NATPE News, Netflix 4Q Top List of Programming Stories

Here are our top five cable programming news bytes for the week of January 18:

NATPE Notebook: Lots of news coming out of NATPE in Miami this week, including execs pondering the plethora of quality programming, serialized content, and reality TV hits today.

Netflix 4Q: This week’s fourth quarter earnings call from Netflix revealed that the company will have spent approximately a billion dollars on branded or original content this year. Another highlight was its global expansion: up next is China. Read more here.

Football and Ratings: College football took the top five spots in ratings for 18-49s last week, according to Nielsen. It beat out last week’s Republican debate. Also on the ratings front: Showtime’s new scripted series “Billions” scored 2.99 million viewers (including views from being sampled across platforms ahead of Sunday’s premiere), making it the best premiere ever for a Showtime original.

Univision’s Onion: Univision will acquire a controlling stake (40%) of satirical news site The Onion. It’s a move that bolster’s the company’s recent interest towards younger audiences and humor. Reports say that millennial-focused network Fusion was instrumental in the decision to acquire the company.

Lip Syncing: Many have you have seen it—which is why it’s getting renewed for a third season. Spike’s “Lip Sync Battle” is shattering the network’s ratings. If you haven’t seen Channing Tatum battle his wife, you must.