ShortsTV show goes on Giga

MIPCOM NEWS: European cable and internet channel ShortsTV is launching a primetime entertainment show on German gaming channel Giga, the two companies announced in Cannes.

Weekly 30-minute show Screen ShortsTV launches on Saturday October 18 at 22.00 on Giga and will also be streamed live on Giga.de.

It features a selection of European short films and documentaries from film festivals, as well as behind-the-scenes footage from film sets and interviews with filmmakers and aspiring directors. The first episodes will include clips from short films Desserts, with Ewan McGregor, and Gone Underground, with Katja Flint.

Screen ShortsTV is also offering competitions and viewer voting. A regular theme will be ‘Everyone can be a filmmaker,’ with viewers sending in their own short films and voting online, and winners being included in the show.

“Short content is a way of life for the 14- to 29-year-old video generation and short films are the pinnacle of entertainment and quality for this audience,” said Carter Pilcher, CEO of ShortsTV and its parent Shorts International.

“Screen ShortsTV will bring Giga audiences a new entertainment experience and take their audience deeper into the exciting world of today’s cinema, where Hollywood isn’t and entertainment is.”

Stefan Borg, MD of Giga, said: “Gamers are 100% film- and technique-interested and Screen ShortsTV entertains and inspires the cinematic as well as the technical potential of our viewers.”

Germany’s first TV channel for video and PC gaming, Giga also operates as an online social gaming network and has a technical reach of 19.1 million digital homes.

Shorts International operates the world’s largest short-film catalogue, and includes films that have either been nominated or have received awards, such as Cannes, Edinburgh, Clermont Ferrand and Sundance festivals.

It also operates the short film channels ShortsTV, ShortsTV France and ShortsTV Corto, which are available across mobile, cable and satellite networks, and its catalogue is available on iTunes Stores in the US, UK and Canada.