Top Stories

LONDON, August 14: TV-Loonland’s successful preschool property Little Princess has been renewed for a second season on Five, with the new episodes set to air during the Milkshake! block beginning next month. The renewal follows the success of the first …

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. …

NEW YORK, August 14: Working with its licensing agency, 360ep, Showtime Networks has secured deals with Aquarius and Gamaka for the creation of new merchandise—including posters, calendars, DVDs, and board games—based on the series The L Word. Aquarius will create …

SINGAPORE/HONG KONG, August 14: AXN has announced plans to launch Ultimate Escape, a new travel reality series from the producers behind The Amazing Race Asia. The new series will see four couples experience a three-day tour-de-force through an exotic destination, …

TORONTO, August 14: Crawford Productions and Protocol Entertainment are producing a third season of the kids’ series The Saddle Club, with 26 new half-hour episodes being filmed on location in Australia. The live-action TV series, based on the best-selling books …

LONDON, August 14: A new report from WPP’s GroupM estimates that global advertising revenues will rise 6 percent this year to $433 billion, accelerating to 7-percent growth in 2008, when ad spending will reach $462 billion. According to This Year, …

LONDON, August 14: HIT Entertainment has named Jo Adamson as licensing manager of hard goods in the U.K., based in the London office and reporting directly to Laura Clarke, the director of licensing of hard goods. Previously, Adamson worked at …

EL SEGUNDO, August 14: Just two weeks since recalling 1.5 million Fisher-Price toys manufactured in China, Mattel has announced the recall of 436,000 Cars die-cast vehicles over “impermissible levels of lead,” as well as more than 18 million magnetic toys. …

ATLANTIC CITY/LOS ANGELES, August 14: TLC has reached a multiyear deal with the Miss America Organization for the telecast rights to the Miss America Pageant through 2010. The rights were previously held by Viacom-owned CMT, which picked up the pageant …

LONDON/LOS ANGELES, August 14: The Africa Channel, a U.S.-based cable and satellite network featuring content about and from the African continent, has expanded into the international market, inking a carriage deal with BSkyB. The Africa Channel will launch on Sky’s …