English Entertainment
Buena Vista in licensing deal with Zee Studio
MUMBAI: Buena Vista International Television – Asia Pacific (BVITV-AP) has concluded a multi-year licensing agreement with Zee Network, for its newly re-branded English movie channel – Zee Studio.
The agreement will include an extensive range of library and TV film offerings from accomplished studios such as Touchstone Pictures, Spyglass Entertainment, Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Hollywood Pictures. Titles will include Pretty Woman starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, Shanghai Noon with international action hero Jackie Chan, Mission to Mars directed by Brian De Palma and Bill Murray in What About Bob?.
The deal was announced by BVITV-AP senior VP Steve Macallister and Zee Café, Zee Studio, Trendz and MX Channels business head Ajay Trigunayat. For BVITV-AP, the agreement was negotiated by India head Amit Malhotra, says a company release.
Commenting on the announcement, Macallister said, “We are delighted to be establishing this new partnership with Zee TV. Zee Studio is a popular destination for Indian viewers of Hollywood movies and will be an excellent showcase for our wide range of internationally successful features. We are confident this line-up will add great value to their schedules and to the continued success of Zee Studio.
Trigunayat added, “This agreement comes at a time when Zee Studio is looking to satiate the tremendous appetite that the Indian market has for entertainment. Our first-ever multi-year deal with a major Hollywood studio represents our commitment to bringing the best content to Indian audiences. We are pleased to be partnering with BVITV who have had longstanding success at the international box office in delivering movies that appeal to a broad audience.”
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.
