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LONDON, January 18: The Virgin Media Television-owned entertainment channel Virgin1 has acquired two documentaries from Off the Fence for its new Extraordinary Humans documentary strand. In February, Virgin1 will premiere Extraordinary Humans: Obesity, which explores the bodies of some people …

MONTREAL, January 18: The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) announced that Zeitgeist Films has acquired Up the Yangtze ahead of the doc’s premiere today in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Up the Yangtze is …

NEW YORK, January 18: As the writers strike continues, NBC Universal, which today reported an 8-percent hike in fourth-quarter revenues, is said to be close to canceling its annual Upfront presentation, where it unveils the new fall prime-time schedule to …

WASHINGTON, January 18: The American Red Cross and Safety4Kids have partnered to release a children’s safety and entertainment DVD, titled SeeMore’s Playhouse: Fire Safety. The partnership marks the first time that the Red Cross has utilized children’s programming to teach …

LOS ANGELES, January 18: The Directors Guild of America (DGA) has reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) on the terms of a new 3-year contract, which includes wage increases and residuals for …

MADRID, January 18: Spain’s Telecinco has acquired a 28.3-percent stake in the recently launched U.S. Hispanic outlet CaribeVisión for $32 million. CaribeVisión’s a Spanish-language network with stations in New York, Miami and Puerto Rico. The Mediaset-owned Telecinco says it will …

BOGOTÁ, January 18: Gustavo Cisneros, the chairman and CEO of the Cisneros Group of Companies, has expressed his intent to take part in the auction for a new commercial broadcasting license in Colombia. Last month, three top executives from the …

NEW YORK, January 18: Michael Hirschorn is stepping down as executive VP of original programming at VH1, where he led the development of some of the network’s biggest hits, to set up a production company with fellow VH1 staffer Stella …

LOS ANGELES, January 18: Azteca America has inked a new five-year agreement with Pappas Telecasting, keeping the U.S. Hispanic broadcaster’s content on the Los Angeles flagship station KAZA-TV Channel 54 until December 2012. In April 2007, Pappas Telecasting, the largest …

CHICAGO, January 18: The private-equity firm GTCR has entered into a partnership with the founders of Classic Media, Eric Ellenbogen and John Engelman, to form Boomerang Media. The new company will be dedicated to the acquisition, management and exploitation of …