World Screen

HAMILTON: Time Warner is providing Central European Media Enterprises (CME) with a $300 million loan and increasing its stake to 40 percent, all in a bid to lower the broadcaster’s debt. Time Warner and Ronald Lauder are loaning the company the money to pay debts coming due starting in 2013. …

LONDON: Shu Greene, who is currently the head of television at Syco TV, is joining ITV Studios in the U.K. in the newly created role of director of entertainment. Shu joined Syco at the start of the company in 2004, working closely with Simon Cowell in the creation, commission and execution …

LONDON: Adjusted operating profits at BSkyB grew 15 percent to £908 million ($1.5 billion) in the nine months ended March 31, on revenue that was up 5 percent to £5.1 billion ($8.2 billion). Ad revenue was lower year-on-year by 4 percent, to £334 million. Total quarterly net product growth rose …

COLOGNE/UNTERFÖHRING: Sky Deutschland has entered into a long-term cooperation with Unitymedia and Kabel BW that includes expanded carriage for the Sky HD channels. A total of five Sky HD channels will be available in the Unitymedia territory, including the new HBO channel Sky Atlantic HD, which will be available from …

BUDAPEST: Chello Central Europe has brought the cooking channel TV Paprika and the female-skewed network Zone Romantica to the UPC platform in Romania and Hungary, respectively. TV Paprika is available in more than 5.8 million homes in Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Romania. Its newest carriage is with UPC’s Focus …

UNTERFÖHRING: The late night presenter Harald Schmidt is headed to Sky Atlantic HD and Sky Hits HD, which will feature new episodes of The Harald Schmidt Show exclusively in Germany starting this fall. Airing from Tuesday to Thursday as early as 10:15 p.m., the show will feature Schmidt’s take on current …

LONDON: ALL3MEDIA has promoted Jo Wright, the producer of Midsomer Murders, to managing director of Bentley Productions. Wright has been producing the long-running drama since June 2011. Wright was part of the original launch team of Channel 4, before heading to Thames TV as an assistant producer on the British Cinema …

LONDON: The English Premier League has opened the auction for a new TV deal in the U.K., promising an increase in the number of live matches broadcast each season by 12 percent. The League gets some $2.9 billion for live rights under its current agreement, which runs for one more …

ROME: Expanding its portfolio of channels, Switchover Media is gearing up to launch the free-to-air service Giallo, dedicated to the crime and mystery genres. The channel launches on May 14 on the Italian digital terrestrial platform. Initially, it will present a range of popular U.S. TV series, alongside programming from European …

MAINZ: The mascots of the German ZDF channel are featured as part of a new football-themed app from ZDF Enterprises, Little Mainz Men—111ers, which is available for the iPhone and iPod touch. The app, available in the Apple App Store in Germany, features Anton, Berti, Conni, Det, Edi and Fritzchen. …