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LONDON: Sony Pictures Television (SPT) Networks has inked a carriage deal with Virgin Media for Sony Entertainment Television (SET), which is now available in 13.8 million U.K. households. In addition to Virgin Media, the female-skewed, entertainment channel, already reaches Sky’s 10 million basic pay-TV subscribers. The channel will feature series …

LONDON: Channel 5 has notified Ofcom that it is not going to proceed with its application for the fifth HD capacity slot on the Freeview digital platform. Freeview HD currently offers four channels: BBC One HD, BBC HD (which is set to turn into BBC Two HD), ITV1 HD and Channel 4 …

MOSCOW: Anton Kudryashov, the CEO of Russia’s CTC Media, has stepped down, with the company’s chief financial officer, Boris Podolsky, taking over on an interim basis until a permanent replacement has been appointed. Kudryashov has exited by "mutual agreement," said a statement from CTC Media. He had been CEO since 2008. …

HELSINKI: Finnish parliamentary group leaders have decided to replace the 80-year-old license-fee system of funding for the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) with a new tax model. Starting in 2013, YLE will be funded by a fee that is collected by the Finnish tax authorities. The money will also be allocated …

PARIS/LUXEMBOURG/WARSAW: France’s Canal+ has firmed up a deal to merge its Polish pay-TV service, Cyfra+, with ITI Group’s pay-TV platform businesses in Poland. Canal+ also gets an option to take over Polish broadcaster TVN. The combination of Cyfra+ and TVN’s ‘n’ creates a new DTH platform that will have a combined …

LONDON: The BBC is bringing a number of interactive services to Virgin Media via the TiVo platform starting in 2012.  A soon-to-come BBC Sports app will build on enhanced red button services to bring together all the live streams for the existing red button service, video streams on demand and additional …

AMSTERDAM: Chellomedia’s Dutch movie service Film1 is launching the new channel Film1 Series, which will feature shows such as the American drama Revenge. Launching January 17, Film1 Series will offer hit American series such as Once Upon a Time, Revenge, Necessary Roughness and Breaking Bad. The new Canadian series Bomb …

MAINZ: Juergen Steimer, the senior VP of acquisitions and co-productions at ZDF Enterprises, is retiring as of December 31. Steimer was appointed the legal consultant to ZDF in 1982, specializing in copyright, international law and cable distribution in other countries. From 1989 to 1992 he was the head of the …

ROME: Italy has scrapped its plans to give away digital TV frequencies, instead opting to auction off its remaining DTT slots. Italy’s Ministry of Economic Development had previously planned a competition for the six frequencies. A reported ten companies were vying for the slot. The plan was to assign the frequencies …

BEVERLY HILLS: A broad range of series from BBC Worldwide, including Torchwood and Spooks, will be available for streaming to Netflix members in the U.K. and Ireland starting in early 2012 as the result of a new licensing deal between the two outfits. A number of previous seasons of Doctor Who, …