Penthouse 10

At MIPTV - European Mergers Building a Media Giant

"Taken together, the assets of all these companies add up to a real TV giant," said a leading executive with one of Germany's public broadcasters. "If they could be vertically integrated, it would be a real force in Europe. But that's a big if."

Read full article on HollywoodReporter.com.

Call for Entries

DOCUSUR, International Southern Documentary Films Festival, opens the convocation of films for the Official Section Competition.

This competition is open to all non-fictional audiovisual forms (author’s doumentaries, creative documentaries, experimental documentaries, cinema-diary, collage, etc.) of all lengths and produced after the 1st January 2004.

This festival is oriented to independent professionals, schools, institutions, television networks and film producers, and the works presented must have a minimum quality of VD.

Fictional, institutional, commercial, reports or strictly journalistic movies won’t be admitted.

The different competition categories are:

-International Competition: dedicated to documentaries produced in South America, Africa and Asia by native or foreign producers. Documentaries from other parts of the world that have been made in these continents or that touch these regions themes or a North-South relations theme will also be admitted. The Official Section Competition comprehends the following awards: Best Documentary Film, Best Documentary Shortfilm, and Best First Film, and some special awards with a total amount of 34.000 euros.
-National Competition: endowed with 4000 euros to the best social documentary of social theme produced in Spain.
-Canarian Competition: endowed with 4000 euros to the best social theme documentary produced in the Canary Islands.

At the same time we launch DOCUSUR MARKET, International Documentaries Market. It is directed to producers and film makers from South America, Asia and Africa who are developing proyects and look for financial help, or have finished works that need distribution or exhibition.

Each documentary film presented to the competition, selected or not selected for the Official Section, can be chosen for the Screenings of DOCUSUR MARKET, that counts with the participation of the main european TV networks with interests in subscribing contracts with producers and film makers from South America, Asia and Africa.

The regulations of this convocation and the registration forms are at your disposal in the different sections of this festival’s web site: www.docusur.es

Deadline: 31st August 2006.

Greg in Montenegro

If you haven't checked it out yet, be sure to read Greg Pitts' blog about his ongoing adventures in Montenegro (as part of a Fulbright fellowship, no less).

Notes from Montenegro

Our own Greg Pitts, in Montenegro on a Fulbright Fellowship, shares his observations in a special blog -- check it out!

TIC tock

Tracy Swedlow's InteractiveTV Today is reporting that Board member Robert Chua is scoring a bit of a coup:

While a number of international media companies have in recent months had problems gaining regulatory approval to expand their operations into the emerging Chinese television market (note: News Corp. chief, Rupert Murdoch, last month stated publicly that the Chinese television authorities are "quite paranoid about what gets through" and have caused his business to "hit a brick wall" in China),  Robert Chua's The Interactive Channel (TIC) appears to be having an easier time of things.

Brits on Branded Entertainment

The American Idol judges sit with Coca-Cola cups on the table in front of them. The contestants on the new series of The Apprentice hang out in a Poggenpohl kitchen. The good guys in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation zap around in GMC Yukon vehicles.

These are the latest and most visible signs of advertisers' fight against the growing power of the television viewer: the ability to edit out the commercials. TiVo, Sky+ and other digital recorders allow viewers to watch programmes without having to endure the advertisement breaks that are rife in US television.

-UK's The Guardian looks at branded entertainment in the U.S.

Shanghai Web

The organizing committee of the 8th Shanghai International Film Festival and the 11th Shanghai TV Festival recently launched a Website promoting two film and TV galas.

Canucks Go Latin

Congratulations are in order for Canada's sizable Latino community, who campaigned successfully for a network to call their own. Hola! TV. On April 19th, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) aproved a license for Hola! Canadian Hispanic TV Network, Inc., the first TV network by and for Canadian Hispanics. Hola! TV es para mí, the network slogan is Spanish for "Hello! TV is for me." Independent and emerging producers with an eye on the growing Hispanic market either north or south of the maple leaf curtain take note.

Carded

Neil Payne writes on business card etiquette around the world.

Touchy

Make a good first impression - The Business of Touch explains, by example, proper greetings for 15  countries.