English Entertainment
‘CSI’ beats ‘Lost’, ‘Desperate Housewives’ in global FTA market
MUMBAI: Desperate Housewives and Lost may have resurrected the fortunes of US broadcaster ABC but research shows that in the global free to air market CSI Miami tops them.
Global TV Acquisitions, a new report from Informa Telecoms & Media, provides analysis of the broadcast rights market worldwide
Based on number of times programme was listed in year-end ‘top 10’ rankings worldwide. the top three shows were CSI: Miami, Lost and Desperate Housewives.
In India while CSI Miami airs on AXN, Lost airs on Star Movies and Desperate Housewives airs on Star World.
The report has found that broadcast rights for film, sport and TV formats and series together generate some $40 billion in revenues globally each year.
The report’s author Adam Thomas says, “The rights market has now returned to some stability following the collapse of Kirch, which sent shockwaves through the business. That upheaval, combined with the demise of the network premiere, has radically altered the prices being paid for content and the types of deals being struck. Free-to-air channels now prefer to buy single titles, rather than sign up to output deals which bundle in mediocre content of little interest to their viewers.”
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.
