Top Stories

TORONTO, December 5: Shaftesbury Films has acquired the rights to Elizabeth Hay’s award-winning novel Late Nights on Air, with plans to adapt it into a television series. The Giller Award-winning novel Late Nights on Air centers on a cast of …

LONDON, December 5: The Global Content division at ITV, led by Dawn Airey, has made its first acquisition, shelling out an initial £26 million in cash for independent producer 12 Yard. The deal with 12 Yard’s owners—Hat-Trick Productions and the …

PARIS, December 5: To celebrate its first anniversary, the French international news channel France 24 will launch new Internet and mobile content. France 24 is making its content available on demand on mobile platforms in three languages. The channel’s latest …

LOS ANGELES, December 5: News Corporation-owned Fox Entertainment Group (FEG) has acquired the faith and spirituality website Beliefnet. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Beliefnet will become part of Fox Digital Media, spearheaded by president Dan Fawcett. Fox …

NEW YORK, December 5: CBS is looking to its sister cable network Showtime for content to help fill its prime-time schedule as the writers strike continues in the U.S. Speaking at the UBS Annual Global Media & Communications conference yesterday, …

LONDON, December 5: Britain’s High Court has ruled that the BBC’s director-general, Mark Thompson, cannot be sued for blasphemy over the pubcaster’s controversial Jerry Springer—The Opera in 2005. Stephen Green of the Christian Voice group had been seeking to sue …

MUMBAI, December 5: UTV Software Communications has called off plans with Malaysia’s Astro for launch of a joint-venture channel in India targeted at young adults, according to local reports. UTV and Astro inked an alliance towards the end of last …

LONDON, December 5: The IPTV service BT Vision in the U.K. is working with Hiro Media to supply free feature film downloads, featuring un-skippable ads, to its users. British consumers will be able to access Mischief Night, Played and The …

ATHENS, December 5: According to a report released by the Peabody Awards, “television is in a state of transition and confusion,” with narrowcast niche channels and the Internet fragmenting once-massive viewing audiences. The report is drawn from the inaugural University …

LONDON, December 4: BKN New Media SL, the Spanish subsidiary of BKN International, has announced a 1.3 million euros agreement with Italy’s Cartoon One for the co-production Stone Age. As part of the deal, Cartoon One paid 1.3 million euros …