Top Stories

SCOTTSDALE: Telecom operators in the Asia Pacific will benefit from increased IPTV and broadband revenues in the years to come, reports ABI Research, which forecasts that overall broadband and pay-TV service revenues in the region will experience a 34-percent gain to $147 billion …

COLOGNE: Endemol Germany, in cooperation with plazz entertainment, has developed an application that allows fans to use Facebook credits to cast their vote for who should leave the Big Brother house. Previously, viewers could only vote via calling in or …

SINGAPORE: Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific has clinched a carriage deal for its Discovery HD World network with Malaysian platform Astro. The deal brings the channel to the Astro B.yond package and to Astro’s B.yond IPTV offering. The lineup on the channel includes …

NEW YORK: NBC has scheduled a two-hour slot for the season finale of G4’s American Ninja Warrior on August 22, featuring American competitors competing in Japan. American Ninja Warrior is G4’s most successful program to date. The show returns in its third …

LONDON: Optomen International has secured its first deals on Billy’s Tasty Weekends, featuring Australian chef Bill Granger on a food tour in the U.K., while also firming up a VOD agreement for a raft of Gordon Ramsay programming. The 10×1-hour …

SINGAPORE: Cartoon Network Asia is expanding its SNAPTOONS animation initiative to Singapore following rollouts in India, Malaysia and Australia, via a partnership with the Media Development Authority (MDA). SNAPTOONS (Short New Asia Pacific Cartoons) will enable Cartoon Network to connect …

LONDON: Sky has bagged the exclusive U.K. rights to Stephen Spielberg’s highly anticipated series Terra Nova in a deal with Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution. The show, from Spielberg, Peter Chernin, Brannon Braga, René Echevarria and Aaron Kaplan, is launching …

LONDON: News Corporation has moved a step closer to taking full control of British satellite giant BSkyB, with Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, Jeremy Hunt, asserting that there has been no new evidence to change his …

HONG KONG: Fox International Channels’ (FIC) STAR Movies is bringing to Asia a lineup of exclusive premieres that includes Crazy Heart, Dear John and Date Night. The slate launching July 3 features "Big Heart Movies," with Crazy Heart, Dear John …

LONDON: The Paperny Films-produced series Eat Street has a 13×30-minute second season in the works for the fourth quarter of 2011, which Passion Distribution will be handling distribution for. In Eat Street, the mission is to find the best street …