Top Stories

TORONTO/LONDON, August 14: DECODE Entertainment has appointed Rocket Licensing as the U.K. licensing agent for its animated preschool property Franny’s Feet. The appointment follows DECODE Entertainment’s recently concluded deal with Rainbow Productions for the rollout of costume characters in Europe. …

EMERYVILLE, August 13: Expanding on its relationship with NBC Universal, mobile content platform MobiTV has added the Access Hollywood channel to its services. Currently in its 11th season in U.S. syndication, Access Hollywood is an entertainment newsmagazine that provides the …

LONDON, August 13: HIT Entertainment’s popular stop-motion animated preschool series Bob the Builder will premiere in Brazil on the terrestrial broadcaster SBT. SBT will begin broadcasting the complete first season of Bob o Constructor this month to millions of homes …

COLUMBIA, August 13: Charles Hirschhorn, founder of the G4 channel now owned by Comcast, has been appointed as chief creative officer for Retirement Living TV, with responsibility for all programming, production and marketing at the network. Hirschhorn launched G4: Videogame …

MOUNTAIN VIEW, August 13: This week, Google is set to stop selling and renting video content on its Google Video site, a year and a half since the service first launched. Last January, Google Video launched its online marketplace with …

MUNICH, August 13: Georg Kofler is stepping down as the chief executive of German pay-TV platform Premiere at the end of this month to be succeeded by CFO Michael Börnicke. Kofler has asked the platform’s Supervisory Board to release him …

NEW YORK, August 13: As of the beginning of next year, MTV Networks’ preschool service Noggin and nighttime teen block The N will each have their own 24-hour networks, after sharing space for the last five years. Noggin and The …

LOS ANGELES, August 13: Merv Griffin, the legendary entertainer who created the hit game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, passed away on Sunday at the age of 82 from prostate cancer. Griffin got his start as a radio singer …

COPENHAGEN, August 13: TV 2 Danmark has inked a deal with Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution to offer up the sixth season of 24 both on its flagship linear channel and on its broadband service TV 2 Sputnik. The deal …

BEVERLY HILLS, August 13: The online movie rental service Netflix has secured a number of exclusive distribution deals with public television station Thirteen/WNET, the retailer Target and Warner Home Video for the multiplatform launch of a new documentary produced by …