World Screen

LONDON: BBC Worldwide is launching a new premium BBC channel on Foxtel in Australia that will offer premiere British drama and comedy shortly after the U.K. transmissions. The commercial-free channel, launching in mid-2014, will be part of the Foxtel Drama & Lifestyle package. It will feature first-run programming from the BBC and …

HONG KONG: Todd Miller has been elevated to the post of CEO at Celestial Tiger Entertainment (CTE), from president and COO. Miller became the president and COO of CTE in 2012, when it was created as the result of a merger between Celestial Pictures’ channels business and Tiger Gate Entertainment. …

NEW YORK: Ahead of APOS, which kicks off in Bali next week, AMC/Sundance Channel Global has announced a number of personnel appointments for its Asia-Pacific operations, as well as a range of acquisitions for its channels in the region. For the Asia-Pacific operations, Courtney Williams has been tapped as managing …

HANOI: MP & Silva has taken on the exclusive rights to distribute FIFA’s tournaments, including the World Cup in Brazil, in Vietnam between 2013 and 2014. This is the first time that MP & Silva has held the rights for Vietnam. It will serve as the exclusive distributor for TV rights across cable, satellite …

SINGAPORE/LOS ANGELES: Saban Capital Group has continued its investment in Asia by opening a new office in Singapore, to be led by Sumeet Jaisinghani. Jaisinghani is relocating from Saban’s Hong Kong office to Singapore to take on the role of the director of Saban Capital Group (Asia). Established in 2001 …

SYDNEY: Network Ten has filled the newly created role of chief brand officer, hiring Matt McGrath, with immediate effect. McGrath has been serving as CEO and executive chairman of Y&R Brands Australia and New Zealand. Before that he was the chief creative officer of George Patterson Y&R Australia and New Zealand. Hamish …

BALI: As the Asia Pacific Pay-TV Operators Summit kicked off in Bali, Indonesia, Media Partners Asia (MPA) released a new report indicating that the number of subscribers in the region will hit 696 million by 2020, reflecting a penetration of 68 percent. According to MPA, there were 444 million pay-TV subscribers in …

HONG KONG: Celestial Tiger Entertainment has expanded the reach of its channel devoted to classic Chinese movies, inking a deal for a branded block in Taiwan and carriage agreements in the Philippines and Hong Kong. Celestial Classic Movies, which taps into the Shaw Brothers library, as well as other collections devoted …

MUMBAI: There will be 130 million digital pay-TV homes in India by 2020, according to new research from Media Partners Asia (MPA), reflecting about 60 percent of all TV homes in the country, up from 28 percent last year. The report, India Pay-TV & Broadband Markets, also notes that digital penetration …

BEIJING/SINGAPORE: A study by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the China Film Distributors and Exhibitors Association (CFDEA) reports that the Chinese film and television business directly contributed $15.5 billion to the country’s economy in 2011, supporting more than 900,000 jobs and generating tax revenues of $3.4 billion. The lion’s …