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NEW YORK: Three new series pickups have been made for the brand-new NickMom block, including The Judi & Kate Show, about two mom video bloggers from St. Louis. The Judi & Kate Show (working title) features a show within a show, going inside the unique worlds of these real-life moms. …

MIAMI: NPN Media has brought on Vivian Quevedo Arenado to serve as its Miami-based international executive producer, overseeing production efforts for the U.S. and China. Arenado will lead the company’s creative development. She will work alongside Susan Krivelow, the senior VP of creative development. Arenado was previously a general producer …

PORTLAND: VOD is the fastest growing alternative TV platform, according to Rentrak, which estimates potential ad sales opportunities of at least $1 billion. In the Rentrak State of VOD: Trend Report 2011, research finds that VOD is at the tipping points of becoming a major ad medium. Free on-demand content saw …

NEW YORK: Season-to-date in U.S. prime time, television dramas account for 41 percent of viewership, 58 percent of timeshifted viewing and 35 percent of TV ad spend, according to new Nielsen research. For prime time, sports is the second most-watched category (22.5 percent), followed by reality shows (15.5 percent), then …

NEW YORK: Hulu has unveiled four new original series in the works, including projects from Entourage star Adrian Grenier and Saturday Night Live‘s Seth Meyers. We Got Next, from The Game creators Kenya Barris and Hale Rothstein, follows four friends who clash on the pick-up basketball court, and in life. …

NEW YORK: Sonar Entertainment has aligned with James Patterson Entertainment to develop Patterson’s best-selling book series Private as a 13-episode original series. Patterson will serve as executive producer. John McLaughlin, who was the screenwriter for Black Swan, is penning the first two-hour episode. Patterson’s 220 books have grossed more than …

NEW YORK: Ovation has launched three different arts-focused "destination nights" on the network: Artists & Icons, Movies to Stand Up For and The Best You’ve Never Seen. Sunday night’s Artists & Icons lineup features movies and documentaries about artists—musicians, directors, photographers, actors, painters, dancers, etc—who have set the standard of …

LOS ANGELES: Rich Ross, the chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, is exiting the company. His tenure started in October 2009, after having served as president of Disney Channels Worldwide. The studio recently put out the film John Carter, considered one of its biggest flops, as its projected to lose …

LOS ANGELES: Peter Chernin has sold a minority stake in his Chernin Group to an investor group led by Providence Equity Partners for $200 million. Representatives of Providence will gain a spot on the Chernin Group’s board of directors. Chernin himself will become a senior advisor to Providence. With the …

SCOTTSDALE: One quarter (25 percent) of U.S. consumers intend to purchase smartphones and HDTVs in the first half of this year, according to ABI Research’s Technology Barometer survey. Of the survey respondents, 25 percent said they intend to purchase a smartphone during the first half of 2012, which is the …