World Screen

LONDON: The CBS Drama channel is building up its new evening Happy Hour block with the addition of the hit classic sitcom Cheers. The channel will launch the very first episode of the hit show on May 10 at 6 p.m. Double episodes will air weekdays at 6 p.m. as …

PARIS: Marc Dorcel saw a 10-percent increase in its business volume last year, with sales figures reaching 25.5 million euros. The group attributes the success to a number of different factors, among them their prowess in 3D content. Marc Dorcel has more than 200 exclusive adult programs specifically designed for …

LONDON: Western Europe is not expected to reach full digital TV penetration until 2017, with only two of the 15 countries covered having fully converted to digital at the end of 2011, according to a new report from Digital TV Research. Finland and Spain have fully converted. Another two countries—Italy and …

WARSAW: Poland’s TVN is in talks with Ringier Axel Springer to sell its Onet.pl Internet portal. The exclusive talks are said to run until the end of May. TVN would still retain a minority stake in Onet, Poland’s leading Internet portal, and would continue to be involved in the joint …

LONDON: On the heels of its first sports deal, announced earlier this week, the Global BBC iPlayer has added to its lineup the Virgin London Marathon and John Smith’s Grand National. The pilot VOD service recently picked up the Xchanging Boat Race. It has now added two new sporting events, …

LONDON: Syco Entertainment has named a new CEO, Charles Garland, formerly the company’s COO. Garland has been with the company since March 2011, when he joined from Crystal Entertainment, which he founded in 2007. He previously served at 19 Entertainment for eight years. In moving from COO to CEO, Garland …

BUDAPEST: The Chello Central Europe channels Sport1 and Sport2 have landed the broadcast rights for La Liga for three seasons in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Sport1 or Sport2 channel will feature the Barcelona and Real Madrid teams plus the five Spanish championship matches on a weekly basis. …

PARIS: Anne de Kerckhove, who joined Reed MIDEM in January 2010 as director of the entertainment division, is leaving the company as of today.  Prior to joining Reed MIDEM, de Kerckhove was with Inspired Gaming Group from 2003 to 2009, serving in such roles as director of strategy, managing director …

  This article originally appeared in the MIPTV 2010 issue of TV Europe.   With its massive budgets, humongous domestic TV market and its talent for telling good stories, Hollywood has controlled the business of event-TV dramas, in English, of course, watched everywhere else in the world. A new trend, …

UNTERFÖHRING: Sky Deutschland has sealed a deal with the German Football League (DFL) for the broadcast rights for Bundesliga matches, and is set to pay an average license fee of 486 million euros ($638.7 million) per season. The agreement gives Sky Deutschland the exclusive pay-TV rights for all live Bundesliga and 2nd …