English Entertainment
Discovery’s ‘Super Surgery’ show to target niche audience
MUMBAI: Discovery channel is is attempting to add depth to its programming with shows targeted at niche audiences.
The first such, Super Surgery: Restoring Eyesight, is a one hour show that will air on the channel on 24 August at 10 pm.
According to Discovery corporate communications head Sanjay Raina, Screenings like this are one of the best ways in which we can portray the programming depth of the channel. We want to put forth the message that there is much more to Discovery than the sight of lions, whales and other animals. If one merely sticks to that level then the programming becomes very shallow in nature. Our aim is to show the manner in which we are aiming at educating the viewer.
In Super Surgery: Restoring Eyesight viewers observe medical breakthroughs as surgeons repair one of the most complex organs in the human body by restoring it with plastic parts and silicon chips designed to mimic the most intricate workings of the eye. The show deals with the development of an artificial cornea in Perth Australia as well as a silicon chip in Chicago, which can help people with a damaged retina.
The show outlines how the artificial cornea was developed at the Lions Eye Institute in Perth. For 10 years the institute spent time developing an artificial cornea made from unique material, that isn’t rejected. The show takes viewers through the process of inserting the artificial cornea. Meanwhile, two Asian American brothers in a Chicago lab developed the silicon chip. The chip can be implanted beneath the retina. It then mimics the act of the retinas photoreceptor cells by converting images into electric signals, which are then sent to the brain. However due to FDA stipulations the duo have not been allowed to make public the extent of the success of their work.
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.
