LONDON, February 8: BSkyB is relinquishing its battle to retain 17.9 percent of ITV, formally committing to reducing its interest in the British broadcasting group.

PARIS, February 8: MIPDoc has issued a call for projects to be included in its new Co-Productions Seeking Funding initiative, produced in association with World Screen.

COPENHAGEN, February 8: Modern Times Group has acquired a 50-percent interest in the Russian DTH platform Raduga TV, which offers more than 50 channels to its 70,000 subscribers.

NEW YORK, February 8: Andrea Wong is leaving her post as president and CEO of Lifetime Entertainment Services, just a few months after the company was acquired by A&E Television Networks.

LONDON, February 8: The story of a young Boy George and his path to stardom in the '80s fashion and pop-music scene is chronicled in Worried About the Boy, a BBC Two drama from Red Production Company.

STOCKHOLM, February 8: Viasat Broadcasting has unveiled a new subscription video-on-demand service for its Viasat OnDemand online portal in Sweden, Denmark and Norway.

LONDON, February 8: MTV Networks Poland has secured carriage with Cyfrowy Polsat for its Comedy Central channel.

NEW YORK, February 8: E1 Television and E1 Music are partnering with recording artist Faith Evans to release a new studio album and reality series, It's All About Faith.

BOGATA, February 8: Caracol Television’s Without Breasts There is No Paradise is being adapted for the Italian market, with a local version in production for Mediaset.

SYDNEY, February 8: XYZnetworks has entered into a multi-year volume deal with RDF Rights to acquire a minimum of 300 hours of first-run exclusive content for its portfolio of channels, including The LifeStyle Channel, LifeStyle YOU and LifeStyle FOOD.

LONDON, February 8: ALL3MEDIA International has signed a new deal that sees its formats catalogue represented exclusively in Flemish-speaking Belgium by BGoodMedia.

ATLANTA, February 8: China International TV Corporation (CITVC), a division of Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, has inked a deal with Castalia Communications to take its content to Latin America.

MONTREAL, February 8: TELETOON and Sardine Productions are developing a new 52x11-minute series, tentatively titled Tim, about an ordinary boy who finds himself inexplicably as a cartoon character in an animated world.

LONDON/NEW YORK, February 8: Babelgum has taken on the exclusive rights to Paul Morrison's Little Ashes for the U.K., and is opening the film for streaming on its online platform starting today.

CHATSWORTH, February 8: Image Entertainment has appointed Ray Gagnon, who has worked in the home-entertainment industry for more than two decades, as executive VP of worldwide sales.

NEW YORK, February 8: Daniel Lewis has been named to the newly created role of director of new media communications at Sesame Workshop, where he will work to leverage social media to extend the company's reach.

BURBANK, February 8: Bruce Kalish is to serve as showrunner for Cookie Jar Entertainment's new series Mudpit, produced by the company's teen and adult label, The Jar.

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 5: Brian Roberts, the chairman and CEO of Comcast Corporation, and Jeff Zucker, the president and CEO of NBC Universal, testified in front of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet yesterday, making the case for the Comcast/GE joint venture for control of NBCU.

CULVER CITY, February 5: Michael Grindon is stepping down from his role as the president of international at Sony Pictures Television next month after more than two decades with the studio.

LONDON/TORONTO, February 5: Endemol Worldwide Distribution has licensed The Marriage Ref, Jerry Seinfeld's upcoming series for NBC, to Citytv in Canada.

BURBANK, February 5: Hulu is launching a branded ABC News page featuring short-form content as well as long-form series such as Good Morning America.

SANTA MONICA, February 5: Ryan O'Hara is stepping down as president of TV Guide Network and TVGuide.com to take up a New York-based post that will be announced next week.

ST. LOUIS/NEW YORK, February 5: Charter Communications is to launch EPIX in May, adding to existing carriage on Verizon's FiOS TV service and Cox Communications cable platform to make the new premium entertainment service available to some 16 million homes.

TOKYO, February 5: Japanese pubcaster NHK is combining its production subsidiary, NHK Enterprises, Inc. (NEP), with its international arm, Media International Corporation (MICO), effective April 1.

TORONTO, February 5: Canada's CTV has slated three new original series, including the drama The Bridge, to launch next month following its coverage of the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.

SINGAPORE/HONG KONG, February 5: AXN is bringing back its original production The Amazing Race Asia for a fourth season, following three successful runs on the channel.

NEW YORK, February 5: The European and Asian feeds of Sundance Channel will feature the crime series Intelligence starting February 11, kicking off with special 90-minute premiere, followed by hour-long episodes every Thursday night.

BEIJING/SINGAPORE, February 5: MTV Networks China has entered into a deal with CCTV.com to launch an online destination for Chinese audiences that features a range of Nickelodeon-branded content.

SINGAPORE, February 5: SingTel's mio TV has taken the exclusive broadcast rights in Singapore to the 2009/2010 Carling Cup Final, which will take place February 28 between Manchester United and Aston Villa.

TORONTO, February 5: A further season of 13 episodes of the series Star Portraits is being produced by PTV Productions for Bravo! in Canada.