News


News brief: CBeebies snaps up Pootle special

UK preschool channel CBeebies has acquired a 27-minute special of Snapper Productions’ animated series Q Pootle 5. Q Pootle 5 Christmas Special: Pootle All the Way will air as part of the BBC channel’s Christmas programming line-up. As with the series, which already airs on CBeebies, the UK’s Blue-Zoo Animation will animate the show. ZDF […]

Amazon launches Prime streaming in Austria

Amazon has launched its Prime Instant Video service in Austria. The e-commerce giant has rolled out the Prime premium delivery service in the country, which now comes bundled with the Prime Instant Video service (previously the SVOD service was marketed separately under the LoveFilm brand). While Amazon’s chief streaming rival, Netflix, has aggressively expanded in […]

Discovery buys Cosmos doc series

Discovery has picked up Strip the Cosmos, a six-part series about the secrets of the universe. The CGI-laden series, produced by UK indie Windfall Films, will launch on Discovery in the UK and then roll out on its other international channels. The show follows on from another Windfall series that has gone out on Discovery, […]

AMC preps roll out of Breaking Bad spin-off Saul

AMC will launch the first episodes of the much-anticipated Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul on consecutive nights next February. The cable net said the series will launch on Sunday, February 8 in a 10pm slot. The second episode will then go out on AMC the following day, also at 10pm. It will then revert […]

Marketing key to drama success says ABC’s Paul Lee

Paul Lee, the boss of US broadcast net ABC, has said that in the current fragmented media landscape, breakout dramas need a marketing hook to enable them to stand out from the competition. “We live in a very, very fragmented and competitive world there are hundreds of other shows out there and hundreds of competitors […]

BBC orders second period courtroom drama

UK pubcaster has ordered The Woman in Red, a new factual drama with Game of Thrones and Hunger Games star Natalie Dormer in the lead role. She will play Lady Worsley, who finds herself on trial after she leaves her powerful husband Sir Richard Worsley. The drama is based upon the Hallie Rubenhold book Lady […]

Italy’s Rai completes successful Rai Way IPO

Italian public broadcaster Rai’s transmission tower subsidiary Rai Way has successfully completed its IPO, with its share price rising significantly after the company began trading. Rai Way set its IPO price last week at €2.95 (US$3.67), at the bottom of its initial price range, valuing the company at €802 million. The company said at the […]

BSkyB set to scrap ‘British’ in wake of Sky Europe deal

Pay TV operator BSkyB is set to scrap the ‘British’ and ‘Broadcasting’ from its trading name in the wake of the Sky Europe deal that saw it take control of a combined UK-Italian-German pay TV platform. UK-listed BSkyB is set to approve the move at its Annual General Meeting today, changing its name to Sky […]

Norwegian deal for ‘Best of British’ VOD service

On-demand service Cirkus, which offers the ‘Best of British’ programming to international markets, has secured a distribution deal with Norwegian cable operator Get. The deal means that Get, with 400,000 subscribers, will be be the first pay TV platform operator in Norway to offer Cirkus. The on-demand service will be included in Get’s Family and […]

Antena channels claim strong growth in Romania

Romanian broadcaster Intact Media Group, which operates the country’s Antena channels, grew its audience significantly in the first 10 months of the year. The channels recorded a 10% rise over the whole day and a 9% rise in appreciation in primetime, according to audience measurement agency Kantar Media. Flagship channel Antena 1 took a 14.8% […]