Strategy: Last News

Angelique Jackson United Talent Agency (UTA) has announced its latest round of promotions, with 65 employees elevated across 20 of the company’s departments. “These promotions reflect our longstanding tradition of investing in our people,” stated UTA president David Kramer, announcing the promotions. “UTA continues to aggressively expand our footprint and our offerings to clients, I’m excited to recognize our colleagues who make our exceptional service to clients possible everyday.” The global talent, entertainment, sports and advisory company promoted the employees at various levels of the company and across departments, including motion picture literary, music, unscripted television, Klutch Sports Group, production arts, UTA entertainment & culture marketing, media rights, Medialink, endorsements & voiceover, IQ, brand studio, business affairs, corporate strategy, culture & leadership, finance & accounting, fine arts, information technology, people, theatre and UTA speakers.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Showtime research and scheduling chief Kim Lemon is exiting his post after 34 years with the company. Upon his exit, MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks’ Laurel Weir will be adding oversight of the Showtime brand (soon to be renamed Paramount+ With Showtime) to her purview. Most recently executive vice president of data strategy, research, scheduling and programming, Lemon began his career at Showtime more than three decades ago as a manager of marketing research. “Throughout his tenure, Kim has played an integral role in Showtime’s evolution from a linear network to a bonafide streaming service, establishing a first-in-class data science group,” wrote Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks president Chris McCarthy and Paramount’s executive vice president and chief research officer Colleen Fahey Rush in a memo to staff Tuesday, which was obtained by Variety. “He is a pioneer in brand strategy, always prioritizing our content and being mindful of how it would inform our growth while showing great reverence for the creative process and our audience’s feedback.”

Kim Lemon, who rose to EVP of Data Strategy, Research, Scheduling and Programming at Showtime during a 34-year run, is departing the company.

Spending on essentials rose at nearly double the annual increase in non-essential spending in March, in signs of households making lifestyle adjustments in order to be able to afford ‘must-haves’, according to Nationwide Building Society's analysis of its members' financial habits.

EXCLUSIVE: ITV Studios is seeking a VP of Global Content to work with natural history and premium doc labels including Tiny World indie Plimsoll.

Naman Ramachandran CNN has launched CNN Fast, a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel. CNN Fast is set up as a curated channel of short-form videos that will feature international stories across major news events, business, entertainment, sport and the environment. It launched on Tuesday across several European countries on Rakuten TV, and will also be available on LG Channels from May 24, followed by Samsung TV Plus in June. “Using a schedule of swift, informative and entertaining videos, the channel is designed to appeal to younger audiences that prefer shorter form content. With stories delivered in three-to-six-minute clips, the new succinct and easily digestible format will keep viewers updated and engaged,” CNN said in a statement.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Mortal Kombat 2” will follow the example of its 2021 hit predecessor and film in Australia. But production will relocate to Gold Coast, Queensland, from Adelaide in South Australia. The New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures title is based on the iconic video game by Ed Boon and John Tobias. Filming will begin at Village Roadshow Studios from June.  “Mortal Kombat 2” is written by Jeremy Slater and will again be directed by Australian Simon McQuoid. The film will be produced by James Wan’s Atomic Monster and Todd Garner’s Broken Road Productions. 

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Kino Lorber and First Look Media have formed a joint venture to operate their respective streaming services, MHz Choice and Topic.

K.J. Yossman Kristin Scott Thomas starrer “Two Tickets to Greece” has been picked up by Parkland Entertainment for U.K. and Ireland distribution, Variety can confirm. Directed by Marc Fitoussi (“Call My Agent”) the French comedy stars Scott Thomas alongside Olivia Côte (“My Donkey”) and “Call My Agent’s” Laure Calamy. Set in present-day Paris and Greece, “Two Tickets to Greece” tells the story of recently-divorced Blandine (Côte), who is struggling to put her life back together. She is persuaded by her loud and fearless friend Magalie (Calamy) to head to the Greek island of Amorgos, which they’ve dreamed of visiting since they were teenagers. It’s only once the two women arrive they realize that their different approaches to life mean their dreamy holiday won’t go as planned, especially once Magalie’s pal Bijou (Scott Thomas) arrives on the scene.

EXCLUSIVE: As its stock price continues to languish, Cinedigm is following through on its stated plan to rebrand the company, emerging with the new name Cineverse in a bid to convey a long-under-way pivot to streaming.

The CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator today announced the projects that will take part in the sixth edition of the prestigious training program for women-identifying nonfiction filmmakers. 

The 10th instalment of the “Fast and Furious” franchise was off to the races this weekend, knocking “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” out of first place and easily claiming the No. 1 spot at the box office. “Fast X” earned $67.5 million in ticket sales from 4,046 North American theatres, according to estimates from Universal Pictures on Sunday.

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is reviewing its TV commissioning and editorial strategy in the UK due to the tricky economic headwinds, Deadline understands.

He was the man responsible for communicating the policies of Tony Blair's New Labour government to the public in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Shell-shocked Hamilton Accies boss John Rankin says he’s up for the challenge of hauling them back from League One next season.

The CW that audiences see when they tune in this fall won’t look like the CW of years past – but it also won’t look like the CW that new owner Nexstar actually intends to offer consumers moving forward.In a move similar to its broadcast competition, the CW released a fall schedule meant to be practically immune to the effects of the ongoing writers strike. It’s an acquisition-heavy lineup that’s a mix of comedies (Canadian sitcoms including “Children Ruin Everything” and “Run the Burbs”), dramas (former AMC series “61st Street”) and unscripted fare (the salvaged HBO Max hit “FBoy Island”). The only potential hiccup would be a strike-related production delay for “All American,” one of two CW shows that new network president Dennis Miller and entertainment president Brad Schwartz have decided to keep moving forward.As much as Schwartz doesn’t like the perception that there is anything wrong with an acquisition, he and Miller told Variety that isn’t the center of their scheduling strategy, but rather a path they had to take this first year because of production uncertainties.Here, Variety speaks with Schwartz and Miller about the network’s plans for adult dramas, programming to Black audiences following the success of “All American,” going hard on unscripted with “FBoy Island,” and the path to making the former Paramount/Warner Bros. Discovery-owned channel profitable for Nexstar.

Naman Ramachandran South Asian focused streamer ZEE5 has unveiled a 111-strong 2023 slate on the occasion of its fifth anniversary. The lineup is across the Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bangla, Punjabi and Marathi languages. The content is from top producers including Dharma Productions, Salman Khan Films, Oscar winner Guneet Monga’s Sikhya Entertainment, Bhanushali Studios, The Viral Fever, Applause Entertainment, Rose Audio Visuals, Vikas Bahl, Vivek Agnihotri, Nagraj Manjule and Sudhir Mishra. A-list performers in the shows and films include Manoj Bajpayee, Pankaj Tripathi, Huma Qureshi, Arya, Parambrata Chatterjee, Vijay Sethupathi, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte.

K.J. Yossman Bitpix TV and Myco have partnered on a feature film development fund. Open to filmmakers worldwide, the fund, which was launched on Friday at Cannes, aims to support three films a year each with a budget of up to $2 million per feature. Bitpix TV is the official streaming arm of HollyShorts Film Festival while Myco is a decentralized content ecosystem. A number of short-form genre films will be showcased on Myco’s streaming platform where viewers can vote on their favorites, which will be selected for feature film development with the fund’s help. Among the package of help available is funding, consulting, mentorship, and production support from finance and production company Goldfinch.

The last time a writers strike impacted the LA Screenings in 2008, the world was in recession and studios pared back their spend on glitzy marketing and all-singing, all-dancing parties and soirees. We are not quite at that stage, but, in 2023, these conditions have an air of familiarity.

Naman Ramachandran Phil Nelson will lead CNN Worldwide’s international business operations and its work with commercial partners outside of the U.S. Nelson previously served as COO of CNN International Commercial (CNNIC) from 2019. In the new position of executive VP, CNNIC, he becomes part of CNN Worldwide’s leadership team and reports into the network’s group executive VP of business operations and strategy, Chris Marlin. Nelson is now responsible for all international advertising sales, content sales and licensing and commercial distribution revenue, as well as related client solutions functions including the Create brand studio and digital and data operations.