MUMBAI: The television industry was in a new golden age, said Warner Bros. Television Group president Bruce Rosenblum.

The best platform for launching a new show is broadcast television. "You want your comedies on CBS on Monday and your promos inside the highest-rated shows. The more we can draw people to broadcast TV the better it is for our studio business," said Rosenblum, while speaking at the television technology and trade event Nab in Las Vegas.

The TV business has never been better. "Revenue from international has improved dramatically. The domestic broadcast, cable and syndication businesses are at a high point and there are new buyers in the market like Netflix and Hulu that are boosting the value of their libraries and new productions," he said.

International markets are playing a key role in reducing deficits between the cost of producing shows and the licence fees paid by the networks. "Even in a global financial crisis, we have had five years of meaningful increases to the point where the revenue from international more than covers the production costs of our entire sales of 26 shows".

Rosenblum estimates that more than 85 per cent of Time Warner?s profitability comes from Turner, HBO and the studio?s TV Group. Warner Bros. gets roughly half of its profits from TV. "Anything we can do to preserve that ecosystem and keep the consumer in an authenticated environment helps us," he averred.

He also said that social media is playing a bigger role in marketing efforts. "I haven?t seen Facebook and Twitter having an impact yet on what gets selected. Where Facebook and Twitter can help is when you have shows that are on bubble. Several shows have gotten renewed because networks were aware of how much chatter was out there."

MUMBAI: English movie channel HBO will launch the fourth season of ?Hollywood Premiere League (HPL)on 16 April. The films will be aired 11:15 pm onwards every night.

The two-month long festival will offer blockbusters soon after the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches get over.

HPL will showcase films like ?Clash Of The Titans?, ?Speedy Singhs?, ?No Strings Attached? and ?Jonah Hex?. The initiative will also have interactivity both on-air and online. On-air, HBO has introduced the HPL Master Blaster Contest, a six-week long watch-and-win, where the participants have a chance at winning a cool latest Ipad. The contest is being promoted on air and is integrated with the broadcaster?s social media community.

In addition, the on-air properties include "HPL- Matches of the week"- a ready menu of the matches of the week for viewers and "HPL Memories" - capturing the most memorable moments from HPL movies.

Further, HBO?s social community which is heading to 750,000 users at present, is actively working on a deeper social media engagement. HPL was announced in the social media domain beginning of the month highlighting the on-air promotions ahead of its fourth edition roll-out. The Facebook users will be able to create their own HPL Dream-Team through a user integrated application.

Along the with Dream-Team application, fans can create their own cheerleaders to support the Dream ?Team. Additionally, the user has options to, ?brush up your cricket lingos? and ?tweet the name of your favourite movie.

HPL will see large scale promotions on various English TV channels, a well-placed outdoor campaign and radio promotions in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore in addition to multi-faceted social media and digital plan.

Dove is the title sponsor, Make my Trip as the presenting sponsor and Coke and Colgate the associate sponsors on HPL.

MUMBAI: The Ricky Gervais Show, the animated comedy series based on the podcast, returns to US broadcaster HBO for its 13-episode third season on 20 April.

The voices are recorded by Ricky Gervais, his longtime collaborator, Stephen Merchant, and Gervais? colleague and friend, Karl Pilkington, whose offbeat musings inspire many of the storylines.

The series animates the podcast that first appeared on the Guardian website, subsequently earning a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most downloads. In March 2011, the podcast reportedly passed the 300 million download mark.

Topics covered in season three include: Karl ruminating on museum collections, his invention of the mug coaster, a movie pitch, and Karl, Stephen and Ricky shedding new light on charitable causes.

MUMBAI: US media conglomerate Time Warner?s revenue for the full-fiscal ended December has increased eight per cent to $29 billion, its highest growth rate since 2003.

Adjusted operating income rose by nine per cent to a record $5.9 billion. Adjusted EPS grew 20 per cent to $2.89.

Time Warner chairman, CEO Jeff Bewkes said, ?While investing aggressively to drive our long-term growth, we also returned $5.6 billion to our shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. For 2012, we will execute against the same strategic priorities that have driven our success in recent years: We?re investing aggressively in programming, production and marketing. We?re further accelerating our Content Everywhere initiatives. We?re expanding our presence internationally in attractive territories. And we?re maintaining our strict focus on operating and capital efficiency."

Time Warner announced an increase in dividend and a new $4 billion stock repurchase authorisation.

Revenue increase for the year reflected growth at the Networks and film segments. Adjusted operating Income rose by nine per cent to $5.9 billion, due to strong results at all of the company?s segments. Operating income increased by seven per cent to $5.8 billion. Adjusted operating income and operating income margins were each 20 per cent in 2011, the same as in 2010.

Fourth-quarter revenues increased by five per cent from the year-ago quarter to $8.2 billion, reflecting higher revenues at the film and networks segments. Adjusted operating income rose by 20 per cent to $1.7 billion, driven by strong results across the company?s segments. Adjusted operating Income margins were 21 per cent versus 18 per cent in the 2010 quarter. Operating income increased by 17 per cent to $1.7 billion in the quarter, while operating income margins were 20 per cent compared to 18 per cent in the 2010 quarter.

In the Networks segment (Turner Broadcasting and HBO) revenues for the year grew by nine per cent ($1.2 billion) to $13.7 billion, with increases of six per cent ($495 million) in subscription revenues, 12 per cent ($453 million) in ad revenues and 21 per cent ($202 million) in content revenues.

The increase in subscription revenues resulted mainly from higher domestic rates and international subscriber growth.

The growth in ad revenues was driven by strong pricing domestically, sports programming, including the NCAA Division I Men?s Basketball Championship events, and growth at Turner?s international networks, including acquisitions.
Content revenues benefited from higher sales of HBO original programming and higher licensing revenues at Turner.

Adjusted operating income increased by six per cent ($266 million) to $4.4 billion, reflecting higher revenues partly offset by increased expenses, including higher programming and marketing costs, as well as increased costs related to international growth. Programming costs grew by 12 per cent, due primarily to higher expenses for sports and original programming and international growth.

In the film segment for the year, revenues rose by nine per cent ($1 billion) to $12.6 billion, led by the strong theatrical and home entertainment performance of ?Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2? and the home entertainment performance of ?Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1?.

Revenues also benefited from a stronger videogames release slate, higher television license fees, new subscription video-on-demand agreements and the favourable effect of foreign exchange rates.

Key 2011 videogame releases included Batman: Arkham City, Mortal Kombat 9 and several Lego titles. Television license fees increased due mainly to improved worldwide syndication, which included the off-network availability of ?The Big Bang Theory?. This growth was offset in part by fewer home video releases and difficult theatrical comparisons to the prior year.

Adjusted operating income increased by 16 per cent ($174 million) to $1.3 billion, as a result of higher revenues.

Operating income increased by 14 per cent ($156 million) to $1.3 billion. In 2011, Warner Bros. grossed $4.7 billion at the worldwide box office, led by the top grossing film, ?Harry

Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2?. Warner Bros. also became the first studio to exceed $4 billion in global box office for three consecutive years.

For the 2011-2012 broadcast television season, Warner Bros. has produced more than 30 scripted primetime series, making it the leading supplier of primetime programming to the broadcast networks.