World Screen

LONDON/TORONTO: Cinemavault and its sub-agent MercuryMedia have struck a range of international deals for the documentary I.O.U.S.A., which examines America’s rapidly growing national debt.  Those picking up the doc include BBC TV in the U.K., CBC in Canada, SVT in Sweden, …

LONDON: British media regulator Ofcom has laid out a series of recommendations for the future of public-service broadcasting (PSB) in the U.K., including preserving the license fee solely for the BBC. Ofcom is calling for "major changes" to the PSB …

BARCELONA: Imira Entertainment has scored a number of Spanish deals for ZDF Enterprises’ H20: Just Add Water, which it represents in Spain, Portugal and Brazil.    Random House Mondadori signed on as publishing partner, and is planning to launch books based …

LONDON: FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) has sold the two-hour annual The BRIT Awards to a number of territories ahead of its launch at next week’s NATPE.  With a month to go before The BRIT Awards air in the U.K., the musical …

BURBANK: In response to declining DVD sales and lower expectations for its scripted TV business, Warner Bros. is set to eliminate some 800 jobs. The layoffs amount to about 10 percent of the studio’s global work force. The extent of the redundancies …

SYDNEY: The Middle East Broadcasting Centre (MBC) has acquired the drama Rush and seasons one and two of the police series City Homicide from Southern Star International.  The one-hour action drama Rush is set in a critical incident police unit, …

LOS ANGELES: MarVista Entertainment will be attending the European Film Market (EFM) for the first time this year, bringing with it a diverse slate of features, TV movies and series.  Leading off MarVista’s slate are Reflections, starring Timothy Hutton; Special Delivery, …

December 2008 The global digitization of TV services is certainly benefiting the Asia Pacific pay-TV market, where there are now 71 million digital pay-TV households out of 300 million pay-TV connections. December Indeed, the deployment of digital infrastructure is providing Asia …

 October 2008 Carol Mendelsohn is the first to admit that she watched way too much TV when she was a child, but all those hours spent absorbed in story lines and characters have certainly paid off. As executive producer and …

October 2008   American Idol is the quintessential tentpole program. It took the country by storm, sparking “water-cooler” debates across the nation, becoming FOX’s highest-rated show and propelling the network to first place among the coveted 18-to-49 demographic. Cecile Frot-Coutaz, …