ITV

Category: News Broadcasting

  • BBC increases its presence on FM in Sri Lanka

    BBC increases its presence on FM in Sri Lanka

    MUMBAI: Sri Lankans can now enjoy ten hours of BBC World Service programming, thanks to a new agreement with the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC). BBC output in English has increased by five hours on all SLBC national FM networks across the country in addition to programmes in Sinhala and Tamil.

    BBC business development manager, Asia and Pacific region Michel Lobelle said, “I am delighted that listeners in Sri Lanka are now able to enjoy the full range of BBC programming in perfect sound quality on FM across the country. Sri Lanka is a key market for the BBC World Service and this new agreement consolidates our excellent relationship with SLBC.”

    SLBC chairman Sunil Sarath Perera said, “SLBC is proud to be associated with the world’s leading international radio broadcaster and we look forward to building more bridges in the future.”

    Audiences listening in English can enjoy a broad mix of BBC programming ranging from news and current affairs to science and technology. Highlights include Newshour, which is 60 minutes of news and analysis of the day’s top stories, and the interactive global news programme World Have Your Say, giving listeners an opportunity to share their views and questions on topical issues.

    For sports fans, the BBC has daily hourly updates in news bulletins and Sports Round Up. Cricket enthusiasts can stay across the latest in World Cricket while football supporters tune into World Football. BBC programmes in English also tap into the world’s cultural scene. The Beat is a guide to popular global music while On Screen brings the latest stories from the world of film, TV and video games.

    Culture Shock looks at trends in cultural expression and Close Up gives listeners new insights into well established artistic movements.

  • FremantleMedia secures international deals for Martha Stewart’s new show

    FremantleMedia secures international deals for Martha Stewart’s new show

    CANNES: The distribution arm of global production outfit FremantleMedia, Fremantle International Distribution (FID) managing director David Ellender announced at MipTV that it has secured a raft of global sales for Martha.

    Martha (180 x 1 hour), the latest series from American lifestyle guru Martha Stewart and reality television producer Mark Burnett, has now been sold into 10 territories worldwide, with more on the cards.

    Ellender said, “We are delighted to have acquired such a high profile and keenly-awaited daytime series from the cream of US television talent. These strong initial sales for Martha further confirm our reputation and standing as the leading independent distributor of US originated reality and lifestyle programming.”

    FID’s sales team has brokered a number of deals which has seen the informative and educational new daytime chat show licensed to IBC Channel 2, Iceland; Good Life Channel, Israel; KTN Baraza, Kenya as well as TV4 and TV4 plus, Sweden, SIC Mulher, Portugal and Canal Plus, Poland.

    The Martha momentum is building, with the popular series also going to New Zealand free-to-air channel Television New Zealand (TVNZ) and pay TV’s The Living Channel. ABS-CBN in the Philippines; Kablevision, Indonesia and ONIMedia, Korea have also picked up Martha.

    A new recipe for daytime success, Martha shows Martha Stewart as we know and love her – and as we’ve never seen her before. The daily one-hour programme offers a new and different format for daytime TV. Combining Martha’s signature sense of humour with her love of people and projects, the show presents inspiring ideas from cooking and entertaining, to decorating, and home renovating, states an official release.

    Launched in September 2005 in the US on NBC, Martha is shot in front of a live studio audience and features a variety of celebrity guests joining Martha, fast becoming the doyenne of daytime, in her culinary and domestic activities.

    FID also holds the worldwide distribution rights to Martha excluding North America (US and Canada), Japan, Australia, and the Arabic-speaking Middle East. As part of the deal, the company has also acquired the Martha Stewart Living Television back catalogue for international distribution.

  • International Academy Day to be held in Beijing in August

    International Academy Day to be held in Beijing in August

    CANNES: The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences will host its second International Academy Day on 16 and 17 August in Beijing in conjunction with the State Administration of Radio, Film & Television (SARFT), Phoenix Satellite Television and CCTV.

    The event will feature panels and keynotes from leading television organizations from China, Japan, Korea and Thailand as well as breakfasts, lunches and cocktails hosted by international sponsors.

    Academy president and CEO Bruce Paisner said, “We are looking forward to using the International Academy’s convening power to shine the spotlight on Asia’s vibrant television industry. This two-day conference program will be a one of a kind networking opportunity, and because of SARFT’s central role, I imagine any international media company looking to do business in China will want to be represented.”

    Participants will include members of the International academy, government officials and television and film executives from across the region. The highlights include a presentation on the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a case study on a hit Korean TV show, and an opening speech by a SARFT executive, stated a media report.

  • BBC Worldwide licenses deals with Netherlands

    BBC Worldwide licenses deals with Netherlands

    CANNES: BBC Worldwide has reached deals totalling 170 hours of programming with networks in Netherlands like NOS, RTL, SBS and Talpa.

    BBC Worldwide has licensed to NOS many series including Extras and Little Britain, as well as the dramas Life on Mars, Doctor Who and Afterlife, plus Stephen Poliakoff’s Gideon’s Daughter and Friends and Crocodiles. SBS took Hotel Babylon, while Superstorm was presold to RTL.

    Talpa has in its largest ever deal with BBC Worldwide acquired 26 hours of programming, with titles such as Surviving Disaster, The Rise and Fall of Rome and a selection of programs from the One Life series.

  • Katie Couric to be anchor & managing editor of CBS News

    Katie Couric to be anchor & managing editor of CBS News

    MUMBAI: CBS Corporation President and CEO Leslie Moonves and CBS News and Sports president Sean McManus announced that one of broadcasting’s most respected and popular journalists, Katie Couric is joining CBS News.

    With the appointment, Couric becomes the first female solo anchor of a network evening news broadcast.
    As part of the multi-year agreement, Couric will become anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric beginning in September. Couric will also contribute to 60 Minutes and will anchor CBS News primetime specials as well, states an official release.

    Couric said, “It has been a great privilege to be one of the caretakers of a television institution like the ‘Today’ show for 15 years. Joining CBS is a unique opportunity that came at the right time for me. I’m thrilled to become part of the rich tradition of CBS News and look forward to working with the many extraordinarily talented people there.”

    Said Moonves. “With this move, our News Division takes yet another giant leap forward. Katie is simply one of the best in the business and represents a tremendous addition to CBS News, which continues to grow and improve every day under Sean’s leadership. Seasoned broadcasters who are at once respected, charismatic and known throughout this country and beyond are increasingly important in this fragmented media landscape. I’m proud to have a talent like Katie who personifies this rare combination of qualities, and look forward to the many contributions that she will make not only to our developing evening news broadcast, but to our entire news operation.”

    Couric joined NBC News in 1989 as deputy Pentagon reporter. She began work on Today in June 1990 as its first national correspondent, which included two stints covering the Gulf War. Couric served as substitute co-anchor from February 1991 until taking over the job permanently in April 1991. She also was a contributing anchor for Dateline NBC.

    Couric has anchored many major breaking news events over the past 15 years, including the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center; the Columbine tragedy in Colorado; six Olympic Games, including the 1996 Atlanta Olympic bombing; the funeral of Princess Diana; the Oklahoma City bombing; the Timothy McVeigh execution; the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings; and the end of the millennium coverage, which she co-anchored with Tom Brokaw.

    She has interviewed an extraordinarily diverse collection of newsmakers, from presidents and prime ministers to captains of industry and cultural icons and a myriad of authors, politicians and newsmakers.

    “This is an enormously proud day for all of us at CBS News. Katie joining our team signifies not only her commitment to doing first-rate journalism, but our strong commitment to producing the highest quality work done by the best reporters, producers and writers in television news. She is a key ingredient as we work towards our goal of making CBS News the number one news organization in America. This organization was built on quality and integrity, and Katie and her CBS News colleagues will continue to carry that legacy into the 21st century” said McManus.

    Couric is the recipient of a George Foster Peabody Award for her March 2000 series on colon cancer. She also has won six Emmy Awards, the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award, a National Headliner Award, an Associated Press Award, a Matrix Award, two American Women in Radio and Television Gracie Awards, the Harvard University School of Public Health’s Julius B. Richmond Award and UNICEF’s Danny Kaye Humanitarian Award.

    Couric’s broadcast journalism career began as a desk assistant at ABC News in Washington, D.C. (1979). She worked for CNN (1980-84) as an assignment editor, associate producer, producer and, ultimately, political correspondent. Couric was a general assignment reporter for WTVJ Miami (1984-86) and for WRC-TV Washington, D.C. (1987-89), adds the release.

  • Voting begins for BBC World Service online campaign on favourite quote

    Voting begins for BBC World Service online campaign on favourite quote

    MUMBAI: Will it be a quote from Mahatma Gandhi or William Shakespeare, Saint Luke’s Gospel or Lao Tzu? Voting has started for BBC World Service’s Moving Words online campaign to find the world’s favourite quotation.

    Voting ends on 12 April 2006 and the results will be announced on 13 April.

    Last month, people around the world were invited to nominate their most loved quotations via the Moving Words website. Their selections could come from a wide range of sources – novels, short stories, poems, plays, speeches, religious texts and songs from anywhere in the world and from any era.

    Famous people taking part included the Dalai Lama who chose an extract from Shantideva, an eighth century Buddhist monk. Crime writer PD James selected lines from Hamlet and Dr Michio Kaku, a physicist and inventor of String Field theory, was inspired by Albert Einstein.

    Asian writer Hari Kunzru found parallels to today’s infringement of personal and public space in the rhyme: “The law locks up the man or woman/ who steals the goose from off the common/ but lets the greater villain loose/ who steals the common from the goose.” (Anon).

    Nominations flooded in from people in more than 100 countries. Their selections have now been whittled down to a shortlist of ten.

    The shortlist is:

    Woody Allen “To you I’m an atheist; to God, I’m the Loyal Opposition”.

    Dalai Lama “You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist”.

    Sir Isaac Newton “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.”.

    Saint Augustine “It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”

    Gospel of Luke -“And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”

    Lao Tzu “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

    The US Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

    William Shakespeare who wrote in the play As You Like It “All the world’s a stage, And, all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts.”

    Nelson Mandela – “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”

    Mahatma Gandhi “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”

  • Distraction’s spoof ‘Sins Of Love’ sold to FremantleMedia France

    Distraction’s spoof ‘Sins Of Love’ sold to FremantleMedia France

    MUMBAI: Distraction has announced the sale of the spoof Sins of Love to Fremantle in France. The latter is currently negotiating with a number of French networks. With pre-production already under way, Distraction hopes the show will start airing as early as next fall.

    FremantleMedia France president Bibiane Godefroy said, “The unusual humour of this format struck me from the moment I saw it first at Mipcom. Set in a vibrant city, Sins of Love sends up the ‘soaps’ with a completely whacky universe of love triangles, family dramas and conspiracies that pay gloriously uproarious tribute to the genre’s every cliché. I think this new genre of scripted format will be attractive to French broadcasters.”

    “We are very excited to be working with Fremantle on this project. Not only are we assured of the quality of their adaptation, but we are also confident that it will become a cult series,” said Distraction president and CEO Michel Rodrigue.

    As the development of interactive content from such formats is already proving an asset on properties such as Love Bugs, Distraction has already begun work on a strategy for Sins of Love with Interactive Rights Management (IRM). The services will range from fixed line telephony brand extensions to MMS comic strips and mobile video downloads for the show, states an official release.

  • Sahara in Rs 1.5 billion expansion plan; to bid for Abu Dhabi series

    Sahara in Rs 1.5 billion expansion plan; to bid for Abu Dhabi series

    MUMBAI: Sahara One Media and Entertainment Ltd is planning to raise Rs 1.5 billion to meet its expansion plans. The company is also likely to bid for the cricket telecast rights for the two-match India-Pakistan Friendship Series to be held in Abu Dhabi.

    The board of directors will meet tomorrow (5 April) to decide on these issues. “Sahara One is looking at getting an enabling clause to raise Rs 1.5 billion. Among other things on the agenda is the approval to bid for the cricket rights,” said a source close to the company.

    Sahara’s media and entertainment business has been valued by Ernst & Young at Rs 7 billion, sources said. The company had appointed the consulting firm to conduct the valuation exercise.

    Sahara One Media and Entertainment is in talks to rope in investors. Recently, Bennett, Coleman & Company Ltd (publishers of Times of India and the Group is 74 per cent stakeholder in Times Now news channel) picked up six per cent stake for Rs 378 million in the company (Indiantelevision.com was the first to report that Bennett, Coleman would buy stake in Sahara One).

    NRI businessman C Sivasankaran is in talks to put in around Rs 1.2 billion for a minority stake into Sahara One. “He is sitting on the fence,” said the source. Having sold Aircel for $1.08 billion to Malaysia’s Maxis Communications, he is flush with funds. His first media investment was in ETC Networks where he held 40 per cent stake. He went on diluting equity and exited from the company which was later acquired by Zee Telefilms.

    Sahara is launching a music channel, adding up to a bouquet of general entertainment and movie channels. Sahara Group also owns a string of news channels.

    Sahara has already experimented with cricket telecast of the India-England series on its Hindi general entertainment channel. Using the event, Sahara One has encrypted and expanded the reach of the channel.

    For the Indo-Pak Friendship Series, the contract for ground rights has been bagged by PDM International, a Percept Holdings company, from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) with a bid of $ 3.61 million. Incidentally, Percept has a management contract to handle Sahara’s entertainment business.

  • BVITV and France Telecom sign VOD agreement at MipTV

    BVITV and France Telecom sign VOD agreement at MipTV

    CANNES: Buena Vista International Television (BVITV) and France Telecom have concluded a multi-year VOD (voice on demand) agreement to allow subscribers to enjoy a selection of movies from BVITV’s portfolio, through France Telecom’s Wanadoo broadband, and MaLigne IPTV set top box services.

    Under the new agreement, France Telecom’s subscribers will be able to enjoy a selection of current and library features from producer groups such as Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films. Viewers will be able to access the content online via Wanadoo broadband, downloading movies for a period of up to 30 days, or via the MaLigne set top box service. On both services, titles will be available for 24 hours once the film has been accessed.

    The selection will include first run current titles such as Flightplan, Casanova, Finding Neverland, Kinky Boots and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

    In addition, subscribers will be able to enjoy a selection of library titles, including Pretty Woman, Armageddon Pearl Harbor, Signs and Unbreakable.

    For BVITV, this agreement was concluded by vice president sales, French-speaking Europe and Middle East Florent Gaignault and pay TV and new technologies vice president sales Damian Newton.

    BVITV EMEA senior vice president sales and portfolio development Philippe Maigret said, “We are working with operators such as France Telecom to provide secure ways for viewers across the world to access our movies online, on demand, and to help drive uptake of legitimate download services. This VOD agreement across France Telecom’s IPTV and broadband platforms marks the beginning of a key relationship, which we see eventually covering additional territories in Europe, across our programming portfolio for distribution on emerging platforms.”

    France Telecom executive vice president content division Patricia Langrand added, “We are very pleased to announce the first and promising step towards a strong and creative partnership. Our intention is to extend this first agreement to other territories and to develop our partnership with other content, such as BVITV’s fantastic portfolio of series. For that purpose, we will offer our commitment to our customers: my favourite programmes, everywhere, whenever I want, and the way I want.”

  • TV18 to pick up 50 per cent stake in JobStreet.com India

    TV18 to pick up 50 per cent stake in JobStreet.com India

    MUMBAI: Raghav Bhal promoted Television Eighteen Group is picking up a 50 per cent stake in JobStreet.com India Pvt Ltd, the Indian arm of the Malaysia based listed online recruitment company JobStreet Corporation Berhad.

    As per the memorandum of understanding between the two companies, TV18 will initially infuse $ 2 million in cash and provide on-going media support to the business of the JobStreet.com.

    With this investment into JobStreet.com India, TV18 is making an aggressive entry into the e-recruiting market. The move is in line with the group’s increasing focus on the growing Internet opportunities in India.

    To JobStreet, this partnership meets its objective of combining its e-recruitment solution with a strategic local leader with media assets, which has proven to be a winning formula.

    TV18 CEO Haresh Chawla said, “We expect to strengthen our presence in the consumer Internet space with this acquisition – this is part of our strategy to expand our offering to Indian consumers by exploiting the growing power and reach of the Internet. Over the last five years, TV18 has consistently invested in and built successful Internet franchises in India.

    The group already owns well established online platforms – moneycontrol.com, commoditiescontrol.com, poweryourtrade.com and ibnlive.com.

    The group has also recently seeded yatra.in with Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) – Promod Haque’s venture capital firm, which aims to revolutionise the travel services space in India. With JobStreet.com India, we will bring value to millions of job seekers in India. We are delighted to partner with JobStreet in this exciting venture.”