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LOS ANGELES, August 23: PorchLight Entertainment’s Jay Jay the Jet Plane has been renewed by PBS KIDS through June 2009. The show has been airing on PBS KIDS since June 2001. It is currently available on 220 PBS member stations …

SAN FRANCISCO, August 23: VIZ Media has announced new Latin American deals on its successful animated properties Naruto and Zatch Bell!. America TV in Peru acquired 52 episodes each of both series, as did Televideo Services for broadcast in Guatemala, …

NORWALK, August 23: CABLEready has notched up deals in Europe and Asia on five series from Burrud Productions, including its first deal with RTL in Belgium, which picked up Mostly True Stories. In Poland, Planete took the six-part Weird Worlds …

LONDON, August 23: Turner Broadcasting Systems UK has hired Anthony van Someren as VP of creative and production of Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Toonami and Cartoon Network Too. Van Someren joins Turner from Flextech Television, and will take up his role …

NEW YORK, August 23: According to research firm Datamonitor, there will be 187 million digital TV homes in Europe and the U.S. by 2010, with Europe expected to overtake the U.S. by the end of this year. The report, The …

CULVER CITY, August 23: Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is shelling out $65 million for Grouper, a user-generated video website. Under the terms of the deal, the Sausalito-based site, which enables its members to watch, share and create video online, will …

LOS ANGELES, August 23: Paramount Pictures is ending its 14-year relationship with Tom Cruise, with Sumner Redstone, the chairman of Viacom, saying that the star’s off-screen behavior was “not acceptable” to the studio. However, according to the New York Times, …

NEW YORK, August 23: The English- and Spanish-language kids’ programming venture from ION Media Networks, NBC Universal, Scholastic, Classic Media/Big Idea and Nelvana, called qubo, is set to launch as a block on NBC and Telemundo on September 9. It …

BURBANK, August 23: A range of ABC News videos will be offered on the iTunes Music Store in the categories of “ABC News Specials," "The Day It Happened" and "Celebrity Flashback." Videos will be priced at $1.99 each. "We are …

WINNIPEG, August 23: Granada Media Group will join CanWest Global Communications Corp. in offloading its stake in Ireland’s TV3 network to funds managed by Doughty Hanson & Co, with the transaction expected to close at the end of this month. …