Friday round-up: Latest news, deals & hires

BBCS alum Glashow lands at Tribeca

Former BBC Studios exec Rebecca Glashow has been named chief of Tribeca Enterprises, the entity behind Tribeca Festival and distributor Tribeca Films.

She starts on 1 December and will work with co-founder Jane Rosenthal, who is becoming co-chair of the board alongside chairman James Murdoch.

Glashow was most recently chief exec for BBC Studios’ Global Media & Streaming unit. She will now oversee the Tribeca Festival, which was founded by Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff more than two decades ago. 

The Assassin heads around the world

All3Media International has sold Two Brothers Pictures’ Prime Video drama The Assassin across five continents. In North America, the six-parter will head to AMC Networks’ streaming service AMC+, and in Canada it will play on Bell Media streamer Crave and CTV Drama Channel.

NBCUniversal LATAM has acquired pan territory rights for streamer Universal+, while in EMEA buyers include DR (Denmark), SVT (Sweden), VRT (Flemish Belgium) and NPO (The Netherlands), as well as HBO Max (France), Mediaset (Spain and Italy) Cosmote (Greece), Hot (Israel), Freedom Media (Kazakhstan), and Evision (Middle East).

It will also be available on Sky Free in New Zealand, airing on Three and ThreeNow, as well as Wowow in Japan and Sohu in China . Set against the backdrop of a Greek island, The Assassin follows a retired assassin (Hawes) and her estranged son (Highmore) as they are forced to work together.

Blink49, Piller/Segan unveil partnership

Piller/Segan and John Moraniss’s Blink49 Studios have entered into a multi-year joint venture agreement that will see both companies contribute financial and creative resources to develop and produce scripted and unscripted shows.

Morayniss and Piller/Segan partners Lloyd Segan and Shawn Piller previously collaborated on Private Eyes and Haven during the former’s tenure at eOne. The companies are currently producing the third season of Wild Cards for CBC and The CW, with a fourth already confirmed.

The joint venture will look for concepts that can thrive in multiple formats and Piller/Segan will hire an additional senior development exec to assist with projects.

Morayniss said the focus would be on “globally resonant storytelling” while Segan added that the partnership would give the companies “the reach and flexibility to champion a wide range of projects — from supporting established voices to cultivating fresh talent.”

Rainmaker extends run at USA

USA Network has renewed legal thriller The Rainmaker from Lionsgate Television and Blumhouse Television for a second season coming in 2026.

The show’s first season aired its finale last Friday, with the first nine episodes averaging 1.3 million total viewers according to the NBC Universal network.

The show is based on the novel by John Grisham and follows colleagues who have just completed law school and uncover two connected conspiracies surrounding the mysterious death of their client’s son.

USA Network is soon to become part of Versant, the cable-skewing division of NBCUniversal that owner Comcast is spinning off into a soon-to-be publicly traded media company.

Boston Blue records 100-market milestone

Paramount Global Content Distribution has sold CBS drama Boston Blue into more than 100 markets, including AXN Asia, CTV in Canada and M-Net in Africa.

The series, which is a spin-off from Blue Bloods, debuted on CBS on 17 October and has also been picked up in Germany, Austria and Switzerland by Sky, while sales in Greece (Cosmote TV), Belgium (Play Media), Iceland (Síminn), Korea (Coupang Play), New Zealand (Sky New Zealand) and Turkey & Cyprus (beIN Series 1 and TOD) have also been confirmed.

The Donnie Wahlberg-starring show, which is available via Paramount+ in Australia, is produced by CBS Studios in association with Jerry Bruckheimer Television.

 WGA labels Paramount Skydance and WBD merger a ‘disaster’

The Writers Guild of America has said a Paramount Skydance acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery would be “a disaster” for many of its members.

The US union released a statement on Thursday from its WGA East and WGA West branches explaining it would seek to stop a deal, should any progress.

The WGA said US mergers had “harmed workers, diminished competition and free speech, and wasted hundreds of billions of dollars better invested in organic growth.”

It added: “Combining Warner Bros with Paramount or another major studio or streamer would be a disaster for writers, for consumers and for competition. The WGAW and WGAE will work with regulators to block the merger.”

Candour behind Real Salt Path for Sky

Sky Documentaries has ordered a quick turnaround single based on The Observer’s recent investigation into author Raynor Winn and her bestselling novel The Salt Path about her and her husband’s lives.

The Real Salt Path (w/t) examines Observer journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou’s investigation, which exposed alleged lies and discrepancies in Winn’s account, and follows her ongoing investigation as new whistleblowers come forward with their own versions of events.

The Real Salt Path (w/t) is a co-production from Candour Productions and The Observer, with Anna Hall exec producing. Ziyaad Desai and Kathryn Taylor are the commissioning editors for Sky. It will TX in December.

ITV Studios’ My Mum, Your Dad heads to Portugal

Portugal is the latest destination for ITV Studios’ dating format My Mum, Your Dad. The series will launch on Portuguese network SIC and will be produced locally by Shine Iberia Portugal.

The format follows single parents as they look for love in a luxurious mansion while the kids secretly observe their parents and compete in challenges to win the right to meddle.

The Portuguese iteration is the latest deal following news that My Mum, Your Dad has scored a recommission for a second series in Brazil on Globoplay. The series is created by Greg and Haley Daniels and produced by ITV Entertainment and Robola Entertainment for HBO Max in the US, ITV in the UK, Nine Network in Australia, RTL-TVI in Belgium and more. 

UK’s 5 orders All Creatures Great and Small doc

The dog trainer and star of 5’s long-running series Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly, Graeme Hall, is to front a festive companion documentary for the channel’s hit drama All Creatures Great and Small.

Ordered by 5 and produced by All Creatures Great and Small drama creators Playground Television, the companion doc is titled All Creatures Great & Small: Behind The Magic and will take viewers behind the scenes of the Yorkshire-set show.

It will see All Creatures super-fan Graeme Hall spending time with both the human and animal cast members and touring the set.