World Screen

LOS ANGELES: ITV Studios in the U.S. has received a greenlight from VH1 for a seventh season of Celebrity Fit Club, with casting currently under way. The new season will be 9.5 hours long—the longest yet. The show sees eight …

LONDON: Mike Volpi, who left the CEO post at Joost last week, has joined the private-equity firm Index Partners as a partner. Based in the London office, Volpi will lead early stage investments in the Internet, telecom/networking and media sectors …

SINGAPORE: After a three-year absence, Singapore Idol is due to return to Mediacorp’s schedule this fall for a third season. First launched in 2004, Singapore Idol returned for a second season in 2006, but in 2007, MediaCorp opted for a …

SINGAPORE: HBO Asia has expanded its presence in the region, clinching new carriage deals in the Philippines and Mongolia and rolling out additional services in a host of markets, including Indonesia and Cambodia. In Cambodia, HBO Asia has increased its …

NEW YORK: The U.S. carrier JetBlue Airways has expanded its lineup of live on-air channels to include MSNBC, the soccer service GolTV and SPEED. JetBlue’s lineup of DIRECTV programming will also feature Setanta Sports, from Saturday 5 a.m. to Monday …

MAINZ: ZDF Enterprises is collaborating with the British aerial photography specialists Skyworks to deliver never-before-seen, bird’s eye footage of the border that used to separate East and West Germany.   Using the best material currently available and a special HD …

SINGAPORE: Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific (DNAP) is introducing the Investigation Discovery (ID) brand to Asian audiences as a block on the Discovery Channel, beginning today in Taiwan. The branded block, with programming that focuses on the science of forensics and its use …

HAMILTON: Ukrainian tycoon Igor Kolomoisky has made a $100-million investment in Central European Media Enterprises (CME) and is merging his TET TV station into CME’s Studio 1+1 Group. With the transactions, expected to close by the end of Q3, Kolomoisky becomes a 49-percent …

LONDON: Asia, Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America are all expected to see their ad markets rebound in 2010, according to new research from ZenithOptimedia, with North America and Western Europe to follow in 2011. The firm downgraded its …

LONDON/HONG KONG: BBC Worldwide has announced that the first-ever Tweenies Live! stage show in Asia is slated to take place in Hong Kong this fall, following a successful run in the U.K. Tweenies Live! will be touring local theaters in …