Top Stories

STUDIO CITY, March 8: Crown Media, which today announced a renewed agreement with EchoStar Communications Corporation for carriage of Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel, has reported a 2006 net loss of $389 million, versus last year’s $232.8 million loss, …

NEW YORK, March 8: Nickelodeon will add three new animated series to its 2008 schedule—The Umizumiz, Bubble Guppies and Making Fiends—and has unveiled iCarly, a new live-action comedy series that will incorporate user-generated content. Nickelodeon has green-lit 13 episodes of …

LONDON, March 8: Five has suspended all of its programming involving premium-rate telephone services after it learned from Endemol U.K. of problems involving the daily quiz show Brainteaser. The move comes a week after ITV pulled the plug on its …

SEATTLE, March 8: More than 200 movies from Lionsgate, including Saw III, will be available to stream on the ReelTime.com content platform. ReelTime customers will be able to access Lionsgate fare such as Employee of the Month, Crank, The Blair …

LOS ANGELES, March 8: Independent non-fiction distributors Ocule Films and Solid Entertainment and online stock footage house Stock Footage World have joined forces to form O.S.I. The partnership will offer up award-winning documentary specials and features, reality and non-fiction series …

LONDON, March 8: The TVNZ reality format The Big Experiment, represented by Distraction, has been licensed to TF1 and is currently in development for broadcast later this year. The show is billed as a social experiment that gives participants the …

SYDNEY, March 8: ARD and KI.KA in Germany have acquired Southern Star’s new 52-part animated series The Sea Princesses through Degeto Film. Southern Star International will launch the series at this year’s MIPTV, with Seven Network already on board as …

LONDON, March 7: Outright Distribution, formerly Screentime Partners, has clinched new deals on four titles from fellow Shed Group-owned Ricochet. Outright has licensed the 4×1-hour series 20 Ways to XYZ in Australia; Alliance Atlantis for BBC Canada and HGTV in …

ROME, March 7: FBC has taken on the exclusive international distribution rights to the award-winning documentary Nobelity, which looks at the future of the planet through the eyes of nine Nobel Prize winners, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and noted economist …

STUDIO CITY, March 7: Carsey-Werner Television Distribution has tapped Rolando Figueroa as its new VP of international sales for the Latin American and Caribbean region. In his new role, Figueroa will be responsible for sales in the region of Carsey-Werner …