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SYDNEY, October 15: BBC Worldwide Australasia has licensed nearly 100 hours of factual and lifestyle content to Australia’s home- and garden-themed HOW TO Channel. In gardening fare, new series licensed to the HOW TO Channel include the 10×25-minute James Martin …

NEW YORK/MALIBU, October 15: Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products has granted the master toy license for SpongeBob SquarePants to JAKKS Pacific, who will create toys and related products based on the hit Nickelodeon animated series, for launch in 2008. JAKKS …

SILVER SPRING, October 15: Discovery Communications has reached a deal to acquire HowStuffWorks, an online informational tool that is accessed by 11 million unique visitors from around the world every month. Located at www.howstuffworks.com, the site’s traffic has grown 25 …

LOS ANGELES, October 15: Fox Television Studios has made three key hires for its programming department: Pancho Mansfield, Diego Suarez and Karyn Smith. Pancho Mansfield has been named senior VP of programming, after serving as executive VP and head of …

SYDNEY, October 15: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has granted the Australian broadcast rights to the Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 Olympic Games to Nine Network and FOXTEL. The rights to the Beijing games are held by Seven Network. Commenting …

MIAMI, October 15: Disney-ABC International Television (DAIT) Latin America announced a host of deals at MIPCOM last week, including one to represent Jennifer Lopez’s new mini-series for Univision, Como Ama Una Mujer (How A Woman Loves). The deal with Univision …

STOCKHOLM, October 15: KidsCo, the joint venture channel owned by Sparrowhawk Media, DIC Entertainment and Nelvana Enterprises, has appointed Viasat as its representative across Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, the Baltics and Ukraine. Effective immediately, Viasat, owned by the Modern …

FRANKFURT, October 15: lettra, a TV channel dedicated to books and reading, is set to launch on the new Premiere Star bouquet effective November 24. Aimed at booklovers of all kinds, the channel will look at children’s books, novels, non-fiction, …

HONG KONG, October 15: With the theme “It’s All About Content!” this year’s CASBAA Convention, to be held from October 30 to November 2 at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, will focus on how content is the key …

NEW YORK, October 12: Sesame Workshop and the Merrill Lynch Foundation have created Panwapa, a worldwide kids initiative aimed at fostering the foundation for global citizenship and community participation in young children, aged 4 to 7. Panwapa, which means “here …