The Long Journey Home

The Long Journey Home a seven part series tracing the history of the Irish in America achieved record viewing figures, doubling and in some cases tripling the normal Public Broadcasting Service figures.

Disney, the worlds largest media company, with partners Infoseek is planning to launch a so-called portal website later this year. The basis for this is the acquisition of a minority stake in Infoseek which has an annual revenue of about £35.7 million.

New Film Makers Ireland Newsletter is now out. It includes RTE / FMI Broadcasting Sub-Committee Update.

Donald Taylor Black (FMI), Mary Raftery (RTE Producter) and Peter Canning (RTS) have recently been exploring the possibility of establishing an Academy with responsibility for an award ceremony, and as a result there has been substantial interest in and support of the idea.

British Sky Broadcasting, the satellite giant is planning to start screening seperate commercial breaks for Ireland.

RTE and TV3 were in competition for the first time recently to secured the television rights to 'Independence Day' from Fox.

TV3 has targeted a September launch. Construction is underway for a July completion. Sony has been contracted to supply and integrate a fully digital operation setting TV3 up for future digital transmission.