International demand for U.S. shows remains at record levels, but the impact of the writers strike is likely to cloud the sales climate for some distributors while creating opportunities for others in Las Vegas at the NATPE programming market later this month.
The global economy may look increasingly shaky but the deals keep coming.
News Corp. has acquired a 14.58% stake in Germany pay TV provider Premiere for $425 million from cable operator Unitymedia. The deal, which makes News Corp. Premiere’s largest shareholder, marks a return to the difficult German market. Nine years ago News Corp’s BSkyB took a 24% stake in Premiere as part of Rupert’s Murdoch’s plan to build a global network of DTH service but was forced to sell its stake when the Premiere ran into financial trouble and ended up losing about $1 billion.
Telecom Italia has put French broadband provider Alice up for sale; Alice currently has 882,000 subscribers and has been valued at $880 million to $960 million.
Polish DTH provider Cyfrowy Polsat has announced plans to go public in the first quarter of 2008; the operator plans to sell about 25% of its existing shares and hopes to raise over $413 million.
French pay TV provider Canal Plus is expected to announce shortly that it will buy German distributor and producer Kinowelt for about $104 million.
Japanese private equity group Unison Capital is investing about $50 million Intelsat; the satellite provider plans to use the money for its Asian expansion plans.
African pay TV operator Gateway Broadcast Service has raised about $60 million; the money will be used to expand its GTV satellite service that is currently available in 12 markets to over 30 countries in 2008.
President Nicolas Sarkozy is quickly putting his mark on the French television industry. He is proposing that French public broadcasters no longer be allowed to sell advertising and is backing a radical change in the international operations of France 24 and TV5. Under his plan, the two channels would be run under a single holding company and the French government would no longer fund the English language version of the France 24-hour news network. Sarkozy believes that the French government should only be funding French language channels.
Austrian viewers will soon have a new nationwide commercial broadcaster; general entertainment channel Puls 4 plans to launch on Jan. 28.
A new broadcaster is also likely to be launched this year in Portugal; the government has announced that it will auction rights for a national wide free-to-air digital terrestrial channel.
Liberty Global’s UPC has launched a major push to convert its Irish subscribers to digital tiers. It is offering subscribers a free upgrade to digital packages for six months; after that the digital tier will cost only an additional $3.70.
Sony Pictures TV International has inked a deal with BelgacomTV for new and library movie titles for the telcos’ on-demand IPTV service.
Al Jazeera English has inked a deal with Hong Kong Cable to make the news channel available on the operators system; the agreement boosts the channel’s distribution to over 100 million homes around the world.
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Gary Marenzi
Co-president of worldwide television
MGM
Since taking over MGM’s international distribution and production efforts last summer, studio veteran Gary Marenzi has been looking for ways to use international markets to help expand the new product going into the studio’s pipeline. Marenzi talked to Multichannel News International about the studio’s increased production, the global sales climate, the impact of the writers strike and NATPE.
‘The Office’ Heads to Chile
BBC Worldwide Americas said it has licensed the format of sitcom The Office to production company Chilecorto and Canal 13–Chile for the first Spanish-language version of the show created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.
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Indian Gods Rule Cartoon Universe
The growing importance of local Indian animation industry is dramatically changing the type of cartoons being produced in the country, with shows based on traditional mythology and Hindu gods becoming increasingly popular. “A number of haloed Hindu gods and goddesses have debuted in the frenetic world of [Indian] animation over the past five years,” the Washington Post reports. “Their appearance marks a shift from a decades-long period in which Indian children grew up almost exclusively on American TV and movie characters, including Mickey Mouse, Tom and Jerry, and Spider-Man. The new shows have their roots in the explosion of private television channels in India more than a decade ago. It was then that marketers began to search for an
opportunity to put uniquely Indian stories in cartoon format.”
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Local Fare Helps Canadian Nets Weather Strike
Despite worries that the lack of U.S. fare would serious hurt Canadian channels, “Canadian broadcasters airing non-U.S. network fare are reporting increased viewers and subscribers during the ongoing Hollywood writers strike,” The Hollywood Reporter said. “John Cassaday, CEO of Corus Entertainment, which runs the Movie Central premium pay TV service, said Thursday that the writers/studio standoff has enabled his channel to sign up new subscribers with the promise of fresh U.S. cable series. The rival Canadian Broadcasting Corp. is getting traction for its new homegrown series during the WGA strike.”
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U.S. Blacklists Syrian Channel
The U.S. Treasury has blacklisted the Al-Zawraa channel for allegedly supporting insurgent activity in Iraq and has frozen the owner’s assets. The U.S. claims that the Syrian-based channel, which is owned by former Iraqi politician Mishaan al-Jabouri, “broadcasts graphic videos of insurgent attacks on troops in Iraq and urges Iraqis to fight U.S. forces,” Variety reported. “Jabouri, a former member of the Iraqi parliament, admitted that his channel incites Iraqis to fight ‘American occupation,’ but said he has no idea why he was blacklisted. ‘Al-Zawraa broadcasts for all the Iraqi resistance movements and it incited Iraqis to fight the (U.S.) occupation,’ he said after the U.S. Treasury's Jan. 9 announcement
blacklisting him and his channel and freezing his assets.”
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