Top Stories

  NEW YORK: Recovery is in sight for the global broadcast industry, with forecasts predicting that revenues will increase by 4.8 percent next year, according to Strategy Analytics and D. I. S. Consulting. As Douglas Sheer, the CEO and chief …

LONDON: As part of a wide-ranging review of its businesses, top management at the BBC is considering a partial privatization of its commercial arm, BBC Worldwide. The review, as BBC director-general Mark Thompson told The Guardian, would include listing BBC …

LONDON: The British media regulatory agency Ofcom has announced it will regulate VOD services, including those provided on the Internet by the end of this year. Ofcom is consulting all interested parties on its plans to hand over day-today regulation …

LOS ANGELES: The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation has launched EmmyTVLegends.org, a new video portal that offers free, public access to the Archive of American Television, a collection of videotaped interviews with more than 600 influential figures that …

TORONTO: Breakthrough Entertainment has secured a licensing agreement for Shadow Island Mysteries with Daro Films in Eastern Europe, English-speaking Africa and Holland. The trilogy of TV movies revolves around Claire La Foret, a beautiful young woman who works as a …

MUNICH: The Tele München Group (TMG) is producing a new screen adaptation of the literary classic Moby Dick, with RTL, ORF and RHI Entertainment as partners on the project. William Hurt takes on the role of the one-legged Captain Ahab. …

PALISADES PARK: Alfred Haber Distribution, Inc. (AHDI) has signed deals on the Ghost Hunters franchise with the U.K.’s Virgin Media and OLN Network in Canada. Virgin went for 77 episodes from three series: Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters International, and the …

ATLANTA: Christina Miller has been promoted to senior VP of Turner Sports’ strategy, marketing and promotions and Cartoon Network Enterprises. Miller will continue her oversight of Cartoon Network’s consumer products and home video business in the U.S., which includes global …

CULVER CITY: Sony Pictures Animation has entered into a multi-year, first-look deal with Fred Seibert and his Frederator Studios to develop animated feature films. Seibert, a former president of Hanna-Barbera Productions, founded Frederator in 1998. He has produced 16 series, including …

SILVER SPRING: Discovery Communications has extended the employment contract of its president and CEO, David Zaslav, through the beginning of 2015. "The board approached David—with more than two years before his contract was up—in order to secure his leadership, and provide the company …