World Screen

NEW YORK, October 22: USA Network has given the go-ahead for the pilot White Collar, lifting a cast contingency for the project, which stars Matthew Bomer and Tim DeKay, with Bronwen Hughes set to direct. From Fox Television Studios (FtvS), …

LONDON, October 22: 2waytraffic International has clinched a deal with Shams Productions for an Afghani version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? The veteran game show is now the first -ever light-entertainment format licensed into Afghanistan. A 52×1-hour series …

LONDON, October 22: Entertainment Rights (ER) is distributing 13 brand-new episodes of the Transformers Animated series, bringing the total number of episodes currently available to 42. Deals for the new 13 episodes have been secured across the U.K., France, Italy …

TORONTO, October 22: Astral Media’s Family Channel in Canada has commissioned 13 half-hour episodes of Connor Undercover, a new tween comedy series that is being co-produced by Shaftesbury Films and Heroic Film Company. Currently in production, the series is scheduled …

LONDON, October 22: CITVC, the commercial arm of China Central Television (CCTV), has struck a deal to represent sales for BBC Motion Gallery, the footage-licensing division of BBC Worldwide, to Chinese markets. BBC Motion Gallery’s archive content will be available …

PARIS, October 22: France’s Bouygues Telecom is the latest platform to add BabyTV to its service, following previous launches in the country on TPS, Numericable, Alice, OrangeTV, Neufcegetel and Freebox. Bouyges Telecom will be introducing a new triple-play service, which …

LOS ANGELES, October 22: Studio100 and Atlantyca Entertainment have signed on as co-producers on the environmentally-conscious preschool series Dive Olly Dive! from Taffy Entertainment and Mike Young Productions UK (MYP). The award-winning show is embarking on a second season with …

VANCOUVER, October 22: Jay Switzer, formerly CEO of Canadian broadcast group CHUM, has been appointed to the board of directors of OUTtv, the Canadian channel targeting gay and lesbian audiences. Switzer stated: “I am really pleased to be working with …

NEW YORK, October 21: Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, has said that the Internet search engine giant will make fewer acquisitions and slow down on hiring new staffers as it copes with the contraction in advertising budgets worldwide. The company is …

SANTA MONICA, October 21: Billionaire financier Carl Icahn shelled out $86.3 million to more than double his stake in Lionsgate from 3.7 percent to 9.2 percent, for a total of 10.8 million shares. The move makes Icahn’s firm the fourth-largest …