English Entertainment
BBC World wins award at the Hot Bird TV Awards
MUMBAI: BBC World has been named best news channel for the third time in seven years at the Hot Bird TV Awards, the annual celebration of the finest multi-channel broadcasting in Europe.
The jury comprised of an independent panel of media journalists from major print publications throughout Europe, described BBC World as “the most complete and exhaustive source of TV news in the year 2004”.
BBC World, which broadcasts hourly news bulletins and the best of the BBC’s award-winning documentary, current affairs and lifestyle programming, was shortlisted in the category alongside Euronews, Rai Med and Sky News. Several hundred television channels were eligible to enter the Hot Bird TV Awards, organised by the leading satellite operator Eutelsat, states an official release.
BBC World’s Asia editor, Rita Payne, was presented with the award on 2 October at a special ceremony in the Italian city of Venice. BBC World was also named best news channel at the Hot Bird TV Awards in 1998, the ceremony’s inaugural year, and in 2002, specifically in recognition of its coverage of the attacks on the United States on 11th September 2001. No other channel has received the award three times.
Jeff Hazell, director of sales and distribution at BBC World, says: “To win such a prestigious award from Eutelsat for a third time is a stunning achievement. It acknowledges the depth and strength of the balanced, accurate and ground-breaking journalism seen on BBC World and the analysis of the stories behind the headlines for which we are recognised around the globe.”
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.
