Thursday round-up: Latest news, deals & hires

Banijay, And So Production strike brand pact

Banijay Branded Entertainment (BBE) has struck a partnership with production services specialists And So Production that will see the companies working together on client campaigns.

BBE provides support for Banijay Entertainment’s teams creating branded content on shows such as Dare To Defy (Nissan for Prime Video) and The World Cook (TUI for Prime Video), while And So Production specialises in commercials, films and fashion shoots across the UK and France. It was founded by Solene Marvian.

Carlotta Rossi Spencer, global head of branded entertainment business development at Banijay Entertainment, said the deal would allow the companies “to create impactful and powerful content to an expanding portfolio of brand clients.”

Marvian added that the Banijay pact would “open up new possibilities for premium, narrative-led branded content.”

Zinc, North One & Phoenix shows join BossaNova slate

BossaNova Media has acquired rights to three celebrity-led factual entertainment lifestyle series for distribution.

Martin Compston Living Las Vegas is produced by Zinc Media’s Tern TV for Channel 4 in the UK anfd follows the Scottish actor and former professional footballer on an insider’s tour of his adopted city.

North One’s Guy Martin: Proper Jobs was produced for U and Dave in the UK and explores whether the presenter could secure employment doing some of the toughest jobs going, such as a trawler deckhand, a wildlife warden and a mountain-rescue dog handler

Katie Piper’s Weekend Escape is from Phoenix Television and sees the author, broadcaster and charity campaigner joining a celebrity guest ads they are introduced to new pamper treatments and activities focused on health and wellbeing.

Dubbing firm Papercup strikes RWS deal

UK-based tech firm RWS has acquired the IP behind Papercup’s AI dubbing technology, which can reproduce a speaker’s tone, pace and emotion.

The acquisition, which comes with the future of Papercup in doubt, was described by RWS as a “strategic step” to help support clients with multilingual video, voice and content localisation across multiple formats and channels.

RWS employs 1,800 in-house linguists and said the Papercup deal would allow it clients “to unlock new value from video content that was once too expensive or complex to localise…”

ACF hires for NYC office, Richard Gray returns to UK

ACF Investment Bank is launching a New York City office and has launched a new division to focus on early-stage media companies.

Jason Rejebian is leaving his role at Lazard’s Media & Entertainment division to head up ACF’s New York office, while Milos Perovic has been upped in LA to become director.

ACF Growth, meanwhile, is being headed up by Antony Fraser and aims to support smaller media and entertainment companies looking for fundraising and exit strategies.

In related news, Richard Gray is to move back to the UK after more than a decade in the US to focus on UK and European M&A.

Apple TV+ extends sports docs

Apple TV+ has ordered a new three-part docuseries featuring the famed University of Connecticut (UConn) women’s basketball team.

The show will track the UConn team, which is the 2025 NCAA National Champions, and is being directed by Emmy Award winner Matthew Hamachek and Emmy Award nominee Erica Sashin.

The series is produced for Apple TV+ by Skydance Sports and is currently in production.

Nexflix returns to Ransom Canyon

Netflix has extended its modern western drama Ransom Canyon into a second season.

The drama, which is part of the streamer’s ‘blue skies’ shows such as Virgin River, Sweet Magnolias, The Lincoln Lawyer and My Life with the Walter Boys, has April Blair attached as showrunner and writer.

Ransom Canyon S1 spent four weeks in the Global Top 10 TV (English) list and reached Top 10 TV in 77 countries.