Top Stories

LONDON: Parthenon Entertainment has named Mike Shanks, the former senior VP and divisional CFO at HIT Entertainment, as the company’s first managing director. Shanks joins Parthenon with immediate effect and will be responsible for overseeing operations across the company’s U.K., …

    LOS ANGELES: Moving Pictures Film and Television has integrated the Bennett Media Worldwide sales and support team and library to create a combined catalogue from the two companies that exceeds 600 hours. The BMW team, led by Paul …

LOS ANGELES: Twofour Broadcast has completed principal photography on Perfect Catch, a new series for E! Entertainment Television hosted by Carmen Electra. The weekly one-hour reality competition follows eight contestants from around the world as they travel through the Greek …

VIENNA: Danish pubcaster DR has acquired the first season of Fast Forward, a crime series produced by Austria’s ORF and MR Film.  The series features a young female inspector, who is in her mid-30s, a divorced single mother, and works …

    LOS ANGELES: Cookie Jar Entertainment will co-produce the animated 25×30-minute series Doodlebops Rockin’ Road Show with Argentina’s Illusion Studios and Germany’s OPTIX Entertainment. Preschoolers can join Deedee, Rooney and Moe Doodle on fun-filled musical adventures in the new …

LONDON: Current TV in the U.K. is launching a new weekly current-affairs block, which will feature documentaries and real-life stories on a diverse range of British and international topics. Starting September 28 with the debut of Wasted Britain, the block …

PARIS: The 25th edition of MIPCOM will feature star power such as Lisa Kudrow, Joan Rivers, Matt Groening and Jerry Seinfeld. Kudrow, best know as Phoebe from the hit series Friends, will be on hand to promote her role as …

LONDON: All sectors of the Indian TV market are expected to show growth until 2013, according to new research from Screen Digest, with pay-TV operators looking for investors as the recession eases.   Just as the Indian economy is forecast …

MILAN: News Corporation’s wholly owned pay-TV company Sky Italia has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset.   In the suit, filed against Mediaset’s RTI television division and Publitalia, its advertising rep firm, Sky Italia claims Publitalia refused …

CAMBRIDGE: Pay-TV revenue in the U.K. will climb from $6.2 billion in 2009 to $8.2 billion by 2014 as IPTV grows at an impressive compound annual growth rate of 26 percent, according to the latest report from Pyramid Research.   …