Top Stories

TORONTO, May 22: High Fidelity HDTV has reached an agreement with Smithsonian Networks to exclusively air programming from the U.S.-based Smithsonian Channel HD on three of its networks—Oasis HD, Equator HD and Treasure HD—in Canada. Programming from Smithsonian Networks will …

UNIVERSAL CITY, May 22: NBC Universal Television, DVD, Music & Consumer Products Group has debuted the first set of collectible trading cards based on the hit series Heroes, featuring characters and scenes from the show’s debut season. Trading-card company Topps …

LONDON, May 22: Digital Rights Group (DRG) has created a dedicated DRG Acquisitions Group to fund program development and co-productions, chaired by Andrea Jackson, the managing director of Zeal Entertainment. With the goal of increasing the amount of DRG-represented content …

LONDON, May 22: FOCAL International, the trade body representing members of the global footage industry, has unveiled the winners of the fifth FOCAL International Awards, which were held in association with AP Archive. The judging panel, led by Jerry Kuehl, …

LONDON, May 22: FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) has completed additional sales for the 10×1-hour drama Satisfaction, with broadcasters in Estonia, Bulgaria, Canada and Poland. The series was picked up by Allarco (Super Channel) for English-speaking Canada, TV2 in Bulgaria, Kanal 2 …

ATLANTA, May 22: Segal Licensing, Cartoon Network Enterprises’ exclusive Canadian licensing agent for Ben 10, has secured four new consumer-products partners for the hit franchise, expanding the brand’s apparel, sleepwear and accessories categories in Canada. New products from KidQuest, Adorable …

LOS ANGELES, May 22: Season seven of FOX’s American Idol came to a close last night with David Cook being crowned the winner after a record-setting 97.5 million votes. The votes received for this season shattered the previous Idol record …

LOS ANGELES, May 22: Marketing heads from ABC, CBS, The CW, FOX, NBC and Univision are set to participate in a roundtable discussion at the Network Television CMO Summit, which kicks off the second day of the 53rd annual Promax/BDA …

CANNES, May 22: Philippe Dauman, the president and CEO of Viacom, will deliver a keynote speech at this year’s MIPCOM, which will take place from October 13 to 17 in Cannes. In his keynote, Dauman will focus on the creative …

LONDON, May 22: Change Productions has been commissioned by Five in the U.K. and National Geographic Channel (NGC) in the U.S. to produce the hour-long documentary special The Last Druids. Five has commissioned the doc for its Revealed strand, and …