World Screen

LONDON: TCB Media Rights has hired a new head of sales, Karen Connell, who joins in February from Beyond Distribution. For the last three years, Connell has been serving as VP of sales at Beyond Distribution. At TCB, she assumes the role of head of sales for Nordic, Benelux and …

LONDON: Karl Warner, formerly the BBC's commissioning editor for entertainment, and Sony Pictures Television (SPT) are launching Electric Ray, a new production company based in the U.K. Warner will serve as managing director of the new venture. He has recruited a development team for Electric Ray that will be led …

LONDON: More than 40 brands are on board for Sky's new tailored advertising service Sky AdSmart, which is now live following a six-month trial. Sky AdSmart, which is available in more than a fifth of U.K. households, tailors what is shown in TV ad breaks according to a household’s profile …

BERLIN/MAINZ: ZDF Enterprises has signed a two-year contract with the SVOD platform WATCHEVER for on-demand streaming of titles from its catalogue. This brings to the service the detective series Kriminaldauerdienst (KDD), as well as the Danish/Swedish/German detective show Bron/Broen (The Bridge) and the historical drama Krupp: Ein deutsche Familie (Krupp: …

LONDON: DRG has added two new executives to its team: Richard Halliwell, formerly with BBC Worldwide, and Wayne Davison, who previously worked at Shine. Halliwell was previously the commercial director for entertainment formats at BBC Worldwide. He now becomes chief operations officer at DRG, responsible for day-to-day operations. Davison comes …

LONDON: Magnolia Italy has appointed Endemol Italia's Leonardo Pasquinelli as its new managing director, while CEO Ilaria Dallatana steps down from her current post. Francesca Canetta, the company's chief content officer, is also exiting. Dallatana and Canetta helped to create Magnolia Italy in 2001. Dallatana will remain on the board …

LONDON: Georgette Schlick, formerly the CEO of SBS Broadcasting, has been tapped to lead FremantleMedia's Blue Circle entertainment label, while Willem Zijlstra, a FremantleMedia veteran, has been tapped to increase drama production through his label FourOne.Media. Zijlstra will be overseeing all drama production through FourOne.Media. He started his career as …

The Spanish content industry is represented at NATPE under the Audiovisual from Spain banner. The umbrella brand encompasses a number of companies, including Boomerang TV International, BRB Internacional, Filmax International and Imira Entertainment, to name a few. Its promotional activities are sponsored by ICEX Spain Trade and Investment and FAPAE …

LONDON: CBS Chello Zone has firmed up an agreement with the Polish DTH platform nc+, formed through the merger of Cyfra+ and n, for carriage of several channels from its portfolio. The deal is for the Universe+ Package, which includes CBS Drama, CBS Reality and CBS Action, being made available …

LEEDS: Screen Yorkshire has doubled its content fund for film, TV, games and digital production in the U.K., receiving £7.5 million ($12.3 million) from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This additional money will be invested in projects that start by the end of 2015. The funding is open to …