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LOS ANGELES, May 20: Setanta Sports and Fox Soccer Channel have announced the renewal of their U.S. broadcasting rights deals with The Football Association. The new agreements run from the 2008/09 through 2011/12 seasons. Setanta Sports and Fox Soccer Channel …

NEW YORK, May 20: News Corporation has further increased its stake in German pay-TV operator Premiere to 25.01 percent. In January, News Corp. picked up an initial 14.58 percent interest for 287 million euros from Unity Media. In February, the …

LONDON, May 20: Starting today, FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) will offer selected performances from the first season of the music performance series Live From Abbey Road through the iTunes Store in the U.S. The show features performances from well-known musicians and …

NEW YORK, May 20: Shine Group’s chief executive and chairman, Elisabeth Murdoch, will serve as the Gala Chair for the 36th International Emmy Awards, set to take place November 24 in New York City. “By bringing Reveille under the Shine …

LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK, May 20: Shout! Factory and 4Kids Entertainment have inked a multi-year home-entertainment agreement for Dinosaur King. The deal provides Shout! Factory with the licensing rights as the exclusive home-entertainment distributor for the series in the U.S. Multiple …

LONDON/SANTA MONICA/VANCOUVER, May 20: Lionsgate has teamed with the Indian filmed-entertainment studio Eros International for a joint venture that will distribute content from Lionsgate, as well as other English-language fare, within South Asia across theatrical, home entertainment, television and new …

TORONTO, May 20: Breakthrough Entertainment has sold more than 500 hours of its factual programming throughout the U.K., Canada, Europe, Asia and South Africa. In lifestyle fare, Manic Organic was picked up by broadcasters in Hungary, Russia, Israel and South …

CANNES, May 20: Cyrte Investments, set up by John de Mol, has acquired Los Angeles-based Spitfire Pictures, founded by Nigel Sinclair and Guy East, and will be merging it with the British studio Hammer Film Productions. Cyrte already owns a …

WASHINGTON, May 20: Retirement Living TV (RLTV), the first network dedicated to people 55 and older, has reached new distribution deals with Kansas-based Sunflower Broadband and Massachusetts-based Atlantic Broadband. The network’s deal with independent cable operator Sunflower Broadband marks its …

MILAN/LOS ANGELES, May 20: MGM Networks has signed a deal to launch a local-language version of its MGM Channel on SKY Italia, effective June, marking the service’s launch into the Italian market. The channel will be included in SKY Italia’s …