Top Stories

LONDON: The U.K.’s Culture Secretary has renewed the licenses of Channel 3 and Channel 5 for another ten years, the latter of which has made a commitment to expand its amount of homegrown children’s content. At the request of the Culture Secretary, Northern & Shell has pledged that Channel 5 …

LONDON: BBC Four has continued to bulk up its comedy slate, which now includes the hit U.S. series Parks and Recreation, along with adding to its arts, science and drama lineups. Alongside Parks and Recreation, the BBC Four comedy roster includes An Innocent Abroad, set in the summer of 1941 and looking …

SINGAPORE: In 2011, Asia represented nearly 60 percent of the sales at Novovision, which is being rebranded from Novavision, and this year is more or less on the same path. “So, you can imagine how important this part of the world is for Novovision’s business,” says François-Xavier Poirier, the company’s …

LONDON: ITV Studios Global Entertainment and Svensk Filmindustri (SF) have signed a multi-year SVOD deal that provides crime dramas such as Lewis and Inspector Morse to C More subscribers in the Nordic region. The London-based outfit will deliver a number of its crime dramas for SF’s branded section of the Scandinavian …

LONDON: Paul Dempsey has been tapped to fill the CEO role at BBC Worldwide on an interim basis, until Tim Davie takes over next year when he passes on the BBC director-general post to Tony Hall. Dempsey is currently the managing director for consumer products at BBC Worldwide. He will oversee …

NEW YORK: AMC/Sundance Channel Global has firmed up two new carriage pacts that bring Sundance Channel to Digiturk in Turkey and Cyfrowy Polsat and Toya in Poland. The network is set to launch on Digiturk, Turkey’s largest DTH platform, as a locally versioned 24-hour offering. The linear channel will be …

LONDON: The British multichannel provider UKTV has secured a fourth DTT channel slot, which, for now, will be occupied by a catch-up service for Dave. Dave Ja Vu, which provides catch-up opportunities for the entertainment channel Dave, will hold the Freeview channel 25 space for a limited time starting in 2013. …

SINGAPORE: As the distribution arm of Russia Television and Radio, the largest state-owned media holding in the Russian federation, SOVTELEEXPORT offers the market more than 14,000 hours of programming. All have a distinctive Russian flavor, with stories that are universal in their appeal. Julia Matiash, the director of SOVTELEEXPORT, highlights …

LONDON: Michelle Waldron, who was previously the senior VP of marketing and operations at National Geographic Television International, has set up a consultancy for the content business, Beyond the Box. The company will provide a range of strategic marketing services for content creators and distributors. This includes everything from writing …

LONDON: BT and the British Museum have launched a brand-new VOD channel on BT Vision that is dedicated entirely to the historic U.K. attraction. The on-demand channel is available free of charge to all BT TV customers. It will show films produced by the British Museum, with a mix of short- and long-form …