Friday round-up: Latest news, deals & hires

Friday, 4.40pm: Screen Ireland appoints former Element Pictures exec as head of TV

Screen Ireland has appointed Kate McColgan as its head of TV, taking over from Andrew Byrne.

McColgan will oversee Screen Ireland’s slate across TV and animation series, from development to production. She will collaborate with Irish and international broadcasters and streamers, as well as support Irish writers, producers and directors from development to broadcast. She begins the Dublin-based role in February.

McColgan brings over 20 years’ industry experience, having working across production and development for Irish indie Parallel Films’ TV and film slate, the Weinstein Company and Element Pictures, where her credits included Ripper Street and Blood. She was also a producer on Darklands for Virgin Media TV. Read more

Friday, 3.01pm: UK’s C4 preps LA Fires doc

ITN Productions is working on a fast turnaround documentary about the LA Fires for Channel 4.  

Inferno: LA on Fire is an hour single that combines on-the-ground reporting with dramatic images and user-generated content.  

It will show viewers the full scale of the flames currently engulfing the US city, which have destroyed thousands of buildings, including the homes of many celebrities, left 10 people dead and destroyed swathes of California. The doc will also examine how the fires started, their cause and the political fall-out. 

Friday, 1.55pm: Venu Sports venture to be discontinued

Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney-owned ESPN and Fox have discontinued Venu Sports, a proposed joint sport streaming service and linear subscription.

A statement from the trio said: “After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service. In an ever-changing marketplace, we determined that it was best to meet the evolving demands of sports fans by focusing on existing products and distribution channels. We are proud of the work that has been done on Venu to date and grateful to the Venu staff, whom we will support through this transition period.”

Friday, 10.16am: UK’s Traitors S3 launch reaches 8.8m in a week

The opening episode of The Traitors S3 on the UK’s BBC has been watched by 8.8m in its first seven days, beating the 5.7m who watched the previous series launch.

Series three episode one also pipped the reboot of Gladiators in January last year, which was watched by 8.2m in the same timeframe.

The opening episode in the latest series of the Studio Lambert hit format drew an overnight audience of 5.1m (29.5%) in the 8pm slot on New Year’s Day. This was more than 2m additional viewers over last year’s opener which entertained 3m (18.6%).

Friday, 9.40am: NBCU acquisitions chief takes key Comcast cable role

NBCUniversal acquisitions chief Val Boreland has been handed the reins to entertainment leadership at Comcast’s soon-to-be spun-off cable business.

Boreland has been appointed president of entertainment at ‘SpinCo’, the entity that will hold Comcast’s portfolio of cable networks including USA, Syfy, Oxygen, MSNBC and E!, first unveiled in November. Read more

Friday, 9.15am: Disney+ doc explores life and death of Caroline Flack

Five years after the death of UK-based TV presenter Caroline Flack, Disney+ is set to celebrate her life and career through the eyes of her mother Christine who is seeking answers surrounding her daughter’s death.

The feature-length film is produced by Curious Films in its debut Disney+ order, with the indie having previously created the Channel 4 documentary Caroline Flack: Her Life and Death.

The upcoming film is currently under the working title of Caroline and will air on Disney+ later this year.

Friday, 8.55am: DirecTV argues against Venu antitrust dismissal  

US-based DirecTV has joined fellow pay-TV operator EchoStar in arguing against a dismissal of FuboTV’s lawsuit against Venu Sports, the planned streaming service from Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox and Disney.

Disney revealed earlier this week that it is planning to merge its Hulu+ Live TV service with FuboTV as part of a $220m deal, in a move that would also see the latter drop its lawsuit against Venu. The antitrust action had claimed the launch of Venu - whose roll-out was paused last summer - would result in increased prices for viewers.

DirecTV wrote in a letter to US courts that the deal “does nothing to resolve the underelying antitrust violations,” adding that dismissing the action would “restore an anticompetitive runway for the JV defendants to control the future of the live pay TV market.”

The letter continued: “By this settlement, Defendants pay off and seek to subsume the very competitor that raised these antitrust violations to the Court. However, defendants cannot purchase their way out of the antitrust violations.”