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NEW YORK: James Murdoch, the deputy chief operating officer at News Corporation, has relinquished his role as the executive chairman of News International. Tom Mockridge, the CEO of News International, will continue in his post, reporting to Chase Carey, the president and COO of News Corporation. "We are all grateful …

LONDON: ITV has posted a 14-percent gain in pre-tax profits for 2011 to £327 million. ITV reported a better-than-expected 13-percent rise in full-year earnings, which reached £462 million, on external revenues that were up 4 percent, to £2.14 billion. The British commercial broadcaster posted adjusted pre-tax profits up 24 percent …

UNTERFÖHRING: ProSieben HD, Sat.1 HD, kabel eins HD, sixx HD, N24 HD and Tele 5 HD are to be added to Deutsche Telekom’s Entertain IPTV lineup.  ProSiebenSat.1 will also make its standard definition free- and pay-TV channels available on the Entertain platform under a new long-term distribution deal. The agreement …

LONDON: Sony Movie Channel is headed to the U.K. this spring, marking Sony Pictures Television (SPT) Networks’ second branded channel in the territory. Sony Movie Channel, along with a time-shifted +1 service, will be ad-supported. This is the first time the channel brand has launched anywhere outside the U.S. The …

STOCKHOLM: Modern Times Group’s online pay-TV service Viaplay has scored additional license agreements with The Walt Disney Company Nordic and Sony Pictures Television, adding a further 500 movie titles for subscribers in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. The deal includes some 300 films from the Sony Pictures Television catalogue, including …

LONDON: ITV Studios Global Entertainment is to launch the new 10-part drama Mr Selfridge, about the life of the American entrepreneur Harry Gordon Selfridge, at MIPTV. The ITV1 drama, to be produced by ITV Studios, was created by Emmy Award-winning writer Andrew Davies. Ten hour-long episodes have been commissioned and …

MUNICH: Red Arrow Entertainment Group has taken on a majority interest in the U.K. entertainment production outfit CPL Productions, behind titles such as Sky One’s A League of Their Own and When the Dog Dies. The purchase marks the first investment by Red Arrow in the British non-scripted market. CPL’s …

LONDON: Building out its international production business, Sony Pictures Television has purchased a majority stake in the U.K. indie Silver River Productions, which develops content across a range of genres, from factual to comedy to drama. Silver River’s slate currently includes the prime-time programs The Town That Never Retired (BBC …

UNTERFÖHRING: In an extension of its pay-TV portfolio, ProSiebenSat.1 is gearing up to launch two new channels this spring: ProSieben FUN and SAT.1 emotions. ProSieben FUN, set to launch in May, will be an entertainment service geared toward young viewers. The 24-hour channel will feature ProSieben’s most successful TV shows and …

LONDON/STOCKHOLM: Tele München Group (TMG) and NICE FLX Pictures have signed a distribution and investment deal for a film project based on the Swedish book The Centenarian Who Climbed Out the Window and Vanished. The film, The Centenarian, will be adapted from the Jonas Jonasson novel that has sold more …