All articles by Patrick Frater – Page 51
-
News
The Phantom Menace takes latest DVD crown
Twentieth Century Fox has claimed a new record for first day sales of a DVD with the release of Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace. The picture racked up $17m on Tuesday Oct 16 Oct, through traditional retail outlets. Buena Vista Home Entertainment the previous week sold $20m-$25m of ...
-
News
UK's ITC argues for early Carlton/Granada merge
The chairman of the Independent Television Commission (ITC), one of the UK's broadcast regulators, has called on the government to bring in urgent interim legislation that would allow the two largest commercial broadcasters to merge.Sir Robin Biggam, said: "We are going through tough times and government needs to act quickly ...
-
News
Latvia becomes 27th Eurimages member
As from 1st January 2002, Latvia will become the 27th country to join Eurimages, the support fund for the co-production, distribution and exhibition of European films. Consequently all projects involving a Latvian co-producer can be presented for the forthcoming deadline for applications on 10 January 2002. Latvia will also ...
-
News
Maziya appointed CEO of African Broadcast Network
Savannah Maziya has been appointed chief executive officer of the African Broadcast Network, a pan-African TV network launched in January this year. South Africa-based ABN currently operates a one-hour primetime feed to GTV (Ghana), KBC (Kenya), AIT (Nigeria), ITV (Tanzania), ZNBC (Zimbabwe) and ZBC (Zambia), but is poised to expand ...
-
News
Potter and Rings will deliver for AOL Time Warner
"The worldwide premieres of Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone next month and The Lord Of The Rings in December will lead our strongest-ever quarter for filmed entertainment," forecast AOL Time Warner chief Gerald Levin.He made the prediction today (17 Oct) as he presented third quarter results for the world's ...
-
News
High Point sells Murder Rooms at MIP-COM
High Point Films & Television used last week's MIP-COM TV market to secure further deals on its feature package Murder Rooms - The Real Mysteries Of Sherlock Holmes. The pictures were sold to Ceska TV for the Czech Republic, TV2 for Norway, Hungarian TV, VRT for Belgium, SVT for Sweden, ...
-
News
Former PolyGram boss Levy called on to head EMI
Former PolyGram chief executive, Alain Levy has been tapped to head the world's number three music group EMI. He replaces Ken Berry, who leaves the company today, three weeks after issuing a surprise profits warning.Levy, who headed PolyGram until it was sold by it parent the Dutch electronics giant Philips ...
-
News
Myriad tests German market with teen comedy sale
Myriad Pictures got the autumn film market season off to a bright start with the sale of its teen comedy Van Wilder: Party Liaison to Germany. The Walt Becker-directed film, which screens at next week's London and Milan markets, was sold in all German-speaking territories to Telepool. "We are delighted ...
-
News
Recession watch - Part V: distribution, marketing
In the fifth part of Screen International's analysis on the effect on the industry of the Sept 11 attacks on the US, the threat of recession on distribution and marketing is assessed.Abstracted from Screen InternationalDistribution and marketing"The indie distribution business will be good long term, but the next year will ...
-
News
MIP-COM 2001: attendance low, business high
The MIP-COM television programme market which closed yesterday, exactly one month after the terrorist attacks in the US "were clearly affected" by the climate of political uncertainty. That was the conclusion of Michael Weatherseed, director of television for the market organisers Reed-Midem, as he reported a drop in attendance, but ...
-
News
China sets rules for foreign imports & investment
Heading a major delegation of Chinese officials and programme makers at the MIP-COM television market, Zhao Shi, deputy minister of the State Administration of Radio, Film & TV (SARFT) said China welcomes outside input into the development of its broadcast industry. But she said that China is not about to ...
-
News
Recession watch - Part IV
In the fourth part of Screen International's analysis on the effect on the industry of the Sept 11 attacks on the US, the threat of recession on film and television markets is assessed.Abstracted from Screen InternationalFilm and TV marketsNervous flyers and recession threats have already taken their toll on the ...
-
News
Disney/Pixar titles sold to European free-TV
Buena Vista International Television (BVI-TV) has licensed its Classic Treasure package, a bundle of Disney and Pixar animation features to free-TV broadcasters in Europe. Following a similar deal last week with the BBC (Screendaily Oct 1), Danmarks Radio of Denmark, SIC of Portugal, Cinenova in Benlux and RTE in ...
-
News
Friedman sees AOLTV as interactive brand leader
AOLTV will succeed because of the strength of the AOL brand and because its lead in the on-line market makes it able to federate many of its competitors. That at least was the message from Rob Friedman, newly installed president, worldwide interactive marketing TV at AOL, in his keynote address ...
-
News
The latest MIP-COM deals round-up
Beyond signs five picture deal with WeintraubAustralia's Beyond Films has signed a major five picture deal with US producer Fred Weintraub of Weintraub Kume Productions. The slate of genre features will be co-produced by German film fund MBP, with Beyond Films handling international sales.Beyond is also reported to have signed ...
-
News
Recession watch - Part III
In the third part of Screen International's analysis on the effect on the industry of the Sept 11 attacks on the US, the threat of recession on the production and post-production sectors is assessed.Abstracted from Screen InternationalProductionThe production sector could be the part of the film life-cycle that is most ...
-
News
Rai Trade shows first fruit of production branch
Rai Trade, the sales arm of Italian public broadcaster RAI, has added a new strategic dimension to its sales and distribution activities and become a co-financier of European and international co-productions. The first fruits of this new branch were on display this week at MIP-COM.Rai Trade gets its first production ...
-
News
Hallmark acquires 15 features from Paramount
The Hallmark Channel has acquired a package of 15 features from Paramount International for its Taiwan service. These include Mission: Impossible, Days Of Thunder, The Hunt For Red October, Nick Of Time, The Saint and five films in the Star Trek series.For pan-Asian screening, Hallmark Channel bought 27 episodes comprising ...
-
News
Universal TV & Networks seals MIP-COM deals
British channel packager and distributor Zone Vision has acquired a wide ranging deal to deliver films and TV movies from Universal Television & Networks to Turkey. The films will be shown on basic cable channel, Showtime Turkey, which was launched in February 2000 as a direct-to-home channel carried on the ...
-
News
Encore buys 300 hours of film & drama for China
Entertainment programmer and channel packaging group Encore International (EI) is to buy over 300 hours of feature films and drama series for resale into China. The pictures will be shown in a new primetime slot on China Central Television's Everyday Jiayi (Everyday Best Entertainment) brand, moving from EI's previous variety ...