Archive for the ‘Cable TV’ Category

US broadcaster CBS is to launch a range of branded digital channels in the UK.

The broadcasting network will work in conjunction with channel provider Chellomedia, the European content division of Liberty Global, which will rebrand six of its 26 services - Zone Romantica, Zone Thriller, Zone Horror and Zone Reality, Zone Horror +1 and Zone Reality +1 - under the CBS banner. The channels have not yet been given new names.

CBS’s new UK themed channels, which will launch later this year, will feature programming from the network’s 70,000 hour back catalogue, including the 1980s soap opera Dynasty and the remastered version of the original series of Star Trek. In addition, the broadcaster will continue to acquire programming from third party suppliers.

The commercially funded Chello Zone channels are currently broadcast to over 13 million homes through Sky, Virgin Media and FreeSat. The rebranded CBS channels will continue to be operated by Chellomedia, but representatives from CBS will contribute to the shaping and day-to-day running of the channels.

American networks ABC, NBC and Fox have all run channels on British television, but this is the first time that CBS has launched such a venture, although its CBS Evening News programme already airs on Sky News.

“The CBS brand is recognised around the world for quality, both as a production studio and as a network,” said Armando Nuñez, president of CBS Studios International.

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ESPN has bought the rights previously held by Setanta to the new UEFA Europa League, which replaces the Uefa Cup from this season.

The US sports broadcaster, which also won the right to screen live English Premiership matches when Setanta went into administration in June, will share rights to the UEFA Europa League with Channel Five.

ESPN will broadcast the first Europa League matches later this month, as part of a three year deal with UEFA. The final will take place in May next year.

48 clubs will take part in the group stage, with matches broadcast from 17th September on Wednesdays and Thursdays throughout the season. Amongst the sides involved are current Uefa Cup holders Shakhtar Donetsk, Roma, Lazio, Valencia, Ajax, PSV, Benfica and Sporting Lisbon, as well as British clubs including Celtic, Everton and Fulham.

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Channel 4 has confirmed that it is to axe Big Brother following its eleventh series, to be screened next summer. Another series of Celebrity Big Brother will be broadcast in January before Channel 4’s association with the show comes to an end.

The broadcaster has announced that it will not be renewing its decade-long contract with Big Brother producer Endemol following diminishing viewer numbers for the reality show. Channel 4 is currently locked in a £180 million three-year deal with the Dutch producer, meaning there will be an eleventh series of the show that made celebrities out of housemates such as Jade Goody.

Channel 4 has said it will use the axing of Big Brother, which has provided the backbone of Channel 4’s summer schedule for almost a decade, for the “most creative overhaul” in its 27 year history, with £20 million being allocated to “event drama” such as the critically acclaimed Red Riding and The Devil’s Whore.

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US cable network MTV is to remake the channel 4 teen drama Skins for an American audience, promising to “preserve the authenticity” of the UK version, which includes graphic scenes of drinking, drug abuse, swearing and casual sex.

MTV won the rights to develop the drama, which attracted audiences of over a million during its three series broadcast on Channel 4’s digital channel E4, after two years of “intense competition”, according to the network.

As with the original British series, MTV will draft in young writers in their teens and twenties to work on script for the American show, which will be set in Baltimore, Maryland.

Father and son team Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain, who created the original British version of Skins, will write and executive produce the new US version, which is created by Elsley’s independent production company, Stormdog, and Company Pictures. The co-founders and managing directors of Company Pictures, Charlie Pattinson and George Faber, will also executive produce the US version.

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Supermarket Iceland has axed Kerry Katona from its advertising campaigns, following allegations in The News of the World that she had been taking class A drugs.

On Sunday the newspaper published photos and video footage that allegedly showed the former Attomic Kitten singer and mother-of-four snorting cocaine in the bathroom of her home in Wilmslow, Cheshire.

Katona has appeared in adverts for Iceland for since she won the TV show I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here in 2004. However, the supermarket chain said that the allegations made it “impossible” for her to continue in the role. The firm added that it would help her get any support she needed.

An Iceland spokesman said that for “most” of her time with the company, “she has been a successful part of our advertising campaigns, but has also been through some tough times in her personal life.

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UKTV has announced that Chris Tarrant, host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, will front a new children’s TV show for the channel.

Tarrant, who presented the children’s programme Tiswas in the seventies, has been appointed presenter of the new show, called Tarrant Lets the Kids Loose, which will air on the UKTV digital channel Watch.

The series of eight hour-long shows begins filming next month and will be broadcast in the autumn. It will see children aged three to six set out on “exciting missions”, including running a café, a radio station and a hairdressing salon. The participants only realise they are part of the show when they are brought into a studio with a live audience after having completed their assignment.

The show will be made by independent production company North One, with Lisa Perrin and Tess Cumming as executive producers, alongside North One’s Katy Thorogood and All3Media’s Ruth Wrigley. The series editor is Mike Agnew. North One is a subsidiary of All3Media.

Communications regulator Ofcom today said that BSkyB should cap the cost of its premium sport and movie channels and make it available to more broadcasters to increase consumer choice.

In its latest consultation on the pay-TV market, Ofcom said that offering Sky’s premium content to other retailers on a wholesale basis was the best way of ensuring fair and effective competition.

The regulator also outlined plans to investigate Sky’s television rights agreement with the FA Premier League. It is concerned that new platforms for watching league games, such as the internet, will be cut off to consumers without cheaper access to content.

Ofcom said that its proposals should not have a disproportionate impact on Sky’s profits, since the prices put forward in its latest consultation would still allow the company to reap a reasonable return.

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Senior executives at Setanta are today locked in talks to wrangle over the final details of a deal that could see the Irish broadcaster’s two founders, Michael O’Rourke and Leonard Ryan, and an unnamed international backer take a majority stake in the ailing company.

Both founders are hoping that a decision can be reached and approved by the board so that an official announcement can be made by the end of today.

If the proposed deal is to go ahead, the board must come to a consensus ahead of a £30 million payment to the English Premier League due on Monday. The broadcaster has already defaulted on a £3 million payment to the Scottish Premier League.

According to the Irish Times, O’Rourke and Ryan have secured an international backer that could help them secure Setanta’s future by putting in an offer for a majority stake in the business. If accepted, other shareholders would have their holdings in the pay TV operator diluted. A deal would also secure about 450 jobs at the broadcaster.

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Comedian Steve Coogan is the latest British TV star to announce a cinema appearance, as he confirmed plans to bring Alan Partridge to the big screen.

Speaking to Radio 1, the Night At The Museum actor disclosed that “there are plans afoot” to create a movie about the hapless chat show host.

“We are planning on making a movie,” he said. “We’re talking at the moment. What it is we’re not quite sure.”

Coogan admitted that a storyline had already been drafted, but refused to disclose further details. When asked whether he was worried about sustaining humour throughout a feature-length film rather than a half hour programme, the 43-year-old said that he would have to approach his character in a different way for the big screen.

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Virgin Media has announced that it will be making certain BBC content available in high definition on the corporation’s iPlayer catch-up service from today, with programmes transmitted directly to customers’ TV screens.

The iPlayer has been a runaway success for the BBC, with more than 387 million requests to stream or download since it launched on Christmas Day 2007. In June 2008, Virgin Media made the service available to their 3.4m digital cable TV customers as part of the company’s video-on-demand service. Content is streamed directly to customers’ TV screens, and has been viewed over 100 million times since the service started.

Virgin Media already streams BBC content in full screen picture quality, but now customers will be able to enjoy a wide range of programmes, including Robin Hood, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and Later…with Jools Holland in HD.

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