World Screen

LONDON: UKTV has licensed its original commission Ty’s Great British Adventure to ABC in the U.S., which is slated to air the special with the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition host on August 2 in prime time. Ty’s Great British Adventure premiered …

ATLANTA: Production on Cartoon Network’s first hour-long live-action drama is slated to begin this August in Vancouver, featuring a cast led by Drew Van Acker, Ryan Pinkston, Elise Gatien and Dyana Liu. Tentatively titled Tower Prep, the series tells the …

TEL AVIV: A fifth season of Armoza Formats’ The Package has been commissioned by Greek broadcaster Alpha TV, while in Finland, TV2 has extended its deal for a third season. The Package, which just broadcast its 150th episode in Greece, …

TORONTO: Canwest has greenlit a half-hour pilot from Gemini Award-winning Canadian comedian Mary Walsh and Shaftesbury Films’ Christina Jennings. Rise Up, created by Walsh, focuses on Siouxie Power, an ex-punk rocker from Newfoundland who wins the lottery and moves her family—husband Spook Sparks, troubled teenage …

LOS ANGELES: TV Guide Network has made its first scripted series acquisition, scoring the basic cable off-network rights to Ugly Betty. The deal with Disney-ABC Domestic Television includes access to existing and future episodes of the popular ABC show, which will …

BELFAST: Below the Radar has been commissioned by RTÉ and AETN UK to produce Mountbatten: Return to Mullaghmore, recounting the assassination of the Queen’s cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten, by the Irish Republican Army. In 1979, Lord Louis Mountbatten and his …

LONDON: Nine channel slots on BSkyB previously occupied by Setanta Sports are being put up for sale, with Canis Media appointed to handle the auction. Setanta Sports shuttered its operations last month, and its administrator, Deloitte, appointed Canis Media to …

PORTLAND: There were 589 million video-on-demand transactions in the U.S. in June, according to Rentrak Corporation, reflecting a 15-percent year-on-year increase. Rentrak, citing data from its OnDemand Essentials service, also reports that there was an average of 16.5 minutes of …

MONTREAL: Telefilm Canada has selected 56 new-media projects to receive financial support through the product assistance component of the Canada New Media Fund (CNMF). The CNMF is a program that provides funding for private sector entrepreneurs. The national program supports …

NEW YORK: For the first time in the U.S., BBC natural-history programming such as The Blue Planet and Walking with Dinosaurs is available for purchase and download from Xbox LIVE Marketplace and Zune Marketplace.  Starting today, customers can purchase single …