Tuesday round-up: Latest news, deals & hires

Naked MD to exit

Naked’s managing director Tom O’Brien is to step down after over a decade at the label.

Fremantle UK chief executive Amelia Brown revealed his departure to staff in an internal memo, seen by Broadcast, adding he will be leaving the UK to move to Sweden with his family.

He will remain with The Apprentice indie until September and Naked’s future management team will be announced in due course, she added.

O’Brien has been with the Fremantle label for around 12 years, having joined at the beginning of 2015 to lead on creation and development of new content. He has been its head for the past four years. Read more

HBO Max moves into podcasts

Warner Bros Discovery’s HBO Max is launching podcasts to its subscribers across Europe, starting with Rhianna Dhillon’s Harry Potter: The Official Film Podcast being rolled out from 19 May.

A Game of Thrones strand will then become available from June, with The Game of Thrones Anniversary Special Podcast, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Podcast and The Game of Thrones Podcast: House of the Dragon being lined up.

A new season of the latter – available in video for the first time – will launch next month to accompany House of the Dragon S3.

Companion podcasts will also be available for The Last of Us, The Pitt, The Comeback and Sinners: In Proximity, as well as the complete multi season rewatch podcast The History of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

FX, Hulu order Very Young Frankenstein

Disney’s FX has picked up a comedy based on 20th Century Studios film Young Frankenstein to series.

Very Young Frankenstein is from writer Stefani Robinson, pilot director Taika Waititi and Garrett Basch, with 20th Television producing.

Mel Brooks, who worked on the original film with Gene Wilder, is attached as an EP. Details of the show are scant but its plot has been inspired by the feature.

The series will become available on the US cablenet and Disney’s sibling streamer Hulu.

Disney+ to live stream US music trio globally 

Three major US music festivals are to be live streamed around the world on Disney+, as part of the service’s push into live events.

The pact will see the streamer providing live coverage of Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, Lollapalooza, and Austin City Limits Music Festival to viewers around the world for the first time.

Disney+ sibling Hulu will also cover the events, as it has done for the past six years. The deal has been agreed with Live Nation, which runs all three festivals.

Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival takes place 11-14 June, Lollapalooza is 30 July - 2 August, and Austin City Limits Music Festival will be 2-4 October.

UK’s C4 pulls MAFS

Channel 4 has pulled all episodes of Married At First Sight UK while it conducts a dual-pronged review into the CPL Productions-made reality format, off the back of a BBC Panorama investigation.

C4 said in statement it began the review last month after being presented with “serious allegations of wrongdoing against a small number of past contributors”. These allegations form the basis of the BBC Panorama film that airs at 8pm tonight (18 May).

The review will report in the coming months and C4 will share a summary of findings and recommendations. In the meantime, it has dropped the UK show’s back catalogue from its streaming, linear and social media services. Read more