World Screen

LONDON: KidsCo has picked up the rights to air 18 five-minute episodes of The Beach Crew across Australia and Southeast Asia beginning in June. From The Beach Crew Productions, The Beach Crew follows the crime-fighting adventures of Billy Boogie, Sammy …

LAS VEGAS: Comcast International Media Group (CIMG) has appointed Transmedia International to launch Golf Channel in Taiwan this month. Transmedia will operate the 24-hour HD channel, which offers coverage and highlights of golf’s top tournaments. Golf Channel in Taiwan will showcase …

MADRID: Audiovisual From Spain has ten companies exhibiting at NATPE, highlighting a range of Spanish independent film productions, animation, TV and multiplatform services. Touting a range of factual product are CINTV and Explora Films. CINTV is offering A World Apart, a …

ENGLEWOOD: Liberty Global is selling its 37.8-percent ownership interest in Japanese cable, broadband and telephony provider Jupiter Telecommunications (J:COM) to wireless operator KDDI Corporation for $4 billion in cash.   Liberty Global is selling its subsidiaries that directly or indirectly …

NEW YORK: The E! Entertainment pop-culture series True Hollywood Story (THS) is to launch this fall as a syndicated weekday strip, and Debmar-Mercury has cleared more than 180 hour-long episodes on the Fox, CBS, Weigel, Sunbeam, Capitol, Scripps, Raycom and …

SYDNEY: Former Disney and Nickelodeon producer Jim Ballantine has been named managing director of Flying Bark Studio, the Australian animation studio of Studio 100. He succeeds Eric Claeys, who left to carry out a one-year reorganization assignment. Ballantine previously held …

TORONTO: The new Mexican free-to-air multichannel platform Hi-tv, operated by Group Salinas, has inked a licensing deal with Cookie Jar Entertainment covering 1,200 library titles. Grupo Salinas—the parent company of Mexican broadcaster TV Azteca—secured clearance to launch Hi-TV from Mexico’s …

LONDON: Robert Nashak is joining BBC Worldwide as executive VP of digital entertainment, to oversee the company’s gaming strategy and find new opportunities across a range of gaming platforms. Nashak will be based in Los Angeles and will report to …

LOS ANGELES: NATPE has announced the newly elected members to its 2010 board of directors, with Kevin Beggs, the president of programming and production for Lionsgate Television, to serve a third term as chair. Newly elected members include Normal 0 …

BETHPAGE/CINCINNATI: Food Network and HGTV are back on Cablevision, after being pulled by Scripps Networks Interactive in a carriage dispute. The two parties have been embroiled in a very public feud since the end of 2009 over how much the cable platform …