Entertainment

In one of the first major efforts to bring an ad-supported broadband television experience to Internet users, America Online formally launched its In2TV service, with four major advertisers already signed up to have their commercials interspersed with the full-length programs and short video clips.

Amazon is in talks with three Hollywood studios about starting a service that would allow consumers to download movies and TV shows for a fee and burn them onto DVDs. The online retailer is reportedly talking with Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios and Warner Bros. If the negotiations are success...

In a move to extend its reach, NBC Universal on Monday agreed to buy iVillage, a leading online destination for women, for approximately US$600 million in cash. NBC Universal, which runs the NBC television network and the Universal film studio, will pay $8.50 in cash for each share of iVillage's sto...

The U.S. Department of Justice confirmed this week it is investigating possible price fixing among the major recording labels for online music. The probe is similar to action taken by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who last month continued an investigation of digital download collusion and...

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. on Wednesday unveiled My Network TV, a stripped down, prime-time only network that will feed racy shows to the WB and UPN stations, which are set to merge. My Network TV will be heavily promoted on the MySpace Web site, the hugely popular youth-targeted social networking ...

Despite some chest beating by the entertainment industry Wednesday over the shutdown of one of the biggest index servers on the eDonkey network, a raid by Belgian and Swiss police seems to have had little impact on file-sharing traffic. "We have seen no effect on the eDonkey traffic levels," Andrew ...

U.S. advertisers have turned the practice of "product placement" into a lucrative market. This advertising phenomenon makes possible the insertion of an advertiser's product into a film, television program or video game. The estimated value of the total product-placement industry in 2005 -- when you...

Sirius Satellite Radio's fourth quarter sales more than tripled over the previous year, beating analyst estimates, despite higher quarterly losses tied to heavy promotional efforts aimed at boosting its subscriber base, the company reported. Sirius, which is locked in a battle for market share with...

Amazon is getting ready to sell the one consumer product it doesn't already offer: digital music. The company is said to be in advanced talks with four major music companies to set up a digital music service that could rival iTunes. Amazon reportedly is negotiating with Vivendi's Universal Music Gro...

In the midst of heated competition to attract popular personalities to the satellite radio space, Harpo Radio and XM Satellite Radio on Thursday announced an exclusive, three-year agreement to launch a new channel called "Oprah & Friends." Set to debut in September 2006, it will feature a broad ...

Over the years, Super Bowl Sunday has been the launching pad for countless products, services and companies. This year will be no exception. One of the most closely watched launches during the Big Game will come from inside the sports world, as ESPN Mobile goes live nationwide. The service, first an...

The Walt Disney Co. will pay US$7.4 billion to buy Pixar, the groundbreaking animation studio co-founded by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The deal is noteworthy not only for the potential future benefits entailed in an Apple-Hollywood link, but also because it immediately vaults Disney back to the top of th...

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who spent much of 2005 buying up Internet properties, may be poised to invest as much as US$1 billion into developing high-speed wireless Internet connectivity through the DirecTV division of News Corp. The DirecTV effort, which Murdoch said it would reveal in full in com...

The last week of 2005 brought dizzying levels of digital downloads, as owners of new MP3 players rushed to fill those devices with music, and recipients of gift cards from top sites hurried to cash in their chits. Nielsen SoundScan said 20 million tracks were downloaded during the week between Chri...

The New Year has quickly brought new efforts by satellite radio providers XM Satellite and Sirius to win subscribers and grab market share in the rapidly emerging business. XM used the Consumer Electronics Show to roll out several new products, including hand-held radio players meant to make it easi...