English Entertainment
Fox International Channels confirms season 4 of ‘Asia’s Next Top Model’
MUMBAI: Fox International Channels (FIC) has confirmed season 4 of the reality competition series Asia’s Next Top Model (AsNTM), once again for its female-targeted entertainment channel, Star World, set to air in 2016.
Season 3 of the show achieved phenomenal success on Star World as the highest-rated season to date in Singapore and the Philippines. The season 3 finale also garnered the highest ratings in the show’s history on StarWorld, and pushed the channel into the top ranking spot amongst all western general entertainment cable channels.
An original production by FIC, AsNTM is based on Tyra Banks’ popular ‘Top Model’ franchise, where aspiring models are mentored by industry professionals as they compete to become the next big thing in fashion. The series will once again be presented by Subaru and Zalora in this new season.
FIC has commissioned FremantleMedia Asia to helm the production of this upcoming season. FIC’s partnership with FremantleMedia Asia is set to deliver even more compelling characters and chic style this season, as the young women on the show grow into world-class modelling professionals ready to take the global fashion industry by storm.
Fox International Channels EVP and head of content and communications for Hong Kong & Southeast Asia Keertan Adyanthaya said, “We’re excited to be launching the fourth season of this successful franchise, especially on the heels of a well-received season 3. We strive to produce shows that are highly entertaining and build fan bases, but also offer creative and effective promotional opportunities for brand partners, which in turn allow us to invest further into production and marketing. AsNTM is a great example of this successful model.”
“We could not have created this hit without our committed partners Subaru and Zalora. They share our creative vision for quality content and have each very smartly used the show successfully as a platform for their own marketing and promotion, making these win-win partnerships. Together with FremantleMedia, we can’t wait to bring to AsNTM fans the best season yet,” he added.
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.
