Al Jazeera America’s closure is a sad moment for the documentary community. AJ’s documentary team led by Diana El-Osta and Cynthia Kane has supported quality films that are finding fewer slots elsewhere in the North American channels landscape. In fact, we were working this week with AJA on a Case Study of an important documentary …
We read last week that Australian conservationist Harry Butler had passed away in Perth. He is a largely forgotten but breakout talent who helped propel Discovery from battling startup to global giant. Discovery Channel was then searching for its identity and brand, as it struggled to make payroll from week to week. It’s hard to imagine, but …
Two press releases jumped out this week: one from Nat Geo and the other from Showtime. First off, National Geographic Partners announced its senior leadership team. NG Partners is the entity formed in September when the venerable National Geographic Society (Nat Geo 1.0) sold its stake in the channels as well as its magazine and …
The National Geographic Society has announced the largest employee layoff in its venerable history. The move comes weeks before NGS expands its content partnership with Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox. The Washington Post‘s Paul Farhi covers the layoffs here. The headline: “National Geographic chief says layoffs done to avert financial derailment.” Watch out for coverage of …
We continue our updated coverage of POV, the flagship PBS documentary strand with a peak audience of 1.9Mn viewers. In this post: What is POV’s selection process, from Open Call to Offer? The Filters. Timeline? Who decides? What are your odds? Read POV Revealed, Part 1. Also: POV‘s 2015 and 2014 selections. SELECTION PROCESS Filters: Great non-fiction storytelling. Address social …
A welcome new face at MIPDoc was Elizabeth Hendricks North, President of Curiosity Project LLC. She was in Cannes to promote the ad-free Subscription VOD (SVOD) service CuriosityStream, launched in March to focus on premium factual content. Elizabeth’s father is Discovery Channel founder and industry legend John Hendricks. Mission The CuriosityStream mission is to apply …
According to last Friday’s regulatory filing by Discovery Communications, in the first year of his new contract, CEO David Zaslav earned $156.1 million, up from $33.3 million in 2013. The package covers: $3 million in salary. $94.6 million in stock awards that vest over six years if Discovery achieves certain goals. $50.5 million in option …
I was in the middle of arranging a workshop in Thessaloniki sponsored by EDN, the European Documentary Network, when news broke of the Copenhagen attacks. The events turned out to be closer to our friends than we could have imagined. I learned from EDN’s Ove Jensen that murdered filmmaker Finn Norgaard shared an office with his …