Strategy: Last News

People aged over 66 have until the end of Friday, May 19 to qualify for the £301 cost of living payment if they make a new claim for Pension Credit which later turns out to be successful. The means-tested benefit is worth more than £3,500 each year on average and acts as a gateway to additional help for heating bills, housing costs and Council Tax discounts.

Madison LeCroy is telling all about what happened with Alex Rodriguez!

Disney is starting to pull content from streaming, with dozens of series and specials slated to leave Disney+ and Hulu on May 26, Deadline has learned. The titles, which are being removed from Disney’s streaming services globally, include Disney+’s Willow, Big Shot, Turner & Hooch, Just Beyond, Mysterious Benedict Society and The World According To Jeff Goldblum and Hulu’s Y: The Last Man, Dollface, The Hot Zone, Maggie, Pistol and Little Demon.

The CW held its first upfront week meeting with the press since the Nexstar acquisition closed last year, presenting a schedule heavy on foreign acquisitions and unscripted fare. Brad Schwartz, president of entertainment for The CW, took questions after the presentation alongside network president Dennis Miller. They laid out their plans for the network going into its new era, how the acquisitions play into their overall strategy, and the future of scripted development at the network. Read on for Variety‘s takeaways from the event. Superheroes Flying Off into the Sunset?

The 2024 Critics Choice Awards will return to the CW, airing on Jan. 14, the network announced today as part of its 2023-24 schedule. Once again, the show will follow the Golden Globes, which have set a Jan. 7, 2024 date but no network yet.

Paramount Global’s Lawrence Szabo is joining BBC Studios.

, and it looks like she's now added a green version of an old favorite to her large collection of tea-length, A-line frocks. The Princess of Wales never strays very far from her own tried-and-true personal style, and again and again in a variety of color-ways for years.

Are streaming services better served by the bulk release strategy or the traditional weekly model? A new report from Samba TV suggests that there are actually benefits to both when it comes to maximizing viewership.

K.J. Yossman Prime Video U.K.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Sony Group Corporation senior executives Thursday delivered a resoundingly robust exposition of their hardware-plus-software business mix, of continuing to grow Sony’s position in entertainment and acceleration of a strategy to address a diverse, globalized marketplace. Speaking at Sony’s annual corporate strategy day presentation, chairman and CEO Yoshida Kenichiro gave an almost Biblical explanation of the group’s origins. The Sony name, he said, is an extrapolation of the word ‘sound.’ One possible implication: in the beginning was the word. The corporation’s present is a hybrid, six division structure with entertainment functions music, games and pictures (film, TV networks and TV production) making up three of the six.

Naman Ramachandran Circle, the training program for female-identifying filmmakers, is taking a significant step forward after five successful years of its Women Doc Accelerator initiative. The organization is now venturing into the realm of fiction films with the launch of its inaugural program, Circle Fiction Orbit. This intensive one-week workshop aims to support directors who are developing their second or third fiction feature films and is scheduled to take place at the end of 2023 in Montenegro. The initiative was revealed at the Cannes Film Market on Thursday. The Fiction Orbit program will bring together a curated group of six to eight filmmakers, who will have the opportunity to work closely with leading experts in the industry. The workshop is designed to help participants identify their specific needs during the development of their projects. It will provide feedback on various aspects, including script development, legal considerations, production strategies, and even psychological support to assist them throughout their creative journey.

Shirley Ju May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and this year’s theme has been dubbed “Advancing Leaders Through Opportunity” by the Federal Asian Pacific American Council. While this organization works to support AAPI leaders in Federal and DC governments, the message is universal: to empower AAPI individuals to find success and growth in their careers — no matter what industry.

The reality competition version of Squid Game is coming later this year.

Anna Marie de la Fuente CinemaChile’s newly appointed executive director Ximena Baeza makes her Cannes debut as the promotional org presents its annual catalog at the Marché and a sizeable contingent of 27 Chilean production companies present their titles. Baeza, who was selected after a two-month headhunting process in which more than 160 applicants for the position were interviewed, comes armed with nearly 20 years of experience in the marketing and communications field. She was previously director of marketing and content at Imagen de Chile, a country brand agency. Her experience in the entertainment industry runs deep. She worked at Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN) for 15 years, where she was assistant manager of marketing and communications. She also held similar posts at Universal Music Chile, Telefónica CTC Chile and MusimundoChile.

For years, Netflix had focused squarely on subscriber growth and becoming the dominant player in the streaming world. That changed last year when, after a big market correction, Netflix made a course correction with a focus on profits, including an ad-supported tier which launched in November.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic In film after film, from “Nobody Knows” to “Shoplifters,” Japanese master Kore-eda Hirokazu has proven himself to be among the medium’s most humanistic directors, inclined to see the best in people, especially children. So how to reconcile the way “Monster” makes us feel? Returning to his native Japan after helming two relatively disappointing features abroad (“Broker” and “The Truth”), the 2018 Palme d’Or winner opens his latest Cannes competition entry with a building on fire — a “hostess bar” where lonely men seek female company — and fifth-grade Minato (Kurokawa Soya) watching the inferno from a nearby balcony. Kore-eda will return to this scene three times over the course of the film, folding the narrative back upon itself from a different angle each time, before finally revealing who set the blaze.

NetFlix.com was dropped in the mail. The movie was 1988’s “Beetlejuice,” from director Tim Burton with a cast that included a teenage Winona Ryder, who nearly 20 years later would be tapped to star in the series that has become one of Netflix’s signature original titles, “Stranger Things.” Last year, Burton directed the first four episodes of “Wednesday,” a hot property that turned Jenna Ortega into an overnight star. Those connections are just a few of the full-circle moments Netflix has marked in recent years as the upstart has become the establishment. The Silicon Valley-born company barreled into Hollywood a decade ago in search of shows that were edgy and distinctive and maybe even expensive.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox News Channel is considering “multiple scenarios” for its primetime lineup after the ouster of Tucker Carlson, with the network declining to comment on a recent report that veteran Sean Hannity might move into its 8 p.m. lead-off hour. “No decision has been made on a new primetime line-up and there are multiple scenarios under consideration,” Fox News said in a statement Wednesday. Fox News issued the comment in the wake of The Drudge Report posting the notion that Hannity would move to 8, while Jesse Watters, who has fared well at 7 p.m., would move into the primetime schedule, along with Greg Gutfeld, who hosts a late-night-styled 11 p.m. program. Such a move would have significant ramifications that would not dovetail with recent Fox News strategy. Gutfeld’s 11 p.m. program has been a break-out success with the network’s viewers, and part of a move that has extended the outlet’s opinion block from 7 p.m. to midnight. Watters’ show at 7 has also been considered successful, and he might seem like a natural successor to Carlson. Watters is also more right-leaning than others on the roster and he got his start making appearances at 8 p.m. on Bill O’Reilly’s show. But people familiar with Fox News say executives have suggested that Watters was doing well in the 7 p.m. hour he began anchoring in 2022 and may not be Carlson’s successor.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor A lot of TV companies are judged by how quickly they can introduce new shows. Warner Bros. Discovery thinks it may find some gains by developing new ways to introduce audiences to series and content that already exists The strategy has been playing out in open view on some of the company’s biggest cable networks. Audiences watching NBA basketball games have been pushed to sample series such as Food Network’s “Tournament of Champions,” HGTV’s “Rock The Block” and Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch.” And some portion decided to follow the programs back to their original homes for more. According to company research, 12% of TNT sports viewers who sampled “Tournament” went on to watch it on Food Network. Likewise, 10% of basketball fans that tried “Rock The Block” followed it to HGTV while 7% of viewers who tested “Deadliest Catch” watched more of it on Discovery.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Sabina Smitham has joined Graham Broadbent and Pete Czernin’s Blueprint Pictures, the producer of “Banshees of Inisherin,” as head of development. Reporting to head of film, Ben Knight, the new role will see Smitham manage the company’s development team and take the lead on expanding the company’s development slate. Smitham, an alumnus of the U.K.’s prestigious National Film and Television School’s master in producing program, joins from Disney+, where she oversaw the development of a range of projects for the Europe, Middle East and Africa Original Productions team. Prior to Disney she was a development producer at Faye Ward’s Fable Pictures.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Saudi Arabia is flying the flag at the Cannes Film Festival where the kingdom’s Cultural Development Fund officially unveiled two separate film sector funds worth a total of $180 million aimed at fostering the local film industry and attracting international industry players. At a breakfast event titled “A Billion Dollar Opportunity” Mohammed Bin Dayel, who is CEO of the Cultural Development Fund, and the fund’s chief strategy and business development officer Najla AlNomair announced an investment program with a budget of $80 million “that will target film and media production, distribution and infrastructure,” said Bin Dayel. He separately announced Saudi’s first film investment fund worth $100 million.