World Screen

LONDON: The BBC is bringing a number of interactive services to Virgin Media via the TiVo platform starting in 2012.  A soon-to-come BBC Sports app will build on enhanced red button services to bring together all the live streams for the existing red button service, video streams on demand and additional …

AMSTERDAM: Chellomedia’s Dutch movie service Film1 is launching the new channel Film1 Series, which will feature shows such as the American drama Revenge. Launching January 17, Film1 Series will offer hit American series such as Once Upon a Time, Revenge, Necessary Roughness and Breaking Bad. The new Canadian series Bomb …

MAINZ: Juergen Steimer, the senior VP of acquisitions and co-productions at ZDF Enterprises, is retiring as of December 31. Steimer was appointed the legal consultant to ZDF in 1982, specializing in copyright, international law and cable distribution in other countries. From 1989 to 1992 he was the head of the …

ROME: Italy has scrapped its plans to give away digital TV frequencies, instead opting to auction off its remaining DTT slots. Italy’s Ministry of Economic Development had previously planned a competition for the six frequencies. A reported ten companies were vying for the slot. The plan was to assign the frequencies …

BEVERLY HILLS: A broad range of series from BBC Worldwide, including Torchwood and Spooks, will be available for streaming to Netflix members in the U.K. and Ireland starting in early 2012 as the result of a new licensing deal between the two outfits. A number of previous seasons of Doctor Who, …

BETHPAGE: Following on the heels of Time Warner Cable’s deal to carry HBO’s streaming services, HBO Go and Max Go are launching to Cablevision iO TV customers. With titles such as Game of Thrones, True Blood and Boardwalk Empire, HBO Go offers customers 1,400 titles to steam on the go through Internet-connected devices. …

LUXEMBOURG: Guillaume de Posch, former CEO of ProSiebenSat.1 Group, has been tapped as COO of the RTL Group effective January 1, 2012, to drive "expansion in new businesses and markets," says CEO Gerhard Zeiler. De Posch is tasked with overseeing corporate strategy and business development from the company’s headquarters, with responsibility …

SEATTLE: Amazon’s LOVEFiLM has scored the exclusive streaming rights to new and upcoming titles from Sony Pictures Television during the second pay-TV window as of June 2012. Sony now joins LOVFiLM partners that include Warner Bros., Entertainment One, StudioCanal, Disney, Momentum and Lionsgate. LOVEFiLM members can exclusively stream Sony Pictures …

MUNICH: TM International has landed a slate of deals across Asia and Europe, selling titles such as Moby Dick and Haven. The $25 million-production Moby Dick, a new screen adaptation of Herman Melville’s novel starring Academy Award-winner William Hurt and Academy Award-nominee Ethan Hawke, was sold to HBO (Poland), Carmen …

MAINZ: An app of the Little Mainz Men, the mascots of German pubcaster ZDF, is now available from the Apple App Store in Germany for the iPhone and iPod touch. Created by ZDF Enterprises and the Hamburg app developers from Labor 1, the Christmas penalty shoot-out app features the mascots …