News


News brief: Cineflix distributing new ITV Trauma series

UK indie October Films has landed a commission from ITV for a new ob-doc set in a trauma unit. Trauma: Level One will look at the workings of a specialist trauma unit at University Hospital Southampton, following staff and patients in the wake of major accidents. The show was commissioned by Ian Squires, controller of […]

USA Network launches new NBCU TV Everywhere push

NBCUniversal has debuted a TV Everywhere service for USA Network – the first time it has launched the multi-screen programming initiative for one of its cable channels. USA Now will give viewers access to USA Network programmes such as Graceland, Suits and Psych across a variety of connected devices a day after their linear broadcaster […]

Rastamouse studio Dinamo goes into administration

Dinamo Productions, the Wales-based kids’ TV firm that counts Rastamouse and Abadas among its credits, has gone into administration, TBI can reveal. The company filed for insolvency on June 26, according to UK business directory Companies House. Administrator Begbies Traynor is handling the matter. A number of sources close to the company confirmed the news […]

Lifetime confirms UK launch, expected to replace Bio

US cable network Lifetime has confirmed it will launch in the UK this autumn. The female-skewing channel is operated by A+E, which back in April told TBI it would roll out the channel in the UK this year. It officially announced the launch this morning. A spokesman declined to comment, but TBI understands that it […]

Magine accelerates expansion plans with $19m injection

Magine has secured $19 million in extra funding from Swedish and international investors and said the cash will allow it to speed up its international launch plans. TBI broke the news of Magine’s launch in March and it subsequently rolled out in Sweden. At that point the OTT service was targeting launches in five European […]

Spain’s Phileas options formats to FremantleMedia, Endemol

Spain’s Phileas Productions has inked deals with FremantleMedia and Endemol for its format Don’t say it, Bring it! Phileas has teamed with Turkey’s Global Agency to distribute the format and it has clinched the deals with FremantleMedia in France and Endemol in Italy, which will both now attempt to get local versions of the show […]

Samsung acquires web TV firm Boxee

Samsung has acquired US and Israel-based web TV service Boxee in a deal rumoured to be worth US$30 million. Boxee, which was founded in 2007 and released its first web-streaming set-top box in 2010, said in a statement that its team would be joining Samsung and would work on products “that marry the best hardware […]

New bidders emerge for Digiturk

Turk Telekom, Dogan Holding and Dogus Group have emerged as potential buyers for troubled pay TV operator Digiturk, with a deal likely to be valued at up to US$1 billion, according to Reuters. The news agency cited banking sources as saying that News Corp and Liberty Global may also be interested in acquiring the pay […]

Beta Film’s Autentic plans mores Spark channel launches

Autentic has launched factual and entertainment channel Spark in South Africa. Autentic is the joint venture doc producer created by German producer and distributor Beta Film and former Discovery Germany boss Partick Hoerl in 2008. It has launched Spark on South African pay TV platform ODM and it is being programmed with content from the […]

BBC developing new iPlayer recommendation engine

The BBC is working to revamp its iPlayer recommendation engine to improve automated VOD programme suggestions – particularly around shows that attract large audiences. Speaking at the Video User Interface Conference in London yesterday, the BBC’s recently promoted acting head of iPlayer, Dan Taylor, said “the whole area of what happens when a programme finishes […]