Pop network has named industry veteran and former Pivot general manager Kent Rees as its new chief marketing officer, the company announced Thursday.

In the newly created position, Rees will oversee the CBS/Lionsgate-owned cable network's brand strategy, creative and research in addition to consumer, ad sales and affiliate marketing duties, said network officials. Rees, who will report to Pop president Brad Schwartz, will also lead Pop’s digital business.

Rees was most recently general manager of the now defunct Pivot cable network where he oversaw the launch of such series as Please Like Me, Fortitude and Hit Record on TV. Prior to Pivot, Rees was head of marketing for Bedrocket Media Ventures, where he led brand and digital marketing for a series of YouTube channels.

“It is rare that you get to add such an accomplished media crusader, brand-builder and digital innovator to your executive team,” said Schwartz in a statement. “Kent has a demonstrated track record of building disruptive channels, break-through multi-platform brands and award-winning creative. As we leap from emerging network to prominent media brand, there is truly nobody better to help get us there. We are lucky to have him join our extraordinary team.”

Added Rees: “I am really excited to join Pop at this moment in time. It’s a fast-growing network with a lot of momentum already built. I look forward to accelerating the brand and digital growth as we prepare for a terrific slate of original programming in the near future. I love the energy that Pop brings to the brand and the viewer experience. It’s just a blast to watch.”

Hulu will stream the fourth season of comedy series Please Like Me as part of a partnership deal with Participant Media.

The Participant-produced series, which stars comedian Josh Thomas, had previously aired on the now defunct Pivot network. The new season of the comedy will stream on Hulu early next year, according to the company.

Thomas said in a prepared statement: “Thank you Hulu for rescuing our lovely little show! I hope you Americans enjoy it as much you enjoy soda.”

Hulu holds the rights to stream the previous three seasons of the Australian comedy series.  

Participant Media will shut down its thre- year-old Pivot network as part of a company restructuring effort, the company said Wednesday.

The service, which launched in 2013 with a focus on targeting millennials with original scripted and realirty content, will be disbanded after struggling to gain a foothold in what is a challenging cable tv landscape for independent networks, Participant Media CEO David Linde said in a statement.

RELATED: Pivot general manager Kent Rees on Pivot's outreach to millennials

Participant launched Pivot in 2013 after buying and then combining Documentary Channel and Halogen TV to create the service. 

"As the media landscape changes, we have been evaluating how we fulfill our mission to entertain and inspire social action around the world's most pressing issues,” Linde said. “That process has led us to the decision to move away from owning and operating a cable network.

The announcement, first reported by Variety, will allow Participant to focus on developing content. "While this conclusion was not an easy one, it is ultimately in the best interest of all our stakeholders, and allows us to allocate more resources toward the production of compelling content across all platforms," said Linde in a statement. 

As coverage of the cantankerous and unpredictable 2016 political election season draws big TV ratings for traditional cable-news networks, upstart channels targeting young millennials with political-themed content are campaigning online to reach one of the largest voting blocks in U.S. history.

Networks like Fusion, Revolt TV, Pivot and Fuse are looking to secure the votes of a politically engaged group of 18-to-34-year-olds looking for content that speaks to issues important to them — topics that aren’t always addressed by the cable news channels.

From online voter registration campaigns to millennial-focused reports from the major political party conventions to social-media initiatives on key issues such as immigration, police brutality and LGBT rights, network executives said it’s critical to provide content to millennials when and where they want it.

“We have seen from our audience that they are an active, socially relevant group, and they care about issues that can affect not only them but society at large, from Black Lives Matter to [the drinking-water crisis in] Flint to immigration issues and LGBT issues — this audience is vocal and they care about these issues,” Revolt TV CEO Keith Clinkscales said. “We wanted to make sure that we were uniquely positioned to impact the political conversation, and give the young people who consume our media an opportunity to amplify their voices.”

CROSSING PLATFORMS

To accomplish that, networks are taking a multiplatform approach to disseminating political news to an audience that watches less TV and spends more time online, executives said.

Millennials aged 18-34 may watch less live TV than any other demographic group, but they’re the most likely to use a connected-TV device such as Apple TV or Roku, according to a new Nielsen Total Audience Report for fourth-quarter 2015.

That age group also spent more than 11 hours per week using smartphones to access the Web and apps during fourth-quarter 2015, up from eight hours during the same period in 2014, according to Nielsen.

Millennials have followed the 2016 presidential campaign closely because the candidates have been so active on social media, David Quinn, senior brand lead for digital marketing firm Beamly, said.

“All the candidates are active on Twitter and using video on YouTube and have remained active in the political conversation with millennials,” Quinn said.

That leaves an opening for millennial-targeted networks to provide political content to an already engaged audience.

For Fuse, that means teaming with Hispanic-targeted, non-profit political organization Voto Latino to create a multiplatform initiative dubbed “Crash the Parties,” Fuse Media CEO Michael Schwimmer said. Millennial Latinos can vie for a chance to become Fuse reporters at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and the Democratic convention in Philadelphia.

Would-be reporters can submit a video to Fuse.tv for network viewers to vote on. Two winners will be chosen to represent the network at the conventions, providing frequent video updates both online and on he linear channel.

The network (then called Sí TV) ran a similar campaign with Voto Latino in 2008. “With the social media tools that are available in 2016 that were not available in 2008, it’s going to be even easier and more effective in getting out the word and getting people engaged in the process,” Schwimmer said.

Revolt’s “Revolt 2 Vote” initiative will include a weekly digital series on the revolt.tv website, featuring interviews with political leaders and insights from millennial thought leaders and influencers, Clinkscales said.

The music channel’s primarily digital political content will be headed by millennial journalist Amrit Singh as well as a “kitchen cabinet” of young political voices who will discuss the campaign on Revolt.tv and social-media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

“The main thing is we have digital coverage because that’s where millennials are aggregating political content, and then we’ll do some linear programming as well,” he said.

As some 93 million millennials will be of voting age going into this year’s election, Clinkscales said it’s imperative to provide them information to make informed decisions.

“More than 30 million young people stayed home in 2012,” he said. “[Turnout] was very low — one of the lowest numbers on record. The frustration that young people have with the American political system is an opportunity to make sure we provide them with the engagement they need.”

The emerging networks are also hoping to reach millennial viewers in a way the bigger, more mainstream news networks haven’t so far. While both Fox News Channel and CNN ranked among the top 10 most-watched cable networks among total viewers during the first quarter 2016 among total viewers, neither is among the top 15 networks within the 18-49 demo, according to Nielsen.

“Millennials are not turning on the TV and watching the cable news networks,” Quinn said. “The shows that are speaking to the group are from external video Web shows.”

“They have their hands full,” Clinkscales said. “We have the luxury of going after one of America’s largest generations ever — 93 million strong and 40% from communities of color. This is the time to understand what’s going on with this 18-to-34-year-old audience.”

GOING TO THE MOVIES

Pivot will take a different tack to inform millennials about the political process, relying on politically-themed movies throughout the summer to keep politics on the minds of its younger viewers, Pivot general manager Kent Rees said.

The network will feature such films as All the President’s Men, Wag the Dog and The Fog of War.

“We’re more contextualizing the political process through these films that we’ve identified,” Rees said. “Millennials crave context and they crave it in all different directions, and having them sit down and watch a fi lm that comments on the process in general as well as documentaries like Caucus that touch on how the process works.”

The network will feature around the #justvote public-awareness campaign, which encourages young people to register and vote. Rees said there often isn’t a lot of information in the marketplace as to how to vote, so the eff ort will explain the process to help get millennials to the voting booth.

“Their involvement is clear, and it’s a great way to galvanize them,” Rees said. “It’s the largest generation in American history, and they’ve only just begun to understand their power and the opportunities to affect change in the country at large.”

fuboTV, a virtual MVPD focused on cord-cutters and millennial audiences, said it has inked distribution deals with Univision Communications, Pivot and Revolt Media & TV.

Those agreements, it said, bring 15 new networks to its lineup, including Pivot, Revolt, Univision, UniMás, Univision Deportes, Galavisión and El Rey Network, among others. fuboTV noted that its deal with UCI (also a fuboTV investor) includes local broadcast stations from Univision and UniMás across 60 markets.

Those deals mark a significant programming expansion for fuboTV, an OTT service that initially focused on soccer via carriage deals with networks such as  beIN SPORTS, GoITV and Benfica TV. fuboTV secured a $4 million “A” round of funding last year (expanding total funding to $5.6 million), and recently joined up with Binge On, T-Mobile’s new, optional mobile streaming service that delivers video at 480p resolution and zero-rates streams delivered from content partners.

Update: fuboTV said it has 40,000 subscribers, putting it behind only Sling TV among providers in the virtual MVPD category. fuboTV launched in January 2015. 

“Signing these agreements with Univision, Pivot and REVOLT is a huge milestone for our company, as we work to grow fuboTV’s premium sports offering and complement it with entertainment content that appeals to young sports fans and other Millennials,” said David Gandler, co-founder and CEO of fuboTV, in a statement. “In the first year since our launch, we have quickly become the number-two virtual MVPD in the U.S., and we are confident that, through more partnerships and complex carriage agreements, we will continue to be positioned strongly as we build on our mission to bring consumers the video distribution platform they crave.”

fuboTV, which currently sells for $9.99 per month,  is offered on Web browsers, Amazon Fire TV devices, Android and iOS mobile devices, Apple TV, Google Chromecast, and Roku. 

Pivot, Participant Media’s two-year old network-aimed at digital-savvy millennials, is looking to reach that audience of 17-to-34-year-olds with content it hopes will inspire them to make positive change in the world. During the recent New York City Television Week, Pivot general manager Kent Rees spoke with Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about how that millennial generation will affect the future of television, as well as about Pivot’s plans for linear and digital distribution. An edited transcript of their conversation follows.

MCN:Two years in, how would you define the Pivot brand?

Kent Rees: Pivot is a network dedicated to content that inspires social change. It came out of our parent, Participant Media, and Participant was founded on the idea that if you show people content that inspires them and gives them different ways to take action on the most pressing issues facing the world, that they would want to get involved and do things directly. Pivot is the TV version of that same idea.

MCN:Pivot’s target is young, millennial audiences who aren’t predisposed to watching traditional television. How difficult is it to reach such a fluid audience base?

KR: We concentrate on a specific kind of millennial whom we call the conscious consumers. These are people who are passionate about the world around them, where their food comes from, what they’re children are eating — it’s really a psychographic and a mentality that is very unique and specifically intense within the millennial audience. They want to get involved, and they see Pivot as a credible resource for them as a way to be entertained and inspired at the same time.

MCN:How big a role will millennials play in defining television’s future?

KR: I think millennials are really reaping the benefits of the content explosion that you’ve seen over the last 10 years. They are not necessarily driving the change, but taking full advantage of the technological explosion in the industry and the opportunities that come from that.

MCN:How is Pivot taking advantage of the technological advancements in digital content distribution to reach millennial viewers?

KR: We offer an authenticated app that you can use to watch the network streaming on a 24-hour basis. We also have a lot of great digital content on our sister site, dubbed Takepart. com, where you can dig deeper into a lot of issues that we create.

I think a really great success story for us was [original series] Fortitude, which had a digital companion series where scientists went episode to episode and talked about the impact of what you saw in the episode and how it related back to global warming.

MCN:How do you see the television landscape developing over the next few years, and how does Pivot fit into that landscape?

KR: We’re bullish on the fact that television is an important way to reach people and a great way to provide content. That’s at the heart of what we do: it’s content that inspires social change, and I think TV is the perfect place to do that among all these other platforms.

Pivot Thursday said it will launch a new documentary-themed programming block and will develop a new investigative series as part of a slate of new and returning shows  announced during a morning upfront presentation to advertisers.

The documentary programming block, which will look to showcase impactful, award-winning documentaries, including ones never seen before on television, will air on Wednesdays beginning May 6 with the premiere of the Kristin Davis-produces special Gardeners Of Eden, said network officials.

The millennials-targeted network will also launch an new investigative series produced by Brian Knappenberger (The Internet’s Own Boy) that will look to reimagine journalism for the digital age.

Other shows in development include two investigative food-themed series Untitled Alex Gibney Project, Untitled Mark Bittman Project) an unscripted series starring comedian Wyatt Cenac (The Daily Show).

The network has also greenlit new seasons of Hit Record On Tv With Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Human Resources and Angry Planet. Pivot has also greenlight a new series Secret Lives Of Americans.

“With the return of popular series and addition of new originals and themed programming blocks, we have an exciting line-up that continues Pivot’s focus on entertainment that inspires,” said Kent Rees, the channel’s General Manager. “Pivot has distinguished itself as a network with compelling and award-winning content across a wide range of genres that keep audiences tuning in while encouraging them to take action on the issues that move them.”

On the digital front, Pivot said its offering TakePart.com will team with the National Urban League to create the “Save Our Cities” campaign focusing on issues facing urban communities and those individuals driving positive social change. The campaign, inspired by the National Urban League’s The State of Black America Report, will produce an editorial series and social action campaign on the five key issue areas highlighted in the report including social justice, employment, housing, health, and education, said network officials.

Pivot and Univison this Sunday will air the next installment of the documentary series Panoramica focusing on transgendered women.

The Dec. 14 Panoramica episode, Crossing Over: Stories of Immigration and Identity, follows the lives of three transgender women who left Mexico in hopes of building a life of safety and peace in Los Angeles, said network officials. The series is hosted by actress America Ferrera.

Pivot will air the documentary at 8 p.m. and Univision will air the show at 9 p.m., according to Univision officials.

“Crossing Over shines a light on an important and underrepresented aspect of US immigration through these deeply personal stories,” said Belisa Balaban, Pivot executive vice president of Programming. “Being transgender puts individuals in danger around the world, and we are privileged to share these stories of courage and perseverance.”

NBCUniversal has tapped former Pivot President Evan Shapiro as its new executive vice president of digital enterprises.

In the newly created position, Shapiro will focus on company-wide strategic development of digital opportunities to reach emerging audiences, said NBCUniversal. Shapiro, who will report to NBCU executive vice president Cesar Conde, will begin his new position Dec. 8.

Shapiro most recently was president of millennial-targeted network Pivot, where he oversaw its 2013 launch and was responsible for original programming and all aspects of the network’s business affairs. Prior to Pivot, Shapiro served as President of IFC TV and Sundance Channel.

“Evan brings a robust understanding of emerging media trends and extensive experience programming for the millennial audience to NBCUniversal,” said Conde in a statement.  “He’s a seasoned strategic thinker with a strong track record of programming, production and digital marketing successes. His leadership will be a key asset as we continue to navigate the evolving marketplace.”

Multiple networks are set to honor the troops on Veterans Day, presenting a host of series of documentaries, awards, tributes and more. Discovery Communications and Education, six Scripps Networks Interactive outlets, AHC, ESPN, Sportsman Channel, Reelz, INSP, HBO and Pivot are just some of the programmers involved.

The National Military Family Association, a nonprofit that works to protect military families, has paired with Discovery Communications for three Veterans Day events in New York City. A fundraiser reception, a comedy show and a float in the annual America's Parade will be included to support the troops and their families.

Six Scripps Networks Interactive outlets will roadblockA Hero’s Welcome (pictured), a special program that aims to honor one of our nation’s most deserving heroes in the biggest, most emotional, most memorable way imaginable. After serving his country for more than 25 years and recovering from life-threatening injuries, Staff Sergeant Tony Woods is preparing to retire from the military. He will return home to discover, with the help of Food Network’s Robert Irvine, HGTV’s Genevieve Gorder and Gary Sinise, the actor, humanitarian and founder of the Gary Sinise Foundation, a completely renovated house for Tony and his family to retire comfortably. Airing on Veterans Day across Food Network, HGTV, Cooking Channel, DIY Network, Travel Channel and Great American Country (click this link for primetime schedules), surprises and emotions will be on display as the team races around the clock to make sure they are ready to say “Welcome Home!”

The American Veterans Center Honors awards show will air on Reelz to honor the U.S. military on Nov. 15 at 5 p.m. Humanitarian Gary Sinise, Joe Mantegna, Lorraine Bracco, Mark Valley, Taylor Kitsch and Pat Sajak are some of the stars who will share the heroes stories over the past 75 years.

Sinise will also host the start of Sportman Channel's, Salute to Service initiative sponsored by Bravo Company, which will air the documentary MURPH: The Protector, back-to-back episodes of Beyond the Battlefield and an hour of NRA NEWS Cam & Co. The channel will also begin voting for the best in outdoor television for the 2014 Sportsman Choice Awards on Nov. 10.

American Heroes Channel will dedicate eight days of special programming in November, with the premiere of The Real Inglorious Bastards on Nov. 11 at 10 p.m. and a new episode of D-Day To Victory on Nov. 15 at 10 p.m. The shows are among the  highlights of "Duty, Honor and Courage Week."

ESPN plans to air a week of programming as well with the sports giant's sixth annual America’s Heroes initiative. Live, day-long coverage will take place with ESPN2’s First Take at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey on Nov. 10 and the Armed Forces Classic from the U.S. Coast Guard’s Air Station Borinquen in Puerto Rico on Nov. 14.

Pivot is set to premiere That Which I Love Destroys Me on Veterans Day, Nov. 11 at 7 p.m., to honor troops coming home with PTSD. Ric Roman Waugh’s documentary follow Veterans Tyler Grey (Delta Force) and Jayson Floyd (Army Ranger) through their personal and family struggles with the disorder.

The short film Not Forgotten will also premiere on Nov. 11 to tribute the POW/MIA service members on INSP, in partnership with The United States of America Vietnam War Commemoration.To view a screener of Not Forgotten, click here, and enter the password:moment. 

HBO is set to air The Concert For Valor, a live show saluting America’s veterans from the Mall in Washington, D.C., at 7 p.m. (ET) on Veteran’s Day. Artists scheduled to perform include The Black Keys, Bruce Springsteen, Carrie Underwood, Eminem and Metallica.

Discovery Education has taken a different route to commemorating the veterans, providing the first live, global, virtual field trip from the historic Tower of London. To honor the armed forces and Remembrance Day in the UK and Canada, students from the U.S. and Canada will have the opportunity to get a closer look into the First World War.

Sony Movie Channel has turned its “Mandays,” “The Recline” and “Friday Features” blocks to critically-acclaimed war films, military classics, and modern favorites. The month-long tribute is highlighted by the 2nd Annual “21 Film Salute Marathon,” as SMC honors Veterans Day with a two-day event starting Saturday, Nov. 8 at 5:20 a.m. ET, through Sunday, Nov. 9. The channel will present the 1982 miniseries The Blue and The Gray on Thanksgiving Day at 8 p.m. ET.

Pivot's news program 'TakePart Live' and TakePart.com have paired with the on-demand rideshare app, Lyft, to encourage voting in the midterm election on Nov. 4., the network announced today.

New Lyft riders will be eligible for a free ride up to $25, by using the code JustVote, from Oct. 24 to Nov. 4.

TakePart’s #JustVote campaign started the promotion with the intention to get voters to ‘think nationally, and vote locally.’ 

“Registering is just the first step, if you don’t get to the polls to vote your voice doesn’t count. I’m excited to have Lyft on board to close the last mile so there’s no excuse, everyone should Just Vote," said co-host Jacob Soboroff in a release.

The campaign joined Rock the Vote to promote voter registration, and now Lyft plans to help voters through the entire process.

"Voter turnout for mid-terms are always lower than Presidential elections-15-20% on average, and this time the entire House of Representatives and one–third of the Senate up for reelection this November, said EVP of Social Action for Participant Media, Chad Boettcher in a release. This is a pivotal vote!"

TakePart reports on-air and online election stories throughout the year until the 2016 Primary Elections. Hosted by Jacob Soboroff, Meghan McCain and Baratunde Thurston, TakePart Live airs Monday-Friday at 10 p.m.

Participant Media-owned social-action programmer Pivot said author Baratunde Thurston has joined the cast of weeknightly news program TakePart Live as the third co-host, with Jacob Soboroff and Meghan McCain.

Thurston, who has been a frequent guest on the show, is CEO and co-founder of the digital storytelling and marketing site Cultivated Wit, author of the best-selling book How To Be Black and a prolific keynote speaker. He also is former politics editor at The Onion and founded the black political blog Jack & Jill Politics.

TakePart Live (10 p.m. ET/7p.m. PT) is produced by Embassy Row. It originally debuted in August 2013, with Soboroff and Cara Santa Maria as hosts. It relaunched this past May with Soboroff, McCain and Eddie Huang as hosts, but Huang left after several weeks.

As the Canadian government readies hearings next week that could substantially reduce roaming rates for cellular telephone service, Montreal-based cable operator Cogeco Cable – which also has interests in the U.S. cable market – is contemplating creating its own wireless service for its customers.

Cogeco Cable already offers TV, Internet and landline phone service in Quebec and Ontario. In 2012, Cogeco purchased U.S. cable operator Atlantic Broadband in a deal worth about $1.36 billion.

In a statement, Cogeco said it would consider offering its own wireless service if the Canadian government manages to cut prices wireless networks charge to lease their lines. CEO Louis Audet has proposed creating a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) which would buy network airtime from carriers and resell it to customers.

“Given the high concentration in the Canadian mobile wireless market, Cogeco strongly believes that regulatory measures fostering the entry of MVNOs in addition to other measures will increase competition in the market and enhance consumer choice,”Audet said in a statement. “A regulated MVNO option would definitely be in the best interest of Canadian customers and businesses.”

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (the chief communications regulator in Canada, similar to the Federal Communications Commission in the U.S.) is scheduled to begin hearings on possibly regulating wholesale roaming rates next week. Cogeco is slated to testify before the CRTC on Sept. 29.

The regulatory agency has pushed for a fourth wireless competitor in the market to compete with Telus Corp., BCE Inc., and Rogers Communications, but hasn’t had much success. The three carriers currently control more than 90% of the wireless market in Canada, and Cogeco believes an MVNO, which would not have to spend the billions of dollars to build its own network, has a better chance of success.

In the U.S., the wireless business has been an elusive one for cable, dating back to the industry’s original partnership with Sprint PCS. Sprint, Comcast, Cox, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Network tried to partner again on a wireless service, called Pivot, which was abandoned in 2008.  In 2011, as part of its agreements to sell its wireless spectrum to Verizon Communications, Comcast, TWC and Bright House negotiated the right to co-market Verizon Wireless service with their cable packages. Cox, which didn’t sell its wireless spectrum in that deal, sold some of its licenses to Verizon later that same year, about a month after abandoning plans to build its own wireless network.

Pivot said it will launch on college campuses nationwide via the Philo live-TV streaming service. The Participant Media-owned programmer, which aims at millennial viewers, said the September launch will make Pivot available to more than a dozen universities as students are returning to school. Philo has told Multichannel News it now has deals in place with "dozens" of universities, but has identified the following 10 schools on its Web site: Yale University, Fort Hays State University, University of Washington, Roanoke College, Harvard University, Lubbock Christian University, Stanford, Wesleyan University, Pepperdine University, and William Patterson University of New Jersey.

Stephanie Ruyle, Pivot’s EVP of Distribution, said in a release: “As a network for millennials, we are very excited to now be carried on Philo’s system, which is made for our core audience.”

Pivot’s programming includes the recent Emmy-winning series HITRECORD ON TV, created by and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt; Please Like Me, created by and starring Josh Thomas (pictured), and news and entertainment talk show TakePart Live, hosted by Meghan McCain and Jacob Soboroff.

Philo, previously known as Tivli, uses a university’s existing IP network and existing contracts with satellite providers to securely stream television on a verified basis to student laptops, tablets, smartphones and TVs across participating campuses.

Comcast and HBO followed up their tech Emmys with more hardware, this time in the jury-selected interactive media arena.

They were among six juried award winners announced  Wednesday by The Television Academy Wednesday for Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Media for the 66th Emmy Awards.

In the User Experience and Visual Design category, Comcast was recognized for Xfinity TV On the X1 Platform, while HBO was recognized for the Game of Thrones Viewer’s Guide.

Discovery Channel’s Skywire Live with Nik Wallenda (in association with Peacock Productions, Discovery Digital Media and the Discovery Agency) got the prize for Multiplatform Storytelling.

Just A Reflektor (AATOAA, Google Creative Lab, and Unit9), an interactive short film, won for best Original Interactive Program.

Pivot’s HITRECORD On TV and National Geographic Channel’s Live From Space were both was recognized in the Social TV Experience category.

Emmy statuettes for these juried awards will be presented during the Creative Arts Emmy Awards at the Nokia Theater L.A. LIVE on Saturday, Aug. 16, and will produced by Spike Jones, Jr. This year’s telecast partner, FXM, will run an edited version of the awards on Sunday, Aug. 24 at 8 p.m. ET/PT and 10 pm ET/PT.

The Creative Arts Emmys will also be streamed in its entirely on Emmys.com at 3pm ET on Monday, Aug. 25.

Juried categories require all entrants to be screened by a panel of professionals in the peer group, with the possibility of one, more than one or no entry being awarded an Emmy. There are no nominees, but winners are instead picked in a one-step evaluation and voting procedure. Only those with unanimous approval win, according to The Television Academy noted.

Comcast and HBO were also among the Emmy winners in the Technology & Engineering category. Comcast was among four recognized for “Personalized Recommendation Engines for Video Discovery” for multichannel video programming distributors, while HBO (along with Netflix) was awarded for “Pioneering Development of 2nd Screen Navigable Mosaic for Direct Programmer Offerings to Consumers via the Internet.” 

Beverly Hills -- Millennials-targeted network Pivot TV has greenlit a third season of its original comedy series Please Like Me, the network announced Friday during its Television Critics Tour Association summer tour session.

The series, which stars comedian Josh Thomas as an awkward twentysomething looking for love, will debut its second season Aug. 8 after the premiere of echo-themed, docu-comedy Human Resources, said network executives. The third sesaon of Please Like Me will air somethime in 2015.

In other Pivot news, the network has greenlit the development of its first scripted drama, Fortitude. The series, which will debut in January 2015, chronicles the events following a brutal murder in the small, arctic town of Fortitude, said network officials. The network will also develop The Operatives, an original series spotlighting the exploits of a team of conservationists.

Pivot also announced an Oct. 17 premiere date for comic improv series Freestyle Love Supreme and Los Angeles entrepreneur-based show Welcome to Fairfax, said the network.

Pivot has launched “Pivot Creative Collective” (PCC), a new development initiative which offers a platform for emerging talent to develop new programming for the network. 

The program, which begins today and runs through June 8, gives content creators a chance to have their work seen by Pivot, with the possibility of the programming making its way to the network’s slate of scripted (drama, comedy and animation) originals. 

“We know that Pivot’s audience wants to hear from their peers and be entertained by programming that also says something about the world we live in. Through the PCC, we look to build a home for fresh voices and individuals who are passionate and take risks,” said Holly Hines, Senior Vice President, Scripted Programming for Pivot, in a statement.

The network expects to select a small group of artists with whom they will work in the development of a new series. More information about the submission process can be viewed here.