World Screen

LONDON, October 18: The BBC Trust has approved Director-General Mark Thompson’s six-year reform plan for the organization, including 1,800 job cuts. The emphasis of the reforms is on turning the pubcaster into a “smaller but fitter” organization, with every division …

LONDON, October 17: Setanta and Virgin Media have appointed Geoff Hill as editor-in-chief of the soon-to-be-launched Setanta Sports News channel, produced by ITN. Hill, who has served as a senior program editor at ITN, will set the daily sports news …

HONG KONG/LOS ANGELES, October 17: STAR is looking to boost the distribution of its Hindi- and Mandarin-language programming in North America with the opening of a sales office in Los Angeles. The new office will be headed up by David …

GRÜNWALD, October 17: Brand management and media company m4e and Berlin-based production company Hahn Film have established the joint production company Lucky Punch. The new company has headquarters in Grünwald near Munich and a subsidiary in Berlin. Lucky Punch will …

LOS ANGELES, October 17: In an effort to capitalize on the recent growth in the global distribution of Indian content, the Indian Film and Television Producers Guild will actively participate in the AFM this year under the National Umbrella Program …

CANNES, October 17: Filmon.com, a new download portal set to launch November 1, has secured content deals with more than 50 companies, including CBC in Canada for 140 hours of television programming. The new deals expand Filmon.com’s library to more …

LONDON, October 17: British production and distribution outfit Wall To Wall has sold the two-hour docudrama Beating Death, examining the world’s first heart transplant, to Italian network RAI 3. Originally commissioned by the Discovery Network in the U.S. as a …

AMSTERDAM, October 17: Dutch producer Eyeworks has sold its prime-time game-show format Beat The Blondes into some 16 countries following its MIPCOM launch last week. Created and developed by Eyeworks, Beat The Blondes features two rounds of questions that will …

LONDON, October 17: ITN’s multimedia division, ITN On, has unveiled the ITN channel on YouTube, an advertising-supported offering featuring entertainment-, sports-, film- and Bollywood-related programs. ITN will add a large amount of show-business material daily to the channel. Content available …

LONDON, October 17: Granada International has acquired the international distribution rights for the children’s animated series The Pinky & Perky Show, excluding the U.K. and France, for launch at MIPTV 2008. ITV DVD has secured home entertainment rights to the …