English Entertainment
New Zealand celebrates 45 years of TV
MUMBAI: In 1960 the Kiwis first welcomed television into their homes. The first broadcast was only two hours long, in black-and-white, and for the first six weeks lasted for only two hours a night over two nights a week.
45 years later New Zealand has multiple channels operating 24/7. The country’s national broadcaster TVNZ and The Petone Settlers Museum are launching a celebration of 45 years of television in New Zealand with the Look Mum, I’m on TV Exhibition to open to the public at the Museum tomorrow 28 May.
TVNZ’s public affairs head Avon Adams said, “The exhibition will demonstrate the evolution of television over the years and will be a trip down memory lane for many people”. The exhibition is just part of the celebrations to be held at the Museum. During the year various workshops will be held at the site including ‘Working in TV’- a seminar for those who aspire to work in film and television, and ‘Writing it Right’ – a workshop hosted by the TVNZ’s Avalon Television and Film School focussing on writing for television.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
