Top Stories

STOCKHOLM, December 4: Viasat Broadcasting has acquired live UEFA Champions League football broadcasting rights for Bulgaria from the 2009/2010 season until the end of the 2011/2012 championship. The new rights will be broadcast on the Diema channel, which is already …

LOS ANGELES, December 3: National Geographic Channel is the first network to utilize Nielsen's new DigitalPlus service, which records second-by-second viewership data from set-tops. The new service provides insight into how many viewers watch each commercial. Nielsen relies on data …

LONDON, December 3: The Competition Commission has provisionally ruled against Kangaroo, a joint-venture on-demand service from BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4, arguing that it would restrict competition in the British VOD market. "We are concerned that the loss of …

LOS ANGELES, December 3: Timothy Kuryak and Jill Dickerson have each been named VP of programming for OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, where they are tasked with collaborating with producers, writers, agents and distributors to drive the development of nonscripted …

PARIS, December 3: Vivendi has announced that it will not sell its 20-percent stake in NBC Universal this year, an investment that brings in some $400 million in annual dividend payments for the entertainment group. Each year, until 2016, from …

LUXEMBOURG, December 3: RTL Group has named Andreas Rudas as its executive VP of regional operations and business development for Central and Eastern Europe, also joining the group's executive committee. Rudas is currently the executive director of WAZ Ost Holding, …

LONDON, December 3: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has turned down a bid by Europe's free-to-air stations to buy the rights for the 2014 and 2016 Olympics, leaving each broadcaster, including the BBC, to negotiate individually. It is the first …

EKATERINBURG, December 3: Russian distributor Studio U7 has finalized a number of post-MIPCOM agreements, including a package of titles being bought up by pan-Siberian state broadcaster Yamal-Region. The deal included 326 hours of programming such as Glutton for Punishment (Filmoption …

MIAMI, December 3: Eurochannel, available in the U.S on DISH Network, has lined up 27 short films to air throughout the month of December that represent the member countries of the European Union, highlighting the culture and history of each. …

SAN FRANCISCO, December 3: Joy Tashjian Marketing Group (JTMG) has signed two new licensees for Endemol USA's hit series Deal or No Deal, which airs on NBC in the U.S. Ferrara Pan Candy will create a line of chocolates and …