ITV to screen Love Island twice a year
Popular UK reality TV show Love Island is set to air twice a year as ITV looks to bolster declining ad revenues with a winter version of the show.
According to the Guardian, ITV, which reported a 5% dip in total advertising revenue in the first half of 2019, will add an additional series of Love Island during the British winter from 2020 onwards.
This new series will be filmed in a villa in South Africa and is set to air in early 2020, while the original summer series - currently ongoing - will contine to be filmed in Europe.
CBS claims spike in OTT after going dark on AT&T
Subscribers to AT&T’s DirecTV have lost access to CBS programming after the broadcaster and the telco failed to extend their partnerhip.
6.5 million DirecTV subscribers lost access to CBS and Nexstar due to the impasse, which has thus far shown no sign of ending.
CBS released a “fact sheet” claiming AT&T has dropped 178 stations across 120 markets in 2019, but AT&T says CBS has failed to respond to its latest offer.
According to Deadline, CBS claims the ongoing carraige dispute has led to a “dramatic spike” in registrations for its CBS All Access streaming service.
Iflix tops $50m in latest fundraising round
Asian streaming service Iflix has completed its latest round of funding, raising more than $50 million.
New investors include major institutional investor Fidelity, with a potential IPO on the horixzon for Iflix, according to Variety.
Iflix, which operates across 12 Asian countries, has previously recieved investments from the likes of JTBC, Yoshimoto Kogyo, MNC, and Sky.
Canal+ and Les Echos acquire Mezzo
Canal+ has partnered with Les Echos - Le Parisien Group to snap up pay TV operator Mezzo from the Lagardère Group and France Télévisions.
C21 Media reports that the deal means Les Echos and Canal+ will each own 50% of Mezzo, which operates pay TV channels Mezzo and Mezzo Live HD, which are dedicated to classical music, jazz and dance.
Mezzo is distributed across 80 countries into over 60 million households, holding rights to over 700 programmes.
Canal+ will manage sales to international operators via its Thema distribution arm and will take charge of broadcasting the channels and technical services for all modes of transmission, the report says.
Microsoft invest $1bn in OpenAI
Microsoft has ploughed a $1 billion investment into non-profit research organisation OpenAI as it looks to develop more AI solutions.
The investment, according to Mobile World Live, will help OpenAI gain support in building AI solutions with widely distributed economic benefits, as well as a hardware and software platform within Microsoft Azure.
OpenAI, which was founded in 2015, is backed by a number of high profile investors including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.
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