World Screen

LONDON: Lucky Day Productions, a Zodiak Media Group company, has secured a number of new commissions, with production under way on four series expected in 2012 for BBC and Channel 4. Secret Location, a 20-episode hour-long series, was commissioned by Channel 4 for daytime. The new property format takes house …

PREMIUM: Gary Davey, the executive VP of programming at pay-TV platform Sky Deutschland, tells World Screen about his approach to acquisitions, nonlinear deals and windowing. WS: Can you tell us about your recent output deal with Tele München? DAVEY: One of the unique things about Germany is the influence of …

COLOGNE: Sony Pictures Television Sales Deutschland and the ProSiebenSat.1 Group have signed a VOD output deal that brings a host of new film and TV offerings to the maxdome service. Titles covered under the new deal include The Smurfs, Bad Teacher and Zookeeper. On the TV side, series such as Breaking Bad, …

MADRID: After two years of talks, the Spanish broadcasters Antena 3 and La Sexta have agreed to a merger deal, pending regulatory approval. The deal sees the smaller La Sexta absorbed into the Antena 3 Group. Shareholders of La Sexta will receive 7 percent of the newly formed group, with …

PARIS: Reed MIDEM has organized a two-day networking and live learning experience, MIPCube, which will focus on the game-changing innovations affecting the TV industry, to take place ahead of the 2012 edition of MIPTV. MIPCube will open in Cannes on March 30, with MIPTV following on April 1. Cindy Gallop, the former …

LONDON: Sony Pictures Television (SPT) Networks has inked a carriage deal with Virgin Media for Sony Entertainment Television (SET), which is now available in 13.8 million U.K. households. In addition to Virgin Media, the female-skewed, entertainment channel, already reaches Sky’s 10 million basic pay-TV subscribers. The channel will feature series …

LONDON: Channel 5 has notified Ofcom that it is not going to proceed with its application for the fifth HD capacity slot on the Freeview digital platform. Freeview HD currently offers four channels: BBC One HD, BBC HD (which is set to turn into BBC Two HD), ITV1 HD and Channel 4 …

MOSCOW: Anton Kudryashov, the CEO of Russia’s CTC Media, has stepped down, with the company’s chief financial officer, Boris Podolsky, taking over on an interim basis until a permanent replacement has been appointed. Kudryashov has exited by "mutual agreement," said a statement from CTC Media. He had been CEO since 2008. …

HELSINKI: Finnish parliamentary group leaders have decided to replace the 80-year-old license-fee system of funding for the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) with a new tax model. Starting in 2013, YLE will be funded by a fee that is collected by the Finnish tax authorities. The money will also be allocated …

PARIS/LUXEMBOURG/WARSAW: France’s Canal+ has firmed up a deal to merge its Polish pay-TV service, Cyfra+, with ITI Group’s pay-TV platform businesses in Poland. Canal+ also gets an option to take over Polish broadcaster TVN. The combination of Cyfra+ and TVN’s ‘n’ creates a new DTH platform that will have a combined …