Kristin Brzoznowski

LONDON: Channel 4 today has taken a minority stake in the British VR business Parable, which also counts as launch investors Stephen Lambert and The Economist.

BERLIN: Netflix has come on board as co-producer for TROY: Fall of a City, Black Earth Rising and The Spy, upping its commitment to European productions.

LONDON: ITV's ad revenues dipped 3 percent, though the British broadcaster still saw revenue growth for the full-year 2016.

LONDON: ITV has acquired a majority stake in the French television production group Tetra Media Studio.

LONDON: Rose Garnett has been named as the new director of BBC Films, responsible for the development of a large and eclectic slate of features.

LONDON: Discovery Communications has purchased a 20-percent stake in Play Sports Group, the digital sports media company behind the brands Global Cycling Network (GCN) and Global Mountain Bike Network (GMBN).

COPENHAGEN: Danish public broadcaster DR has appointed Henriette Marie Lund as its new media director, taking up the role in April.

MUNICH: On Demand Deutschland (ODD) has extended a total of 16 licensing contracts with both studios and independents, bringing its customers movies such as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

PARIS: Canal+ Group saw its revenues dip 4.7 percent year-on-year to €5.3 billion ($5.6 billion), with a decline from pay-TV operations in mainland France, as the subscriber base of Canal+ was down by 492,000.

Television ad revenue in the U.K. totaled £5.28 billion ($6.6 billion) in 2016, with online businesses now the biggest spenders on TV, according to full-year revenue figures provided to Thinkbox by the British commercial broadcasters.