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BURBANK: The Warner Bros. Television Group (WBTVG) is acquiring Alloy Entertainment, behind hits such as Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars, from ZelnickMedia. The two have already established a successful track record of collaborating; five of Alloy’s properties and being produced and distributed by WBTVG, including The Vampire Diaries, Lying …

LOS ANGELES: Showtime Networks has appointed Robin Gurney as senior VP of original programming, joining the company after having been with Imagine Television for the last seven years. Gurney will work on the development and creative oversight of Showtime original series. She will report to Gary Levine, the executive VP of original …

LOS ANGELES: The HBO series Game of Thrones is the most pirated TV show of the season, with nearly 4 million downloads per episode, according to TorrentFreak, which reports on Internet file-sharing. The series had 3.9 million downloads per episode. How I Met Your Mother was second, with 2.83 million downloads per …

LOS ANGELES: While Los Angeles continues to be the most popular location for shooting comedy pilots, dramas have been lured away by financial incentives and production infrastructure in other cities, according to a new report from FilmL.A. During the last 2011-12 development cycle, 152 broadcast and cable pilots were produced …

SEATTLE: Amazon.com has struck a deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) for hundreds of classic movies and TV shows to be available to Prime Instant Video customers. Hollywood classics like The Silence of the Lambs, Dances with Wolves, Rain Man and The Terminator as well as TV hits such as Stargate are …

SAN FRANCISCO: The online payment service PayPal has linked up with Comcast Cable and TiVo in two separate deals to offer "T-Commerce" shopping opportunities for viewers, using only their remote controls or companion smartphone or tablet devices. PayPal and Comcast are exploring opportunities that would enable consumers to make purchases …

MINNEAPOLIS: One in five U.S. consumers, about 21 percent, connect to the Internet via their televisions, according to Frank N Magid Associates’ Media Futures study. Last year, the figure was just 16 percent. This number is expected to continue to grow, as 30 percent of consumers who don’t currently connect …

LOS GATOS: Netflix has made Bill Holmes, who’s been with the company since 2008, its chief business development officer. Holmes has been serving as the VP of business development at Netflix, tasked with heading up global partnerships across consumer electronics, gaming, operator, service provider and retail markets. Under his leadership, …

LOS ANGELES: Evan Scheffel has been elevated to senior VP of worldwide pay TV and subscription video on demand at Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution. Scheffel, who joined the company in 2006, has been serving as the VP of worldwide pay-TV distribution. With the promotion, Scheffel will now work to expand the …

LOS ANGELES: Universal Sports Networks will be providing coverage of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team at the Volvo Winners Cup, which features matches against Sweden and Japan. The Sweden-USA match will air live on June 16 live at 10 a.m. The USA-Japan match will air on a delay on …