MUMBAI: English movie channel HBO, which has been losing market share, has donned a new programming package in order to regain lost ground this year.

The new schedule brings together blockbusters and aims to target different audience segments with entertainment at what the channel believes would be the right time.

The blocks are being built according to the genre and the viewers. With the success of former programming, HBO debuts ?Thriller Thursday?, the block which will showcase the suspense, thriller, crime mystery movies. It will air on Thursdays.

?Action Saturday?s? will see adventure-action, a double feature format with back-to-back movies on the block. HBO also plans to have a ?Family Weekend? with the upcoming ?Golden Ticket?, which brings the latest premieres from the home of entertainment. This will offer a mix of blockbusters, animation and sci-fi movies.

There is a block that focuses on movie stars with ?Star Struck? which offers back-to-back movies. In a further attempt to draw eyeballs, HBO has introduced ?Girls Night In?, a property for ladies. HBO allows viewers the chance to play ?catch up? with ?Last Chance?; it offers HBO blockbusters which viewers missed last year.

There are also ?Friday Blockbusters? and ?Mega Movie of the Month?.

According to the channel, the revamp will look at the combination of customised viewership across the country in order to boost the entertainment quotient.

MUMBAI: Asian pay-TV association Casbaa has congratulated Australian police for a dramatic raid on a pirate TV syndicate operating in Australia via high-capacity Internet servers based in China.

The raid on the B&L LED Sign company in Hurstville, in the suburbs of Sydney, signaled the latest stage in a long term campaign to track down the promoters and users of Internet-based networks distributing illegal TV signals in Australia. Based on the cash raked in by the Hurstville operation, police estimated that 150 million Australian Dollars could have been effectively stolen from the legitimate TV distribution industry by multinational criminal gangs.

Casbaa CEO Simon Twiston Davies said, "This time the primary victim was TVB Australia, and the Hurstville police have done a great job to get this far. And so has TVB Australia, which brought the initial information to them."

TVB, based in Hong Kong, creates and sells Chinese-language TV programming, distributing its programming in Australia through a satellite-based pay-TV service, TVB Australia. The piracy network was stealing and reselling TV signals from TVB as well as a host of other international pay-TV channels, in English as well as Chinese.

Other channels distributed included high-value TV networks such as CNN, ESPN, MTV, Discovery, National Geographic, HBO, Fox and the BBC, alongside a library of Video on Demand shows and movies not yet released on legal DVDs -- all streamed from China directly to the user‘s TV set.

Police said they will file charges that carry heavy fines and potential maximum jail terms of five years. They will also interview homeowners who have received the stolen programming, some of whom may face charges themselves.

Increases in broadband penetration throughout Asia are making it easier for criminals to steal TV programming they do not own, and to re-sell to others. Too often, consumers sign up as accomplices in the theft. "Australia has strong laws to protect copyrighted broadcasts including holding end-users responsible for the consumption of stolen signals" said Davies

Casbaa held up the Hurstville raid as evidence that Australia is committed to enforcing its laws, and that policing there is effective. "We wish that other governments in this region would demonstrate the same commitment as Australia to preventing misuse of the Internet for TV piracy The problem is only going to grow, if other governments don‘t get serious" added Davies.

MUMBAI: David Milch?s Redboard Productions has entered into a new multi-year exclusive television deal with US broadcaster HBO, which will also cover any further services on the upcoming series ?Luck?, starring Dustin Hoffman and debuting on the network in January 2012.

Redboard has also concluded an agreement with the William Faulkner Literary Estate to produce films and television series based on selections from Faulkner?s bibliography. The deal covers all of the 19 novels and 125 short stories in the estate, as well as other works, with the exception of those currently contracted with other parties. ICM, which reps Milch, brokered the deal with Redboard and the William Faulkner Literary Estate.

Under the terms of the agreement, Milch will partner with Lee Caplin, the executor of the William Faulkner Literary Estate and Picture Entertainment CEO to choose which works to develop, package and produce. Both Milch and Caplin will act as executive producers of those projects, with Milch serving as the executive writer in charge of adapting the works. The agreement gives HBO an exclusive first opportunity to finance, produce and distribute the projects as movies, miniseries and series. Olivia Milch will serve as coordinating producer on the projects.

HBO programming president Michael Lombardo said, "We are especially pleased to continue our longstanding relationship with one of the industry?s most talented contemporary writers. We know that whatever David brings to the HBO table will be exciting and innovative."

Milch added, "I?m delighted to expand my longstanding relationship with HBO to encompass the adaptation of some of the most important literary works by any American writer into television films and series. As we embark on this ambitious project, our first commitment is to serve the material, and we look forward to identifying and collaborating with the best screenwriters and filmmakers to help each of the pieces find its ideal form onscreen."

MUMBAI: Tim is a normal, 20 something New Yorker trying to get ahead at work, while keeping his girlfriend Amy happy and living a ?normal? life. However, in Tim?s world, his often peculiar choices leave him in outlandish, surprising situations.

?The Life And Times of Tim? produced for US broadcaster HBO by Media Rights Capital, returns for its ten-episode third season on 16 December 2011. This animated comedy series about an average guy whose actions repeatedly lead him down the wrong path was created by Steve Dildarian, who executive produces, writes for the show and provides the voice of Tim. Each half-hour episode consists of two segments that find Tim in a new unenviable dilemma.

In the third season Tim?s habit of befriending bizarre and unusual personalities in New York City continues to put him in dangerously funny circumstances. In addition to Dildarian, voices are provided by Mary Jane Otto (Amy), Nick Kroll (Stu), Matt Johnson (Rodney) and Peter Giles (The Boss). Guest voices this season include Jennifer Coolidge, Rob Corddry, Andrew Daly, Jon C. Daly, Alfred Molina, Mary Kay Place, Fred Willard, Billy Dee Williams and Anton Yelchin.

MUMBAI: US broadcaster HBO is airing the documentary, ?The Sound of Mumbai: A Musical?, on 23 November on HBO2.

With its images of mountains, ?The Sound of Music? might
not seem like a natural fit for India‘s "maximum city," but the Bombay Chamber Orchestra begs to differ. Recruiting kids from the slums - home to half the city‘s population - the Orchestra sets out to stage a one-time-only choral performance of the Rogers & Hammerstein score.

?The Sound Of Mumbai: A Musical? tells the story of the tenacious, musically inclined Indian street children who are enlisted to perform a concert with members of the elite orchestra. For 11-year-old Ashish, like many of the other kids, performing in the concert means more than singing in a world-class theater; it also offers the hope of rising above his social and cultural limits.

The film is one of four documentaries about contemporary India debuting on HBO and HBO2 in the US this month. The others are: ?Marathon Boy?, the story of a four-year-old marathon runner whose rags-to-riches saga morphs into a tale of greed, corruption and broken dreams, which aired on 3 November on HBO; ?The Bengali Detective?, a portrait of Rajesh Ji, who solves crimes in the city of Kolkata while following his dreams of being a professional dancer, will air on 16 November on HBO2.

Then there is ?Pink Saris?, profiling the unlikely female activists of Northern India‘s Gulabi Gang, who battle violence
against women, that will air on 30 November on HBO2.