Sir Terry Pratchett and Rod Brown, Managing Director of Prime Focus Productions, have announced an agreement for the unprecedented and exclusive worldwide television rights to create brand new storylines for the iconic characters of Pratchett's phenomenally successful Discworld series.

Terry's universal success has seen him create one of the leading fantasy fiction franchises of all time, with 70 million worldwide sales of his 38-book Discworld titles.

This will rise to 39 following another book to be published in October 2011. While there have been three successful mini-series adaptations of his Discworld books made for television in the UK, this is the first time Pratchett has granted a production company the international rights to his characters and their world.

Mr. James Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive, News Corporation for Europe and Asia, has called for digitization of infrastructure to unlock the potential of India’s creative sector and underlined the need for ensuring that India’s creative market is competitive at home.

In his keynote address at FICCI FRAMES 2011 here today, Mr. Murdoch said that digitization and competition had the prospect of raising the size of India’s media and entertainment sector from US$ 15 billion to US$ 120 billion as the creative sector could grow in proportion to its size in other advanced economies. This would create millions of new jobs and help revolutionize sectors such as education and health care, while ensuring that India has a voice commensurate with her importance in global affairs.