World Screen

 This interview originally appeared in the MIPTV 2013 issue of TV Europe.   ZDF, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. For five decades, the German public broadcaster has built its reputation and viewership on quality news and current affairs, including the newscast of record, heute; popular entertainment …

This interview originally appeared in the MIPCOM 2013 issue of TV Europe. RTL II aptly sums up its programming offering with the tagline, “It’s fun”. For 20 years the German station has been catering to the needs of young viewers, providing them with creative, new and unexpected shows and formats. …

LONDON: Yahoo! has named Dawn Airey, a 30-year veteran of the TV business who formerly served as CEO of Channel 5, as the senior VP of the company’s new EMEA operation. Airey will be report to Henrique de Castro, the COO. Starting November 1, Christophe Parcot, who was Yahoo!’s interim lead for …

HAMILTON: Adrian Sarbu is resigning as the president and CEO of Central European Media Enterprises (CME), after having been with the company for nearly two decades. Sarbu was CME’s partner when the company launched Pro TV in Romania in 1995. He went on to serve as COO of the company …

This interview originally appeared in the MIPCOM 2013 issue of World Screen. One of the first television executives to set up international co-productions, Jan Mojto, the managing director of Beta Film, has more than 20 years’ experience bringing together partners and bridging cultures, viewers’ tastes and broadcasters’ needs. In the …

LUXEMBOURG: RTL Group saw its net profit increase 52.6 percent to 418 million euros ($558 million), though revenue was down amid a weak TV ad market. Revenue dipped 1.3 percent to 2.78 billion euros ($3.71 million). The TV advertising market continued to pose a challenge in the first half of 2013. …

WARSAW: TLC is dedicating a block of its schedule to programming from OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network on its channels in Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania and the Balkans. TLC shows such as Cake Boss, Long Island Medium and Hear Comes Honey Boo Boo will air alongside a hand-picked selection of …

EDINBURGH: HISTORY UK has commissioned the one-off docudrama Bannockburn (working title), produced by Sky Vision and Canada’s Arcadia Content. The two-hour project will be done using fast-paced, graphic novel-style dramatic reconstruction and historical analysis. It will look at the greatest battlefield mystery of the Middle Ages, when the Scottish force …

LONDON: BBC Two and BBC Four have ordered a number of tentatively titled series spanning such genres as drama, factual and comedy. Titles headed to BBC Two include 37 Days, a factual drama starring Ian McDiarmid, Sinead Cusack, Tim Pigott-Smith, Bill Paterson and Kenneth Cranham; Idris Elba: King of Speed, a …

LONDON: New TV viewing figures from Thinkbox reveal that 98.5 percent of television viewing is still done on the traditional TV set in the U.K., while 1.5 percent is on other screens such as tablets and mobile devices. The average daily TV viewing in the U.K. (during January to June 2013) was …