ITV

Tag: North America

  • Oneworlds latest fare makes middle east easier and better valu

    Oneworlds latest fare makes middle east easier and better valu

    MUMBAI: Visiting the Middle East is to be made easier and better value for international travellers with the launch by the oneworld alliance of its new Visit Middle East fare – offering attractive flexible fares on flights within one of the world’s fastest growing regions for air travel demand.

    The latest offering in oneworld market-leading range of alliance fares will be available for sale from Friday (1 November 2013), following the addition tonight of Qatar Airways to oneworld , as the first of the major Gulf carriers to join one of the global airline alliances.
    With Royal Jordanian the first airline from the Arab world to become part of any global airline alliance when it joined oneworld in 2007, the addition of Qatar Airways makes oneworld the leading alliance in the Middle East.

    The oneworld Visit Middle East pass features all their flights within the Gulf, Levant and Egypt – and also those of the otheroneworld partners operating within this region, British Airways and Cathay Pacific – giving unrivalled coverage of the area.

    It offers flights to 30 destinations in 12 countries – providing just the ticket to take in the wonders of Petra, the riches of Luxor, cosmopolitan Doha or the sandy beaches of Muscat.
    The oneworld Visit Middle East pass must be purchased in conjunction with an international flight to the region with any oneworld member airline.  It can include from three to ten sectors in the region.  Prices are based on the cabin selected – Business or Economy – and the length of each sector, with prices of each flight from US$ 75, excluding taxes and fees.

    oneworld offers an extensive ranges of alliance fares, enabling customers to fly on multiple airlines with attractive savings on regular published fares, whether they want to fly right around the world, or explore one or more continents or regions.  These include Visit passes for Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia and New Zealand, Europe, Japan and Malaysia

  • Codeblack acquires Frankie and Alice starring Halle Berry

    Codeblack acquires Frankie and Alice starring Halle Berry

    MUMBAI: The label under Lionsgate-Codeblack Films has got the rights for the movie ‘Frankie and Alice’ for North America. The movie is set to release in April next year.

     

    The movie stars Halle Berry and is about a woman with a multiple personality disorder and how she copes with it. Although the film debuted at Cannes 2010, it was halted after that. Directed by Geoffrey Sax it also stars Stellan Skarsgard, Phylicia Rashad and Chandra Wilson.

     

    Codeblack focuses on movies for the African-American market. The movie is produced by Vincent Cirrincione and Berry. Berry also got a Golden Globe nomination for the psychological drama, which released for a limited audience in December 2010.

     

    Halle Berry is known for her roles in ‘Catwoman’, James Bond and the ‘X men’ series. Superhero sequel ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ and crime drama ‘Dom Hemingway’ are also slated to open in theaters in April 2014.

  • Weinsteins acquire Paddington for North America

    Weinsteins acquire Paddington for North America

    MUMBAI: Studio Canal will be bringing in a live action CGI version of the classic children’s story to theaters which will be directed by Paul King and David Heyman is producing. It is an adaptation of Michael Bond’s classic kids character Paddington Bear.  The Weinstein Company is bringing it to North America.

    This is the first release in a new label for the company called TWC-Dimension. Colin Firth will give the voice for the teddy bear while Kidman will be playing an evil taxidermist out for revenge. They were recently seen together in The Railway Man.
    The shooting starts this month in UK. VFX is provided by Framestore and it is expected to release on 28 November in 2014. The movie will be released in the US in the first quarter of 2015.

    Firth and Broadbent are repped by CAA and the UK’s Independent Talent Group; Kidman is repped by CAA; Bonneville is repped by UTA and the UK’s Gordon and French; Hawkins is with ICM Partners and the UK’s Conway van Gelder Grant.

  • Operators see opportunities in OTT cable and broadband services

    Operators see opportunities in OTT cable and broadband services

    NEW DELHI: The Growth of OTT Content: Opportunities and Challenges for Service Providers, a new global survey of cable and broadband operators, finds that most are fairly optimistic about the potential impact of over-the-top services, with 70 per cent saying the potential benefits outweigh the risks.

     

    The results were part of a survey of operators in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa conducted by Incognito Software, a provider of broadband software provisioning and service activation solutions.

     

    “The widespread growth and popularity of OTT content across multiple devices is forcing cable operators to rethink their business models and how best to add value to their subscribers – and the survey results show that there is no single answer when looking at operators of different sizes and across multiple geographies,” said Incognito Software President and CEO Stephane Bourque. “Whether operators take a positive or negative view of OTT content, one thing is constant: their network usage is going to increase.”

     

    The study also found that nearly 82 per cent of respondents have already upgraded their network infrastructure to cope with increased subscriber bandwidth usage and that 75 per cent of the providers who reported a growth in bandwidth consumption attributed the increased demand to streaming video sites.

     

    In terms of managing OTT consumption, the survey found that the most popular approach was fair usage policies (40 per cent), followed by bandwidth caps (34 per cent), and proprietary OTT services (22 per cent), the company reports.

     

    Nearly half of the providers in North America utilise bandwidth caps as their primary means of managing OTT, the survey found. Fair usage and service add-ons are the next most common approaches (33 per cent).

  • Global pay TV revenues hit $184 billion in 2012, Pay TV shows growth in last five years

    Global pay TV revenues hit $184 billion in 2012, Pay TV shows growth in last five years

    NEW DELHI: The number of pay TV households (analog and digital) reached 772 million by 2012, according to a new report from Digital TV Research. The figure had been 585 million in 2008, according to Digital TV Research.

    Asia Pacific increased by 126 million – or two-thirds of the global additions – during this period to bring its total to 433 million. North America (112 million) was the second largest region, although it only added four million.

    India stood at the second place with 116.7 million households, after China with 232.8 million households, and followed by the United States with 100.2 million households.

    The other countries in top 10 pay TV countries at end-2012 were Japan (25.1 million), Russia (23.6 million), Germany (21.8 million), Brazil (16.2 million), South Korea (16.1 million), the United Kingdom (14.4 million) and Mexico (13 million).

    Pay TV revenues reached $184 billion in 2012, up by 28.5 per cent from $143 billion in 2008. Cable (analogue and digital combined) generated the highest revenues by platform, with $87 billion in 2012. However, cable revenues are flattening and DTH will overtake cable soon. IPTV revenues reached $12.0 billion in 2012, up from $2.8 billion in 2008.

    North America generates about half the world‘s total pay TV revenues.

    About 404 million digital homes were added around the world between 2008 and 2012. This took the digital TV household total for the 97 countries covered in the Digital TV World Databook to 786 million. Digital TV penetration of TV households climbed from 28.6 per cent at end-2008 to 54.7 per cent by end-2012.

    However, there were still 652 million analogue TV households by end-2012, although this was down from 956 million at end-2008. There were still 411 million analogue terrestrial homes (down by 56 million year-on-year) and 242 million analogue cable ones (down by 33 million) at end-2012.Digital cable was in 273 million homes (up by 43 million on end-2011), followed by 178 million pay digital DTH (up by 20 million) and 118 million free-to-air digital DTH by end-2012. Pay IPTV brought in another 69 million households (up by 18 million).

    Meanwhile, primary free-to-air DTT homes reached 138 million (up by 26 million), with pay DTT accounting for a further 9 million. From the digital homes added between 2008 and 2012, 83 million came from primary DTT [homes taking DTT but not subscribing to cable, DTH or IPTV]. Digital cable contributed a further 151 million additions; pay DTH 75 million, with pay IPTV providing an additional 56 million.

    The universe is not static as 100 million TV households were added between 2008 and 2012 to bring the total to 1,439 million. Of these additions, 69 million came from the Asia Pacific region.

    From the 404 million digital TV households added between 2008 and 2012, 229 million were in the Asia Pacific region, bringing its total to 342 million. China became the largest digital TV household nation in 2010; rising to 187 million digital TV homes (24 per cent of the world‘s total) by end-2012.

  • Columbia Pictures begins development on ‘Bad Teacher’ sequel

    Columbia Pictures begins development on ‘Bad Teacher’ sequel

    MUMBAI: Columbia Pictures is developing Bad Teacher 2, to be directed by Jake Kasdan and written by Justin Malen, it was announced today by Columbia Pictures president Doug Belgrad and Hannah Minghella, president of Production for the studio. Jimmy Miller, Jake Kasdan, Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky will produce the film, and Melvin Mar will be the executive producer. The project is being developed for Cameron Diaz to star in the film but no deal is yet set with the actress.

    Commenting on the announcement, Minghella said, “Bad Teacher was a hit not just in North America, but throughout the world. We‘re excited that Jake will be returning to develop and helm the sequel. We love Justin‘s take on the material – it hits all the notes that made the first film such a breakthrough hit and also takes the characters in a new direction that is fresh and fun.”

    When it was released in 2011, Bad Teacher was a global hit taking in $216 million. It was also recently announced that Bad Teacher will be coming to CBS television next season in a half-hour series starring Ari Graynor. The Sony Pictures Television and CBS Television Studios co-production received a 13-episode midseason order.

    Columbia Pictures senior VP production Jonathan Kadin will oversee development of the project for the studio along with Minghella.

    Jake Kasdan is in pre-production on Sony Pictures‘ Sex Tape, also starring Cameron Diaz, with Jason Segel. He most recently directed and executive produced episodes of the hit series New Girl. Kasdan made his feature film debut as writer and director of Zero Effect and also directed the pilots for the television series Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared;returning to feature films, he directed Orange County, wrote, directed and produced The TV Set, co-wrote and directed Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, and directed and executive produced Bad Teacher.

    Justin Malen‘s feature film screenplay Bastards was named on The Black List of one of the best unproduced screenplays in 2011. He also completed a rewrite of the comedy project The Manny for Red Wagon and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

    Malen is represented by Verve and H2F, and Eisenberg and Stupnitsky are repped by Mosaic and WME. Kasdan is represented by WME.

  • ‘Dabba’ to be distributed by Sony in North America

    ‘Dabba’ to be distributed by Sony in North America

    NEW DELHI: The Lunchbox (Dabba), which made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival‘s Critics‘ Week section, has been acquired by Sony Pictures Classics for North America.

    Directed by Ritesh Batra and starring Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, The Lunchbox claimed the audience award in Critics Week.

    International sales are handled by Germany‘s The Match Factory GmbH, which also licensed the film to Happiness Distribution for France.

    The film has already been sold in 20 territories across the globe. It was already pre-sold to five countries. Major international sales include Artificial Eye (UK) and Happiness (France).

    The film has been sold to North America, France, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Baltic, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Mexico, Central America, Brazil and Ex-Yugoslavia (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).

    The film had been pre-sold to Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg.

    The film was produced by India‘s Sikhya Entertainment and D?r Motion Pictures with the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), Germany‘s Rohfilm GmbH, France‘s ASAP Films and the US‘s Cine Mosaic.

    The story follows the connection between a widower nearing retirement and a frustrated housewife that is established when Mumbai‘s famously reliable system of lunchbox deliveries goes wrong.

  • Global ad spend marginally up by 3.2 per cent last year: Nielsen

    MUMBAI: For the advertising industry, 2012 closed on a positive note with ad spends increasing 3.2 per cent globally year-over-year to $557 billion, according to Nielsen’s quarterly Global AdView Pulse report.

    A strong third quarter, which saw growth of 4.3 per cent, helped drive the annual increase. Ad spend growth receded to a more modest 2.5 per cent in the fourth quarter.

    All regions except Europe increased their ad spending in 2012. The Middle East/African market showed impressive growth of 14.6 per cent for the year as the region’s economy stabilized. Egypt was part of that turnaround, registering a 20.4 per cent increase in spending. Meanwhile, deep cuts to ad budgets continued in Europe, fueling a 5.3 per cent decrease for the final quarter, yielding an annual decrease of 4.2 per cent. Even economic powerhouse Germany reported a one per cent dip in the fourth quarter, the second consecutive quarter during which the country reported a decline in advertising spend.

    The Asian-Pacific market underperformed as well, as its annual increase in ad spend fell from 11.5 per cent in 2011 to a mere 2.8 per cent in 2012, propelled in part by China’s very slight gain of 1.9 per cent for the year.

    Ad spending in North America remained on an upward trajectory at the end of the year, climbing 3.1 per cent in the fourth quarter. This helped the region report 4.6 per cent growth for the full year.

  • CNN launches digital travel platform ‘CNN Travel’

    CNN launches digital travel platform ‘CNN Travel’

    MUMBAI: CNN International has announced the launch of a new digital channel, CNN Travel, for the world‘s luxury, business and leisure travellers.

    Through a network of more than 800 travel contributors around the world, CNN Travel delivers up-to-the-minute travel news, destination insights, inspirational travel ideas, original observation and thoroughly-researched city and country insider guides with directions to the world‘s hottest restaurants, bars, hotels and activities.

    CNN Travel brings together the best of CNN‘s existing digital travel portfolio and CNNGo.com, the Asia Pacific-focussed travel start-up, launched in 2009. The Hong Kong-headquartered team which launched CNNGo.com and has managed the popular site ever since, will continue at the helm of the international CNN Travel platform, working with international travel contributors to provide users with the distinct voice, authority and local insights which have made CNNGo.com such a hit.

    CNN Travel editor in chief Andrew Demaria said, "CNN Travel takes the best of CNNGo.com, shakes it up and expands its horizons to create an online travel destination unlike anything else out there. We are incredibly proud of the success CNNGo.com has had over the last three years and are thrilled to be taking it global with the creation of CNN Travel".

    CNN International Digital VP, GM Peter Bale said, "CNN Travel‘s blend of reporting, global network, international partnerships, contemporary voice and social media reach will position the site as a compelling travel destination. What Andrew calls ‘CNN in jeans‘ gives the site a fresh and vibrant tone."

    CNN Travel features standalone destination guides on Latin America, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, along with dedicated sections on Travel News, Aviation, Hotels, Food and Drink amongst others.

  • Four Indian films to screen at Seattle Intl. fest

    Four Indian films to screen at Seattle Intl. fest

    MUMBAI: Four films from India – Adaminte Makan Abu, Valley of Saints, The Last Marble and Water Problem – are scheduled to be screened at the upcoming Seattle International Film Festival, scheduled to take place from 17 May to 10 June in Seattle, Washington.

    “In this contemplative tale of hope, family, and sacrifice, an aging South Indian Muslim couple struggles to complete a once-in-a-lifetime religious pilgrimage to Mecca,” reads the festival website about Salim Ahamed‘s Adaminte Makan Abu.

    Valley of Saints Water Problem, a two-minute film by students at the American India Foundation, is described as a “youth-made photo essay illustrating the challenges of getting fresh water in rural India”.

    The film opens with misty hillsides and trickling water but tension draws the viewer into Musa Syeed‘s world where fiction and documentary seamlessly blend along the beautiful landscape of Kashmir‘s Dal Lake.

    The Last Marble is an eight-minute short film about a street kid by Manjari Makijany, daughter of veteran actor MacMohan.

    Seattle International Film Festival, founded in 1976, is considered as one of the top festivals in North America.