All the latest news from the global content industry on Monday, 9 March

 

Byron Allen buys into Starz

The Weather Channel owner Byron Allen has taken an almost 11% stake in US pay TV giant Starz.

Allen has taken the 10.7% stake in Starz following a $25m investment via his Allen Family Capital firm, which acquired the holding from Liberty 77, the investment fund led by former US treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin.

The move comes a year after Lionsgate - in which Mnuchin had been an investor - spun Outlander and Power network Starz off into a separate entity.

 

Mandy Chang lands new doc role

The UK’s Documentary Film Council has named Mandy Chang its first chief executive.

The member-owned organisation, which was formed in 2023 to represent the UK documentary sector, represents almost 1,000 filmmakers and industry professionals working across the genre.

Chang was most recently global head of documentaries at Fremantle and before that commissioning editor of the BBC’s Storyville strand from 2017 to 2021. Her documentary credits includes Two Strangers: Trying Not to Kill Each Other and It’s Never Over: Jeff Buckley.

She takes the reins of the Documentary Film Council (DFC) from Steve Presence and Emily Copley who have served as joint acting chief execs since the organisation’s launch. Read more

 

Wedotv strikes Freeview deal

Freeview has launched wedotv BIG stories and wedotv movies on its service in the UK.

The brands are available as fully integrated DTT channels, with wedotv BIG stories focusing on factual and documentary programming and wedotv movies offering films.

Global Distribution Services operates the channels for wedotv.

 

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