Top Stories

KUALA LUMPUR: Asian HD channel Life Inspired is debuting its brand-new original series Lifestyle Advocates on September 18.

LOS ANGELES: Netflix has renewed the sports documentary series Last Chance U, which takes a behind-the-scenes look at the world of junior college football, for a second season.

LONDON: Scripps Networks Interactive has appointed industry veteran and former A+E Networks UK executive Kasia Jablonska as VP of affiliate sales for EMEA.

LONDON: A+E Networks UK has commissioned the new documentary series Combat Ships for broadcast on H2 early next year.

NEW YORK: FYI has given the go-ahead to Downtown Shabby, a new series from 3 Ball Entertainment featuring renovation and design experts Frank and Sherry Fontana.

MANHATTAN BEACH: 3 Ball Entertainment, which is behind such unscripted series as Bar Rescue and My Cat from Hell, has tapped Jeff Altrock as senior VP of current programming.

SEATTLE: The new Amazon original docuseries American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story will make use of archival footage, interviews and cinematic reenactments to tell the story of Playboy magazine’s founder.

LONDON: David Glover, the former head of specialist factual at Channel 4, and Mark Raphael, joint managing director of Dragonfly, have set up a new independent production outfit, which is backed by BBC Worldwide.

NEW YORK: Olivier Widmaier Picasso, the grandson of Pablo Picasso, and Scott Woodward, the executive VP of programming and production at Ovation TV, met with World Screen Newsflash to discuss Picasso, The Legacy and share insight into what viewers may learn from the documentary that they didn’t know before.

MAINZ: ZDF Enterprises has secured worldwide distribution rights for the three-part documentary The Celts: Blood, Iron & Sacrifice from Gruppe 5.