English Entertainment
Turner Broadcasting UK’s truTV launches on TVPlayer
MUMBAI: Turner Broadcasting UK’s new general entertainment channel (GEC), truTV has launched on TVPlayer, the UK’s over-the-top TV platform.
TVPlayer live streams over 50 free-to-air channels across a wide range of devices including PCs, mobiles, tablets and smart TVs. With over one million users TVPlayer offers broadcasters direct access to younger audiences than existing TV platforms, together with advanced analytical information and audience insight to supplement overnight viewing figures provided by BARB.
TruTV, a 24-hour channel, provides a destination for UK viewers to enjoy both original and unscripted programming. The launch of truTV in the UK follows the channel’s success in the US where it is watched in 93 million homes. It showcases incredible and exciting content which focuses on real people and situations. Highlights include: Container Wars, South Beach Tow, Tattoo Nightmares and Ink Master, as well as new shows The Carbonaro Effect and Total Blackout, premiering next month.
Under the agreement, TVPlayer has licensed multi-platform live streaming rights, together with seven day catchup across truTV and truTV+1. The programming will be viewable on WiFI, 3G and 4G allowing consumers to access truTV’s programming from anywhere in the UK. The live streams will be available from 15 January, 2015, with catchup following later in Q.1 this year.
TVPlayer founder and CEO Adam Smith said, “TVPlayer has seen significant growth through 2014 and we are committed to extending the content offering for our loyal users. truTV is the first of a portfolio of additional channels to be added to TVPlayer this year and we are particularly excited that the content is being made available both live and on demand.”
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.
