World Screen

LONDON: FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) has secured international TV sales for Bellator Fighting Championships, the mixed martial arts brand. FME exclusively represents the TV distribution and brand licensing rights for Bellator and has sold the TV rights for the tournament to a number of broadcasters around the world. Deals include Big …

PREMIUM: M6 Group’s Thomas Valentin tells TV Europe how original and commissioned shows have been the building blocks to the French commercial channel’s success. Ever since its launch in 1987, the French commercial channel M6 has resonated with viewers, especially the younger demos. It has become the home of cutting-edge, …

LONDON: The new series Be Your Own Boss (working title) from production company Twofour is to air on BBC Three. The series features one of the co-founders of Innocent Smoothies, Richard Reed, searching for new British business talent to invest to £1 million. Reed will hand 500 of the best …

LONDON: Shine Group is restructuring its senior management team, as the co-managing directors of Shine TV, Jamie Munro and Karen Smith, exit the company. The restructure sees the chief executives of Princess Productions and Kudos, Henrietta Conrad and Jane Featherstone, assuming joint responsibility for the U.K. as joint chairmen. Both …

UNTERFÖHRING: This May, Sky Deutschland is launching Sky Atlantic HD, which is home to exclusive new series and productions from HBO. Sky Atlantic HD will kick off its German broadcast with the exclusive launch of the second season of Game of Thrones. The third season of Boardwalk Empire is set …

STOCKHOLM: Viasat Broadcasting has held on to its exclusive Baltic broadcasting rights for the FIA Formula One motor racing World Championship through to the end of the 2014 season. The rights, acquired from Formula One Management Limited, include broadcast coverage on free TV, pay TV, mobile devices and the Internet. …

LONDON: Damian Kavanagh has left his post as the controller of CBBC to head up features and factual formats at Channel 4. In the new role at Channel, Kavanagh will manage all programming across factual entertainment, features and daytime. He succeeds Sue Murphy, who left in December last year to …

LONDON: BBC director-general Mark Thompson has unveiled plans for a service that would enable users to pay to download and permanently keep their favorite shows from the BBC archives. Dubbed Project Barcelona, the plan is being put before the BBC Trust later this year. The service would function as a …

LONDON: Deborah Sargeant, formerly an executive producer at Tiger Aspect, has been appointed as commissioning editor of entertainment for Sky. She will be executive producing entertainment series across the Sky channels, which includes Sky 1 HD, Sky Living HD, Sky Atlantic HD, Sky Arts HD and Sky Movies HD.   …

PARIS/LONDON/TORONTO: Entertainment One (eOne) and Wild Bunch have entered into a multi-year distribution partnership for France, effective June 1. The first home-video titles to be released under the new partnership are season one of Call Me Fitz, starring Jason Priestley (Beverly Hills, 90210), set for June, and season two of …