World Screen

TORONTO: Jack Bender, the Emmy Award-winning director and executive producer of Lost, has signed on as a speaker for the Master Class series at the 30th edition of the Banff World Television Festival. The Master Class series provides the opportunity for …

BURBANK: Additional second-season episodes have been ordered of The Suite Life on Deck, a spin-off of the hit comedy The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, for Disney Channel and Disney XD. Starring identical twins Cole and Dylan Sprouse, The …

NEW YORK: Jim Veevaert and Jay Cohen have been tapped to lead Jerry Bruckheimer’s foray into video gaming, heading up the production and development of titles that will be published by MTV Games. In December 2007, MTV Games sealed an exclusive deal …

NEW YORK/LONDON: Czech-language versions of HISTORY and HISTORY HD have launched on Skylink in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, expanding on current Central European services in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Montenegro. HISTORY …

PARIS/LONDON: The first in a trio of feature-length films based on the half-hour comedy Genie in the House will start shooting in 2010 from Moi j’aime la télévision (MJTV) and Helion Pictures. MJTV and Helion are creating a movie franchise …

BALTIMORE: PBS’s The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer will become PBS NewsHour this fall, move from a single anchor to a dual anchor format and add a correspondent to serve as a bridge between the show’s on-air and digital-media platforms. The changes, taking …

LONDON: Five new appointments have been made to the Knowledge commissioning team at the BBC, along with a new head of religion named for BBC Radio. Aaqil Ahmed takes on the joint role of head of religion and ethics and …

SILVER SPRING: Discovery Communications is getting into the adventure travel business this summer, offering consumers tourism packages to countries featured in Discovery Channel programming, in partnership with G.A.P. Adventures. The new venture, Discovery Adventures, plans to offer more than 30 trips beginning …

LONDON: ALL3MEDIA International has firmed up new deals for the hit quiz show Cash Cab in India, Italy, Canada, the U.S., Sweden, Denmark and Greece. In Italy, 45 episodes are being produced by Stile Libero for SKY Uno Italia, while …

NEW YORK: When The CW announced last week that it will turn over its Sunday night prime-time hours to its affiliates to program, not too many industry insiders were surprised. In fact, many were expecting it. It’s no secret that …