Top Stories

LONDON: Syfy in the U.K. is becoming the broadcast home for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine via a deal with CBS Studios International. Star Trek launches on November 5 at 7 p.m. The channel becomes the first to deliver Star Trek: The …

LOS GATOS: Netflix makes its official debut today in Finland, following launches earlier this week in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Throughout Scandinavia, 10 million broadband TV households can now subscribe to the service to instantly access a selection of Hollywood, local and global TV programming as well as movies. At launch, Netflix …

LONDON: Channel 4 has signed comedian Adam Hills, who hosted the late night show The Last Leg for the network during the Paralympics, to an exclusive one-year talent deal. The contract will see Hills return with A Last Leg Christmas Special and a series in 2013. Channel 4 will be …

LONDON: After serving as the CEO of BBC Worldwide for eight years, John Smith has announced that he is exiting the post, which Tim Davie, the current director of BBC Audio & Music, will take over. Smith told staff that he is leaving to "pursue new opportunities" in the commercial sector. …

PREMIUM: The most successful shows on France’s tier of commercial digital terrestrial (DTT) channels barely top the audience threshold of 1 million viewers; only a handful of programs reached that level last Monday through Saturday (October 15-20) and most of them were American feature films. The top DTT audience of …

LONDON: Jeff Ford, the director of programs at Channel 5, is said to be leaving the broadcaster. Ford came to the role after the acquisition of Channel 5 by Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell, in 2010. He was the successor to Richard Woolfe. It is now confirmed that he is …

LONDON: The BBC and Science Channel are co-producing a new biographical drama that stars William Hurt as the acclaimed scientist Richard Feynman in a story that centers on the NASA Challenger disaster. Hurt (History of Violence, Into the Wild, Too Big to Fail) portrays the U.S. physicist who was instrumental …

LONDON: The transition from analogue to digital terrestrial television in the U.K. is now officially complete, paving the way for Ofcom to start the process of auctioning the airwaves that were previously occupied. The switchover marks the end of more than 70 years of analogue broadcasting in the country. Region …

LONDON: This year’s Brand Licensing Europe (BLE), which took place from October 16 to 18, marked the largest and best-attended event in the show’s 14-year history. There were 6,875 retailers, licensees and sales-promo professionals on hand over the three days, which is 1,265 more than last year. The combined visitor …

MILAN: Former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has received a four-year prison sentence by an Italian court for tax fraud related to the acquisition of broadcast rights to U.S. feature films and TV series for Mediaset in the late ’90s. Berlusconi is expected to appeal the verdict, which also called for …