News Shorts: CBeebies Picks Up Rights To New Series Piggy Builders, Bob Bakish Exits Paramount Global’s CEO Position Amidst Acquisition Talks With Skydance And Every Girl's Dream Makes Its Freemium Debut On Zee One

BBC Children’s, France Télévisions and Germany’s ZDF have ordered Piggy Builders

Created by Marie Manand, Julien Hazebroucq and Emmanuelle Leleu, this 52 x 11-minute series stars three pig siblings who are very different individually, but who all share a passion for building projects in their forest home and fending off a meddlesome wolf named Vern.

Romain Villemaine (Ricky Zoom, Maya the Bee) is on board to direct, and Piggy Builders‘ first episodes will be unveiled at MIPCOM in October, followed by premieres on CBeebies, France Télévisions and ZDF in Q3 2025.

Piggy Builders was originally pitched at Cartoon Forum 2021, where it was well-received, according to Xilam founder and CEO Marc du Pontavice. It’s the studio’s second CG-animated series after Oggy Oggy, which has been acquired by the likes of France Télévisions, Discovery (Italy) and Super RTL (Germany) following its global premiere on Netflix in 2021.   

Paramount CEO Bob Bakish is stepping down, will be replaced by a trio of executives

Bakish climbed the corporate ladder after joining Viacom in 1997, until he became CEO of the company in 2016. Following the merger of Viacom and CBS, he became CEO of the combined company in 2019, which was later renamed Paramount Global. He is also leaving the company's board of directors, Paramount said Monday.

Bakish will be replaced by what the company called an "Office of the CEO." Paramount will now be led by CBS president and CEO George Cheeks; Chris McCarthy, president and CEO of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks; and Brian Robbins, the head of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon. The company said the three executives will work closely with Paramount CFO Naveen Chopra and the board.

In the release Monday, Paramount said the new leadership is "working with the board to develop a comprehensive, long-range plan to accelerate growth and develop popular content, materially streamline operations, strengthen the balance sheet, and continue to optimize the streaming strategy."

Zee World repeat launching on Zee One

After debuting on the pay-tv channel in 2022, Zee One is set to give other consumers within Africa an open window to access to Every Girl's Dream from the 5th May replacing King Of Hearts.

Every Girl's Dream (Tere Bina Jiya Jaye Na) which was launched in November 2021 on Zee TV revolves around Krisha a hospitality graduate, trying best to prove herself and help her family financially by working at her father's friends' royal hotel in Udaipur. It was there where she meets her Prince Charming, Devraj.

 

Anjali Tatrari and Avinesh Rekhi played the lead with other stars like Leenesh Mattoo, Romil Chaudhary, Simran Sharma, Rakshanda Khan, Farah Lakhani, Utkarsha Naik, Leena Balodi, Karuna Verma, Aashish Bhardwaj serve as supporting characters.

Jeepers: ‘Scooby-Doo’ Live-Action Series From Berlanti Productions Lands At Netflix With Major Commitment

The one-hour drama project is said to be nearing a deal at the streamer with a script-to-series commitment. Exact plot details are being kept under wraps aside from the fact it will be based on the Hanna-Barbera cartoon. Warner Bros. Television will produce, with the studio having recently launched the “Dead Boys Detectives” series at Netflix.

Josh Appelbaum and Scott Rosenberg serve as writers and will also executive produce along with André Nemec and Jeff Pinkner under their Midnight Radio banner. Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and Leigh London Redman will executive produce via Berlanti productions (the company is currently under an overall deal at WBTV). Jonathan Gabay of Berlanti Productions and Adrienne Erickson will co-executive produce.

Reps for both Netflix and WBTV declined to comment.

Should the project go forward, it would not be the first live-action Scooby-Doo project to make it to the screen. Most famously, “Scooby-Doo” was released in 2002 and starred Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard, and Linda Cardellini, with Neil Fanning voicing Scooby. The film was a box office success, generating over $250 million worldwide. A sequel with the same cast, “Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed,” came out in 2004 and grossed over $180 million. There was also the live-action TV film “Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins” and its sequel that were released in 2009 and 2010.

There have also been a wide range of Scooby-Doo animated projects over the years, beginning with the original cartoon series in the late 1960s. Various incarnations have followed over the years, spanning multiple animated series and films. Most recently, the animated film ““Scoob! Holiday Haunt” was meant to be released on Max but was scrapped in a cost-cutting move. Currently, Max airs the animated series “Velma,” with Mindy Kaling voicing the bespectacled member of the Mystery Inc. gang.

Canal+ Owner Vivendi Is Still Exploring A Stock Split, Publishes First Quarter Revenue

Canal+ owner Vivendi is still exploring a stock split, as it today posted first quarter revenues up significantly.

France-based Vivendi posted Q1 revenues of €4.28B (R86 billion), up 5.4% on 2023’s numbers when using constant currencies and and the businesses the firm owns today. No earnings were revealed in the unaudited numbers.

Within those numbers, Canal+ saw revenues grow 4.3% year-on-year to €1.5B (R30 billion, +3.5% at constant currency and perimeter). International revenues were up 5.8% thanks to subscriber growth, particularly in Africa, where Canal+ has been buying up shares in MultiChoice and looks set to take over the South African giant. Mainland France TV operations revenue was up over 5%.

However, Studiocanal saw revenues decline compared with 2023, when the likes of Alibi.com 2 and John Wick 2 had significant domestic and international launches.

Other notable performances saw social video platform Dailymotion increase revenues by 24.8%, with the ‘New Initiatives’ division it is housed in posting €42M in revenues overall.

This financials come amid a period of corporate soul-searching at Vivendi, and following the takeover of publisher Lagadère in November last year.

The Paris-based company believes its stock price has been “substantially” reduced due to the consolidated nature of its media operations following the listing of Universal Music Group and wants to split its business.

Having already outlined a plan to explore dividing pay-TV and content giant Canal+, ad firm Havas and publisher Lagadère, Vivendi said a feasibility study into a stock split had been going since December 2023. The company says all three units are individually performing well — with each posting year-on-year revenue growth today — and have been hindered in their ability to invest by the “high conglomerate discount” on its shares.

The current plan is for Canal+, Havas and a publishing and distribution division would all list as independent entities on the stock market. Vivendi would also remain publicly listed “maintaining its role of supporting the transformation and expansion of its subsidiaries and continuing to actively manage its investments.”

Should the Vivendi board approve the split, employee representatives at each new entity would be engaged before necessary regulatory, bonder holder and other lender approvals is sought. A final vote would then take place at the AGM in April 2025 to ratify the moves.

Yannick Bolloré, Chairman of Vivendi’s Supervisory Board, and Arnaud de Puyfontaine, Chairman of Vivendi’s Management Board, said in a statement: “Today we are publishing a particularly sharp increase in revenues for a first quarter. This reflects the strength of our three core businesses and the Group’s ability to transform and grow.

“The organic growth of 5.4% compared to the first quarter of 2023 was notably driven by the significant contribution of Lagardère, validating the relevance of the transaction with this group last November and our confidence in the potential of its activities. Canal+ Group and Havas also delivered solid performances, with increases in reported revenues of 4.3% and 6.2%, respectively, over the same period.”

SuperSport And SABC In More Hot Water As Amazon And Disney Are Looking To Finalize Deal For The NBA

Amazon.com Inc. is close to a deal to bring NBA games to its Prime Video streaming service, according to two people familiar with the negotiations. 

The league is also nearing a new agreement with Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN, which is expected to keep the rights to the NBA finals but air fewer regular-season games, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing nonpublic information.

Details on the number of games Amazon will have in the regular season and playoffs are still being ironed out. Rights to the women’s league, the WNBA, are expected to be included as part of both deals.

The Athletic and Puck reported earlier on the framework of the deals. Both news outlets said the agreements would last a decade. Representatives for the NBA and Amazon declined to comment. ESPN didn’t respond.

The NBA’s incumbent partners are Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. The league’s current media deals are worth a total of $24 billion, or over $2.6 billion a year. Those contracts expire after the 2024-2025 season.

The NBA is looking double its income from TV rights and add at least one or two more partners, the people said. The league is also talking to Warner Bros., whose Turner division has carried games since 1984, and Comcast Corp.’s NBC, which lost its basketball rights in 2002.

Sports are the biggest draw for major TV networks, making them must-have programming, especially as the audience for general entertainment programming has declined.

New Series Alert: Force Of Attraction, Spinoff To Radha Mohan Debuts In May On Zee World

During the week, it was reported Star Life would be rolling out a new Hindi drama Jhanak in May after Faltu. Now Zee World is also looking to debuting a program from Zee TV titled Force Of Attraction (Pyar Ka Pehla Adhyaya: Shiv Shakti) a spinoff to Radha Mohan.

Force Of Attraction follows Shakti Sharma a kind woman who aspires to be a doctor. After losing her parents, she lives with her uncle and aunt in Varanasi. She crosses path with Shiv Kashyap a doctor, who has a hurting past and is unable to heal. 

It starred Arjun Bijlani as Dr. Shiv Kashyap, Chinmay Patwardhan as Ravi Singh, Megha Singh as Janvi Sharma, Parineeta Borthakur as Gargi Rameshwar Sa, Seema Pandey as Gayatri Kashyap and Ashman Kumar as Ayush Singh.

Force Of Attraction debuted on Zee TV from 3rd July 2023 and since then 289 episodes has been filmed so far each with a 22 minute duration. It will commence on Zee World in Southern Africa from 22 May and a week later for consumers in ROA from 29 May.

This will be the first Zee TV series within the decade to get its very first spinoff with the other Twist Of Fate that rolled out 2 other shows This Is Fate and Unfortunate Love within the previous decade.