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: US media conglomerate NBC UnIversal‘s women focussed channel The Style Network has announced the formation of Style Media, a new global, multimedia content company that will broaden its focus to programme and market to all facets of consumers‘ lives, from the way they view content, to how they consume information, to the experts they rely on for tips and advice.

New and expanded growth areas include digital, mobile, licensing and merchandising, brand experiences, and domestic and international television networks. The details were unveiled by Style Media president Salaam Coleman Smith.

Coleman Smith said, "Style is a powerful brand that resonates with women on multiple platforms and across the globe. The creation of Style Media will broaden our business and allow us to capitalise on Style‘s strong consumer base of savvy women with immense purchasing power. On the heels of record-breaking success at The Style Network we want to seize the momentum and ensure that Style Media allows our viewers to experience Style in a multi-dimensional manner."

At Style Media‘s core is the creative and transformational television content found on Style, which marked its best first quarter in network history in 2012 with women 18-49. The addition of the following business divisions will enable fans and viewers to engage with the network and talent in a variety of ways:

Style Digital: Style Digital, which includes myStyle.com and various social media platforms, expands the brand promise of fueling women‘s insatiable appetites for all things style, by providing companion resources on the user‘s journey through stylish living. With approachable solutions through original content and partnerships from experts and trendsetters, Style Digital will satisfy the user‘s need to always be in the know.

Style‘s current success is anchored by its social media reach as well as industry-leading user engagement. Style claims to attract more than 10 million social followers from Twitter and Facebook, which are driven by how-to beauty tips seen by nearly one million Twitter followers of @myStyleQuickTips, and popular TV series that attract digital savvy audiences and on-air talent who engage with fans on a year-round basis.

Style‘s hit series are experiencing spectacular growth with unique users for returning series up over 30 per cent in 2012, and in some cases their social footprints have increased dramatically as evidenced by "Big Rich Texas" more than tripling its Twitter following since the end of its first season. In addition to great success in the social sphere, myStyle.com attracts one of the most loyal user bases among cable network websites, outperforming other women‘s networks in "return visit" rate by 48 per cent.

Uniquely positioned for tremendous growth, Style Media‘s campaign to re-launch its digital properties, including myStyle.com, will take advantage of the latest advances in technology through adaptive, liquid and responsive user interfaces, using whatever device available, from desktop to tablet to mobile. In addition, Style Digital plans to enhance the way in which viewers experience Style shows with dynamic, narrative and interactive second screen experiences, including more talent live chats, social TV initiatives and a second screen-viewing app.

Style Licensing and Merchandising: Style Media will produce branded products for their passionate consumer base through lines inspired by Style shows as well as the style category overall. In addition, Style will create talent-inspired products, from clothes to beauty, which will be integrated into show storylines, and offered to consumers for purchase at myStyle.com.

Style International: Style has channels in the UK, Australia and Pan Regional, which include Pan Asian and Europe, Middle East and Africa. Currently, Style International extends to over 17 million subscribers in 90 countries and nine languages with over 900 hours of programming licensed worldwide.

MUMBAI: Facing heat over alleged use of piracy to scuttle business of pay-TV rival ITV Digital, News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch vented his anger on social networking platform Twitter by terming the allegations as baseless.

"Seems every competitor and enemy piling on with lies and libels. So bad, easy to hit back hard, which preparing," Murdoch said on his Twitter handle @rupertmurdoch.

According to a BBC Panorama documentary, a company part-owned by News Corp carried out hacking by obtaining codes belonging to ITV Digital and posted them to allow viewers to watch for free which finally led to the demise of Sky?s main digital TV rival, ITV Digital.

NDS, which manufactured smartcards for all News Corp pay-TV companies across the world, said that Thoic was legitimately used to gather intelligence on hackers while Gibling worked as a consultant.

The publication of codes resulted in widespread piracy which finally resulted in the demise of ITV Digital, which had been set-up by Britain?s leading free-to-air commercial broadcaster, in 1998.

In a statement late on Wednesday, News Corp President Chase Carey said the BBC programme presented "manipulated and mischaracterised emails to produce unfair and baseless accusations", and he backed NDS?s call for the publicly owned British broadcaster to retract them.

The piracy scandal came as a second blow to the already beleagured News Corp as it had hardly recovered from the phone hacking scandal involving its UK publishing unit, News International.

The media conglomerate is under tremendous pressure as it is already under television regulator Ofcom?s scanner which is scrutinising whether James Murdoch and News Corporation are "fit and proper" persons to be in control of BSkyB, the company that runs Sky TV.