World Screen

LONDON: Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones have aligned with Endemol UK to set up a new production outfit, House of Tomorrow, which will produce dramas, comedies and feature films. Brooker, an award-winning writer/producer/presenter, will be serving as creative director of the newly formed indie. Jones, formerly the managing director of …

MUNICH: Red Arrow International has hired Amelie von Kienlin as its new VP of scripted acquisitions, reporting to Irina Ignatiew, the company's co-MD and head of global scripted distribution. As of September 1, von Kienlin will be responsible for acquiring content for Red Arrow's scripted slate. Previously, von Kienlin was …

VIENNA/ZURICH: Liberty Global is bringing together its operations in Austria and Switzerland, which will be overseen by Eric Tveter, currently the managing director of upc cablecom. Tveter has been named CEO of the newly created Swiss and Austrian division of Liberty Global, effective August 1. That same date, Thomas Hintze, …

MADRID: RTVE’s administrative council has approved a new management structure at Televisión Española (TVE), which includes a merged area dubbed Contenidos y Antena, led by Francisco Díaz Ujados, while Ignacio Gómez-Acebo will become the director of strategic planning for programming and production at TVE. Also, Jaime Garrido will assume leadership …

LONDON: After having spent 18 years at BBC Worldwide, Elin Thomas is joining Passion Distribution in the new position of global head of sales. Thomas most recently served as the director of global formats at BBC Worldwide and was integral in the success and longevity of Dancing with the Stars …

LONDON: Driven in part by its broadcast of this year's World Cup, British commercial broadcaster ITV saw its revenues for the first half of the year rise by 7 percent to £1.2 billion ($2 billion), with pre-tax adjusted profit up 16 percent to £312 million ($527 million). Net advertising revenues …

PARIS: The French media regulator Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA) has rejected requests from TF1, M6 and CANAL+ to switch three channels from pay TV to free-to-air. TF1 was looking to take its 24-hour news channel LCI from paid to free. LCI said it now plans to "examine a possible …

LUXEMBOURG/DENVER: RTL Group has entered into an agreement with the current shareholders of SpotXchange to purchase a 65-percent majority stake in the U.S. video advertising monetization company for 107 million euros ($144 million). In addition to the initial investment, the two agreed on an earn-out component that might increase the …

MUNICH: Net profit for ProSiebenSat.1 Group in Q2 was 108.1 million euros ($144.6 million), 3.6 percent higher than the year-ago period, on revenues that rose 10.6 percent to 691.1 million euros ($924.6 million). “We increased our revenues dynamically in all key areas in the second quarter and thus continued to …

LONDON: While cord-cutting has largely been regarded as a U.S. phenomenon, new findings from research firm IHS Technology suggest that it is now hitting European pay-TV markets. IHS reports that 12 countries across Europe witnessed a decline in overall pay-TV uptake in the first quarter of 2014: Belgium, Denmark, Italy, …