Top Stories

BURBANK, June 23: Camp Rock premiered as Disney Channel’s second highest-rated original movie of all time on Friday with an average of 8.9 million viewers, second only to High School Musical 2, becoming cable’s most-watched entertainment broadcast of the 2007/08 …

CLEVELAND, June 23: American Greetings Corporation has obtained a temporary restraining order blocking the proposed sale of DIC Entertainment to Cookie Jar Entertainment over concerns for its Strawberry Shortcake brand. Cookie Jar announced on Friday that it would spend $31.5 …

LONDON, June 23: In its response to Ofcom’s consultation on the future of public-service broadcasting (PSB) in the U.K., the BBC has rejected the idea of sharing the license fee with its competitors, proposing instead “practical partnerships” to help boost …

TOKYO, June 23: In an interview with the Financial Times, Liberty Media’s chairman, John Malone, called into question the economic viability of networks putting their content online for free viewing. “I think the idea that they’re going to put television …

HONG KONG, June 23: Ron Plante has been appointed as the senior VP of research for STAR, working with teams in India, Greater China and Southeast Asia, among others. Reporting to Todd Lituchy, the president of entertainment at STAR, Plante …

LONDON, June 23: The pay-TV sector in Central and Eastern Europe will be worth some $12 billion in 2013, up from $5.6 billion last year, according to a new report. When advertising revenues are added, the market will be worth …

MONTREAL, June 23: The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has appointed Monique Simard as the director general of the NFB French Program, taking up her new post on August 18. Simard has served as the director general and a …

LONDON, June 23: Pilot Productions has secured a number of international deals on a range of programming, including several for its Globe Trekker franchise. In Europe, TVE in Spain and France 5 took on seasons 12 and 13 of Globe …

LOS ANGELES, June 23: Scott Sternberg Productions has formed a new documentary division, which will produce one to two feature-length docs a year under the Scott Sternberg Productions banner. The division will be headed by Scott Sternberg, the president and …

MONTREAL, June 20: Distraction has secured new sales for its game-show format DNA in Scandinavia as well as the U.S. Nordisk has picked up the format for Denmark, Norway and Sweden, while Zodiak took on DNA for Finland. Distraction also …