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LONDON: FremantleMedia has acquired a 25 percent stake in the newly created production company Corona TV, which was founded by the renowned filmmaking duo Richard Johns and Rupert Jermyn. FremantleMedia gets a first-look option on all the TV output from the company, helping to build up its scripted pipeline. Johns …

LONDON: Freeview has undergone a major rebrand in the run-up to the launch of its brand-new connected TV service, Freeview Play. The Freeview logo and visual identity have been revamped to better reflect its connected future. Due to launch later this year, Freeview Play will give users the ability to …

PARIS: Eurosport has secured the exclusive TV and digital rights for the FA Cup in Germany until the 2017-18 season. The pact includes live, delayed, highlights and news rights, as well as sublicensing rights. It also includes exclusive rights to the FA Community Shield, which brings together the previous season’s …

LOS ANGELES/MADRID: CBS Studios International (CBSSI) and Telefonica Spain have today announced their first multiyear licensing deal for the exclusive SVOD rights for a selection of CBS and Showtime series. Among the titles included in the deal are Showtime's Penny Dreadful, Ray Donovan and The Affair, which won the Golden …

LONDON: Sky Vision has sold 125 hours of programming to Polish broadcasters, while also inking a 50-hour package deal with NERIT, a new pubcaster in Greece. NERIT, which launched in May 2014, acquired such titles as Micro Monsters, Nelson Mandela: The Struggle is My Life and Exploration Nation: Earth 2050. …

PREMIUM: Irfan Sahin, the CEO of Dogan TV, tells World Screen Newsflash about his plans for keeping Kanal D at the forefront of the Turkish media business. WS: In addition to the nationwide free-to-air channel Kanal D, you operate TV2 as a general-entertainment service on pay-TV platforms. How are you …

STOCKHOLM: Modern Times Group (MTG) has sold off its 50-percent stake in the Swedish cable TV company Sappa to the Finnish telecom operator Anvia for SEK 135 million ($16 million).  Anvia, which is the fourth largest telecom operator in Finland, now holds 100 percent of the outstanding shares in Sappa. …

LONDON: Claire Morrison, who currently serves as a senior development exec at Shine TV, is joining the ITV Studios label Potato in the newly created post of head of development.  Morrison will take up her new role at Potato in March. Prior to her time at Shine TV, Morrison was a development …

LONDON: Professor Brian Cox is taking part in his first factual series for BBC One, which has also slated new dramas from Nick Hornby and Anthony Horowitz. Cox is presenting the four-part series Forces of Nature, in which he take viewers on a tour of the planet and explains some of its …

ISTANBUL: Global Agency, which has benefited from the booming Turkish drama market, is bringing to DISCOP Istanbul such series as Broken Pieces and A Part of Me. The drama A Part of Me tells the story of a surrogate mother’s fight to keep the baby she discovers is her own …