World Screen

NEW YORK: The TV Land original sitcom The Exes has been renewed for a second season, which is slated for a June premiere alongside the network’s new Cedric "The Entertainer" comedy Have Faith. The Exes stars Kristen Johnston (3rd Rock From the Sun) as Holly, a divorce attorney who introduces …

NEW YORK: Robert Halmi, Sr., the founder of RHI Entertainment, is leaving the company, with plans to launch a new independent production outfit. Halmi, Sr., has produced more than 200 TV movies and mini-series and won more than 100 Emmy Awards. His credits include The Josephine Baker Story, Gypsy, Arabian …

NEW YORK: Verizon Communications and Coinstar’s Redbox unit have formed a new DVD rental and streaming video joint venture. The move combines Redbox’s DVD and Blu-ray Disk rentals with the a new video-on-demand streaming and download service from Verizon. The plans are to introduce the service in the second half …

NEW YORK: Consumers’ desire for mobile access to content is fueling the growing interest in video content digital lockers, according to the new PwC report Storing Entertainment Content in the Cloud. According to PwC, which surveyed 502 U.S. participants and focus groups, the success of digital lockers will depend on …

NEW YORK: The South Asian entertainment network Zee TV is launching a high-definition feed in the U.S. in the first quarter of the year. The move makes Zee the first South Asian TV channel in the Americas to launch in HD. Zee currently reaches more than 500 million viewers in some …

NEW YORK: Last night’s broadcast of Super Bowl XLVI averaged 111 million viewers, according to preliminary results from The Nielsen Company, breaking records as the most-watched TV program of all time in the U.S. Last year’s Super Bowl on CBS drew an average of 106 million viewers, and was, at …

ATLANTA: Two new multi-year licensing agreements have been firmed up by Bounce TV with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution and Paramount Home Media Distribution, bringing to the network a range of movie titles, including the original Shaft and Eddie Murphy comedies. The deal with Warner Bros. brings Bounce films such as …

LOS ANGELES/TEL AVIV: A first-look deal has been finalized between New Regency Productions and Israel’s ADD content agency. New Regency will work to bring Israeli content from ADD to the U.S. ADD represents a number of Israel’s leading directors, actors and content developers. The outfit has developed more than 100 …

NEW YORK: Fourth-quarter earnings at Time Warner topped analysts’ expectations, with a higher Q4 profit and revenues up 5 percent. Net income grew 0.5 percent to $773 million from $769 million reported in the same period 2010. Revenue grew to $8.2 billion, beating analysts’ predictions for $8.06 billion. Revenues grew …

BURBANK: Net income grew 12 percent at The Walt Disney Company for its first fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2011, while revenues were relatively flat, with a 1-percent gain. Revenues stood at $10.8 billion, an increase of 1 percent on the prior year’s period. Net income rose to nearly $1.5 …