News Broadcasting
Warner’s Intl TV department signs VOD deal with Germany’s T-Online
MUMBAI: Warner Bros. International Television Distribution (WBITV) has signed a multi-year deal to provide content to media firm T-Online for its broadband Video On Demand (VOD) service in Germany.
From this month a number of Warner Bros. Studio’s most popular films will be available on T-Online’s broadband VOD service (www.vod.t-online.de). These will include the Harry Potter films, The Matrix trilogy, Ocean’s Twelve and The Polar Express as well as classic library titles, including Gone with the Wind. New Releases will become available to T-Online concurrent with their pay-per-view window. T-Online also plans to add at least 100 library titles each year to the service.
Warner Bros. International Television Distribution president Jeffrey Schlesinger says, “We are excited to be in business with T-Online, a leader in the VOD arena in Germany, and especially pleased with the level of copyright protection this deal includes. This agreement incorporates a number of anti-piracy measures and procedures that reflect Warner Bros. and T-Online’s cooperation in and commitment to actively deal with online piracy while offering consumers an attractive, affordable and legitimate alternative to illegal p2p file sharing.”
T-Online head of product marketing and content sourcing Peter Kurchkoff says, “We have worked very systematically for many months to reach an agreement with Warner Bros. International Television. We have succeeded in achieving this and are proud to now have six of the eight Hollywood major studios under contract, thus enabling us to offer our customers a unique film selection.”
This deal represents WBITV’s continuing expansion into broadband VOD, joining the company’s recent VOD agreements with Telecom Italia for programming via its Rosso Alice portal in Italy and the Nordic service SF Anytime with subscribers in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to air live counting day coverage for five state election results on May 4
The channel is rolling out its biggest election coverage machinery yet for results day on 4th May
NOIDA: The votes have been cast. Now comes the reckoning. CNN-News18 is pulling out all the stops for results day on 4th May, when counting begins across five battleground states — West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry — in what promises to be one of the most closely watched electoral verdicts in recent memory.
The channel’s coverage, titled Battle for the States: The Verdict, kicks off at 7am and runs through the day across linear TV, connected television and YouTube. It is the culmination of CNN-News18’s multi-format editorial initiative, Battle for the States, which has tracked the polls from the beginning under the theme Road to Power.
At the operational heart of the coverage will be the Live Results Hub, the channel’s central command centre built to collate, verify and process real-time data flowing in from reporters stationed at counting centres across constituencies. The hub combines newsroom intelligence, analytics and on-the-ground reporting to deliver what the channel promises will be the fastest and most accurate results coverage in English news.
Leading the on-air charge will be primetime anchors Rahul Shivshankar, Anand Narasimhan, Aman Sharma, Nabila Jamal and Shivani Gupta. They will be joined by a wide panel of commentators including author Chetan Bhagat; GVL Narasimha Rao, senior leader of the BJP; Smita Prakash, editor of ANI; activist Saira Shah Halim; political analyst Sumanth C Raman; Abhijit Iyer Mitra, senior fellow at IPCS; Amitabh Tiwari, founder of VoteVibe; columnist Abhijit Majumdar; Nalin Mehta, managing editor of MoneyControl; political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla; senior journalist Subir Bhaumik; and political analyst Manojit Mandal.
Shivshankar, who serves as editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, set out the stakes plainly. “Counting day is one of the most watched events in the electoral cycle, where speed and credibility are tested in real time,” he said. “Battle for the States: The Verdict is built on that promise, combining ground reporting, sharp analysis and cutting-edge election technology to give viewers the clearest and fastest route to the verdict. On May 4, CNN-News18 will once again be the nation’s most trusted channel to witness democracy in action.”
Smriti Mehra, chief executive of English and Business News at Network18, framed the coverage in broader terms. “Elections are defining national events, and audiences turn to brands they trust in moments that matter,” she said. “CNN-News18 has consistently led from the front in every election coverage, and this special programming reflects the scale of our ambition and editorial strength.”
The channel has form here. It claims to have been India’s most preferred English news destination for election results for the past 20 years, covering everything from the 2024 general elections to the Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar and BMC polls on the back of what it calls an “Always First, Always Right” record. Five states, one day, and a nation waiting for answers. The clock starts at 7am on 4th May.
