English Entertainment
BBC-CBeebies’ Go Jetters to be aired on CCTV
MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide has announced a deal with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV that will bring highly rated CBeebies series Go Jetters to over 1.1 billion viewers in China. Fully dubbed in Mandarin and subtitled in simplified Chinese, the 50-episode series will premiere at the end of May on CCTV-14 – the children’s channel that is part of China Central Television (CCTV).
CCTV is the predominant state television in the People’s Republic of China with over 50 different channels catering to a wide audience both locally and abroad. The national broadcaster has the world’s largest audience of over 1.1 billion people, nearly 90% of China’s population. CCTV 14 is the state broadcaster’s dedicated children’s channel.
Go Jetters follows the adventures of four plucky heroes, Xuli, Kyan, Lars and Foz, as they travel the world with their teacher, mentor and friend, Ubercorn, a funky disco-grooving unicorn. A comedy, action adventure for 4-6 year olds, Go Jetterscombinesmusic, cool gadgets and disco-dancing to introduce the audience togeography and culture. Filled with comedy, teamwork, awesome sights, and funky facts, each episode offers older pre-schoolers a fun-filled and action packed exploration of their their wider world.
BBC Worldwide GM – Greater China Kelvin Yau commented, “We are excited that pre-schoolers in China will have access to Go Jetters, which has been very well-received and popular with pre-schoolers internationally. It testifies to the quality of CBeebies programmes to be both educational and entertaining, and a reflection of the trust Chinese audience has in our safe content.”
Go Jetterswill be available to young audiences in China across multiple platforms. In addition to CCTV’s mobile streaming platforms, it will also launch in a CBeebies block on the IPTV platform BesTV and on the online platform iQIYI in June. In late August it will be available to watch on digital platformsTencent and Youku.
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.
