Top Stories

CHICAGO, April 2: The Tribune Company, which owns 23 TV stations in the U.S., among other assets, has accepted an $8.2 billion takeover offer from Sam Zell, a real-estate tycoon who has never run a newspaper. The 160-year-old media conglomerate …

WASHINGTON, DC, April 2: National Geographic Channels International (NGCI) is launching a new channel, Nat Geo Adventure. This new channel will concentrate on high-energy exploration and adventure programming and aims to engage young backpackers and travelers craving edgy content that …

LOS ANGELES, April 2: Promax/BDA has added the director John Waters and the fashion designer Kenneth Cole to its lineup of speakers at the 52nd annual North American conference at the New York Hilton, joining the previously announced keynote speaker, …

MUNICH, April 2: In a deal brokered by SevenOne International, ProSieben’s science-magazine program Galileo has been licensed to Polish broadcaster TV4. The Polish version will run under the German title and use material produced by TV4 in addition to material …

NEW YORK, April 2: Simcha Jacobovici and James Cameron, the director and executive producer, respectively, of The Lost Tomb of Jesus, have retained Lorber Media and David Fox and Associates to handle exclusive sales of the “director’s cut” of the …

LOS ANGELES, April 2: DIC Entertainment (DIC), Geffen Records and Poets Road have collaborated on the launch of a new brand for tweens, KEWL, which includes a free quarterly celebrity music-driven branded magazine, a website and a television review series …

LONDON, April 2: To celebrate the one-year anniversary of its shift from pay-TV platforms to basic packages on Sky and Virgin Media, Disney Channel U.K. has announced a 60-percent increase in its audience share, boosted by the success of live-action …

MADRID, April 2: Elastic Rights has licensed Entertainment Rights’ popular The Basil Brush Show for broadcast in Spain on TVE and Cartoon Network and in Italy on RAI SAT. The sixth season of The Basil Brush Show will soon premiere …

NEW YORK, April 2: 4Kids Entertainment will offer 40 half-hour episodes of its all-new multiplatform animated action series Chaotic to international buyers at MIPTV. The series, which also involves a trading card component and online game play, launched in the …

AMSTERDAM, March 30: Starting April 16, UPC Netherlands will be offering video on demand for digital TV, the first such service in the Dutch market. UPC currently offers a limited near-video-on-demand (NVOD) service, where a small number of films can …