Netflix commissioned its highest number of new titles since the third quarter of 2021, while Amazon Prime Video set an all time record for its quarterly content production, according to a report from Ampere Analysis.

In fact, Netflix and Amazon commissioned more than half of all global SVOD original titles in the first financial quarter of 2024, the research company said. 

Ampere noted that the trend was spurred by investment in global content, with both Netflix and Amazon ordering the majority of their originals outside the U.S.

Also Read: Netflix Tops Among ‘Must-Keep’ TV Brands for Fifth-Straight Year

“The market saturation in North America, the growing cost of production, and the lingering impact of the Hollywood strikes have pushed Netflix and Amazon to increase investment in international productions to stimulate subscriber growth,” Mariana Enriquez Denton Bustinza, senior researcher at Ampere Analysis, said in a statement.

“While several studio-backed SVODs have made cutbacks internationally,” Bustinza added. “These two streaming giants are doubling down on their localized global strategy.”

In fact, Ampere predicts that Netflix and Amazon’s international content spending, which has already increased sizably over the past few years, will continue to rise as streamers look to combat slow domestic growth expanding internationally.

"For Netflix, this means catering to a broad subscriber base while leaning on markets whose productions offer the greatest potential for crossover appeal," Bustinza added. "Meanwhile, Amazon’s approach remains more heavily targeted towards key markets such as India, while it leverages its global position to expand further into the theatrical market to generate downstream revenues from its platforms.”

In fact, Ampere claims that Netflix’s Western European commissions already almost achieved parity with North American titles for the first time in Q1 2024.

Asia-Pacific titles also saw a significant increase in popularity, led by India, South Korea and Thailand.

Netflix, which announced in April that it would reduce the quantity of expensive big-budget films it releases, has reportedly upped its international movie orders to compensate in territories like the Nordics, Asia-Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa.

That makes sense, as a report in June by analytics firm Omdia indicated that, in some international regions like South Korea, Netflix content that's shot locally can attract nearly three times the viewership of English counterparts.

As for Amazon, the majority of its international commissions during the first quarter of 2024 came from India, with 37 total titles.

That’s more than the previous six quarters combined, and a 32% increase from Amazon’s Indian slate in Q2 2022.

Not only can you get cheaper, better healthcare in Western Europe and the Nordic regions, but starting Oct. 26, you can get HBO Max for less, too. 

In fact, it's cheaper than Netflix.

On Tuesday morning, WarnerMedia unveiled yet more details, including pricing, for its much discussed European expansion, which starts Oct. 26 when the subscription streaming service launches in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Spain and Andorra.

The media company also released teasers for anticipated upcoming series, including Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, Sex and the City spinoff And Just Like That… . (Videos are posted below.)

First the Euro distribution info:

WarnerMedia has aggressively priced HBO Max in the six European countries it's initially entering. (See graphic below.)

Not only is WarnerMedia undercutting pricing for existing linear HBO subscriptions in these primarily Nordic nations that comprise the initial phase of its Euro launch, HBO Max is also priced below Netflix in most of these countries. 

Subscribers who pay HBO Max's annual 599 Danish Krone freight in Denmark, for example, end up coughing up only $5.72 (USD) a month. Netflix's cheapest plan in Denmark costs 79 Kr, or around $9.04 (USD). 

In Sweden, HBO Max subscribers who agree to the 699 Krona rate end up paying only around $6.75 a month (USD), vs. around $10.20 for the cheapest Netflix price.

In Finland, HBO Max users who sign up at an annual rate end up paying only around 5.83 Euros ($6.78 USD), vs. 7.99 Euros ($9.15 USD) for Netflix. 

WarnerMedia also announced that starting this year in the Nordics, local subscribers will be treated to the short 45-day wait for theatrical movies that HBO subscribers in the U.S. will have. 

And the streaming provider will also have local language releases, including Kamikaze (Denmark), Todo lo Otro (Spain), Venga Juan (Spain), Garcia! (Spain), Beforeigners season 2 (Norway), Ruxx (Romania), The Informant (Hungary), The Thaw (Poland), and Still Here (Poland).

Following the Oct. 26 initial deployment, HBO Max will become available in the 14 additional territories in 2022: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. 

On Tuesday, the company added Netherlands, Turkey, Greece, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to the list of European markets getting HBO Max in 2022.

Meanwhile, mixing pleasure with international distribution business, HBO Max teased some of its anticipated programming events, starting with a short video of Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker, introducing herself simply as, "Sarah Jessica" to a rapt fan base who knows her pretty well by now, while revealing only a single useful tidbit of information--a "December" release date for spinoff And Just Like That... 

HBO Max, meanwhile, released a full trailer for House of the Dragon, which stars Wil Johnson, John Macmillian, Savannah Steyn and Theo Nate, and is set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones.

HBO Max will begin its long-anticipated European deployment this fall in Spain and the Nordic region, with Portugal, along with territories in Central and Eastern Europe, following in 2022.

The update came from Priya Dogra, who serves as president of parent company WarnerMedia's Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) operations, as well as Asian initiatives outside China. Dogra was speaking at the Series Mania television festival in  Lille, France, an event covered by The Hollywood Reporter and several other showbiz trades. 

“Europe is a huge priority for us,” Dogra said. “We now have the U.S. and Latin America under our belt, we feel very good about those successes there and the growth that we’re seeing. Europe is a complicated market, but it’s an exciting one.”

As it does in the U.S. and Latin America, where it's already deployed, HBO Max will supply Europe with a full range of WarnerMedia programming--HBO and Turner Networks shows, Warner Bros. movies, DC Comics-inspired programs, etc. But according to Dogra, localized programming will be a priority in the region. 

“We really want our business here to feel like it is of the market in which we operate,” Dogra said. “So in France that needs to be like a French business and in the U.K. the same way ... “We like stories that contextualize the world and society around them, and so we’re looking forward to not just being part of the local creative communities, but helping them develop as well."

Dogra spoke alongside Christina Sulebakk, who recently replaced Hervé Payan as CEO of HBO Europe. Sulebakk previously served as executive VP, CMO and head of distribution for the company. 

The long-awaited European invasion of the powerful Roku/TCL alliance is finally at hand, with TCL announcing models and retail availability for Roku-powered HD and 4K smart TVs in the UK ranging in sizes from 32 to 65 inches, and priced starting at around £229 ($319).

According to a news release published late last week by Chinese electronics maker TCL, interested UK customers can sign up at Currys.co.UK to receive a £20 discount and notification as to when these TCL sets can finally be purchased. 

Models will span from the 32-inch HD RS520K to the full-featured, 65-inch 4K UHD RP620K. In the UK, the TCL TVs will support streaming services including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, Apple TV Plus, BT Sport, BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4 and My 5.

TCL announced almost a year ago that it was expanding its successful U.S. partnership with Roku to Europe and South America. 

Roku has emerged as the most powerful gatekeeper in the U.S. OTT market, largely on the fast adoption of low-priced TCL sets powered by its operating system. In the span of only around three years, Roku-powered TCL smart TV’s overtook market leader Samsung as the No. 1 selling smart TV brand. Factoring in other smart TV OEM partnerships, with companies including Hisense, Roku is now the top smart TV operating system in the U.S. and Canada, controlling more than one-third of sales. 

In Europe, however, both Roku and TCL are not nearly as well infiltrated. Samsung controls the biggest smart TV market share, with 31% of the market using TVs powers by Samsung’s proprietary Tizen OS, according to Statista. 

Google, meanwhile, is the top-selling overall smart home brand—a category that includes smart TV, but also gadgets like smart speakers—controlling 18.1% of the overall market, according to International Data Corp. Not only does Google have a strong third-party OEM presence for Android TV/Google TV OS for smart TVs, the OS is also proliferate via pay TV distribution of Android TV Operator Tier. 

“The combination of our affordable premium TVs with Roku’s operating system, offers consumers excellent picture quality and ease of use, alongside a huge variety of features and streaming channels. I am confident that this partnership will help us maintain our strong UK sales growth and increase our market share,” said Bernie Chen, TCL’s UK country manager, in a statement. 

Added Arthur van Rest, VP of international at Roku: “TCL was one of the first TV brands to embrace the Roku OS and together we have created numerous award-winning TVs with great picture quality and ease of use. TCL Roku TV models are powered by the Roku OS offering consumers simplicity, choice and incredible value. The Roku OS offers consumers an always current smart TV experience, it is not without reason that the Roku OS is the No. 1 selling smart TV OS in the U.S. and Canada.”

Bernstein media analyst Todd Juenger said Tuesday that Netflix could be readying widespread price hikes across Western Europe this year, in line with its earlier increases in the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and Argentina.

Juenger tracked Netflix pricing across 50 countries and said the SVOD giant’s strategy is pretty clear -- increase pricing every two years; raise charges aggressively for its Premium package, moderately on its Standard plan and rarely on its Basic plan. He added that on average, the price increases are in the mid-single digits.

“After very little pricing activity in 2020, evidence is growing that we will see widespread pricing increases in 2021,” Juenger wrote in a note to clients, pointing to “significant” price increases in Q1 in the U.K., Germany (bringing pricing in line with Austria and Ireland); Japan and Argentina. 

Netflix raised pricing for its Standard plan in Canada by about $1 per month and by $2 per month for its Premium plan in early October and three weeks later raised pricing for Standard and Premium plans in the U.S. by similar levels. Juenger estimates that Austria, Ireland and Germany could prove to be similarly “leading indicators” for price hikes in Europe, “perhaps a more gradual roll-out across the Continent rather than one uniform, lockstep pricing change.”

In the United Kingdom, Netflix raised prices for its Standard plan by $1 per month (11%) and by $2 per month for its Premium plan (17%) in January. That same month German customers saw pricing for the Standard plan rise 8% and 13% for the Premium plan. In Japan, Netflix said in February that it would raise prices for the Basic and Standard plans by 13% each. The biggest percentage hikes were in Argentina, where Netflix said in Q1 that  it would raise pricing for all tiers --  Basic (40%), Standard (44%) and Premium (49%). Juenger added that the increases in Argentina were likely due to high inflation rates in Latin America and efforts to account for the decline in exchange rates compared to the U.S. dollar over the past year. He said that Netflix rates in Argentina are roughly 60% lower than in the U.S., in U.S. currency.

Netflix has been under some pressure recently as some analysts have pointed out that the service has lost as much as 31% of its global market share (despite gaining 40 million customers) given the increase in competition from new streaming services like Disney Plus, HBO Max, Paramount Plus and Peacock. 

On Tuesday, Netflix stock was up as much as 2.5% ($13.49 each) to $554.16 each in early trading, a day after  Evercore ISI Group internet analyst Mark Mahaney assumed coverage of the company, upgrading his rating on Netflix stock to “outperform” and raising his price target on the stock to $665 per share. Mahaney was encouraged by Netflix’s large cash position, which enables it to invest in more content, which in turn leads to more subscribers. Adding to that strength is Netflix’s massive platform coupled with a global recommendation algorithm that the analyst wrote has the power to transform good content into global sensations. As an example he pointed to shows like The Queen’s Gambit, which he wrote on its own made “chess cool again.”  

“Simply put, a dollar spent at Netflix arguably creates more marketing power than any other platform, generating greater leverage and potentially more subs,” Mahaney continued.

Disney Plus is responsible for 18% of all internet video traffic coming over peering connections in some European countries, according to new data released today by Nokia Deepfield.

The broadband analytics firm’s data bite is among a steady stream of snapshots indicating that Disney Plus, which enjoyed an extraordinary Nov. 12 launch in North America, is also doing well in Western Europe. The SVOD service launched last week in UK, Austria, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.

Also read: Disney Plus Downloaded 5M Times in 1st Day of Euro Rollout

Parrot Analytics, a company that measures viewer interests in movies and TV shows with a proprietary metric it calls “demand expressions,” said this week that Disney Plus’ first signature original series, The Mandalorian, ranked No. 1 using the demand expressions measuring stick in all seven European countries in which it has debuted.

Parrot Analytics said that in Germany, demand for The Mandalorian is more than 43 times higher than it is for the average TV series. 

Meanwhile, App Annie—which reported last week that 5 million Disney Plus app downloads were conducted in Europe on launch day—said the Disney Plus app continues to rank No. 1 in iOS downloads across its seven-nation European deployment. 

Disney Plus is set to launch in France and India next week. 

The Disney Plus app was downloaded 5 million times on its launch day earlier this week in the UK, Austria, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Switzerland, according to research firm App Annie.

For comparison, when Disney Plus launched in North America on November 12, App Annie registered 3.1 million app downloads for the service. Disney Plus registered 28.6 million subscribers from November 12 through December 31. 

Also read: Disney Plus Int’l Expansion Will ‘Ride Existing Infrastructure’ Already Built Out by Netflix: Analyst

App downloads don’t translate directly into subscriptions. For example, a single subscription can translate into multiple downloads, with multiple family members outfitting all of their respective devices. 

Also read: Disney Plus: How It Went From Zero to 28.6 Million in Less Than Three Months

But the large number portends a swift uptake that is predicted for a territory with time on its hands due to COVID-19 social distancing, and a preference for Disney’s well-travelled programming brands. 

Amid massive global disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Walt Disney Company moved forward of its expansion of Disney Plus, debuting the streaming service on Tuesday in the UK, as well as Austria, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.

"We humbly hope that this service can bring some much-needed moments of respite for families during these difficult times,” said Kevin Mayer, chairman of Direct-to-Consumer & International for Disney, in a statement.

Subscribers in the UK pay £5.99 per month for Disney Plus, or £59.99 for a full year. Outside the UK, European residents can expect to pay €6.99 per month, or €69.99 a year.

Disney had earlier pushed back its launch of the platform in France to April 7, the same day Disney Plus will debut in Eastern Europe.

At the behest of bandwidth-concerned European regulators, Disney has agreed to lower the initial bitrate of the service to standard definition resolution, a move it says will reduce its load on local telecom networks by 25%. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV Plus, YouTube and Facebook are also doing this.

Disney Plus enjoyed a spectacular North American launch, signing up 28.6 million customers from its November 12 debut through December 31. 

Amid massive global disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Walt Disney Company moved forward of its expansion of Disney Plus, debuting the streaming service on Tuesday in the UK, as well as Austria, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.

"We humbly hope that this service can bring some much-needed moments of respite for families during these difficult times,” said Kevin Mayer, chairman of Direct-to-Consumer & International for Disney, in a statement.

Subscribers in the UK pay £5.99 per month for Disney Plus, or £59.99 for a full year. Outside the UK, European residents can expect to pay €6.99 per month, or €69.99 a year.

Disney had earlier pushed back its launch of the platform in France to April 7, the same day Disney Plus will debut in Eastern Europe. 

At the behest of bandwidth-concerned European regulators, Disney has agreed to lower the initial bitrate of the service to standard definition resolution, a move it says will reduce its load on local telecom networks by 25%. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV Plus, YouTube and Facebook are also doing this. 

Notably, Disney Plus users in the United Kingdom are already complaining about how The Simpsons, which has run for nearly 30 years on broadcast TV in a 4:3 aspect ratio, is being awkwardly played in the native 16:9 format of Disney Plus. This is also something U.S. customers have griped about. 

Disney Plus enjoyed a spectacular North American launch, signing up 28.6 million customers from its November 12 debut through December 31. 

A host of major streaming services have joined Netflix and YouTube in temporarily lowering their bitrate for the European market. 

The move to reduce bitrate quality to standard definition was announced over the weekend for Disney Plus, Apple TV Plus, Amazon Prime Video and Facebook. 

The move comes after European Union officials personally contacted high-ranking executives to American streaming services operating in their region and asked them to lighten the load on their networks. With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing people to work and school from home all over the world, regulators fear that broadband network capacities will buckle under the stress of video streaming. 

Also read: YouTube Joins Netflix in Cutting Euro Video Quality to Standard Def

Netflix has said that its reduction in bitrate will reduce its traffic load in Europe by 25%.

“We support the need for careful management of telecom services to ensure they can handle the increased internet demand with so many people now at home full-time due to Covid-19,” a a Netflix spokesperson told The Guardian. “Prime Video is working with local authorities and internet service providers where needed to help mitigate any network congestion.”

So far, none of the major streaming services has announced a similar adjustment for the U.S. market. 

In both the U.S. and the UK, lobbying groups for the major telecoms have signaled that their constituencies’ networks were up to the task. 

”At this stage, new traffic patterns are being effectively handled by engineers as per standard network operations," Lise Fuhr, director general of the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association, said in a statement. "We support the European Commission's effort to ensure that national governments and national regulators have all the tools they need to keep networks strong across the continent.”

For its part, Disney Plus is set to launch in Europe on Tuesday (March 24). Disney said it will proceed with its plans to debut the SVOD service in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria and Switzerland. But it will be delayed in France until April 7 at the behest of the French government. 

The Walt Disney Company has announced plans to accelerate the launch date for Disney+ in Europe to March 24, a week earlier than previously announced. 

The media company also said the new streaming service will be priced at the U.S. dollar equivalent of $8 a month when it debuts on March 24 in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria and Switzerland.

Related: Disney+ Most Downloaded Mobile App in U.S. in Q4 with 31M

Disney+ is already available in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and The Netherlands. Last week, a HarrisX poll suggested that nearly one quarter of U.S. streaming homes signed onto the service in the fourth quarter. Disney+ launched in North America on November 12. 

A+E Networks said it will acquire full ownership of A+E Networks Germany by buying out its partner in the joint venture, NBCUniversal International.

A+E Networks Germany operates History and A&E in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and the Alto Adige region of Italy.

Financial details were not disclosed. A+E and NBCU have been partners for 12 years. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval.

“We are incredibly proud of the success we have achieved with our partner NBCUniversal International since 2005,” said Sean Cohan, president, international and digital for A+E Networks. “With powerful brands, History and A&E, and a talented local team, we look forward to building on that success with strategic investment in local programming and new linear and digital services to grow our audiences in one of the world’s largest media markets.”

A+E has been looking to increase its ownership of its international operations. It owns all, or a majority of, its operations in Southeast Asia, Italy and Japan, and is launching an outlet in Korea in the fall.

NBCUI will continue to provide key services to A+E Networks in German-speaking Europe over the coming years, the companies said.

CBS Corp. signed a long-term licensing agreement with Sky making Sky Atlantic the exclusive home of Showtime programming across a big chunk of Europe.

Sky had previously licensed Showtime programming on a show-by-show basis.

The deal includes new and future Showtime series including Billions and the upcoming return of Twin Peaks. Also included are current shows such as Ray Donovan and The Affair, as well as on-demand access to the Showtime catalog including Californication, Dexter and Nurse Jackie.

CBS said this is the largest and most expansive international deal to date for Showtime and its first deal that spans multiple European territories.

Consolidation fever, in full swing in the U.S., is beginning to make its way over to Europe as major telecom players like Vodafone and BT (formerly British Telecom) move to snap up cable companies, making traditional consolidators like Liberty Global seem more prey than predator.

Liberty Global is the largest cable operator in Europe, with 27 million subscribers, and has spent the past few years adding to its portfolio.

Deals like its 2013 purchase of Virgin Media for $16 billion, making it the largest cable operator in the U.K, and the 2011 acquisition of German cable company KBW for $4.48 billion, cementing its status as the No. 2 MSO there, helped secure its status as the continent’s dominant cable operator.

LGI also agreed to buy the remaining interest in Dutch cable operator Ziggo it didn’t already own for $13.7 billion.

VODAFONE FACTOR

While Liberty has been quiet on the deal front since the Ziggo announcement this past January, it’s been trying. It lost out twice to U.K. mobile phone behemoth Vodafone on high-profile deals: buying Kabel Deutschland, Germany’s largest cable operator ($10 billion) and Ono, Spain’s largest cable operator ($8.9 billion).

Now, Vodafone is hunting for even more cable properties in the wake of BT’s preliminary talks with mobile carriers O2 (a unit of Spain’s Telefónica) and EE (a joint venture between Deutsche Telekom and France’s Orange).

Liberty Global could find itself even further out of the mix.

As a result, Liberty Global has been identified as a potential takeover target, with Vodafone reportedly investigating the feasibility of a deal.

Most analysts believe a takeover of LGI is possible, but it would be for a high price. Some estimates value a Liberty Global purchase at about $91 billion — which would seem to be a bit of an overreaction to a potential BT-O2 pairing valued at about $15 billion.

Liberty Global declined to comment. Reports say Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao, at an investor meeting in England, denied planning a takeover of Liberty Global, though he’d entertain the idea of an acquisition of LGI’s German properties. Elevation LLC media analyst Steve Sweeney said in a note to clients that while a deal isn’t particularly likely, “we have probably not heard the last of the chatter regarding a potential [Liberty Global-Vodafone] deal.”

Liberty Global and its chairman, John Malone, could sell to Vodafone at the right price, but face no pressure to do so, Pivotal Research Group principal and senior media & communications analyst Jeff Wlodarczak said.

“Liberty Global is in the first inning of attacking the business opportunity, the second inning of their wireless MVNO [mobile virtual network operator] strategy, have plenty of growth left in core markets such as Germany and are in the early stages of synergy benefits in U.K. and Netherlands,” Wlodarczak said.Liberty Global has been knee deep in the mobile waters. In 2012 it launched what it hopes to be a Pan-European mobile MVNO, cutting deals with several carriers to provide its own branded mobile service.

That’s why Wlodarczak doesn’t believe Liberty Global is particularly interested in wireless acquisitions. It’s having success with the MVNO product and, rapidly expanding its WiFi footprint, could use that technology to offer a dual mode phone service in the future if needed.

Consolidation among wireless carriers in Europe is going strong partly because competition is so fierce that operators want ways to differentiate their services.

SUPPLY AND DEMAND

As the deal volume climbs, so do the prices.

According to SNL Kagan, Vodafone paid about $10.6 billion for Kabel Deutschland’s 8 million customers in 2013, and a year later forked over $9.9 billion for Ono’s 800,000 subscribers.

Still, other parts of the continent are ripe for consolidation.

Kagan recently noted that Poland, which has 89% TV penetration, has an extremely fragmented cable market, with about 500 companies providing service. Only six of those providers serve 100,000 customers or more.

Opportunities for consolidation continue in France, Spain and Greece, with properties such as Bouygues Telecom, Jazztel and Nova attracting interest.

Liberty Global hasn’t been totally shut out of deals. After whiffing on Kabel Deutschland and Ono, it bought content assets, including production house All3Media in May with Discovery Communications for about $862 million and a 6.4% interest in the U.K’s top commercial broadcaster ITV for about $750 million.

“I still see lots of little deals for LGI,” Wlodarczak said, pointing to several smaller cable properties scattered across the continent that still could be ripe for the taking.

Vivid Entertainment is looking to gain a linear lay of the land on The Continent next month.

The adult film company said it will launch VividTV Europe on Nov. 1, supplementing its traditional erotic fare with the highest-quality European content available.

News of the European service comes on the heels of last week’s announcement of a Vivid partnership with adult broadcaster Sex-Shop Television Inc. north of the border, where it will rebrand its Vanessa TV to VividTV Canada on Oct. 28.

Led by Tony Cochi, executive vice president worldwide distribution of VividTV, and Stephen Walter, senior vice president of business development for Canada and Europe, the new linear channel, will be available on Astra 1L 19.2° East as well as via fiber, and will complement Vivid’s extant European video on-demand distribution.  

Bill Asher, co-chairman of Vivid Entertainment, said distribution deals with several major European operators will be announced shortly.

VividTV launched its 24/7 linear channel in 2013 and the company said the network quickly became the top-performing adult service in over 70 million homes across North and South America.  Vivid extended its U.S. service to Europe in April of this year. 

“In order for any channel to truly be successful it must have a local flavor and appeal to the constituency of the territory,” Asher said. “VividTV Europe is designed specifically for the European market. The channel will deliver the most popular content in Europe, both through acquisitions as well as programming from Vivid Entertainment, owner of the largest single adult studio archive.”

The porn purveyor said European viewers will see exclusive, never-before-seen footage from the Vivid Celeb line, which includes sexually explicit videos starring Kim Kardashian, Tila Tequila, Pamela Anderson, Kendra Wilkinson, Montana Fishburne, among others, plus pop icon superhero parodies, award-winning series like Brand New Faces and 100% Real Swingers and genre features.

With a new name for the network in place, Mark Golub is setting his sights on a bigger footprint for the Jewish Broadcasting Service -- both in the U.S. and abroad.

Golub, the president and executive producer of Jewish Broadcasting Service, which was rebranded from Shalom TV on Sept. 24, believes the network will gain carriage on telco Verizon FiOS before the end of 2014, and gain a foothold in Europe next year.

He said the conversion on the morning of when the community celebrates Rosh Hashanah is more indicative of what the network is today.

“The whole channel is predicated on the PBS model. We don’t feel that Shalom TV conveyed where the network is, or is reflective of the programming we deliver,” said Golub. “We’re like a Jewish-oriented PBS.”

Golub said Shalom TV resonated with many people through its “peaceful overtones,”  but the moniker often raised many questions in the minds of the uninitiated.

“People would think it was in the Hebrew language, or ask if it was an American or religious channel," he said.

While JBS is the only American network to present on-air services during the high holidays and on Friday nights for the elderly and immobile, its scope is much wider.

The network trades on a mix of public affairs programming, major event coverage, twice-daily educational children's programming, plus Jewish studies programs that enable viewers to learn to read Hebrew and study the Talmud. JBS will also continue to serve as television home of the 92nd Street Y's presentations from the Kaufman Auditorium, and deliver a Jewish Film Festival with multiple movies each week.

Golub said Shalom TV distinguished itself this summer among Jewish leaders and Jewish and non-Jewish viewers as the only channel on American television to concentrate on the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on a daily basis.  A wide array of notable Jewish and non-Jewish figures, reflecting the entire political spectrum have participated in the ongoing series, Israel In Turmoil.

He also noted that JBS morphed from Shaltom TV because the latter was "a hair too parochial," while adding it also shared a name of Christian-oriented channel in Malaysia. “In the early days, there was a lot of confusion, and it still comes up from time to time on searches.

He also believes the new name is a better calling card for its expansion plans beyond these borders. Golub said the network has engaged in conversations with a number of international distributors for dubbed versions of the English-language channel.

Naturally, Golub is looking toward a position in Israel, and has had talks with SKY for carriage in the U.K. JBS is also eyeing launches in eastern and western parts of The Continent

“There has been a wave of anti-Semitism in Western Europe of late. We believe JBS provides lovely, alternative perspectives of Jewish life and culture," he said, “I would not be surprised if in 2015 JBS gains distribution outside the U.S."

Stateside, JBS is looking to butress its linear presence. After bowing as video on demand service with Comcast in 2006, Shalom TV over the years gained a VOD foothold across the nation with on-demand deals with providers, reaching more than 40 million households.

The service in 2012 secured its first linear berth on Cablevision systems serving the New York DMA. It also has carriage with RCN in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Maryland and Virginia; in Miami Beach via Atlantic Broadband; Metrocast in Maine and New Hampshire; Service Electric in Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, Emmaus, Penn. and Hunterdon, NJ; Hot Wire Communications in Miami, Manhattan and New Jersey; Blue Ridge Communications in Penn.; and Google Fiber in Kansas City, and Provo, Utah, plus an upcoming launch in Austin, Tex.  The service also has a Roku channel, can be streamed on the JBS website www.jbstv.org, and heard on Tune In Radio.

About a year ago, it exited the VOD space, commiting itself toward a model steeped in linear positioning.  To that end, Golub is confident JBS will launch in a couple of Verizon FiOS markets before the close of 2014, without disclosing the DMAs. He also wants to land on three of the nation's largest distributors.

“We’re in talks with Comcast, Time Warner Cable and DirecTV that will hopefully result in carriage next year,” said Golub.  

As JBS builds its linear base, it eventually plans to return to its carriage beginnings. “We’re going to look to add video on demand a bit later,” said Golub.

In the meantime, the network’s roots live on in another way: Promos with the likes of Dr. Ruth Westheimer saying “You’re watching Shalom TV on JBS” will air and the former name is uttered in archival interview programming with the likes of a lawyer Alan Dershowitz.

“It’s embedded in some of our existing shows,” said Golub. “We’re not dropping the Shalom TV name entirely.”