movie to $2.217B globally, meaning it still stands as the No. 3 worldwide release of all time. Right up in its wake, Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has now reached $2,213.5M, still the fourth biggest movie ever and less than $4M from Titanic through Sunday. It will overtake Titanic, it’s just a matter of when.

When Anil Kapoor was offered a lead role in the Hindi adaptation of UK drama series The Night Manager, his first thought was how he could apply what he’d learned while making the Indian version of U.S. crime drama 24. 

Prime Video is restructuring its international business along regional lines in EMEA, APAC and the Americas.

EXCLUSIVE: Media mogul Jose ‘Pepe’ Bastón is looking to ramp up his interests in the U.S. after signing with Allied Management Group, the company founded by former NBCU exec John Pollak and actor Wilmer Valderrama.

Paramount and Prime Video have struck a Star Trek deal for the former’s international streamer outside Canada.

Whitney director Kevin Macdonald has struck a multi-project deal with rebranded Banijay label Workerbee Group.

Black Bear International has further bolstered its team with the hire of Luane Gauer as SVP, International Production & Acquisitions.

Refresh for latest…: James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has overtaken the filmmaker’s own Titanic at the international box office with an estimated $1.538B through Sunday. That makes it the No. 3 movie of all time abroad, behind the original Avatar and Avengers: Endgame.

Hello and welcome back, Insiders. Jesse Whittock here to guide you through another week in film and TV. Onwards to the weekend…