– Pro 7 cancels Club format

MUNICH: Pro 7’s new animated block was recently canceled only a few days before its planned launch. The block was in the form of a kids club with studio presenters, interviews, games and guests, and was to air daily from 7 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Pro 7’s head of programming, Jan K’erbelin, canceled the block after viewing a pilot.

-Nickelodeon gets Chile

Nick Latin America and Metropolis-Intercom announced a distribution agreement giving Nickelodeon cable carriage throughout Chile. With this agreement, nearly half of the country’s multichannel homes will receive the 24-hour channel.

-Ellipse splits up

PARIS: Ellipse Programme, the production subsidiary of Canal+, has divided its activity into two divisions: drama and family programming. ‘We want to create a well-identified brand within Ellipse,’ says Robert Réa, managing director for the youth and family division. This move joins the forces of Ellipse Programme, Ellipse Animation and its studio, Elma and Le Sabre Animation. The new division plans to concentrate on action-adventure, preschool and 3-D series, animated films and live-action series and movies.

-Casper scares up a sequel

The Harvey Entertainment Company, Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment have signed an agreement for the feature film sequel to Casper, expected to be released in 1999 or 2000. Under the agreement, Universal will take over the merchandising rights for the film, even though an agreement was signed earlier this year giving Harvey the licensing and merchandising rights to the full catalogue of Harvey characters, which includes Baby Huey, Richie Rich, Wendy the Good Little Witch and Little Audrey. The film version of Casper has earned over US$307 million worldwide since its release in May 1995.

-Sheherazade gets second season

PARIS: France 2 has commissioned another 26 episodes of Sheherazade, a show based on Tales From the Thousand and One Nights, which is scheduled to launch in September. The program is a co-production between Tilt Productions and Carrère TV, which handles international distribution. The show has a budget of FF40 million (US$22 million). The series has been sold in Spain, South Africa, South America, Portugal and Turkey. Copyright Promotions Licensing Group is overseeing the licensing.