Wednesday round-up: Latest news, deals & hires

The 50 heads to Prime Video in Italy

Prime Video in Italy has ordered a 10-episode local version of reality competition format, The 50.

The show is being produced by Banijay Italia and is based on the original format from Banijay’s B-Prod. The show features 50 reality stars compete inside a castle under the control of a mysterious Lion-masked Game Master.

Through daily challenges, players gain the power to save others, while those left unprotected are eliminated. As alliances shift, the group works to build a shared jackpot, with the final prize awarded not to the winner but to one of their supporters.

The 50 has already performed in France, India and Germany, where the format became a hit for Prime Video and this week launched its third season.

Ran Tellem exits Mediapro

The Mediapro Studio’s head of international content development, Ran Tellem, is stepping down from the company after six years in the role.

Tellem joined the Spanish giant from Keshet in 2016 and took up his most recent role in 2019, working on shows such as The Head.

His exit comes amid an overhaul at Grupo Mediapro, whose general manager Laura Fernández Espeso departed in December.

Former head of content, Daniel Burman, has also exited and was recently appointed head of originals at Disney+ in Latin America.

eOne/Lionsgate alum launches StoryNerve

Isabel Gomez-Moriana, the former director of development at Entertainment One (and latterly Lionsgate) in Canada, has launched a new label.

StoryNerve is described as a “creative development practice” that will offer workshops and story-driven programs that provide creative guidance to writers, directors, producers, and creative teams.

Gomez-Moriana has worked in film and TV for more than two decades and worked on projects with LuckyChap, Pastel, and Freckle Films during his time at eOne. She was previously at the Canadian Film Centre.

Data highlights Netflix acquisition reliance

Six out of the top 10 most-streamed titles in the UK in January were acquired library titles, according to research data from YouGov.

The company’s audience streaming tracker shows that Netflix is particularly reliant on library programming in the UK, housing nine out the top 10 most-watched shows, of which two-thirds were acquisitions. Prime Video came in seventh place with its original game-based series Fallout reaching 37.4m views (8.4m viewers), after the latest series was released weekly since December.

The three original Netflix titles in the list included Run Away, which made first place with 65m views (9.8m viewers) after landing in January, Stranger Things in third place with 59.6m views (12.4m viewers) after landing in November and December, and His & Hers in eighth place with 33.1m views (7.4m viewers), having streamed since January. Read more