Actors and directors gathered for the world's leading movie showcase in Cannes this week said television was increasingly luring top talent and should no longer be seen as artistically inferior to the big screen.

Film stars come to Cannes to promote themselves and their projects - so where better to launch a wry documentary bemoaning the seeming dominance of celebrity pulling-power over content?

'Horrible' night for family of missing student named as suspect

Sylvia Auton, the boss of IPC Media, is to step down next month as chairman and chief executive at Britain's biggest magazine publisher. She has worked at the group which owns 'NME' and 'Country Life' for 36 years.

The future of IPC Media, the UK-based publisher of Country Life, Marie Claire and NME, was plunged into fresh uncertainty yesterday after its US parent company Time Warner announced plans to spin off its global magazine division.

The grounbreaking cable channel is celebrating four decades of making great TV. So, what were they up to before The Sopranos and Co? Tim Walker finds out

Hollywood producer faces fierce opposition to planned project

In profit...

IPC Media, the magazine giant behind Marie Claire, NME and Country Life, has shown why its US owner Time Warner has been keen to hang onto it as the British company paid a £51.5m dividend.

New hit shows and new advertisers are pumping profits at the biggest cable TV companies in the US, the latest earnings figures show.

The independent production company behind hit comedy The Inbetweeners has been snapped up by Zodiak Media Group.

In the autumn of 1999, a new internet start-up called Boo.com was launched with the intention of creating a global fashion retailer, selling brand name clothes. The British-based company – founded by Swedes Ernst Malmsten, Kajsa Leander and Patrik Hedelin – spent £83.5m of venture capital in 18 months. Less than a year later, on 18 May, 2000, it was placed into receivership and liquidated.

The television arm of Sony, the Japanese electronics giant, is mulling a takeover bid of more than £600m for All3Media, the production company behind The Only Way Is Essex.