licensing: Last News

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefWildBrain CPLG, a leading entertainment, sport and brand-licensing agency, has been appointed by Peanuts Worldwide as the exclusive licensing agent for the Peanuts brand in parts of Asia-Pacific.   The companies already have a licensing relationship in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and, more recently, India.

The Provost of Falkirk has been elected as convener of Falkirk Council's licensing board - despite getting just three votes.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNielsen’s media data arm Gracenote is launching new tools to measure the “bingeability” and streaming availability of TV shows to offer companies guidance in licensing and acquisition during the Peak TV era.Joining Gracenote’s Content Analytics data group, which features Inclusion Analytics and Audience Predict, the Distribution Dynamics and Program Availability Archive will “provide the content marketplace insights into characteristics of programming that drives consumption and historical availability enabling data-driven decision-making,” per Nielsen.The Distribution Dynamics offering will look at the following, in order to evaluate how specific streaming and broadcast series are consumed: Per Nielsen, “Leveraging this intelligence, streaming services and networks can optimize slate management through visibility into what content is better suited for viewer acquisition versus viewer retention, or what types of programming better resonate with certain audiences. Media companies and studios can solve content distribution challenges by understanding what programming to create or license to maximize viewership.

Amazon Prime Video today has struck an exclusive, multi-film licensing deal with the Housefull franchise producer Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment. The deal will see Bollywood movies from Sajid Nadiadwala’s company made available worldwide, with Amazon becoming the home to NGE’s upcoming movies, soon after their theatrical launch.

Naman Ramachandran Amazon Prime Video India has signed a worldwide exclusive multi-film licensing deal with Sajid Nadiadwala’s Bollywood production house Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment (NGE).NGE’s upcoming slate includes “Bawaal,” starring Varun Dhawan (“Coolie No. 1”) and Janhvi Kapoor (“Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl”), directed by Nitesh Tiwari (“Dangal”).

The strategy to license Yellowstone and other major properties to rival streaming services like Peacock and HBO Max, which Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish has called “unfortunate,” is out the window, according to CFO Naveen Chopra.

During lockdown, when restrictions meant sitting inside bars and eateries was banned, the al-fresco culture boomed across Manchester. It saw councils given the chance to essentially 'fast track' road closures, meaning they were able to swiftly pedestrianise roads outside so they could stay open and seat customers on the street.

Naman Ramachandran Amazon Prime Video India is betting big on India. At a marquee event in Mumbai the streamer announced that it will more than double its investment in Prime Video India over the next five years and revealed a 40-strong slate, its biggest to date in the country.The titles are in the Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages, across new and returning scripted and unscripted original series and co-productions, streaming over the next 24 months.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorLionsgate has reached a movie licensing output pact deal with Roku Channel.The deal calls that calls for the original content channel on the digital MVPD to share Lionsgate titles in the pay TV window with Starz, Lionsgate’s pay cabler. The deal covers such films as the “John Wick” franchise and “Expendables 4.”“This agreement affirms the great demand for first-run studio movies across a broad array of platforms,” said Jim Packer, Lionsgate’s president of worldwide television distribution.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaBroadway Licensing has acquired Stage Rights, an independent theatrical publisher and licensing company. Stage Rights joins Broadway Licensing family of imprints alongside Dramatists Play Service and Playscripts, helping the theater-maker expand its reach and range of offerings.

Skydance Animation has set a multi-year licensing deal with Spin Master, the children’s entertainment company known for creating popular properties like PAW Patrol.

Before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy entered politics and found himself in charge of his country's fight against Russia's Vladimir Putin, he led a life as an on-screen performer. A former comedian, Zelenskyy, 44, starred as a head of state in the 2017 political satire "Servant of the People," which is also the name of the real-life political party he founded.

Chris Willman Music WriterHit songwriter Ross Golan, who has crafted smashes for Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, One Direction and Demi Lovato, has started a petition on Change.org asking the music community to stop licensing songs in Russia for as long as the nation wages war on Ukraine.The petition, posted Thursday afternoon here, was put up for the purpose of allowing songwriters to make their voices heard in requesting that collection agencies sever ties with their counterpart orgs in Russia, to ensure that they won’t be profiting from the rogue-superpower nation while the bloody siege of its neighbor country continues.“Currently, a portion of our royalties are going directly to the Russian government, which in turn funds their invasion into Ukraine,” Golan says. The petition — credited to “And the Writer Is,” the podcast Golan started to spotlight writers and their issues — reads: “The global songwriting business stands with Ukraine.

Naman Ramachandran Amazon Prime Video and Germany’s Leonine Studios are expanding their existing partnership with a multi-year license agreement.Under the deal, Prime Video gets exclusive second window SVOD-rights for a six-month period to upcoming theatrical feature films and home entertainment titles from Leonine’s slate and also includes non-exclusive SVOD rights to titles from Leonine’s content library.Titles include Keanu Reeves’ “John Wick 4” and its spin-off “Ballerina,” starring Ana de Armas; Channing Tatum’s directorial debut “Dog”; Roland Emmerich’s “Moonfall,” starring Halle Berry; Nicolas Cage action-comedy “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent”; Guillaume Canet’s “Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom,” with Gilles Lellouche, Marion Cotillard, Vincent Cassel and soccer star Zlatan Imbrahimović; Jennifer Lopez starrer “Shotgun Wedding”; and Leonine Studios co-production “The School of Magical Animals 2,” the sequel to Germany’s most successful theatrical release of 2021. Leonine Studios CEO Fred Kogel said: “It’s fantastic that we can expand our long-standing partnership with Prime Video by this agreement and achieve another important milestone for our licensing business with premium content.

Amazon Prime Video has signed an expanded multi-year licensing deal for Germany and Austria with Leonine Studios.

UPDATED with sentencing: Zachary Horwitz, the Hollywood actor who pleaded guilty last fall for operating a Ponzi scheme that bilked $650 million from investors who thought their money would be used to acquire licensing rights to films, was sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday.

Google Stadia is being put to one side in favour of focus shifting to the game streaming tech behind it.After launching in late 2019 the Google game streaming platform was met with some criticism regarding the quality of its streams, latency, and connection issues. After a slow roll out of major titles and news that the internal Stadia development studios would be shut down, all was looking lost for the game streaming platform.Now, Business Insider (paywall) reports that focus is apparently shifting from Google Stadia itself, as Google wants to focus more on licensing out the technology that the company uses to stream the games across the internet.Focus is reportedly shifting to selling the technology used in the streaming service, as obtaining big third-party titles Google Stadia is now being shelved.If you hear one thing, hear this: The Stadia team is working really hard on a great future for Stadia and cloud gaming.

Angelique Jackson The popular YouTube Originals series “Super Sema,” starring and executive produced by Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o, has appointed UTA as its North American licensing and publishing agency.UTA will work alongside global toy licensee Just Play to focus on retail initiatives and key partnerships in publishing, apparel, home and accessories for the program, which is the world’s first children’s animated series focused on an African kid superhero.The series follows the world-changing adventures of an extraordinary young African girl, Sema, and her twin brother MB, who are on a mission to protect their town Dunia from the villainous Tobor. Fueled by STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) superpowers, Sema knows that with determination and creativity, anything is possible.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterMattel Inc. has won back the rights to produce toys based on The Walt Disney Company’s lineup of iconic Disney princesses and “Frozen” characters.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNetflix co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos proudly said “Stranger Things” is “as valuable a franchise as exists today in entertainment around the world” during the company’s Q4 earnings presentation Thursday. During the same pre-recorded Q&A, Netflix COO and chief product officer Greg Peters said while the streamer is very focused on its own titles, it’s still looking outside Netflix IP when it comes to building out a very young video games business.“It was exciting to see the activity in the space and I think, to some degree, it’s an endorsement of the core thesis that we have around subscription being a great model to connect consumers around the world with games and gaming experiences,” Peters said, when asked directly why Netflix isn’t making large acquisitions in the gaming space, following this week’s news that Microsoft is acquired Activision Blizzard in a deal valued at almost $70 billion.

Mike Tyson and Jake Paul might struggle to get a license for a blockbuster Las Vegas showdown should they change their minds and decide to go toe-to-toe in the ring.The former heavyweight champion of the world and the former Disney star may have distanced themselves from a potential showdown - but the financial draw gives them an obvious reason to meet.However, the pair are 30 years apart in age and have a huge gulf in experience, and Paul being far more active than Tyson over the past three years.With all those factors considered, former UFC Middleweight champion Michael Bisping has warned the duo that they probably wouldn't be able to get a licence in Vegas."The fight with Mike Tyson, there's a good chance that won't get licensed either," Bisping said on his YouTube channel."When Mike Tyson came back and fought Roy Jones Jr, I believe that was in Florida because they couldn't get licensed in Las Vegas."Las Vegas is the fight capital of the world, the Nevada State Athletic Commissions that is one of the toughest to get licensed by.Who would win between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul? Tell us in the comments section"Is it gonna happen? According to Mike Tyson, the answer to that is no. I'd like to see [Paul] fight Tommy Fury, similar size, age and experience."Following reports that the pair had agreed a bout that would be worth in the region of £36million earlier this week, Iron Mike denied the rumours.Tyson said: "This is new to me.