Zodiak Media and Banijay Entertainment have officially merged. The new company will have a presence in more than 18 territories. Zodiak was part of the De Agostini Group and created in June 2010 following the acquisition of the RDF Media Group. Zodiak owns RDF Television, IWC and Bwark in the UK. Banijay meanwhile owns Bunim/Murray, Stephen David Entertainment and international companies Brainpool (Germany), Screentime (Australia) and Nordisk (Scandinavia) among others. Under the deal, Banijay owner Stéphane Courbit chairman and Banijay chief executive Marco Bassetti will continue as chief executives.
Ovation TV has signed a deal with YouTube channel Kuma Films. Ovation TV will feature Kuma Films' popular performance videos, as well as new segments with the filmmakers in an original TV documentary special that explores their spectacular work and creative process. The special is slated to premiere in the fall on Ovation TV and VOD.
Larysa Kondracki has inked a one-year directing and first-look development deal with Starz. Under the deal she will direct an episode of the upcoming series Powers. In 2010, Kondracki co-wrote and directed the film, The Whistleblower starring Rachel Weisz. Her TV directing credits include episodes of The Americans, Halt and Catch Fire, The Walking Dead and Graceland. She is repped by Verve, Writ Large and attorney Linda Lichter.
Ovation TV has also inked a deal with YouTube creator David Poland. Under the deal he will develop a series of specials called Celebrity Conversations, based on his star-studded YouTube channel DP/30: The Oral History of Hollywood. Featuring David's off-the-cuff interview style, the specials will spotlight actor Jake Gyllenhal and director Antoine Fuqua beginning July 22 on Ovation TV. More specials are in the works and will premiere throughout the year and will also be available on VOD.
Al Roker’s Roker Labs, the new innovation-centric arm of Al Roker Entertainment has distributed three shows on Meerkat, framed around the Today show anchor’s passion for cooking. The first episode, which ran on July 27, featured Roker interviewing executives from food delivery startup Plated in the company's New York test kitchen. Roker has been an early Meerkat adopter, and has used it to broadcast live in New York.
Media tech company Technicolor has bought Cisco Systems’ set-top box and home broadband equipment business for an estimated $600 million. This makes Technicolor the second largest holder of customer equipment behind Arris Group/Pace with sales totaling $3.3 billion. The deal doubles the annual revenue at Technicolor’s connected-home unit, as they will now ship 60 million devices and install roughly 290 million set-top boxes annually.
Univision launched its new digital influencer program, Univision Creator Network, at VidCon and signed Vine and YouTube creators who together garner 118 million video views monthly. The creators will be part of a community where they can work together and brainstorm on programming, video resources and advertising revenue options.
Univision scored a long-term partnership with Snapchat to start with the Gold Cup soccer final on July 26. Univision Deportes and Snapchat previously partnered for the USA versus Mexico soccer friendly via a Live Story in April. The two companies are working to develop a Live Stories installment based on the Copa America Centenario tournament next summer.