Behind the Scenes with Wall Street, Disney and Verizon

WALL STREET HOT ON DISNEY+: Disney+ and Verizon announced a partnership in which current and new wireless customers will snag the Disney+ service free to all customers. Wall Street then revised estimates up for Disney+, which launches November 12^th. Research firm Moffett Nathanson now projects the subscription VOD service will snag 8 million subscribers by end of year 2019, and 18 million by 2020. Previously, 2 million subscriptions were predicted at the end of 2019, and 10 million for 2020.

CBS FRESHMAN CLASS ROCKING IT: CBS has renewed all five of its first-year series, including dramas Evil and All Rise and comedies Carol’s Second Act, The Unicorn, and Bob Abishola. “These terrific new series have attracted a passionate base of viewers and consistent ratings while delivering entertaining, inclusive and relevant storytelling every week,” said Kelly Kahl, president of CBS Entertainment.

LOUIS THEROUX LAUNCHES MINDHOUSE PRODUCTIONS: Louis Theroux, the cult documentary maker behind 2015’s film My Scientology Movie, has left BBC Studios to set up his own production company. Deadline reports that he launched Mindhouse Productions with exec producer Arron Fellows. The BBC will continue to work with Theroux. A BBC spokeswoman said: “Louis and the BBC have a strong and long-standing relationship. We look forward to continuing to work together and already have exciting projects in development for next year.”

RONAN FARROW TO LAUNCH CATCH AND KILL PODCAST SERIES: Pineapple Street Studios is set to launch a podcast with Ronan Farrow which will serve as an audio companion to his best-selling book, Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators. The podcast will drop debut in November, and will mirror the book’s depiction of his Harvey Weinstein takedown. “Catch and Kill is full of incredibly compelling men and women and this podcast will give you the opportunity to hear their voices directly, in intimate, candid conversations with me,” said Farrow in a statement. “We’ll provide a deeper understanding of the plot that unravels in the book and feature brand new details and pieces of evidence directly from the investigation.”