Wednesday round-up: Latest news, deals & hires

JamPot hires Amazon podcast exec

Amazon Music’s former head of podcasts Craig Strachan has joined Jamie Laing’s JamPot Productions as chief executive.

The visual-first podcast indie, founded in 2021 by the former Made In Chelsea star and his wife Sophie Habboo, is behind podcasts including NearlyParents (formerly NewlyWeds), Great Company with Jamie Laing, Mad, Bad & Sad with Paloma Faith, and Write Me Dirty with Katherine Ryan.

Strachan will lead a phase of growth at the company, with a focus on scaling its original IP with new video and podcast formats.

He was most recently chief executive of podcast production company Novel, which is behind true crime podcasts The Girlfriends and Kill List and investigative journalism including The Bellingcat Podcast.

Alan’s Universe star strikes Netflix series deal

Netflix has partnered with YouTube star Alan Chikin Chow (Alan’s Universe) on a scripted series that is being produced in collaboration with HYBE America, the US arm of the Korean music and entertainment company.

The show will follow a misfit crew of aspiring pop idol rejects enrolled in an arts academy who come together to form a co-ed band. The emerging artists who will star alongside Chow will release original music concurrently with the series.

Chow, who will executive produce alongside HYBE America duo James Shin and Jingu Jang, is among the most-watched YouTube Shorts creators with his anthology series Alan’s Universe claiming close to 100 million subscribers and over one billion views per month.

DMax Spain among buyers of TVF shows

Warner Bros Discovery’s DMAX Spain has picked up World War 2 series 24 Hours That Changed the World from Like a Shot Entertainment, following a deal via TVF International.

The series, commissioned by Channel 4 and SBS, counts down the 24 hours prior to the surrenders of Germany and Japan in the conflict, with newly colourised archive and dramatic reconstructions

TVF International has also sold Like a Shot’s Escape from Chernobyl: 48 Hours That Changed the World to Movistar Plus+, ahead of the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster in April.

Movistar Plus+ also acquired a package of other factual series from TVF including 1979: Year of the Islamist Revolution and ZDF/Arte’s Free at Last: Secrets of Apartheid, while AMC Networks International Southern Europe took travel titles including C4’s Great British Train Journeys from Above and RTÉ’s Europe by Train.

HauntTV and TotalCrime expand in Canada

Blue Ant Media has partnered with Telus in Canada to launch two of its free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels.

The roll-out of HauntTV and TotalCrime marks the first time Blue Ant’s FAST channels will become available on Telus.

HauntTV will offer full-season runs of Hotel Paranormal, Eli Roth Presents: A Ghost Ruined My Life, and Paranormal Survivor.

On TotalCrime, Canadians will have access to series such as How I Caught the Killer, Murder Rap: Inside the Biggie and Tupac Murders.

Netflix drama North of North returns for S2

Production has begun on the second season of Arctic-set comedy North of North, which is being produced for Netflix and Canadian broadcasters APTN and CBC.

The series, which is being produced by Red Marrow Media and Northwood Entertainment, is created and executive produced by Red Marrow duo Stacey Aglok MacDonald and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril.

Miranda de Pencier of Northwood Entertainment is exec producing the second series, which will continue to follow a young Inuk mother who attempts to build a new life in her tiny Arctic community of Ice Cove.

The second season is currently filming in Iqaluit, Nunavut, and Toronto, with production continuing through April.