Video Age International February-March 2016

22 March 2016 V I D E O A G E until 1982, ITC co-produced with Jim Henson and distributed The Muppet shows. “Japan only telecast one show out of eight,” he commented: Int’ l TV Distribut ion Hal l of Fame (Continued from Page 20) Armando with David Ellender (c.) and Chris Philip (r.) in 1997 TV3/MTG Group’s Jan Steinmann, Joyce Kagan, Amando Nunez Sr., Russell Kagan, WAPA’s Carlos Barba at MIP-TV 1980 “I was very disappointed,” he said. However,he’s still proud of a move that allowed ITC’s then-owner Lew Grade to make a big U.S. sale. In 1978, ITC co- produced with Italy’s RAI Return of the Saint for Britain’s ITV that ultimately became a 24-episode series (Grade stopped production in order to save money for the aforementioned Raise The Titanic ). Despite the fact that it was an international success, Grade could not sell the show to a U.S. TV network. Enter Nuñez, who at that time was also responsible for Canada and sold the series to CBC. Grade was able to license 22 of the one-hour episodes to CBS, by leveraging the fact that Canadian TV signals spill into the U.S., and Canadians can sell successful series to U.S. advertisers (or in the case of the non- commercial CBC, can syphon off audiences). Then, there was the achievement of one of world’s first TV show colorization processes. To inaugurate Mexico’s full-time color TV transmissions in October 1968, duringMexico’s Summer Olympics, Nuñez managed to colorize jointly with Canal 5 Telesistema (now Televisa) the black-and-white episodes of the British puppet TV series Thunderbirds and the original The Saint TV series with Roger Moore, both from the early 60s. The color versions were subsequently sold by ITC to other countries. Nuñez has made several trips back to Cuba. In 2011 he took his son Armando Jr., president and CEO, CBS Global Distribution Group with him for the first time. The second-born David, also in the entertainment industry, is a former program manager for USA Network LATAM and program director for Sony’s AXN. (By Dom Serafini) www.VideoAgeDaily.com At all major TV trade shows, content buyers read the printed version of VideoAge Daily. Around the world film and TV executives read the online edition of VideoAge Daily. No matter where, when or how, your buyers will see your ad.