World Screen

MOSCOW: CTC Media has secured a multi-year output agreement with Warner Bros. International Television Distribution for its Channel 31 in Kazakhstan. The deal is a first for the Kazakhstan market. Channel 31 will gain the exclusive rights to broadcast a range of feature films and TV shows from the Warner Bros. …

LONDON: Sky and UPC have renewed their existing carriage deal for Ireland, enhancing the agreement with the addition of HD versions of a range of networks. UPC will continue to offer its customers across the Republic of Ireland Sky’s entertainment, news, sports and movies channels through its cable TV service. Now, …

LONDON: Georgina McNeilly has been hired as Power’s VP of international sales, effective this month. McNeilly, who is replacing Mark Dineley, will work under Susan Waddell, the CEO of Power. In her new position, she will manage the company’s sales operations in Russia and CIS, Scandinavia and parts of Central and …

STOCKHOLM: Viasat Broadcasting has renewed its exclusive pay-TV broadcast rights for the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) in the Baltics, along with adding online rights to its agreement. The agreement takes effect with the start of the 2012-2013 season and carries on through the end of the 2014-2015 season. The rights—covering Estonia, …

LONDON: Time-shifted viewing accounted for just 10 percent of the U.K.’s TV consumption in the first half of 2012, meaning that 90 percent of linear television watching was of live, scheduled channels. According to the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB), commercial TV viewing during the first half of the year, from …

NEW YORK: HBO has struck up a partnership with Peter Ekelund’s Parsifal International to establish the new joint multiplatform VOD service HBO Nordic. HBO Nordic will be available in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark. The news follows on the heels of Netflix just yesterday announcing that it was bringing its streaming …

LONDON: Six U.K.-based digital media start-up companies have been selected to take part in the first BBC Worldwide Labs initiative. MiniMonos, wireWAX, Foodity, Krowd 9, Flooved and KO-SU have been selected by BBC Worldwide for the first program. These start-ups are offered workspace within BBC Worldwide’s offices in West London, starting September …

LONDON: Stephen Ladlow has been appointed the director of Challenge and Pick TV, Sky’s free-to-air entertainment channel brands. Ladlow has been with Sky since 2002, holding a number of positions at Sky’s ad sales house, Sky Media. He now takes over responsibility for Challenge, a service dedicated to game shows …

MADRID: Mediapro and Prisa’s Canal+ have reached an agreement to share La Liga broadcasting rights, settling a dispute that had threatened to delay the start of the season, which kicks off tomorrow. The three-year agreement sees Prisa’s Canal+ taking on the exclusive pay-TV rights for 28 games featuring Real Madrid, FC …

STOCKHOLM: Modern Times Group (MTG) is launching 11 HD channels and four catch-up services as part of its Viasat offerings in the Nordic market. The premium pay-TV sports channel Viasat Golf and the pay-TV factual channels Viasat History, Viasat Explorer, Viasat Nature and Viasat Crime will be launched in HD in Sweden, …