BeIN Media Group launches kiddie channel in Middle East
‘O.J. is Innocent’ lands at ID
LOS ANGELES, April 1, (RTRS): BeIN Media Group, the expanding Qatarbased broadcaster that recently acquired Miramax, is launching kiddie channel beJunior in tandem with Munich-based Studio 100 Media.
The co-branded channel will be beamed to beIN pay-TV subscribers across the Middle East and North Africa, in a significant further indication of its ambitions to become a MENA pay-TV powerhouse.
Studio 100 Media will provide the entire on-air set up of beJunior, including designs and scheduling and full content supply. The channel, which will launch on April 1, will replicate the concept of Studio 100’s “Junior” pay TV channel in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
It will beam shows from Studio 100’s extensive library of classics as well as modern CGI series’ “Maya the Bee,” “Vic the Viking” and “Heidi.” Upcoming highlights in the next few years will be the CGI series’ “The Wild Adventures of Blinky Bill,” “Nils Holgersson” and “Arthur and the Minimoys,” which Studio 100 Media will be unveiling at this year’s Mip.
Set up as a sports Al Jazeera spin-off in 2014, Doha-based beIN Media Group has more than 30 channels worldwide aired mostly across the Middle East and North Africa, but also in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. It controls top Turkish paybox Digiturk and sports channels in France, Spain the U.S. and Australia.
They began officially expanding from sports into movies in recent months with several multimillion output deals to fuel two channels, beIN Movies 1 and 2, which launched late last year. These mark an Arab pay-TV landscape game changer in the region where until recently Dubai-based OSN was the single paybox offering movies, original programming and general entertainment.
Earlier this month they acquired Miramax for an undisclosed sum.
“We launched our own branded movie entertainment channels in November 2015. Now we want to expand the portfolio of our branded channels by launching beJunior,” said Yousef Al-Obaidly, the company’s deputy CEO (pictured) in a statement.
Investigation Discovery is diving back into the weeds of the O.J. Simpson murder case by greenlighting the docu series “Hard Evidence: OJ Is Innocent.”
The six-episode series, targeted to premiere early next year, promises to offer new evidence and a new theory about the 1994 double murder of Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman. Simpson was acquitted of the charges in 1995 after the nearly year-long “trial of the century” that has been revisited in FX’s “The People V. O.J. Simpson” limited series, which wraps its 10-episode run on Tuesday.
Matt LeBlanc takes the wheel in the first trailer for the new, rebooted season of “Top Gear.”
“I’m going to have a good long talk with the wardrobe department ... with a stick,” LeBlanc, who dons a starred and striped patriotic helmet that matches his mini car, says in the teaser.
The first-look video includes clips from episodes shot in the US, UK, France, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates, and spotlights cars like the Aston Martin Vulcan, Ferrari F12 TDF and Ariel Nomad.
Conan O’Brien’s next stop will be South Korea.
TBS will broadcast a special extended episode of late-night show “Conan” featuring the host’s recent visit to South Korea, the network announced Wednesday. The special, “Conan in Korea,” is set to premiere Saturday, April 9, at 11 p.m. and will feature O’Brien traveling the country with “The Walking Dead” star and Korean-American actor Steven Yeun. The two will visit Seoul and other parts of the country, including the Korean Demilitarized Zone and the Joint Security Area.
Russell Crowe will join “Saturday Night Live’s” first-timers hosting club when he makes his debut on the latenight program next month, NBC announced Thursday. He’ll join another first-timer, Peter Dinklage, who’s hosting this week, while Julia Louis-Dreyfus is also set to return for a third time.
Crowe is set to host April 9, with musical guest Margo Price. The Academy Award-winning actor can next be seen alongside Ryan Gosling in the feature film “The Nice Guys,” out May 20. Country artist Margo Price, whose debut album “Midwest Farmer’s Daughter” was released to rave reviews last week, is aboard as a first-time musical guest.