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STOCKHOLM: Modern Times Group’s Viasat Broadcasting has scored the rights for the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2016 Games for the Baltic region. MTG gets the first pick for each Baltic country to show one discipline from each of the Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016 Games exclusively on its free-TV …

LONDON: The BBC iPlayer has topped the mid-year rankings of the U.K. brands with the most positive buzz, occupying the slot for the first time, according to YouGov’s BrandIndex Buzz Rankings. YouGov’s survey asks respondents: "If you’ve heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news …

PARIS: Nancy Dubuc, the president and general manager of HISTORY and Lifetime Networks, and Mark Burnett, the president of One Three Media, have been lined up for Media Mastermind keynote addresses at MIPCOM. Dubuc has been leading HISTORY since 2007. She began her remit at Lifetime Networks in 2010. Burnett, who …

LONDON: Niall Curran, who has been serving as the COO of Chellomedia since 2003, has been elevated to the post of president. Curran joined the Liberty Global family in 2000, focusing on the operational restructuring during the turnaround of UPC. He took over leadership of the media operations in 2002 …

LONDON: This September Alex Mahon is to take over day-to-day management of the 28 companies operating within the Shine Group as CEO, while Elisabeth Murdoch remains as chairman. Murdoch has been serving as both CEO and chairman of Shine since the company’s inception, in 2001. While Mahon takes over the day-to-day …

ROME: An Italian court has ruled that state broadcaster Rai is in the wrong for blocking Sky Italia’s carriage of its free-to-air channels on the Sky platform. A Rome administrative court declared that Rai is violating its public service charter by encrypting its free-to-air channels, denying Sky the ability to …

PARIS: France’s Canal+ has signed up for Gaumont International Television’s new series Barbarella, which is being executive produced by Martha De Laurentiis and Nicolas Refn, who was behind the movie Drive. Refn is also directing. The series is based on the character created by Jean-Claude Forest in the sci-fi graphic …

LONDON: BBC Worldwide’s revenues for the year ended March 31, 2012, gained 5 percent to £1.085 billion, with profit up 8 percent to £155 million and a total return to the pubcaster of a record £216 million. The figures in the Annual Review for 2011/12 exclude the BBC Magazine business, the …

MUNICH: SevenOne International is rebranding as Red Arrow International, effective immediately, and is stepping up its efforts in gap financing and securing international co-pro partners following its success with properties like Lilyhammer. The new name reflects the branding of the entity’s parent company, Red Arrow Entertainment Group, the production-and-distribution arm …

NEW YORK/MADRID: Subscribers to Telefónica’s IPTV service, Movistar Imagenio, in Spain can now watch Sundance Channel on iPhones and iPads, in addition to the network’s linear distribution and availability on Android and BlackBerry devices. Sundance has been carried on Movistar Imagenio since June 2011, with SD and HD feeds. Several shows …