World Screen

NEW YORK: Univision Communications has appointed Rick Alessandri as senior VP of business development. Alessandri spent more than ten years at ESPN, serving in a range of roles that culminated in senior VP and managing director for the X Games franchise and senior …

LOS ANGELES: An additional 50 one-hour episodes of the tween telenovela Grachi have been commissioned by Nickelodeon Latin America. The broadcast was initially planned for 75 episodes, but the show’s success has prompted an additional order. The novela earned 3.6 …

LONDON: WWE is opening up an office in Mumbai to drive the expansion of its business in India, to be led by Rukn Kizilbash as general manager. Kizilbash, who previously held positions at Percept, Ten Sports, IMG and ESPN Star Sports, …

LOS ANGELES: Jon Heder of Napoleon Dynamite and Blades of Glory is set to star in and executive-produce Gulliver Quinn (working title), a comedy series pilot for Disney XD. The Gulliver Quinn script was written by Dan Kopelman of Malcolm in the …

LONDON: Tom Toumazis is leaving Endemol to become CEO of the pan-European publishing group Mecom, effective this August. Upon Toumazis’s arrival, Stephen Davidson, currently executive chairman of Mecom, will become non-executive chairman. It is not yet clear if Toumazis’s post …

SANTA MONICA: Nickelodeon has given the new live-action comedy How to Rock, featuring recording artist Cymphonique Miller, a 20-episode order for a 2012 premiere. The series centers on Kacey Simon (Miller), a talented teen who takes her pop/hip-hop band to …

BRUSSELS: The Association of Commercial Television, which represents 32 broadcasters across Europe, is calling on the European Commission to give the region’s content sector a greater role in its Digital Agenda mandate. The Commission’s Digital Agenda is a road map …

NEW YORK: The next generation in the classic Voltron franchise, Voltron Force, is set to debut June 16 on Nicktoons, launching with the commercial-free presentation of the 90-minute movie Voltron Force: New Defenders Trilogy. The half-hour series features an all-new …

LONDON: BabyTV has found carriage on Western Canada’s TELUS Optik TV, which will offer the channel in English, Mandarin and French. The channel is divided into distinct daytime and night-time playlists, focusing on family schedules. Short episodes run throughout the day to …

LOS ANGELES: Independent distributors at the Century Plaza were showcasing an eclectic potpourri of programming to Latin American buyers at the L.A. Screenings, reports Elizabeth Guider. My Strange Addiction is not the first show that jumps to mind when one thinks …