Top Stories

BURBANK, October 16: ABC has given a full-season order to Ugly Betty, the American version of the Colombian soap Betty la fea, which has emerged as the most-watched new series of the 2006-07 season. Starring America Ferrera and executive produced …

BURBANK, October 16: Jericho, the new drama about the aftermath of a nuclear explosion on a small Kansas town, has been given a full-season order by CBS. Distributed by CBS Paramount International Television, the show has been averaging 11.3 million …

PHILADELPHIA, October 13: Ted Harbert, president and CEO of E! Networks, has been promoted to the new position of president and CEO of Comcast Entertainment Group, with oversight of the company’s West Coast properties, including E! Entertainment Television, Style Network …

WARSAW/BURBANK, October 13: Disney Channel has signed a multi-year deal with CYFRA+ and Cyfrowy Polsat to bring Disney Channel for the first time to 1.3 million subscribers across Poland starting on December 2, 2006. Programs that will be available include: …

CANBERRA, October 13: Australia’s senate has passed a controversial bill that would ease restrictions on cross-media ownership and on foreign ownership of Australian media companies. The legislation is intended to spur development of digital services and the growth of new …

LUXEMBOURG, October 13: German commercial broadcaster RTL II and format sales and distribution company ohm:tv have signed an agreement to distribute RTL II’s entire program catalogue to Spain. The announcement was made by Juliane Rauno, RTL II’s head of sales …

TORONTO, October 13: Global Television has announced that it is adding Survivor: Cook Islands, currently Canada’s top-rated reality show, to the content available online through its website. The program joins Deal or No Deal as the latest U.S. primetime series …

BARCELONA, October 13: Southern Star Entertainment and Neptuno Films Production in association with Flamma Films have started production on the 52 x 12-minute children’s animation series Sea Princesses. Based on the original book series Princesas do Mar created by Brazilian …

LONDON, October 13: Trouble, the Flextech-owned youth entertainment channel, has announced that it will build upon its user-generated-content network Homegrown by launching its own television show this November. The series’ content will be a fully user-generated, based entirely on material …

LONDON, October 13: New Medium Enterprises (NME), developer of high definition platforms, has concluded a content distribution deal with German distributor VCL to release up to ten high-definition titles in German-speaking countries by January, 2007, with the entire 800-title catalogue …