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LONDON: The U.K.’s Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, Jeremy Hunt, has given provisional approval to News Corporation’s takeover of BSkyB, conditioned on the spin-off of Sky News. Hunt has accepted News Corp.’s proposal for Sky News …

MUNICH/CANNES: In preparation for MIPTV, Bavaria Media Television is highlighting a number of new productions from Germany, as well as other European countries. Bavaria Media will be offering Alpha 0.7: The Enemy Within, a sci-fi thriller produced by Germany’s Zeitsprung …

WASHINGTON: The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has hired former U.S. senator Christopher Dodd as its new chairman and CEO, effective March 17. Dodd completed five terms in the U.S. senate, ending his run in January. He served as …

NEW YORK: Sundance Channel is set to double its original programming hours in 2011, on the success of its unscripted series Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys and Golden Globe-winning mini-series Carlos. The channel’s 2011 lineup includes seven new and returning …

MIAMI: Telemundo’s La Reina del Sur became the most-watched telenovela premiere in the network’s history, after 2.4 million viewers tuned in to its debut on February 28. La Reina del Sur, which stars Kate del Castillo as a young innocent …

TORONTO: The Canada Media Fund (CMF) has invested C$11.5 million in 36 new interactive projects, which had been submitted in the second round of its Experimental Stream initiative. The CMF is putting forth C$8.6 million to 17 projects in production, …

CAMBRIDGE: Pay-TV service revenues in Indonesia are forecast to grow at an 18.3-percent CAGR between 2010 and 2015, reaching $778 million be the end of that period, according to a new report from Pyramid Research. "Indonesia’s pay-TV market is characterized …

PREMIUM: The Hub has the highest percentage of co-viewing in the kids’ channel landscape, according to the network’s CEO, Margaret Loesch, who tells TV Kids about her programming remit in this exclusive interview. Last October, The Hub, a joint venture …

SILVER SPRING: Science Channel’s breakout series Oddities, which spotlights an NYC emporium of the mysterious and the macabre, returns for a second season on April 9. Oddities is set within Obscura, a shop in New York’s East Village that deals …

LONDON: DRG has secured four international production partnerships for the quiz format Sell Me the Answer, including a pickup in the U.S. In the U.S., the quiz show, in which players barter with an audience for answers in a bid …