World Screen

CARACAS, July 5: With its main competitor, RCTV, yanked off the air in Venezuela, Venevision is employing a new strategy in dealing with President Hugo Chávez, Gustavo Cisneros, whose media empire owns the broadcast outlet, told the New York Times. …

MUNICH, July 5: The newly enlarged ProSiebenSat.1 Group is acquiring the Austrian free-TV broadcaster PULS TV for an undisclosed sum. ProSiebenSat.1 is taking 100-percent control of the station, which services the Vienna metropolitan area, from a group of private investors. …

CANBERRA, July 5: The newspaper publisher Fairfax Media and Macquarie Media Group (MMG) have reached a deal to buy Australia’s Southern Cross Broadcasting, the parent company of Southern Star, for A$1.08 billion (US$924 million). Fairfax will take control of Southern …

BRUSSELS, July 5: The European Commission has levied a fine of more than 151 million euros against Spanish telco giant Telefónica for five years of unfair pricing in the broadband market. The fine, of 151.9 million euros, is for what …

LONDON/LOS ANGELES, July 3: The British factual and reality producer September Films has tapped Sheldon Lazarus as its new creative director of factual, effective immediately. Lazarus was previously the head of factual for At It Productions. In his new role, …

LONDON, July 3: BBC Worldwide has tapped Gill Pritchard as the director of children’s for its home entertainment business, effective this September. Prior to her appointment, Pritchard served as the business development director in charge of developing and building the …

LONDON, July 3: FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) has appointed Justin Hatfield as the VP of sales for the U.K., Eire, Benelux and Scandinavia. Hatfield will relocate from Madrid to the U.K. to take up his new role. He was previously the …

LOVELAND/HARRINGTON PARK, July 3: Janson Media has reached an exclusive deal to distribute Grizzly Adams Productions’ (GAP) catalogue of family-friendly specials and series to the worldwide television market. The new deal expands upon an existing relationship between the two companies, …

DULLES, July 3: AOL has launched a newly redesigned and enhanced AOL Video portal that includes updated features to make it easier for consumers to find, watch and share more than 20 million videos from across the web. The new …

LONDON, July 3: Disney Theatrical Productions—responsible for musicals like The Lion King—will launch a touring stage adaptation of the award-winning Disney Channel original movie High School Musical in the U.K. in January 2008. Produced by Stage Entertainment in cooperation with …