Chancellor George Osborne has announced a tax credit scheme for TV production and animation firms is to be introduced, in a bid to keep creative talent in Britain. Osborne said it was the government’s “determined policy” to keep Wallace and Gromit animators Aardman in Britain. Last month, Aardman bosses admitted they had been considering moving […]
Lord David Puttnam, President of the UK’s Film Distributors’ Association (FDA), has stressed the importance of continued support and public investment in UK film distribution during this Olympic year and beyond, to allow UK cinema admissions and box-office to continue to flourish. He also used his keynote speech to the UK film industry to call […]
Marking the first time an international distributor has signed a first look deal with an online video service, FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME), a leading creator and producer of entertainment brands, and Hulu have announced an agreement for international distribution rights to the online video service’s original commission programming. The deal, which enables FME to distribute Hulu […]
Channel 4 is to boost its programming budget by about £50 million (€60m) in 2012, as the broadcaster struggles to address a fall of almost 10 per cent in viewing by 16- to 34- year-olds. David Abraham, the chief executive of Channel 4, is set to announce that the broadcaster intends to boost its programming […]
Richard Desmond’s Channel 5 is to launch its own in-house production division. The new department, called Channel 5 Productions, will be the first time in the broadcaster’s 15 year history that it has made its own programmes. A new cookery format presented by Pierre White, who previously fronted ITV1’s Hell’s Kitchen, is one of a […]
Endemol has reached an agreement with a “significant majority” of its lenders, bringing to an end more than a year of talks to restructure its €2.8 billion debt. The TV production company said that it had reached an agreement in principle with more than two-thirds of its lenders to push through a restructuring of its […]
FremantleMedia has created a new digital division, FremantleMedia UK Interactive, combining the expertise and knowledge of the former talkbackTHAMES digital team and Screenpop, the group’s innovation and mass participation unit. The division will be headed up by Peter Cassidy, formerly Managing Director of Screenpop. Cassidy will report into Christian Grobel, FremantleMedia UK’s new Director of […]
Hulu has announced its original programming slate for the first half of 2012. The line-up kicks off on February 14th with the launch of Hulu’s first original scripted series, “Battleground”. On the heels of a successful season as Hulu’s first original series, Morgan Spurlock’s “A Day in the Life” will premiere its second season in […]
A government report into the future of the UK film industry has called on ITV and Sky to invest more money in British films. The Film Policy Review Panel, led by Lord Chris Smith, the former Culture Secretary, also recommended a new programme to bring film education to every school and a renewed commitment to […]
MPAA Chairman and CEO Senator Chris Dodd has reaffirmed the entertainment community’s commitment to both free speech and the fight against criminals who steal online content. In remarks to Washington, DC think-tank the Center for American Progress, Senator Dodd said that creative technology and creative content were “absolutely essential to each other” and that those […]