Entertainment

Satellite radio providers XM and Sirius will offer consumers the ability to choose small bundles of stations if their proposed merger is approved by regulators, the companies said Monday. They announced the plan a day before they are expected to formally respond to a request for information from the...

The price war between movie rental companies Blockbuster and Netflix continued Sunday when Netflix slashed by $1 the price of two DVD rental subscription plans. The $1 reduction will benefit most of Netflix's 6 million customers because it affects two of its most popular rental packages, Netflix sai...

As the July 15 deadline for new Internet radio royalty rates to take effect sailed by in relative peace, most Internet radio webcasters remained up and running following initial results of compromise talks late last week between webcasters and SoundExchange. Most recently, SoundExchange, the arm of ...

Warner Music Group has settled a federal copyright-infringement lawsuit it filed in May against the social networking Web site Imeem. Warner alleged that Imeem had allowed members to illegally download copyrighted material and was operating its site without any sort of copyright compliance or filter...

Sony BMG has filed a $12 million lawsuit against the Amergence Group, claiming that the company did not perform as expected in developing copyright protection software for music CDs. The suit comes after Sony refunded millions of dollars to consumers who complained about digital rights management so...

An appeals court declined to issue a stay on steep hikes in royalty fees for Internet radio, clearing the way for the new fees and 18 months of retroactive collections -- which some say could kill Web radio -- to come due on Sunday. The U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Cir...

A Hollywood talent agency and an Internet advertising company are joining forces in a new venture designed to help create, find advertisers for and distribute over the Web professionally produced short-form video content. The new company, 60Frames Entertainment, has secured $3.5 million in funding f...

Amazon.com began offering users of the TiVo digital video recorder the opportunity to purchase and download movies directly from their television sets, a move that takes the personal computer out of the Web-based download equation for the first time. TiVo and Amazon first announced a partnership in ...

Live Earth -- a series of concerts held in cities across the world and streamed live across the Internet -- exceeded its founders' most ardent expectations. The event, held to raise awareness of global warming and climate change, captured more than 10 million video streams -- the most simultaneous v...

Rock concerts for causes took off in the 1970s, electrifying audiences worldwide. However, Live Earth, a series of concerts beginning on July 7 aimed at combating climate change, will go them one better. Live Earth's harnessing of star power to bring attention to a particular problem is hardly uniqu...

From this day forward, consumers who purchase cable TV subscriptions will no longer be forced to lease integrated set-top boxes provided by their cable operators. Instead, as a result of a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission that took effect July 1, cable operators must now provide consu...

Blockbuster has named James Keyes, former chief of convenience store chain 7-Eleven, as its new CEO as it bids to regain investor confidence while fighting off challenges from Netflix and emerging technologies. Keyes will succeed John Antioco, who activist investors -- led by billionaire board membe...

Private equity firm Carlyle Group reportedly has offered about $11 billion for Virgin Media, with a bidding war for the rights to acquire the company possible. Carlyle may have bid as much as $30 to $35 per share for the company, according to press reports. Virgin Media provides cable TV, high speed...

The BBC announced Wednesday it will launch its iPlayer on-demand TV service on July 27. Initially restricted to users in the UK, the service will become available to an expanded Internet audience in the fall. "It's a revolutionary service which offers audiences more value, because from now on they n...

Internet radio listeners looking forward to another day of their favorite music Tuesday found only silence on many stations, as webcasters and broadcasters nationwide observed a day of silence to call attention to the crisis currently facing Internet radio. Tens of thousands of U.S. webcasters parti...