Hollywood Reporter Antena 3 Pickup

The following appeared in the Hollywood Reporter on October 12, 1995. The citation is 1995-10-12. Spain's leading commercial network, Antena 3 TV, has signed a three-year output deal with Castle Rock Entertainment, Turner Pictures and animation house Hanna-Barbera, all of which are units of Turner Broadcasting System. The Hollywood Reporter.

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CANNES -- Spain's leading commercial network, Antena 3 TV, has signed a three-year output deal with Castle Rock Entertainment, Turner Pictures and animation house Hanna-Barbera, all of which are units of Turner Broadcasting System.

In what are the jewels of the deal, Antena 3 locks up TV rights to several major Castle Rock Entertainment features, including the steamy Demi Moore film "Striptease"; "City Hall" with Al Pacino and Bridget Fonda; Billy Crystal's romantic comedy "Forget Paris"; and John Boorman's "Beyond Rangoon."

The agreement was signed "a few days ago" between Turner International Television Licensing senior vice president Jean Viana and Antena 3 head of acquisitions and sales Francisco Ramos. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Viana and Ramos revealed that the agreement also gives Antena 3 access to Turner's library of some 4,000 titles and the H-B cartoon catalog of 8,500 half-hours.

Telefilms and series also make up the deal, led by Castle Rock's new action drama series starring Robert Urich, "The Lazarus Man," to which Turner International launched presales efforts at MIPCOM. Antena 3 is the first broadcaster to sign up for the 20-episode one-hour series.

Antena 3's commitment to acquire all H-B cartoon series begins with H-B's new high- concept product "The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest." According to Ramos, this will lead Antena 3's new primetime children's programming block from 8 a.m. to noon on weekends. "I am confident I have secured first-class material for Antena 3," he said.

TNT telefilms included in the accord are the Jamie Lee Curtis vehicle "The Heidi Chronicles," and "Broken Angel" starring Tom Selleck.

The Turner agreement represents the most important output deal signed by Antena 3. The 5-year-old commercial network recently secured a package of 12 feature films from Morgan Creek, aside from its theatrical distribution deal for 10 Morgan Creek titles via its production-acquisition arm Aurum Films. It also has a 24-picture television output deal with Warner Bros.-based New Regency. Aurum Films also acquired a selection of titles from New Line Cinema, another Turner unit, as well as Rysher Entertainment.

Antena 3's aggressive programming acquisitions and highly popular in-house productions have allowed it to beat the perennial ratings leader, state broadcaster TVE, twice this year.

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