MONITOR
Screenwatch Ringer
The show:Ringer The producers:CBS Productions, Warner Bros Television, Brillstein Entertainment The distributor:CBS Studios Int’l Concept:Mafia drama starring Sarah Michelle Gellar Airing: The CW (US)
Ringer is an interesting proposition, both in terms of how it was developed and its star
attraction.The show, which stars Sarah Michelle Gellar,was initially developed for CBS but at the last moment was picked up by its sister net- work The CW,a rare move. Armando Nunez, president, CBS Studios International,which is distribut- ing the series,says that it is the first time a show has reached this level of devel- opment at the network before switch- ing to the younger-skewing channel. "It's not your typical CW show either,
it's broader than that," he adds. It is also Gellar's first major return to the small screen since the days of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. "Sarah Michelle
Gellar is very big internationally because of Buffy and she's not been on that much television since," he adds. Gellar plays two twin sisters that are
embroiled in a mafia crime case after one of the sisters witnesses a murder and switches identities with the other sister. "It's basically a series about these two twin sisters and how their lives interact for the first time," says Gellar. "We have two of me; what else do you need as a reason to watch." The series also stars Lost's Nestor
Carbonell and is exec produced by Pam Veasey, Peter Traugott and Richard Shepard. It will air on Tuesday evenings at 9pm.
ZDF makes a killing in Latin America
German distributor ZDF Enterprises has sold the original version of Scandinavian crime drama The Killing across Latin America following the suc- cess of the show on the BBC. The company has sold the first two seasons of Forbrydelsen, which is pro- duced by Danish public broadcaster DR, to Brazil's Globosat and DirecTV
Panamericana.The pay TV broadcaster covers markets across the region including Argentina, the Caribbean, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Puerto
Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela and the US Virgin Islands. The original, subtitled series was a smash hit for British public broadcaster the BBC, which aired it on its digital network BBC4. Fred Burcksen,VP, sales,merchandis- ing and coproductions, ZDF Enterprises, said that it has been dis- tributing the series for four years and has recently had a sales boost. "We were quite successful selling the series then the BBC picked it up and we've subsequently sold it to a number of new territories that we hadn't sold to previously," he said. The show is also airing in the U.S.,
where cable network AMC produced a local version with Fox TV Studios. Forbrydelsen is currently in production for season three.
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Stockwatch: CME
$US 24
23 22
21 20
Mar11 Apr11 Mar11
Central European Media Enterprises (CME),the Central and Eastern European broadcaster,has seen its shares rise over the last three months as a result of improved financial results in its latest quarter following a number of acquisitions. The broadcaster,which operates channels across the Czech Republic, Romania,Croatia,Slovakia and Slovenia acquired Bulgarian broad- caster bTV last year and this helped the company post a 20.3% rise in first quarter revenues of US$172.8
million.The company posted a net loss of US$21.1 million compared to the US$42.3 million loss the year before,which the group attributed to rising advertising revenues in its six major CEE markets. “This is a result of our continued audience and market leadership, rig- orous cost control,the positive con- tribution of the bTVgroup in Bulgaria and growth in both Media Pro and the new media division,” said CEOAdrian Sarbu. The company also acquired a TV and film distributor Bontonfilm earli- er this
year.CMEpaid US$11 million for the company,which has opera- tions in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.Time Warner,the USmedia giant, increased its stake in the com- pany in the latest financial quarter. Time Warner bought 3.1 million shares from a Czech investment group for US$60.3 million,raising its ownership by 5.5 percentage points and taking the total to 31%.
TBI June/July 2011 9
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