English Entertainment
Discovery expands presence in Hong Kong with carriage deal
HONG KONG: Discovery Networks Asia has expanded its penetration in the Asia Pacific region. The broadcaster has signed a five-channel carriage deal with Hong Kong Cable Television.
In addition to Discovery Channel which has been on the HK platform for five years there are Animal Planet and Discovery Travel & Adventure. They are being carried in the basic tier.
Cable Television’s premium tier will include three other DNA channels: Discovery Health, Discovery Science and Discovery Home & Leisure. The channels will debut later this year.
Cable TV’s executive director, Eric Lo was quoted in a report saying, “Discovery Channel has won wide acclaim from Hong Kong viewers and is one of our most watched channels. It is already a household name in Hong Kong. I have no doubt the addition of more channels will be welcomed by our 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.
