World Screen

LONDON: TCB Media Rights has brought in Anna Budashevskaya, a former TVF International exec, to help strengthen producer relationships. Budashevskaya will join TCB as the sales and acquisitions manager for the Nordic, Benelux and Central and Eastern European territories in August, as maternity cover for Karen Connell. She will also …

LONDON: The performance of the BBC's four main TV channels remains strong, according to a review of the services by BBC Trust, but key challenges remain, including reaching younger and minority audiences, and the need for more "creative risks" to be taken in BBC One's programming. The review of BBC …

LONDON: BBC Worldwide's 2013-14 Annual Review shows a 6.6-percent drop in revenues from the previous year to £1.04 billion ($1.8 billion), but the commercial division did up its returns to the BBC by 11.4 percent to £173.8 million ($296.6 million). Investment in BBC-commissioned content was also up, by 19.5 percent …

LONDON: British comedy personalities Miranda Hart and David Walliams are teaming with producer Jo Sargent to form a new company, King Bert Productions. The new venture aims to develop new mainstream comedy and comedy entertainment content for broadcasters, whilst also looking to foster new talent. BBC Worldwide is providing development …

LONDON: AMC Networks International—Zone has reached a deal that brings CBS Action, CBS Drama, CBS Reality +1 and Horror Channel to TalkTalk TV in the U.K. The CBS portfolio of channels is already available in the U.K. via Sky, Virgin and Freesat. Beginning today they are available to TalkTalk's IPTV …

LONDON: TalkTalk has extended its deal with Sky, allowing it to continue offering the Sky Sports and Sky Movies channels to its YouView customers for another two years. The deal announced today also includes catch-up content for the channels. Sky and TalkTalk have been working together in this wholesale agreement …

LONDON: The Sky streaming service Now TV has become available on the PlayStation 4 console, delivering shows such as Got to Dance and Silicon Valley, along with a host of movies and sports content. The service offers instant access to the latest films from Sky Movies, action from all six …

PARIS: Ahead of its planned September launch in France, Netflix has signed an agreement with Sacem (Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music) that guarantees local creators compensation for featured content. The pact assures payment to Sacem members whose works are used in programs available on Netflix in France. …

LONDON: BSkyB has agreed to pay £4.9 billion ($8.3 billion) in cash to purchase 21st Century Fox’s 100-percent stake in Sky Italia and its 57.4-percent interest in Sky Deutschland. BSkyB will pay £2.45 billion ($4.2 billion) for Sky Italia, with approximately £2.07 billion ($3.5 billion) to be paid in cash …

PARIS: In its second quarter, France's TF1 posted an operating loss of 30 million euros ($40.35 million) compared to Q2 2013, due primarily to costs associated with airing the FIFA World Cup. For the first half, operating profit fell to 24.2 million euros ($32.5 million) from the 42.6 million euros …