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VIENNA: GOE, the distribution outfit representing the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) in Italy, struck a deal with SITCOM, independent TV publisher of four pay-TV channels, and a separate agreement with VOD provider FASTWEB. The deal with SITCOM included 115 titles, …

CANNES: While ITV Global Entertainment closed a deal with NBC Universal Global Networks Italy for more than 100 hours of drama fare, a range of agreements were concluded across Southeast Asia by its dedicated Hong Kong office. The package for …

CANNES: Eight winners across seven categories were selected by digital commissioners from the BBC, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), OgilvyInteractive Worldwide and MSN at Content 360, the international digital and multiplatform content competition. …

LONDON/NEW YORK: GroupM has revised its ad forecasts for the year, predicting a 4.4-percent drop in spending to $425 billion in 2008, as compared with its previous estimate of a 0.2-percent fall to $458 billion. The U.S. alone will experience …

TORONTO: Tricon Films & Television has scored a second-season commission from YTV in Canada for the kids’ talent format The Next Star. Fifteen new hour-long episodes will be produced of the superstar-seeking talent show. Along the same lines as the …

LONDON/NEW YORK: After selling Classic Media to Entertainment Rights in 2007, Eric Ellenbogen and John Engelman set up Boomerang Media in partnership with private-equity firm GTCR. Today, Boomerang becomes the new owner of ER, after the kids’ programming outfit, unable …

NEW YORK: News Corporation’s chairman and CEO, Rupert Murdoch, has named Jonathan Miller, the former CEO of AOL, as the company’s chairman and CEO of the digital media group and chief digital officer. In this newly created position, Miller, who will …

CANNES: The personalized TV platform ZillionTV has added The Weinstein Company to its growing roster of content providers, which includes the likes of Disney-ABC, 20th Century Fox Television, NBC Universal, Sony and Warner Bros. Movies such as Vicky Cristina Barcelona, …

NEW YORK: IFC tv has given the greenlight to its first original movie, Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, based on Laurell K. Hamilton’s bestselling paranormal fantasy novels and produced by Lionsgate and After Dark Films.  There are currently 16 books in Hamilton’s series, published …

LOS ANGELES: Slovenia is the newest territory to launch a local version of The MGM Channel, with carriage on UPC, the country’s largest cable operator. Starting with a launch in late 2004 of a 100-percent owned Russian-language service on the DTH …