Monday round-up: Latest news, deals & hires

European originals head at Rakuten exits

Rakuten TV’s head of original content in Europe, Daniel Gilgado, has left the company.

Gilgado had been in the role for five years, initially joining as brand partnerships manager before rising to oversee all European originals for the VOD and FAST operator.

The Barcelona-based exec confirmed the news on LinkedIn, describing his time at the company as being “a ride full of challenges, learnings, and projects that have helped me grow both professionally and personally.”

His next move is not yet known.

CEE buyers strike Cineflix deals

Cineflix Rights has sold more than 450 hours of lifestyle and travel content to broadcasters across the CEE region on the eve of NATPE Budapest 2025.

TV3 Group Baltics has acquired more than 200 hours of content including the Channel 4 version of Tempting Fortune for its channels in Latvia and Lithuania. It has also bought An Optimist’s Guide to the Planet, Sue Perkins into Alaska, and Property Brothers: Forever Home, among others.

AMC Networks International Central and Northern Europe (AMCNI CNE) has acquired Channel 4 duo Help! We Bought A Village and Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive & Kids, while BBC Studios has bought Richard Hammond’s Workshop S5 for Poland.

BBC will not air Gaza: Doctors Under Attack

The BBC will not air the Basement Films doc Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, saying it “risked creating a perception of partiality”.

The decision has been revealed after the indie’s founder Ben de Pear slammed the corporation, and Tim Davie directly, on-stage at Sheffield DocFest for the continued delay in broadcasting the doc – in which he branded the director general a “PR person” and someone “taking editorial decisions which, frankly, he is not capable of making”.

A statement by the BBC said: “We have come to the conclusion that broadcasting this material risked creating a perception of partiality that would not meet the high standards that the public rightly expect of the BBC…Therefore, we are transferring ownership of the film material to Basement Films.

“For some weeks, the BBC has been working with Basement Films to find a way to tell the stories of these doctors on our platforms. Yesterday it became apparent that we have reached the end of the road with these discussions.” Read more

Ronan Farrow, World of Wonder re-team for celebrity PI doc

RuPaul’s Drag race producer World of Wonder (WOW) is teaming up with investigative journalist Ronan Farrow for a doc about the late celebrity PI Jack Palladino.

Titled The Palladino Files, the unscripted series is directed and produced by WOW’s Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey, and follows Farrow’s investigation into PI Jack Palladino, whose clients included Harvey Weinstein, and who was killed in 2021.

The project was unveiled at Sheffield DocFest where Barbato and Bailey hosted a conversation with Farrow, who joined live by video.