International Insider: Ted Turner’s Legacy; Cannes Scene Setter; Prime Video India

Welcome back to Insider City, traveller. Jesse Whittock on the keyboard today to walk you through the biggest TV and film news from around the globe. Sign up to the newsletter here.

Ted Turner‘s Legacy

“Generational entrepreneur”: The passing of Ted Turner aged 87 marks an historic moment for international television. Without the American media mogul’s vision for CNN, there would be no 24-hour news cycle (love it or loathe it) and the cable business wouldn’t have become a force. Not only that, but without him international TV would not have evolved like it did. Along with the likes of Discovery founder John Hendricks and Nick Davatzes, Turner pioneered the concept of taking channels such as CNN, Cartoon Network and TNT (initially Turner Network Television) and launching them abroad. While producers eventually began to demand ownership of shows and global streamers upended the rights market, Turner’s impact here is lasting. Turner sold his business to Time Warner in 1996 and his operation has continued in one guise or another since then. Now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), the Turner business will later this year become part of Paramount. WBD CEO David Zaslav hailed a “generational entrepreneur” who “did not just disrupt media… He transformed it,” while Turner’s great rival Rupert Murdoch praised his vision for all-day news programming and called him “a great American and friend.” U.S. President Donald Trump, a friend of Turner’s, wrote on Truth Social the media titan was “one of the greats of all time,” but never one to separate the tragedy from the politics, added that he believed Turner was “personally devastated” by what has become of CNN. There’s no evidence out there that Turner believed the network had gone “woke,” as Trump claimed, but he did say in 2012 he regretted selling and wished CNN aired “a little less fluff.” Whatever he thought, the media world is saying goodbye to a giant.

Setting The Scene For Cannes

Lots of heat: The 2026 Cannes Film Festival opens on Tuesday. When this year’s lineup was announced, there was plenty commentary around the festival lacking star power. There are indeed no Hollywood studio titles in competition, but there’s still a lot of heat across the festival programme. Highlights include The Man I Lovethe latest from Ira Sachs; Pawel Pawlikowski’s Fatherland; Asghar Farhadi’s Parallel Stories; and Paper Tiger by James Gray. Other buzzy titles debuting in Cannes include Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, the latest from Jane Schoenbrun, which screens in the UCR competition. The film stars Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson. There are also some heavy hitters outside of the festival’s competition strands. Nicolas Winding Refn returns with Her Private HellSteven Soderbergh will screen John Lennon: The Last Interviewand Ron Howard will debut a new documentary project. Barbra Streisand and Peter Jackson are this year’s honorary guests and will receive career Palme d’Ors. Babs will get hers on closing night, while Jackson will be feted on Tuesday. The opening film will be the romantic comedy The Electric Kiss. As ever, we will be keeping you totally up to date with happenings across the Riviera. Follow our Cannes coverage here.

Big Week For Prime Video India

‘Power’ king maker: Amazon has made clear how important India has become as a growth driver over recent years. Nowhere has that been more apparent than in streaming, where Prime Video has more than 20 million subscribers and free streamer Amazon MX Player attracts an estimated 290 million users each month. Seriously big numbers. Market watchers have expected Amazon to merge those assets since the tech giant bought MX Player in 2024, and this week two became one. Amazon MX Player will become part of streamer Prime Video, combining to create what is certainly India’s largest collection of streaming content and potentially the biggest streamer overall (JioHotstar might still have something to say about that). That wasn’t all for Prime Video this week, which also put a May 22 release date on anticipated movie System and renewed its latest series hit, period crime drama Makta King. In one of the most competitive streaming markets out there, The Boys streamer Amazon just gave itself a big shot of Compound V.

The Essentials

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

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

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

🥷 More Traitorish behavior: A certain murder mystery reality competition 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 turn exiting international sales altogether.

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

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

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

🏆 Award winner: German series The Flaws has been awarded the official competition award at this year’s Seriencamp festival in Cologne.

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