Top Stories

LONDON, June 26: British broadcaster Five has been hit with a £300,000 ($600,000) fine by regulator Ofcom over the daytime game show Brainteaser, which on several occasions announced fake names as winners or had production staff pose as winners. News …

LOS ANGELES, June 26: Bennett Media Worldwide has closed a slew of post-MIPTV deals for its high-definition reality programming, with cumulative sales now totaling 200 hours. Foxtel in Australia has acquired pay-TV rights for Bikini Destinations, Stag, Best of Hawaiian …

LONDON, June 26: The members of the BBC Direction Group, consisting of the pubcaster’s most senior executives, have waived their annual bonuses for the 2006/2007 period, totaling about £350,000 ($700,000). Director-General Mark Thompson said in a statement: "Overall this has …

LONDON, June 25: Five has commissioned Feelgood Fiction to produce a second season of the award-winning series Suburban Shootout, centered on two competing gun-toting gangs of vigilante housewives. A co-commission with Paramount Comedy, Suburban Shootout garnered a Golden Nymph award …

SANTA MONICA, June 25: Home entertainment distributor Genius Products has entered into a deal with EMI Music North America's Christian Music Group (CMG) division as it looks to target the Christian retail market. EMI CMG Distribution becomes the exclusive distributor …

AMSTERDAM/LOS ANGELES, June 25: In cooperation with Liberty Global’s Chellomedia division, MGM Networks, a division of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, will launch a Dutch version of the MGM Channel for local audiences in the Netherlands and Flemish-speaking Belgium. Wholly owned by MGM, …

ATLANTA, June 25: Cartoon Network and Hasbro are working together to jointly develop Transformers Animated, a new 2-D animated series scheduled to premiere in the U.S. in 2008. The development deal comes ahead of the release of the live-action theatrical …

MUNICH, June 25: The talent show format The Successor, distributed by SevenOne International, will air in Germany on ProSieben in 2008, following a successful launch in Israel on Keshet’s Channel 2. Developed by Keshet Broadcasting, local production company Kuperman Productions …

LOS ANGELES, June 25: PorchLight Entertainment is forming a U.S. home-entertainment division that will focus on releasing its own kids’ and family titles, as well as third-party fare. “When the PorchLight doors opened over a decade ago, it was with …

LONDON, June 25: Parthenon Entertainment has teamed up with the U.S.-based BASE Productions on two HD factual entertainment titles: Superhuman and Sport Science. Parthenon has made a significant investment in both shows and is distributing them internationally. The 13×1-hour Sport …