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NEW YORK: Interior designer and television personality Thom Filicia has inked a development deal with HGTV. The pact includes several future projects, plus guest appearances on HGTV series and a starring role in a holiday special. "We are excited to welcome …

SCOTTSDALE: The number of pay-TV subscribers worldwide increased by 6 percent in 2010, according to new data from In-Stat, with China as the world’s largest pay-TV market. At at the end of the year, China had 160 million subscribers. The …

NEW YORK: OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network has revealed plans for 60 hours of new television for its upcoming season, with four renewed shows and six new originals, including one from Kinetic Content with Louie Spence of Sky1’s Pineapple Dance Studios. "After …

SILVER SPRING: Discovery Communications is replacing its HD Theater network with Velocity in the fourth quarter, targeting upscale men with HD content in the automotive, sports and leisure, adventure and travel genres. Available in about 40 million homes at launch, the service’s lineup …

TORONTO: Linus Roache and Geraldine Somerville will lead the cast of the four-part mini-series Titanic for Global and ABC, which begins filming in Budapest next month. From Nigel Stafford Clark and Julian Fellowes, the event mini-series will simulcast on Global …

MIAMI: Thanks to its new novela La Reina del Sur, Telemundo says it beat Univision, ABC, NBC and Telefutura among adults 18 to 34 last week, the best ratings week in its history. During the week of April 4, the …

NEW YORK: iN DEMAND has expanded the roles of Eric Petro and Mark Boccardi to include overseeing the company’s business development functions. As part of the promotion, Petro, the executive VP and CFO of iN DEMAND, will add business development …

MUNICH: Samsung’s new generation of broadband-connected TV sets in Germany now offer built-in access to maxdome, ProSiebenSat.1’s online video platform delivering some 35,000 movie and TV titles. Samsung Smart TVs use a maxdome app to connect directly to the content platform. …

LOS ANGELES/LONDON/TORONTO: Mediaset has scored the free-TV rights to the North American cop drama Rookie Blue from Entertainment One (eOne) Television. The series made its debut on ABC and Global Television last summer and averaged 8.5 million viewers a week. A second …

TORONTO: Skywriter Media and Entertainment Group secured a number of deals at MIPTV for its children’s, lifestyle and documentary programming, totaling 160 half-hours of content sold. Skywriter secured a renewal from AETN UK for its 16×30-minute documentary series Crimes of Passion, as …