Canal+ Takes 26% Stake In Leading Asian Streamer Viu; Talks Growth & Content Collaboration

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Vivendi has entered into exclusive negotiations with Figaro Group, the company behind one of France’s leading national newspapers, to sell its stake in Gala magazine. The sale of Gala is one of two antitrust requirements imposed by the European Commission to allow Vivendi to complete its acquisition of French media banner Lagardère Group, the parent company of Hachette Livres. The other antitrust commitment has led Vivendi to sell 100% of its publishing banner Editis to a subsidiary of Czech Media Invest (CMI) founded by Daniel Kretinsky. Editis is home to Robert Laffont, Plon and Julliard, among others. Gala magazine, a popular French title similar to People Magazine, boasts a daily edition during the Cannes Film Festival and belongs to Prisma Media, which is itself owned by Vivendi.

BBC Unveils Trio Of Animation Series As It Steps Up Search For British ‘Simpsons’

Atresplayer, which ambitiously re-launches July 5.  Just until a few years ago, European TV giants treated their streaming operations to bedrock linear lineups. Those days have gone. At Annecy, BBC and France Télévisions were talking up their streaming services as their future. ITV and Germany’s RTL are bowing their biggest plays on OTT operations, ITVX and RTL+, respectively, powering up strong subscriptions’ hikes.  Belgium’s VRT currently estimates “almost a 50/50 split” in its acquisitions budget as it focusing on “finding unique series that viewers wouldn’t expect from a public broadcaster for its streaming service,” Sven Van Lokeren, head of international fiction series acquisition at Belgium’s VRT told Variety at February’s London TV Screenings. 

Central Cee. Listen to ‘Eurostar’ below.The song is taken from Ninho’s latest album, ‘NI’, which arrived on Friday (June 30).‘NI’ is the follow up album to the award-winning ‘JEFE’, the most streamed album of 2022 in France.

Emanuel Okusanya The Grammys, the Oscars, SXSW and other major industry events bring people from around the world to one central location. However, Dope Africans — an initiative aiming to fill in the gaps and create spaces for black and African industry stakeholders — is bringing the destination to the people by curating intimate and exclusive gatherings all over the world to connect Africa’s most influential creatives. In collaboration with Prime Video’s Culture Rated, Dope Africans served as a midpoint rendezvous at Paris Fashion Week (June 20-25, 2023) on June 22 for top talent such as Asake, Serge Ibaka, Fally Ipupa and John Monopoly. Also in attendance: industry giants such as Hussein Suleiman, co-founder of Daily Paper; Abdul Abdullah, Afro Future’s (previously known as Afrochella) founder; Shaquille Harrison of the NBA Lakers and Hussein Suleiman, co-founder of Daily Paper.

By You know those scenes in anime where magical girls like Sailor Moon and Tokyo Mew Mew transform into a superhero? That’s how I feel when I do my C-beauty routine. As a teenager, I started wearing makeup as an outlet to .

A festival celebrating East and South East Asian food, cinema and culture is heading to Manchester in September. The event will happen at the Grub food and drink market on Red Bank, and will mark the third annual East and South East Asian Heritage Month.

Victoria Beckham leans into husband David Beckham as they get ready to view the “Le Chouchou” Jacquemus’ Fashion Show held at Chateau de Versailles on Monday afternoon (June 26) in Versailles, France.

Maluma has his hair down in France as he has been enjoying Paris Fashion Week. The Colombian singer has been attending all the biggest shows in incredible outfits.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Pixar animation “Elemental” rose to the top of the South Korean box office over the latest weekend. It overtook “The Roundup: No Way Out” and kept new release “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” at bay, in third place. Released a week earlier, “Elemental” rose from second place to first and grew its revenue by 19% in its second frame. According to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council, “Elemental” earned $3.86 million between Friday and Sunday for a 12-day cumulative of $9.47 million. “The Roundup: No Way Out,” which had dominated the sector for the previous three weekends, slipped to second position. It earned $3.34 million over the weekend, a 34% week-on-week decline. Since releasing on May 31, it has amassed $73.2 million, from 9.67 million ticket sales, by far the biggest haul of any film released this calendar year.

Pharrell Williams made a chic statement with a pair of miniature sunglasses at the Dior Homme Menswear Spring/Summer 2024 show during Paris Fashion Week on Friday (June 23) in Paris, France.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The government of Malaysia said Friday that it will prosecute Meta Platforms for the failures of Facebook to comply with its requests to remove content. In a statement, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said that Facebook “has recently been plagued by a significant volume of undesirable contents” relating to the aspects of “race, royalty, religion, defamation, impersonation, online gambling as well as scam advertisements.” It said that it had asked Facebook to remove some content.

committed to invest US$2.5billion on new South Korean TV shows and films.“[Korean content] is very often unpredictable and catches the American audience by surprise,” Sarandos said at the event, per Variety. “I think what’s brilliant is to see film, unscripted and series all grow according to the interests of our Korean audience.”He added that “great stories can come from anywhere and be loved anywhere [and] nowhere has this proven more true than here in Korea”, per Yonhap News Agency.Over the past two years, Netflix has released a number of hit Korean series and films, from the global phenomenon Squid Game, to the thrilling revenge series The Glory, to the reality TV series Single’s Inferno.Sarandos added that 60 per cent of all Netflix subscribers have watched at least one Korean title, while viewership of Korean content is up sixfold over the past half decade.During the event, the Netflix co-CEO also spoke about how the company is looking to use its US$2.5billion investment plan to “grow the industry” in Korea.

Rebecca Souw There’s more to Korean TV than a greenlit second season of “Squid Game” and Ted Sarandos, Netflix co-CEO, shed new light on what’s making the “Korean wave” worthy of large-scale commitment. After meeting with leading helmer Park Chan-wook (“Oldboy” and upcoming series “War and Revolt”) and 100 film students a day earlier, Sarandos on Wednesday held a public forum at Seoul’s Four Seasons Hotel on the future of Korean content. The abundant glad-handing follows a public commitment made in April to spend $2.5 billion on original Korean content over the next four years. “[Korean content] is very often unpredictable and catches the American audience by surprise,” said Sarandos at the event. “I think what’s brilliant is to see film, unscripted and series all grow according to the interests of our Korean audience.”

EastEnders fans reckon they have sussed out Cindy Beale's revenge plan as she returned to Albert Square last night.

Cazzu and Christian Nodal's life will soon change forever, as they are in the final stretch of their sweet wait. The Mexican singer revealed a few weeks ago to ¡HOLA! Americas that the baby will be born in September , so they are enjoying summer before they become parents. They are also celebrating their anniversary, after first making headlines June 2022.

Kinetic Content, it never has been.  Most of the popular unscripted shows today — from “Survivor,” “The Amazing Race” and “American Idol” to “The Bachelor” and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” premiered in 2010 or before. The global “reality boom” exploded 25 years ago. In the years to follow, the majority of unscripted content that debuted took off for a moment and later fizzled out.  In fact, in the last 12 years, only four global non-scripted format hits have spawned multiple localized international versions in a foreign language, all while hitting the No. 1 ranking for their platform in their most recent season: “Married at First Sight,” “Love Is Blind,” “The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On” and “The Masked Singer.” 

Zendaya sparked an online frenzy after the first trailer for director Luca Guadagnino’s new film “Challengers” was released.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief French pay-TV giant Canal+ is to take a significant minority stake in successful Asian streaming firm Viu. It could end up becoming its majority owner.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief NBCUniversal is to expand its One Platform advertising, technology, data and measurement system further into global markets through an alliance with international broadcast and tech partners. The move was announced on Tuesday at the Cannes Lions advertising convention in Cannes, France.International partners include Atresmedia from Spain, Bell Media from Canada, Channel 4 from the U.K., Mediaset from Italy, Seven West Media from Australia, Sky Media from the U.K., Italy and Germany, and Talpa from the Netherlands, TF1 Pub of France, Japan’s Tokyo Broadcasting Systems and Omnicom Media Group. “By bringing together leading local broadcasters and publishers across the world, NBCUniversal seeks to enhance the premium video ecosystem and build the foundation for greater industry advancement and collaboration at an international level, across data and identity, activation and automation, ad innovation, and measurement,” NBCUniversal explained in a statement.