MUMBAI: US media conglomerate Viacom?s cable network Spike TV has announced a new competition reality show, ?Last Family on Earth?. Families vie for a spot in an underground state-of-the-art Vivos bunker that is fortified to withstand nearly any end-of-days disaster scenario.

Produced by Pilgrim Studios, the six-episodic one-hour series will premiere on Spike TV later this year, with the finale airing just in time for the family to move into their bunker, built by Vivos, the leader in this type of structure construction, and await the world?s potential cataclysmic demise on December 21, as predicted by the Mayan calendar.

The families chosen to participate come from a wide variety of backgrounds and are among the 15 per cent of the world?s population, according to a recent Reuters poll, who believe the end of civilization is near.

The competition will showcase survival techniques and provide key information that like-minded viewers may also use in preparation for doomsday. In addition to endurance and physical skills, challenges will test the contestants? leadership abilities, integrity and character. A panel of three survivalist-expert judges, along with viewer input via social media, will help determine which family is eliminated each week.

?Last Family On Earth? will not only focus on the Mayan interpretation of the Apocalypse; the show will help prime contestants for a wide range of annihilation scenarios, including a pandemic, global government or economic collapse, nuclear war, reactor meltdowns, solar flares, massive asteroids, lethal climactic change, a pole shift, calamitous earthquakes, and even widespread anarchy.

A reserved spot in an impervious Vivos underground bunker, the show?s grand prize, was conceived and developed by Robert Keith Vicino, CEO and Founder of The Vivos Group, whose goal is to provide a long-term shelter for 1 in every 1 million people on Earth to whatever lies ahead in 2012... or beyond.

MUMBAI: Viacom, the owner of Paramount Pictures, MTV and Nickelodeon, has reported consolidated revenues of $3.33 billion for the fiscal second quarter ending 31 March driven primarily by higher Media Networks affiliate revenues.

Quarterly operating income increased 23 per cent to $932 million in the quarter. Media Networks adjusted operating income increased 11 per cent to $893 million, principally reflecting the increase in affiliate revenues. Adjusted operating income in the Filmed Entertainment segment increased 195 per cent to $115 million, driven principally by lower distribution costs, which more than offset lower revenues.

Quarterly adjusted net earnings from continuing operations attributable to Viacom rose $105 million to $535 million, a gain of 24 per cent over the same period last year.

The increase is principally due to the growth in operating income across the company. Adjusted net earnings from continuing operations attributable to Viacom rose 24 per cent in the quarter to $535 million.

Viacom executive chairman Sumner M. Redstone said, "Viacom continues its strong track record of growth and innovation, creating the world?s best entertainment content and operating more efficiently every day. Throughout the Company, our leaders tirelessly build Viacom?s
outstanding global properties in order to drive superior value for shareholders."

Media Networks revenue growth of five per cent was driven by an increase in affiliate fee revenues, partially offset by a decrease in ancillary revenues. Domestic affiliate revenues increased 15 per cent and worldwide affiliate revenues grew 17 per cent in the quarter, in each case reflecting higher revenues from digital distribution agreements, as well as rate increases.

Domestic advertising revenues increased one per cent, while worldwide advertising revenues remained flat at $1.07 billion for the quarter.

Filmed Entertainment revenues decreased five per cent, to $1.17 billion, reflecting lower theatrical and television license fee revenues, partially offset by higher ancillary revenues. Worldwide theatrical revenues decreased 19 per cent in the quarter, as the mix of films, which generally were less widely distributed, did not match the performance of releases in the same period last year.

The current quarter releases were The Devil Inside, A Thousand Words, and Jeff, Who Lives at Home, and the year prior featured significant hits Rango, No Strings Attached and Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. Worldwide Filmed Entertainment ancillary revenues increased 41 per cent to $111 million in the quarter, principally driven by higher digital revenues. Home Entertainment revenues were up slightly.

At the end of the current quarter, the total debt outstanding, including capital lease obligations, was $7.78 billion, compared with$7.37 billion at 30 September 2011. The company?s cash balances were $1.14 billion at 31 March 2012, an increase from $1.02 billion at 30 September 2011.

MUMBAI: Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN), a division of Viacom and Vocento, a Spanish communications and multimedia group, has said that the new Paramount Channel has begun broadcasting on Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) in Spain from 30 March with the premiere of ?The Godfather?.

The channel presents Spanish audiences of all ages with movies from film library of Paramount Pictures, as well as a selection of titles from other American studios and the best representation of Spanish cinema.

The channel?s day-to-day programming brings together blockbusters, classics and some of the most award-winning
films in the history of cinema. Eleven movies will air each day, with the most popular hits in primetime and weekends dedicated to family cinema for all audiences.

In total, the channel will air more than 600 titles per year across nine different genres: action, family and children, comedy, award winners, crime and mystery, science fiction and fantasy, love and romance, horror and drama. Some of the most noteworthy titles to be broadcast soon will be film gems such as American Beauty, Breakfast at Tiffany?s, A.I Artificial Intelligence, Fatal Attraction and Elizabethtown.

VIMN president, CEO Bob Bakish said, "With the launch of Paramount Channel, we?re bringing together the powerful combination of Paramount Pictures? vast and iconic library of film content, and Viacom International Media Networks? strong expertise in building global TV brands. This is an important strategic step in deepening our presence in a key market, Spain, while expanding our portfolio of adult-targeted brands. We?re excited to create a must-see TV destination for movie lovers, which we hope will be the first of many to launch in the coming years."

A free-to-air, 24-hour channel, Paramount Channel is the fourth VIMN network airing in Spain (joining MTV, Paramount Comedy and Nickelodeon), reinforcing the company?s commitment of providing entertainment content for a wide range of Spanish audiences on both pay and free-to-air TV. The other channels are MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount Comedy.

MUMBAI: US media conglomerate Viacom‘s channel VH1 is putting one of the most important human relationships under the microscope - the complex dynamics that develop between a mother and her young adult daughter. But these aren‘t your run-of-the-mill mini-van driving soccer moms. They‘re women who refuse to grow up and prefer to be their daughters‘ best friends. They love to party, play and, in their own ways, even parent a little. Can their relationships survive intact? Not really! Will their diverse backgrounds and parenting styles clash? 

VH1 will premiere the show Mama Drama on 1 January 2012. This 10 episode docu-series will uncover five sets of over-the-top, mothers and their adult daughters that leave you wondering, who is the "grown-up" and who is the child? They‘ll put their relationships on the line as they figure out if being BFFs really is the best for everyone or just a recipe for total disaster. Forced to live together, they will have no choice but to look in the mirror. Do they wish they had more traditional relationships? Or is this the only way to live? There will be no host to guide them, no therapist to heal them, just five sets of wildly different women trying to work out their issues under the same roof. Whether they‘re bonding, fighting or just partying, they‘re bound to learn something... whether they like it or not.

This docu-style social experiment will bring these women together with others like them for the first time, forcing them to take a look at their own lives. They represent the ‘15/50‘ mentality: they have the body of a grown woman but want to act as if they are fifteen. The trend is sweeping the US the broadcaster says and is perfectly demonstrated on ‘Mama Drama‘. These moms are copying their daughters‘ fashion and night life decisions in order to hang onto their youth and crazy ways. The women will be shocked to see the trends they are setting and ultimately ask themselves: can they learn from their wild-child ways or will they always be the teen queens they once were? Will it make them want to change the way they treat each other and can they learn to be age-appropriate and start parenting instead of partying? Living under a microscope, will lead them to defend their choices or to apologize for them. The time for a change is now, but this show can only guarantee one result: non-stop, wall to wall, mama drama. 

MUMBAI: US media conglomerate Viacom‘s subsidiary Showtime has ordered two more seasons of its drama series ‘Dexter‘, starring Michael C Hall.

The announcement was made by Showtime Networks president of entertainment David Nevins. On the heels of Hall and Showtime closing a new, two season deal for Hall to return to the series, production will begin on season seven in 2012 in Los Angeles. Seasons seven and eight will consist of 12 episodes each.

Nevins said, "Dexter‘s enormous success is a real tribute to the great achievements of its cast, producers, and the powerhouse performance of Michael C Hall. The series is bigger than it‘s ever been in its sixth season, both in terms of audience and its impact on the cultural landscape. Together with Michael, the creative team on the show has a very clear sense of where they intend to take the show over the next two seasons and, as a huge fan, I‘m excited to watch the story of Dexter Morgan play out."

Hall said, "On behalf of the entire ‘Dexter‘ family, we relish the invitation to delve ever deeper into Dexter‘s world."

Dexter stars Hall, who plays a complicated and conflicted blood-spatter expert for the Miami police department, who moonlights as a serial killer.