English Entertainment
FTV relaunching MCM as Trace 1 April
MUMBAI: French fashion channel FTV is all set to relaunch its music channel MCM, which has been off air for a good while now, in the Asian region from 1 April under a new name Trace-By MCM.
Launching on Asiasat 3 and having a pan-Asian footprint, Trace-By MCM will be completely in English unlike its earlier French speaking avatar, FTV business development head Manivel Malone told indiantelevision.com on the sidelines of the ongoing Ficci Frames 2004.
The music the channel plays will be urban cutting-edge stuff and may also indulge in a bit of skin show via uncensored music video segments. The channel derives its name as it is a collaboration between TRACE, the US-based transcultural styles and ideas magazine, which reports on the interconnected worlds of music, fashion, film, art, politics and today’s multiethnic youth and FTV.
Trace will be initially launched as a free to air offering but will ultimately be encrypted, said Malone. He further added that FTV would be launching an interactive gaming channel within the next few months. The details of the channel were still being finalized, he said. Malone had late last year, announced the proposed launch of three interactive channels, Malibu TV, Casino TV and Platinum TV, the first of which will apparently see the light of day shortly
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.
