To meet its mandated 10% cut, BBC New Media will shut the lights on several of its websites, including its local history site and its cult and lifestyle sites. In total, the changes will save £6 million (US$11.3 million) in fiscal 2005/06.

The reality wars continued hot and heavy as 2004 ended, with RDF Media slapping a law suit against Fox Broadcasting for ‘copyright and trade dress infringement, as well as unfair competition’ over Wife Swap.

Discovery Communications expanded its HD Theater into the international market. Launched in 2002 in the U.S., the channel will soon be available in markets such as Canada, Mexico, Korea, China, Japan, Germany and the U.K.

MTV is launching into Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

Australian prodco World Wide Entertainment opened its first international office in London, overseen by Lucas Bertrand.

ITV has teamed up with London’s Video Networks to launch a 24-hour, on-demand news service. Initially available to 1.3 million London households on the HomeChoice platform, the service will allow subscribers to choose news from several ITV-supplied feeds.

The new EDN website is up and running at www.edn.dk

The U.K.’s All3media and IDTV Media Group Holland have joined forces to launch IDTV Germany, a Cologne-based prodco.

Leading Finn cinema chain Finnkino Oy and DocPoint, the Helsinki Documentary Film Festival Association, have forged an alliance that sees daily screenings of docs at the Forum theater in Helsinki.