World Screen

MILAN: Sky Italia is rolling out 13 additional high-definition channels on February 1, bringing its total HD slate to 52. More than 70 percent of the platform’s 5 million subscribers are signed up for the HD service, Sky Italia said. The new additions as of next month include Extreme Sports Channel HD and …

PARK CITY: From the Sundance Film Festival, AMC/Sundance Channel Global announced new carriage deals in Portugal, Belgium, Poland, France and Taiwan. At the end of 2011, Sundance Channel rolled out in Portugal on pay-TV platform ZON Multimédia. The channel has also secured carriage with Belgacom TV in Belgium, adding to previous distribution …

LONDON: Mark Thompson, the director general of the BBC, is said to be planning to step down at the end of this year or early next, after eight years at the helm of the British public broadcaster. The speculation in the U.K. press comes a few days after BBC Trust’s chairman, …

OSLO: The first episode of Lilyhammer gave Norwegian broadcaster NRK1 its best numbers ever for a drama-series premiere, reaching an overall share of 56.3 percent. Sold worldwide by SevenOne International, Lilyhammer secured a 44.2-percent share in the 12 to 44 demo on NRK1 and outperformed the channel average by 245 …

BUDAPEST: Writer and director Agnieszka Holland, whose In Darkness is a contender for best foreign-language film at this year’s Academy Awards, is working on a three-part drama for HBO Central Europe about Czech student activist Jan Palach. The drama will tell the story of Palach, the student who burned himself to death …

LOS ANGELES: At last night’s 18th annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, the cast of Boardwalk Empire won for best ensemble performance in a drama, while Modern Family took the win on the comedy side. Individual performance wins went to Steve Buscemi for Boardwalk Empire and Jessica Lange for American …

LONDON: Expanding the range of content available on Sky Anytime+, new agreements have been signed to bring BBC iPlayer and ITV Player to the VOD service. ITV archive content such as Prime Suspect, Lewis and Cold Feet join the service, accessible through the main Sky Anytime+ menu as well as …

ISTANBUL: Time Warner, News Corp. and the private equity group Texas Pacific have reportedly placed formal bids to acquire the Turkish media group ATV-Sabah, a unit of Calik Holding. Calik Holding bought ATV-Sabah in 2007 for $1.1 billion. One of Turkey’s largest media groups, ATV-Sabah combines a popular television channel …

LONDON: The international BBC HD channel is set to launch on Cyfrowy Polsat in Poland on February 1. Under the agreement, BBC HD will be available to all subscribers of the DTH platform’s extended basic tier, Extra HD. BBC HD features British and international high-definition content with a lineup of …

LONDON: DRG has named Charlotte Hargreaves the senior VP of marketing and business development. Hargreaves will report to Jonathan Jackson, the COO of DRG, and will be responsible for new business areas and digital platforms. In addition, she will help to grow the brand development side of the business, acquiring …