Members of 13 Hollywood locals of the IATSE have signed a new film and TV contract. The deal with management’s AMPTP will give 3% pay raises in each year of the three-year contract, “major improvements” for new media workers and has upped employer contributions to the union’s pension plan by 18 cents per hour. For the first time in the union’s history, employers will also contribute to IATSE’s Entertainment and Exhibition Industries Training Trust Fund, which provides safety training for motion picture workers covered under the deal.
Black-ish series creator Kenya Barris has signed a three-year overall deal with ABC Studios, the studio behind her series. Under the deal, she will continue as executive producer/co-showrunner on the show and develop new television projects for network, cable, and streaming services. Black-ish is a certified hit and finished the 2014-15 season as the highest rated first-year comedy series in adults 18-49, averaging a 2.9 rating. In addition, Black-ish swept all TV comedy categories at the NAACP Image Awards.
As mentioned in SSN’s TV Development this week, The Big Bang Theory’s Simon Helberg has signed an exclusive two-year pod deal with Warner Bros Television. Under the pact, Helberg and his wife, writer-director-actress Jocelyn Towne, will develop series for the studio via their new production shingle, Wildline Entertainment. They are currently developing two series. One is a half-hour comedy that Helberg will script and another is a drama entitled Legacy of Kings about Alexander the Great, based on the book by Eleanor Herman that was won after a bidding war. Under the deal, they’ve also hired Cora Olson to head development and supervise projects for the studio. She has produced six features, including the Sundance hit Good Dick and Chris Denham’s thriller Preservation.
Eric Kripke has signed a two-year overall deal with Sony Pictures Television. The producer created Supernatural. Under the deal, he will develop new projects for the studio. This is a major shift for Kripke who formerly had a deal with Warner Bros. TV, beginning in 2008. There he developed the long-running Supernatural for the CW along with NBC’s Revolution.
Netflix has joined forces with its first partner in Asia, Japanese digital giant Softbank to launch a video-streaming service in the country. The Netflix app will also be pre-installed on Softbank smartphones that go on sale this fall. Netflix will also be available in Portugal, Spain, and Italy later this year and China in 2016.
As mentioned in SSN’s Exec Shuffle, Amazon has inked a multiyear content-licensing deal with Open Road Films landing Prime Instant Video exclusive streaming rights to theatrical releases. Films coming to Prime users starting in 2017 include Fifty Shades of Black, thriller Triple 9 and Mother’s Day.
National Cinemedia has inked a long term data licensing agreement with Movio, which specializes in marketing data, analysis, insights, and campaign creation and management for theatrical exhibitors, studios and film distributors. NCM is the first licensed user for Movio’s “Movio Media” market research platform, which offers insights into U.S. moviegoers’ behavior.
Bravo, E!, and Oxygen have launched a cross-network partnership with mobile app Dubsmash. Fans can have the opportunity to become a part of shows on the three networks by creating their own buzzy moments from upcoming episodes with the top fan-creations to be collected in a special on-air Dubsmash Social Edition.
Viki, a video streaming web site based in Singapore that provides on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies and music videos from around the globe, has bought Soompi, the world’s largest English-language online media company providing complete coverage of Korean pop culture, from Crunchyroll/Chernin. Soompi has close to seven million unique visitors per month.