English Entertainment
Foxtel to launch crime network in Australia
MUMBAI: When Star News launches a crime channel by the middle of next year it will have a programme model at its disposal.
Foxtel which claims to be Australia’s leading subscription television provider will launch A&E television network’s (AETN) newly-created Crime & Investigation Network in January.
The network will investigate the drama of real life crime, from how forensic scientists solve crimes using cutting edge technology to what makes serial killers tick and meeting the men and women who risk their lives to put criminals behind bars.
The new channel will replace TechTV, which will cease to be on Foxtel Digital’s platform after 31 December. After Comcast acquired TechTV in May it decided to withdraw the international feed of TechTV for territories including Australia.
While the new channel will be managed, programmed and broadcast by Foxtel it will draw on the extensive programming library and resources of AETN.
The new channel further extends the successful relationship between AETN and Foxtel, which also carries localised versions of The History Channel and The Biography Channel.
The new channel will go behind-the-scenes on criminal investigations, take an in-depth look at police work on some of the world’s most fascinating cases and observe how technology helps solve ‘cold cases’.
Viewers will see biographies of infamous murderers, serial killers and outlaws, explore the world of science and how it catches killers and live the life of a cop as you cruise the beat.
Foxtel claims to be connected to more than 1.1 million homes on cable and satellite through retail and wholesale distribution in Australia. Foxtel is owned by Telstra Corporation (50 per cent), News Corp (25 per cent), and Publishing and Broadcasting (25 per cent). Foxtel had launched its new digital cable and satellite service in March.
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.
