World Screen

LONDON: Over the past three months, Passion Distribution has placed more than 150 hours of programming with broadcasters in Australia. For ABC2, ABC TV licensed Firecracker Films' Diary of a Teenage Virgin, Mentorn Media's The Fried Chicken Shop: Life in a Day and SnagFilms' Lost for Life. Nine Network went …

SYDNEY: ABC TV and Screen Australia are planning to commission 25 projects for a new initiative, called Fresh Blood, which seeks to find the next generation of comedy performers and producers. The selected 25 projects will receive a budget of AUS$10,000 to produce three 2 to 5 minute short-form comedy …

SINGAPORE: Global digital media company Brand New Media has named industry veteran Nick Fawbert as its new managing director of Asian operations. Fawbert will oversee the management of BNM’s business model as the company expands across the continent. The exec formerly worked as the head of digital enterprise for MediaCorp. …

SYDNEY: The Australian streaming service Quickflix has expanded its offering of TV series through new agreements with Disney, NBCUniversal and BBC Worldwide Australia & New Zealand. Content licensed under these new agreements include seasons of Downton Abbey, the U.S. comedy series Parks and Recreation, Mrs Brown’s Boys and other series …

SYDNEY: Seven West Media CEO Tim Worner has condemned an Australian Federal Police raid on the company's offices as "overkill," saying that he finds it "disturbing" that they were using search warrants to access news and corporate records. The AFP brought in around 30 police and eight squad cars to …

TOKYO: Nippon TV is scheduled to present a slate of scripted format dramas at this year’s DISCOP Istanbul, marking the first time the Japanese network attends the event. Sue Fujimoto, the network’s managing director of international business development, and Ayako Tajima, the manager for international business development, are set to …

Over the last few years, the government-backed National Film Development Corporation Malaysia, better known as FINAS, has been steadily increasing its presence at international markets like MIPTV and MIPCOM. With a string of local initiatives, the organization, together with other agencies under the Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture, has …

This interview originally appeared in the MIPCOM 2013 issue of TV Asia Pacific. With its takeover of the former ESPN STAR Sports joint venture now complete, FOX International Channels (FIC) operates a portfolio of channels in Asia that touches on every major programming genre. At the helm of the region’s …

HONG KONG: BBC Worldwide is set to make a slate of factual and drama titles available on a VOD basis to Chinese online platform Sohu.com. The deal covers, among others, Earthflight, Frozen Planet and The British, as well as Mad Dog, Ripper Street, Sinbad and Silk. “We are very excited about …

LOS ANGELES: Metan Development Group has picked up Next Media Elite's weekly entertainment news series PopStop TV and its Mandarin-language companion program Hollywood Now for the recently launched Hollywood channel on Tudou in China. The shows will kick off on Hollywood with live Red Carpet coverage and interviews from this …