Entertainment

Viacom, which has invested heavily to expand its footprint on the Web, said its "Transformers" movie franchise and the sale of its music publishing business helped it record an 80 percent jump in third-quarter earnings. Viacom earned $641.6 million, up 80 percent when compared with $356.8 million a ...

In the shadow of the towering Hollywood sign, executives in the film, TV, music, telecom, Internet and technology industries are convening this week to compare notes on a new starlet: the tech-savvy consumer. Digital Hollywood conference attendees are crowding the hallways, ballroom and meeting room...

October seemed as though it would be a banner month for the recording industry after a Minnesota jury ruled in favor of the Recording Industry Association of America in the first peer-to-peer file sharing lawsuit to go to trial. The jurors demanded Jammie Thomas, a single mother who the RIAA claimed...

NBC Universal and News Corp. have launched a beta version of Hulu, an advertising-driven Web site where users can view for free television shows, clips and movies. Currently available only to those who are invited after sending in applications, Hulu is presenting full-length versions of hit programs...

Google and Nielsen have formed a relationship designed to help advertisers create targeted ads for viewers and track how and where their advertising dollars are delivering a return. Under the agreement, Google will provide Nielsen's demographic data through its Google TV Ads advertising platform. Go...

AT&T wireless subscribers will soon be able to download music over the air from Napster, the telecom company announced Monday. The new service, which will begin in mid-November, will allow AT&T customers to select from more than 5 million full-track songs, representing all major recording la...

AT&T wireless subscribers will soon be able to download music over the air from Napster, the telecom company announced Monday. The new service, which will begin in mid-November, will allow AT&T customers to select from more than 5 million full-track songs, representing all major recording la...

AT&T wireless subscribers will soon be able to download music over the air from Napster, the telecom company announced Monday. The new service, which will begin in mid-November, will allow AT&T customers to select from more than 5 million full-track songs, representing all major recording la...

A group of heavy-hitting media and Internet players have hammered out a plan to thwart the uploading and Web publication of copyrighted material, particularly video clips. Key to the plan's effectiveness is technology that will determine if content being posted to Web sites, such as MySpace and Veoh...

The music industry switched gears last week in its legal campaign to squash piracy of its intellectual property and filed a lawsuit against Usenet.com which it calls "a haven for those seeking pirated content." In recent months, the industry, through its trade organization, the Recording Industry As...

Millions of MySpacers will be able to jazz up their profile pages with streaming videos and select audio material from Sony BMG artists, MySpace announced Tuesday. The deal between the No. 1 social networking site and Sony, the second largest recording label, will make content from artists including...

Media company EW Scripps announced a plan to split into two separate public companies: one for national media efforts and the other for local and community brands. The proposed split, expected to be completed early next year, is designed to allow the two separated companies to bring "sharpened strat...

Bolstering its online portfolio of informative offerings, Discovery Channel owner Discovery Communications is buying HowStuffWorks.com and planning to merge content to create a sort of "video Wikipedia." Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but Silver Springs, Md.-based Discovery noted HowSt...

Many video providers, particularly in the television and movie spaces, made significant strides to provide their content via a growing number of on-demand channels, including the Internet, in 2005. For video providers, the decision to embrace on-demand distribution was born as a response to both the...

NBC Universal will purchase Oxygen Media, the operator of a cable channel aimed at women, for $925 million, a move that dovetails with its 2006 purchase of the iVillage online network for $600 million. The acquisition gives NBC a cable channel that reaches 74 million homes and offers advertisers a f...