MUMBAI: This is the week where the US networks are making upfront presentations to advertisers. ABC has announced several new series.

One of the big shows is Marvel?s first TV series, ?Marvel?s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.? The presentation of this show closed out ABC?s upfront. This show is crucial to ABC?s plans as it not just leads Tuesdays but will also be a launching pad for three new series. ?Dancing with the Stars? meanwhile has been trimmed and will air only once a week on Mondays from 8.00 pm - 10.00 pm.

Each episode will have the performance show and results show. On the comedy front new shows include ?Back in the Game? which is about an all-star softball player. ?The Goldbergs? is set in a high-end New York City bar. ?Trophy Wife? is about a reformed party girl who finally gets married.

Shows that did well enough for them to be renewed include ?Castle?, ?Grey?s Anatomy? and ?Revenge?. ABC Entertainment president Paul Lee spoke about Happy Endings being cancelled saying, "What we found was that it was just too narrow. It was a very hard decision, because as you know, I love that show and I found it hard to make the decision.

"By the same token, I think new series ?Mixology?, and ?Super Fun Night? are much broader shows and able to bring in wider audiences."

An emotional moment was talk show legend Barbara Walters getting a standing ovation and tearing up as Anne Sweeney acknowledged her time at the broadcaster and the fact that she recently announced her retirement.

MUMBAI: Australia?s Flame Distribution is launching a raft of documentaries at the television trade event MipTV next month.

?First Footprints? is a ZDF/Arte/ABC Australia production that tells the previously untold story of the original pioneers of all humankind, a history that began in Australia 50,000 years before modern humans reached America and Europe.

?The Story of Australia? is a Bearcage Production for CCTV 9 China that captures the stunning Australian landscape and people of contemporary Australia. Each aspect of Australian life will be seen through the lives of people like the wildlife ranger in Kakadu, the rodeo rider in NSW and the marine biologist on the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland.

Bearcage has also produced ?Dinosaurs of the Outback? which uses live action and 3D animation to create reconstructions that tell the story of the grand creatures who used to roam the Australian Outback.

?Nothing on Earth?, Jerrycan Film?s follow-up to ?Salt?, follows artist Murray Fredericks on an adventure of extremes in one of the most breathtaking environments on earth - atop a melting glacier on the Greenland Icecap under the solar storms of the Aurora Borealis.

The company?s sales, acquisitions director Fiona Gilroy said, "We have been working closely with these producers over the past few years on all these projects and we are incredibly proud to be bringing them to the international marketplace. To have content of this calibre in our catalogue is a real coup for us."

In addition to these Australian productions, Flame is also distributing content from UK independents. Highlights include BBC?s ?The Farm Fixer? which Flame has already sold to SBS Australia, Choice TV New Zealand and TV2 Denmark.

MUMBAI: With a hotly debated host and a bevy of highly contested award categories, this year?s Academy Awards ceremony was a big media hit. And the flurry of opinions on everything Oscar-related-from who wore their tuxedo the best, to which jokes were off-color-helped drive TV viewership, social media buzz and music sales.

According to Nielsen, an average of 40.4 million TV viewers tuned in to the star-studded telecast on US broadcaster ABC, up more than one million viewers from last year.

The event also prompted more than 6.4 million Oscar-related Tweets from 1.6 million people, according to data from SocialGuide. Emcee Seth McFarlane, creator of TV?s Family Guy, garnered the most Tweets, as his occasionally controversial material prompted more than 52,000 mentions across Twitter.

The top Oscar moment of the night, however, came when Jennifer Lawrence took home the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in ?Silver Linings Playbook?. SocialGuide also found that close to 44,000 Tweets were sent into the Twitterverse when the actress hit the stage to claim her golden statue.

Live performances of all the nominated songs helped drive Tweets and lift music sales. Digital sales for Adele?s Oscar-winning song ?Skyfall?, which the singer performed live at the awards, saw an increase of 56 per cent from the prior week. Consumers have now purchased 1.6 million digital copies of the song.

Digital sales of the other Best Song nominees-all of which were performed during the telecast-also grew after they were performed. That exposure was especially beneficial to self-taught composer, songwriter and producer J. Ralph, whose song ?Before My Time? (from the movie ?Chasing Ice?) saw the largest increase in digital track sales among the nominees-consumer purchases increased by 96 times following the ceremony.

Digital download sales also jumped after the show for the Les Mis?rables song ?One Day More? (performed by the movie?s cast, up 147 per cent), ?Goldfinger? (performed by Dame Shirley Bassey, up 310 per cent), ?And I Am Telling You? (performed by Jennifer Hudson, up 246 per cent) and" The Way We Were? (performed by Barbra Streisand, up 209 per cent).

Top Oscar Moments by Tweets per Minute

1 Jennifer Lawrence wins Best Actress
2 Cast of Les Miserables performs ?One Day More?
3 Adele performs ?Skyfall?
4 Kristen Stewart and Daniel Radcliffe present Best Production Design
5 Anne Hathaway wins Best Supporting Actress
6 Best Original Song goes to Adele for ?Skyfall?
7 Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall tie for Best Sound Editing
8 Daniel Day-Lewis wins Best ActorMUMBAI: With a hotly debated host and a bevy of highly contested award categories, this year?s Academy Awards ceremony was a big media hit. And the flurry of opinions on everything Oscar-related-from who wore their tuxedo the best, to which jokes were off-color-helped drive TV viewership, social media buzz and music sales.

According to Nielsen, an average of 40.4 million TV viewers tuned in to the star-studded telecast on US broadcaster ABC, up more than one million viewers from last year.

The event also prompted more than 6.4 million Oscar-related Tweets from 1.6 million people, according to data from SocialGuide. Emcee Seth McFarlane, creator of TV?s Family Guy, garnered the most Tweets, as his occasionally controversial material prompted more than 52,000 mentions across Twitter.

The top Oscar moment of the night, however, came when Jennifer Lawrence took home the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in ?Silver Linings Playbook?. SocialGuide also found that close to 44,000 Tweets were sent into the Twitterverse when the actress hit the stage to claim her golden statue.

Live performances of all the nominated songs helped drive Tweets and lift music sales. Digital sales for Adele?s Oscar-winning song ?Skyfall?, which the singer performed live at the awards, saw an increase of 56 per cent from the prior week. Consumers have now purchased 1.6 million digital copies of the song.

Digital sales of the other Best Song nominees-all of which were performed during the telecast-also grew after they were performed. That exposure was especially beneficial to self-taught composer, songwriter and producer J. Ralph, whose song ?Before My Time? (from the movie ?Chasing Ice?) saw the largest increase in digital track sales among the nominees-consumer purchases increased by 96 times following the ceremony.

Digital download sales also jumped after the show for the Les Mis?rables song ?One Day More? (performed by the movie?s cast, up 147 per cent), ?Goldfinger? (performed by Dame Shirley Bassey, up 310 per cent), ?And I Am Telling You? (performed by Jennifer Hudson, up 246 per cent) and" The Way We Were? (performed by Barbra Streisand, up 209 per cent).

Top Oscar Moments by Tweets per Minute

1 Jennifer Lawrence wins Best Actress
2 Cast of Les Miserables performs ?One Day More?
3 Adele performs ?Skyfall?
4 Kristen Stewart and Daniel Radcliffe present Best Production Design
5 Anne Hathaway wins Best Supporting Actress
6 Best Original Song goes to Adele for ?Skyfall?
7 Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall tie for Best Sound Editing
8 Daniel Day-Lewis wins Best Actor
9 Argo wins Best Picture
10 Claudio Miranda accepts Best Cinematography award for Life of Pi

9:08 PM Top 10 Star Mentions on Twitter Rank Star Mentions

1 @SethMacFarlane 52,021
2 @OfficialAdele 23,739
3 @channingtatum 16,963
4 @BenAffleck 15,019
5 @hitRECordJoe 12,882
6 @KChenoweth 11,137
7 @IAMJHUD 9,804
8 @kerrywashington 7,663
9 @SamuelLJackson 7,548
10 @katiecouric 6,285
9 Argo wins Best Picture
10 Claudio Miranda accepts Best Cinematography award for Life of Pi

9:08 PM Top 10 Star Mentions on Twitter Rank Star Mentions1 @SethMacFarlane 52,021
2 @OfficialAdele 23,739
3 @channingtatum 16,963
4 @BenAffleck 15,019
5 @hitRECordJoe 12,882
6 @KChenoweth 11,137
7 @IAMJHUD 9,804
8 @kerrywashington 7,663
9 @SamuelLJackson 7,548
10 @katiecouric 6,285