World Screen

LONDON: ITV plc reported a pre-tax profit of £25 million for 2009, as compared with its 2008 loss of £2.7 billion, on revenues that were down by 7 percent to £1.9 billion. The company attributed the improved results in part …

NEW YORK: Sesame Workshop has signed up a host of top-name celebrities, including How I Met Your Mother‘s Neil Patrick Harris and Grey’s Anatomy‘s Sandra Oh, as well as a number of industry experts and opinion-makers for the Grand Prize …

NEW YORK: Comedy Central has greenlit the new half-hour weekly scripted series Workaholics from Avalon Television and Gigapix Studios. The 10-episode comedy, set to premiere this summer, follows three unmotivated roommates who graduate from college and enter the real world. …

LONGWOOD: The Television Syndication Company (TVS) has picked up the U.S. syndication rights for the DIY home-improvement series Ron Hazelton’s HouseCalls, previously distributed by MGM. The 22×30-minute series is currently in its 11th year in syndication and is cleared in …

TORONTO: The new 13-episode docu-drama The Cupcake Girls, which follows two women who are childhood best friends and business partners in a cupcake company, will launch on Canada’s W Network on April 4 with two back-to-back episodes. Heather White and …

TORONTO: William Shatner, best known from his role as Captain Kirk from the original Star Trek, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2010 Banff World Television Festival. Shatner’s career spans more than five decades. He has served as …

WASHINGTON, D.C.: National Geographic is launching the new network Nat Geo Wild, which spotlights the the animal kingdom, on March 29, along with an HD feed. Nat Geo Wild and Nat Geo Wild HD will debut with a lineup of …

STOCKHOLM: Modern Times Group has signed a long-term deal to distribute Viasat’s premium pay-TV channel packages to Telenor Norge’s broadband customers in Norway and Sweden. Telenor has 623,000 broadband customers in Norway and 574,000 in Sweden, as of the end …

MILAN: The Italian government has approved new limits on the amount of advertising that can be carried on pay TV, as well as approving the inclusion of product placement in TV shows. The new regulations will reduce the amount of …

LONDON: Sky1 has announced the start of production on Thorne: Sleepyhead, alongside the commission of Thorne: Scaredy Cat, both of which are adaptations of Mark Billingham’s best-selling crime novels. The Thorne series, centered on the character of detective inspector Tom …