World Screen

LONDON: all3media international has signed an agreement to provide development funding for Swan Films, a new U.K. indie, and distribute its projects around the globe. Swan Films was established earlier this year by Neil Crombie and Joe Evans, the makers of Grayson Perry: All in the Best Possible Taste, which …

LONDON: According to research from Thinkbox, 98.5 percent of television viewing in the U.K. last year was done on a TV set, with just 1.5 percent on other devices. The average Briton tuned in to just under 4 hours of TV a day, with the bulk of that, 3 hours …

LONDON: Sky Sports is set to show the Indian Premier League exclusively, broadcasting the action live for the first time. Sky Sports viewers can catch 60 live matches each year, for at least three years from 2015. The channel's live year-round cricket coverage includes England home and away, plus coverage …

LONDON: BT has won a court battle to have the competition tribunal re-examine its decision to stop Sky Sports 1 and 2 from being offered to rivals at a discount. In summer 2012, the tribunal concluded that Ofcom's competition concern that Sky had deliberately withheld from other retailers the supply …

LONDON: Following on launches in Spain and France, Paramount Channel is making its way to Russia and Hungary this month. In Russia, Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) has secured carriage for the service with Rostelecom, which operates the country's largest cable TV network. The deal is for a Russian-language version …

LONDON: BBC Three has ordered a second season of Uncle, a dark comedy series starring Nick Helm and Elliot Speller-Gillot. Uncle is about an unemployed musician who begins to bond with his 12-year-old nephew after his sister asks him to babysit on the day he was planning to commit suicide. …

PARIS: Issuing its 2013 results, where revenues were down 5.7 percent, France's market leading broadcaster, TF1, has warned that ad revenues could yet again contract this year, "in a gloomy economic climate, with no signs of recovery and visibility still poor." For the full year, revenues dropped to 2.5 billion …

ISTANBUL: Digiturk has scored the exclusive Turkish broadcast rights for the 86th Academy Awards, which will air live on March 2 on a brand-new Oscars-dedicated channel. The event will air on Moviemax Oscars HD, the first Oscars-dedicated channel in Turkey, featuring a lineup of 105 Oscar-nominated movies for two weeks. …

LONDON: FremantleMedia International has extended its relationship with the indie comedy and drama producer Roughcut Television for another two years. FremantleMedia International will continue to co-develop with Roughcut, which was founded in 2007 by Ash Atalla, until at least the end of 2015. The company has the rights to distribute …

LONDON: Following Janice Hadlow's move to become the controller of special projects and seasons at the BBC, Adam Barker has been tapped as acting controller for BBC Two and BBC Four. Barker is currently editorial executive for BBC Two and Four. He takes up the new acting controller post as …