World Screen

SYDNEY/LOS ANGELES: Entertainment One (eOne) is expanding its TV business with the launch of a dedicated production and development arm in Sydney. Jude Troy, currently the managing director of home entertainment, has been tapped to serve as executive VP of television development and acquisitions for Australia and New Zealand. The …

SINGAPORE: MediaCorp's free-to-air Channel 5 is being relaunched in January 2015 with more of an emphasis on local content. The "Local Upsize" lineup on the new channel will be aligned more with the Singapore identity and connect more closely with Singapore families. The English channel will increase its local content …

SINGAPORE: Ma Dong, the chief content officer of Baidu’s IQIYI, is lined up for a keynote at the upcoming Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) entitled Digital China: The New Storyteller—IQIYI. Dong's Asian Media Keynote speech will take place on December 9. The presentation will touch on IQIYI's position in …

SINGAPORE/KUALA LUMPUR: Rewind Networks' HITS channel has been added to the lineup of Astro, where it will be available with Bahasa Malaysia and Simplified Chinese subtitles. The channel is set to go live on Astro on November 16. An entertainment network, HITS is dedicated to featuring iconic shows such as Mork …

SHANGHAI: The Chinese movie and TV production powerhouse Huayi Brothers has received investments from Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Tencent as part of a private placement to raise up to $588 million. Huayi announced in a stock exchange filing that it would issue 145 million shares. The investment firm owned …

SYDNEY: Australia's commercial broadcasters are taking issue with the increased ad-time limits being granted to SBS following new budget cuts for the country's pubcasters. A total of A$308 million ($266 million) will be cut from the budgets of ABC and SBS over the next five years. A statement from Communications …

SINGAPORE: Scripps Networks Interactive's HGTV will make its Asian debut on December 4 with an HD rollout on StarHub in Singapore. The home and lifestyle channel will launch with signature U.S. series like Property Brothers, Cousins on Call and The High-Low Project. The channel will also air original local productions …

HONG KONG/SINGAPORE: China will overtake Japan as the Asia Pacific's largest ad market in 2016, Media Partners Asia (MPA) projects in its latest report, which estimates that net advertising revenues in the region will rise 5 percent this year to top $121 billion. The report, Asia Pacific Advertising Trends & …

SHANGHAI: The Walt Disney Company and Shanghai Media Group are expanding their long-term strategic relationship to include television content development, movie co-production, content distribution and cooperation in marketing initiatives. "The strength of this deepening relationship with Disney, and the volume and diversity of the initiatives that we are pursuing, helps …

SINGAPORE: Production company activeTV has upped Paulo Vivan to creative director for Asia, replacing exiting director Brad Cox. Vivan will work closely with Christopher Berry, activeTV’s head of development, in creating new formats. He is taking over the role from Cox, who is leaving after a five-year stint with the …