Extra: CPL Productions extends pact with Red Arrow Studios; Principal Media strikes deal for true crime series

CPL Productions leadership team extends pact with Red Arrow Studios Danielle Lux (pictured, left), Murray Boland (center) and Janet Oakes (right), executives of UK-based CPL Productions, have signed an extension of their ...

March 1, 2021

CPL Productions leadership team extends pact with Red Arrow Studios

Danielle Lux (pictured, left), Murray Boland (center) and Janet Oakes (right), executives of UK-based CPL Productions, have signed an extension of their multi-year deal with Red Arrow Studios.

The prodco became part of Red Arrow Studios in 2012. Notable recent productions include the upcoming Channel 4 quiz series Quizness (working title); Sky One’s double BAFTA-winning series A League of Their Own, now in its 15th season and The Restaurant That Makes Mistakes, among many others.

Red Arrow Studios International distributes all of CPL’s content, with global tape and format sales including A League of Their Own, Married at First Sight UK, and Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds, which has sold as a format to over 14 territories.

Principal Media strikes doc series deal with Canal Plus

Global content licensing and channel distribution company Principal Media has inked a licensing deal with France’s Canal Plus for the true crime series How to Survive a Murder.

Produced by Intuitive Content and Lura Pictures for Reelz, with Andrew Zimmern, Patrick Weiland and John MacGibbon serving as executive producers, the four-part series is an account of MacGibbon’s personal investigation into the murder of his mother-in-law, a 76-year-old college professor who was stabbed more than 35 times in her apartment in historic Plymouth, Massachusetts.

How to Survive a Murder premiered on Reelz in the U.S. and on Sky in the UK last year though licensing deals brokered by Principal Media. The company represents worldwide rights for the series.

ViacomCBS UK takes MTV Play to set-top boxes via Virgin TV

ViacomCBS Networks UK (VCN UK) is bringing its direct-to-consumer SVOD streaming service, MTV Play, to Virgin TV. The deal will bring Virgin TV audiences hundreds of hours of MTV long form content, by accessing the MTV Play app through a Virgin TV set-top box.

MTV Play, which targets MTV’s younger, mobile first demo, is home to MTV UK’s youth-focused reality programming. The app, which made its debut via Apple’s App Store and Google Play in 2019, features catch-up content from MTV, including the latest episodes of blockbuster hit shows such as Teen Mom UK, and an extensive library of boxset content from MTV titles including Geordie Shore, Ex on the Beach and The Hills. The app also provides a live linear stream of MTV UK, in addition to short form digital original series.

MTV Play is the latest ViacomCBS offering to be added to Virgin TV. Channel 5′s VOD service My5 and Pluto TV both launched on Virgin TV in 2020.