English Entertainment
Disney’s Playschool set to enter Singapore on 15 May
MUMBAI: There is no word still on when Disney will make its India debut but there is action happening elsewhere in Asia.
Preschool educational ‘Playhouse Disney Channel’ is next on Disney’s agenda on the Asia front. This expansion into Asia takes place on 15 May on Singapore’s StarHub CableTV platform.
Having started life as a branded block on the Disney Channel and on the same platform, the full Playhouse service will be commercial-free and will be aimed at kids in the range of 2-5, broadcasting in English with a Chinese option.
Following the launch of the new premium service, the Disney Channel will drop from StarHub’s enhanced tier into the basic tier in June. Playhouse Disney launched in Hong Kong and Indonesia last month and plans to roll the network further into Asia this year.
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.
