‘Hollyoaks’ Goes Global; OSN Lands Max/Warner Originals; ‘The Jury: Murder Trial’ Maker Gets Investment — Global Briefs

Jesse Whittock and Max Goldbart
·3-min read

Channel 4’s ‘Hollyoaks’ Makes International Soap History

Long-running Channel 4 series Hollyoaks has made history as the first UK soap to be made available on YouTube around the world. People living abroad will be able to stream full episodes for free, coming a few months after Channel 4 moved to a digital-first approach for episodes in the UK, while reducing weekly episode count from five to three. There will be 20 episodes in total for viewers to stream before joining the same daily drop pattern as UK YouTube subs. The series has previously been available on Hulu in the U.S. and has been running for nearly 30 years. “Hollyoaks is always synonymous with digital firsts and I am delighted that the show’s global audience will now be able to find and watch episodes when they want on YouTube,” said Kate Little, who runs the show’s producer, Lime Pictures.

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OSN Lands Warner Bros & Max Originals

Middle Eastern pay-TV broadcaster OSN has struck an exclusive multi-year deal with Warner Bros Discovery for rights to new Max originals and Warner Bros Pictures feature films. The deal gives OSN subscribers access to Pay 1 features after their theatrical tuns and includes Barbie, Wonka and Dune: Part Two, along with Max originals Dune: Prophecy and The Penguin. The agreement also includes Warner Bros network and off-network shows, titles from the CW, library content and more. This includes upcoming shows Rescue: HI-Surf, which was attracting buzz at the LA Screenings, and Emperor of Ocean Park. OSN is already home to HBO programs in the Middle East and North African region. “Today we strengthen our longstanding partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery with yet another exclusive deal that will further expand OSN+ and OSNtv’s content libraries and bring the studio’s biggest global films and new Max Originals to our platforms first,” said Joe Kawkabani, Group CEO at OSN.

‘The Jury: Murder Trial’ Maker ScreenDog Sells Minority Stake

ScreenDog Productions, the UK prodcuer behind The Jury: Murder Trial, has sold a minority stake to Edition Capital and appointed indie sector financing specialist Mark Raeburn as CFO. Edition, which bills itself as the UK’s leading early-stage leisure and entertainment investor, will provide new financing for ScreenDog to help it scale up and finance more productions. With the UK’s unscripted sector hit by a huge cashflow slowdown, the investment is a notable development. Part of the money has been used to hire Raeburn, the former Channel 4 content finance chief. He also held senior financial roles at Freedom Scripted, Minnow Films, Curious Films and Renowned Films among others. During his eight years at Channel 4, he oversaw a budget of £700M ($895M). ““Having already worked with Ed and the Screendog management team in helping secure and get the investment over the line, I’m really excited to join a very talented team in an ongoing capacity with a remit of helping to continue to grow the business and achieve its long term ambitions,” he said.

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