World Screen

LONDON, April 2: Virgin Media Television’s entertainment channel Virgin1 has picked up two hit British series from BBC Worldwide: Hustle and Room 101. The deal covers 12 one-hour episodes (seasons one and two) of Hustle and 25 episodes (seasons two, …

NEW YORK, April 2: Nickelodeon in the U.S. finished first across all kids demos in the first quarter of 2008, ranking number one among kids 2 to 11, kids 6 to 11 and tweens 9 to 14. According to Nielsen …

MUNICH, April 2: Ken Follett’s 1989 international bestseller The Pillars of the Earth has been optioned by Tandem Communications, which is developing a limited-run series in conjunction with Ridley Scott’s and Tony Scott’s production company, Scott Free Inc. “Ken Follett’s …

MIAMI, April 2: MTV Networks Latin America is to launch the preschool offering Nick Jr. in the region, with deals already in place to roll the channel out in Mexico on Cablevisión and Sky this July. Nick Jr. is expected …

TORONTO, April 2: Shaftesbury Films and ShineReveille International have secured a worldwide distribution deal for the new drama series The Listener, which is scheduled to air in the U.S. on NBC and on Canada’s CTV. Under the agreement, ShineReveille will …

TORONTO, April 2: Music heavyweights Elvis Costello and Elton John are teaming up for a new talk show/music series, to be broadcast on CTV in Canada, Sundance Channel in the U.S. and Channel 4 in the U.K., with international distribution …

NEW YORK, April 2: Production is under way this month on SCI FI Channel’s new original series Sanctuary, with 13 episodes of the hour-long drama slated to debut this fall. Sanctuary, which began online as the world’s first high-definition sci-fi …

MUMBAI, April 2: India’s competitive news network landscape has a new player in the form of UTVi, an English-language business news channel that is launching with content from Disney-ABC International Television. The deal marks greater collaboration between the Indian media …

BERLIN, April 2: MTV Networks Germany will be making a selection of its hit series, including South Park, available for download through the iTunes Store in Germany. This marks the launch of the first download-to-own offer of MTV Networks content …

NEW YORK, April 2: Endemol has acquired a controlling interest in 51 Minds Entertainment, the U.S. production outfit known for its hit VH1 reality series Flavor of Love, I Love New York and The Surreal Life. The deal extends Endemol’s …