All the latest news from Realscreen and NATPE on Wednesday, 4 February

 

Dom Bird exits Amazon to launch indie

Amazon MGM Studios’ UK unscripted chief Dom Bird is to leave the company to launch his own indie.

EarlyBird will maintain a studio deal with Amazon MGM Studios and Bird will continue to executive produce some of its major unscripted IP including BBC1’s Gladiators and The Apprentice. He will also develop his own unscripted formats and factual shows under a first-look arrangement with Amazon.

Bird said: “Launching EarlyBird represents an exciting new chapter in my career, enabling me to build on my passion for innovative, audience-captivating formats. With full creative independence, backed by one of the industry’s leading studios, EarlyBird will focus on developing bold, original unscripted programmes that resonate globally. Read more

 

FilmRise & AMCNI UK link on Hello Mary series 

Radial Entertainment’s US streamer FilmRise and the owner of the True Crime channel in the UK have partnered on a series exploring financial schemes that have led to violence and murder.

Fatal Fraud is being produced in collaboration with STV Studios-backed Hello Mary and the CBS AMC Networks UK Channels Partnership, a joint venture between Paramount Global and AMC Networks International UK.

The 10-episode series, which profiles cases where financial deception have escalated into lethal violence, will debut 13 February on the FilmRise Channel in the US and in March on AMC’s channels.

The deal was negotiated by Katie Carroll, senior manager of co-productions at Radial, and Camilla Cope, commercial director at STV Studios.

 

Edinburgh TV Festival names chair

Netflix UK’s director of documentary series Adam Hawkins has been named advisory chair for the Edinburgh TV Festival 2026.

Hawkins, who succeeds Bad Wolf chief executive Jane Tranter in the role, will oversee the creative direction of the festival and the development of this year’s programme.

Since joining Netflix in 2022, he has commissioned programmes including American Nightmare, Victoria Beckham, Amy Bradley Is Missing, and Attack On London: Hunting the 7/7 Bombers. Read more

 

RTÉ chief ‘didn’t apply’ for BBC role 

RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst has counted himself out of the running to take up the same role at the BBC.

He told Broadcast that he did not apply for the role which is being vacated in April by incumbent Tim Davie, who resigned as head of the corporation in November.

“I love it here [at RTÉ], I love this job and I didn’t apply for the BBC job. That speaks for itself, right?” he said.

He gave an unequivocal “no” to Broadcast when asked whether he is interested in the deputy director general role, which will be focused on journalism.