English Entertainment
BBC Entertainment enters Malaysia on Astro
MUMBAI: India may still remain a significant absentee but Malaysia has just been added to the list of countries beaming BBC Entertainment.
An official communique announced the launch of BBC Entertainment on Malaysia’s dominant Astro direct-to-home (DTH) platform. The BBC-branded general entertainment channel reportedly started beaming on Astro (Channel 26) as of 28 December, 2006.
BBC Entertainment’s line up of British shows include Doctor Who, Footballers’ Wives, Waking the Dead and comedies like Extras, Suburban Shootout and My Family.
BBC Global Channels Asia, the part of BBC Worldwide that handles the roll-out of the Corporation’s recently relaunched package of international channels, first launched BBC Entertainment in Asia, replacing BBC Prime on StarHub in Singapore, UBC in Thailand, Skylife in South Korea and Now TV in Hong Kong on 8 October, 2006.
“We are delighted to be part of the Astro platform and to be reaching new viewers in Malaysia,” Christine Leo-McKerrow, BBC’s SVP of global channels for Asia has been quoted as saying. “BBC Entertainment has had a great reception from both critics and viewers around the region, and we are sure viewers in Malaysia will respond in the same way.”
The launches are part of a global rollout of four new TV channels that will include preschoolers’ channel CBeebies and BBC Knowledge and BBC Lifestyle. The plan is that all four channels will be broadcast across all media: linear TV, VoD, mobile and online.
NO WORD STILL OF INDIA LAUNCH TIMELINES
In India meanwhile, there is no official word yet on the launch status of BBC Entertainment, as too CBeebies, which according to the announcement made in early September, are the two channels that will be making their entry in the country in the first phase.
Present indications though are that the BBC is looking at an April-May launch window. The man in charge of operations here is creative head content and production India Saul Nasse.
The BBC is looking at further rollouts in Europe, Africa and the Middle East in the course of the year, replacing BBC Prime in these markets.
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.
