Ted Turner’s NCS Legacy & Cannes: International Insider

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Ted Turner‘s Legacy

“Generational entrepreneur”: The passing of Ted Turner aged 87 marks an historic second for worldwide tv. Without the American media mogul’s imaginative and prescient for NCS, there can be no 24-hour information cycle (adore it or detest it) and the cable enterprise wouldn’t have grow to be a power. Not solely that, however with out him worldwide TV wouldn’t have developed prefer it did. Along with the likes of Discovery founder John Hendricks and Nick Davatzes, Turner pioneered the idea of taking channels reminiscent of NCS, Cartoon Network and TNT (initially Turner Network Television) and launching them overseas. While producers ultimately started to demand possession of reveals and international streamers upended the rights market, Turner’s influence right here is lasting. Turner bought his enterprise to Time Warner in 1996 and his operation has continued in a single guise or one other since then. Now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), the Turner enterprise will later this 12 months grow to be a part of Paramount. WBD CEO David Zaslav hailed a “generational entrepreneur” who “did not just disrupt media… He transformed it,” whereas Turner’s nice rival Rupert Murdoch praised his imaginative and prescient for all-day information programming and known as him “a great American and friend.” U.S. President Donald Trump, a pal of Turner’s, wrote on Truth Social the media titan was “one of the greats of all time,” however by no means one to separate the tragedy from the politics, added that he believed Turner was “personally devastated” by what has grow to be of NCS. There’s no proof on the market that Turner believed the community had gone “woke,” as Trump claimed, however he did say in 2012 he regretted promoting and wished NCS aired “a little less fluff.” Whatever he thought, the media world is saying goodbye to a large.

Setting The Scene For Cannes

Lots of warmth: The 2026 Cannes Film Festival opens on Tuesday. When this 12 months’s lineup was introduced, there was lots commentary across the competition missing star energy. There are certainly no Hollywood studio titles in competition, however there’s nonetheless loads of warmth throughout the competition programme. Highlights embody The Man I Love, the newest from Ira Sachs; Pawel Pawlikowski’s Fatherland; Asghar Farhadi’s Parallel Stories; and Paper Tiger by James Gray. Other buzzy titles debuting in Cannes embody Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, the newest from Jane Schoenbrun, which screens within the UCR competitors. The movie stars Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson. There are additionally some heavy hitters exterior of the competition’s competitors strands. Nicolas Winding Refn returns with Her Private Hell, Steven Soderbergh will display screen John Lennon: The Last Interview, and Ron Howard will debut a brand new documentary challenge. Barbra Streisand and Peter Jackson are this 12 months’s honorary visitors and can obtain profession Palme d’Ors. Babs will get hers on closing evening, whereas Jackson will likely be feted on Tuesday. The opening movie would be the romantic comedy The Electric Kiss. As ever, we will likely be protecting you completely updated with happenings throughout the Riviera. Follow our Cannes protection here.

Big Week For Prime Video India

‘Makta’ king maker: Amazon has made clear how necessary India has grow to be as a development driver over current years. Nowhere has that been extra obvious than in streaming, the place Prime Video has greater than 20 million subscribers and free streamer Amazon MX Player attracts an estimated 290 million customers every month. Seriously large numbers. Market watchers have anticipated Amazon to merge these belongings because the tech big purchased MX Player in 2024, and this week two became one. Amazon MX Player will grow to be a part of streamer Prime Video, combining to create what’s definitely India’s largest assortment of streaming content material and probably the most important streamer general (JioHotstar may nonetheless have one thing to say about that). That wasn’t all for Prime Video this week, which additionally put a May 22 release date on anticipated film System and renewed its latest series hit, interval crime drama Makta King. In one of the crucial aggressive streaming markets on the market, The Boys streamer Amazon simply gave itself an enormous shot of Compound V.

The Essentials

🌶️ Hot One: Hats off to Lorne Michaels and co., as Saturday Night Live UK was renewed for an prolonged 12-episode second season on Sky.

🌶️ Another One: Matthew Rhys is leading BBC drama Dragon Slayers, which explores the work of an iconic British journalist, the late Sunday Times editor Harry Evans.

🔥 Hotter nonetheless: The Celebrity Traitors‘ star-packed season 2 within the UK will feature the likes of Bella Ramsey, Richard E. Grant and Michael Sheen.

🥷 More Traitorish conduct: A sure homicide thriller actuality competitors was officially named the top-selling new format of the 2020s.

🚪 Out the door: On the eve of Cannes, Alex Walton is exiting WME Independent, which is in flip exiting worldwide gross sales altogether.

📖 Analysis: Following the racial slur debacle, the BBC is nervously prepping for Sunday evening’s BAFTA TV Awards.

🎨 Getting artistic: Bosses from Channel 4, Sony Pictures Television and Paramount had their say on the UK’s Creative Cities Convention.

👻 Who ya gonna name?: Veteran spook catcher Dan Aykroyd officially boarded Netflix’s Ghostbusters animated collection.

🏆 Award winner: German collection The Flaws has been awarded the official competitors award at this 12 months’s Seriencamp competition in Cologne.

International Insider was written by Jesse Whittock and edited by Max Goldbart. Zac Ntim contributed.