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PHILADELPHIA: Comcast Corporation’s second-quarter profit rose 53 percent to $967 million, on revenues of $8.9 billion, reflecting a 4.5-percent gain. "We delivered solid results in the second quarter, highlighting the strength of our subscription businesses and our continued focus on …

LONDON: Titles from BBC Worldwide’s drama, natural history and factual portfolios have been licensed to a number of New Zealand broadcasters. The natural-history series South Pacific is now to air on TVNZ. The national broadcaster acquired two other productions from …

LONDON: ITV’s first-half results show a loss before tax of £105 million, on revenues that fell to £909 million as a result of the ad downturn. ITV said it outperformed the market, with its net ad revenues down 15 percent, …

TORONTO: M-Net in South Africa has taken on more than 100 hours of programming from DECODE Enterprises, including the series Super Why! The South African pay-TV broadcaster has also acquired Mighty Jungle and Side Show Christmas, as well as further …

SYDNEY: Beyond Distribution has added the documentary JUMP! from Nutshell Productions to its catalogue, and will launch the title at MIPCOM. The documentary spotlights the competitive sport of jump rope. JUMP! looks to shed light on what is actually a …

EL SEGUNDO: The DIRECTV Group—with a subscription base of 24.2 million in the U.S., Latin America and Mexico—upped its revenues in the second quarter by 9 percent to $5.2 billion, but net profit was down 11 percent to $407 million. …

UNIVERSAL CITY: Joel McHale, star of the new NBC comedy Community, is to host a 30-minute presentation of the network’s new and returning fall series, The NBC Primetime Preview, which will be shown across a wide range of NBC Universal …

STOCKHOLM: After receiving the go-ahead from the Bulgarian Commission for the Protection of Competition, the Modern Times Group (MTG) has reorganized its broadcasting assets in the market, grouping them under Nova Televizia. In March, MTG signed a deal with Apace Media to transfer all …

ALVISO: Hundreds of new free web videos will be available directly to TiVo Series3, TiVo HD and TiVo HD XL subscribers. The podcast channels are being added to TiVo’s current roster of free web videos from outlets such as CBS, …

NEW YORK: News Corporation has increased its ownership stake in German pay-TV giant Sky Deutschland from 30.5 percent to 39.96 percent. News Corp. has been steadily increasing its investment in the German pay-TV giant, formerly known as Premiere, since first acquiring …