Top Stories

LONDON, August 7: In a deal with Warner Bros. International Television Distribution, Sky One has scored the linear British TV rights to J.J. Abrams’ new series for FOX, Fringe. Sky One is slated to launch the show, from Abrams, Robert …

HONG KONG/TOKYO, August 7: Hiromu Iwamoto has been named STAR’s VP of advertising sales for Japan, where he will oversee advertising sales activities for the company’s regional office in Tokyo. Prior to joining STAR in July, Iwamoto served as the …

MUNICH, August 7: There was an 18.9-percent gain in second-quarter revenues to 272.4 million euros at German pay-TV giant Premiere, but the company still posted a wider loss, of 37.8 million euros, versus the 32.6 million euros loss recorded in …

LONDON, August 7: UKTV has appointed two new channel heads, Adrian Wills for UKTV People and Richard Kingsbury for UKTV History, in preparation for the re-branding of its factual portfolio in 2009. Both will assume their new responsibilities immediately and …

MUNICH, August 7: Although revenues were up 45 percent to 801.9 million euros at ProSiebenSat.1 Media, a weakened German free-TV ad market has impacted the company’s second-quarter net results, with profit down 32 percent to 59.5 million euros. At the …

LONDON, August 7: Tiger Aspect’s commercial director and senior VP of international production, Jamie Munro, will assume a joint managing director role at Shine Television, alongside Karen Smith, who has been upped from director of programs. Smith and Munro will …

EL SEGUNDO, August 7: The second quarter at The DIRECTV Group saw revenues increase by 16 percent on the same period last year to $4.81 billion, with a 2-percent increase in profit to $455 million, driven by subscriber gains at …

LONDON, August 7: The Criterion series Biker Mice from Mars will premiere in the U.S. on August 9 on 4Kids TV, FOX’s Saturday morning programming block, before launching in several other markets this fall. The series has already launched in …

JOHANNESBURG/NEW YORK, August 7: Sesame Workshop’s award-winning South African children’s show Takalani Sesame has added four new languages —Sesotho, Xitsonga, isiXhosa and Afrikaans—for the program’s fifth season to debut on SABC this August. Takalani Sesame will include new characters and …

SYDNEY, August 7: Southern Star International has secured DVD deals on its hit kids’ property Sea Princesses with Studio Canal France and Tycoon Mexico. Produced by Southern Star Entertainment and Neptuno Films Production in association with Flamma Films, the series …