World Screen

LONDON: Sky Sports has signed a new four-year agreement with the ERC for exclusive coverage of European rugby competitions, starting in fall 2014 and carrying on through the end of the 2017-18 season. The agreement features the Heineken Cup, covering exclusive live matches from each of the first four rounds, …

STOCKHOLM: Modern Times Group has secured new licensing agreements with NBCUniversal International Television Distribution, Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution, Nordisk Film and SF Film for Viasat Broadcasting. Viasat signed two separate deals with NBCU. The first is for the exclusive free-TV rights in Sweden, Norway and Denmark to a range of …

PREMIUM: World Screen’s special projects editor, Jay Stuart, analyzes prime-time ratings for the major broadcasters in France, Germany, Italy and Spain this week. France On Monday, M6 again topped the ratings with the local version of Farmer Wants A Wife (L’amour est dans le pré) with 6.559 million viewers and …

LONDON: Channel 4, E4, More 4 and Film 4 and the on-demand 4oD service are joining Sky’s digital platforms. The deal that the content being added to Sky’s TV on-demand service and Sky Go and the new HD channels join the Sky platform. Sky’s on-demand service will be offering hundreds of …

PREMIUM: The local version of FremantleMedia’s The Farmer Wants a Wife pulled the biggest audience of any program on Dutch television during the week ending September 16, averaging 3.584 million viewers and a 48.6-percent share on Ned 3 on Sunday. In second place in terms of the weekend rankings was …

LONDON: A third season of Episodes, a comedy starring Matt LeBlanc, Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan, has been ordered by BBC Two and Hat Trick Productions. Episodes is a comedy about a British sitcom that is being remade in the U.S. The third season will be written by David Crane and …

LONDON/TORONTO/LOS ANGELES: Entertainment One (eOne) has firmed up a four-year output agreement with DreamWorks Studios to distribute the company’s films across the U.K. and Benelux. The first film under the agreement will be the remake of Starbuck featuring Vince Vaughn. The movie is slated for release in 2013. DreamWorks’ domestic …

WARSAW: Izabela Lopuch, who has been working as a producer in the drama and features department at TVN, is joining HBO Poland as the head of original production. Her production credits include the hit Polish movie Letters to Santa. She first joined TVN as the head of development and deputy head …

LONDON: Caroline Thomson, the chief operating officer at the BBC, is leaving her role at the end of the month, with the COO post closed as part of a restructure of the senior team. The BBC’s new director-general, George Entwistle, confirmed that he is closing the COO role as part …

LONDON: Ralph Straus, the head of strategy and brand management at FIFA, has been tapped as this year’s Big Interview at Brand Licensing Europe (BLE). Straus will share insights into how the world football governing body is managing its global licensing program in the run up to the 2014 FIFA World …