Bjork defends Tibet outburst

Pop singer Bjork has spoken out after she was condemned by Chinese fans for raising Tibet during a Shanghai concert. The Icelandic musician repeated three times “Tibet! Tibet!” as she finished her song Declare Independence during the last show of her Asian tour this week. In a garbled, typo-ridden statement, the eccentric singer today defended her actions. (Times Online, Music 2.0)

Talks stall in Clear Channel buy-out

Clear Channel’s proposed $19bn buy-out remained on shaky ground Tuesday as private equity firms and banks remained at loggerheads over terms of the deal’s financing. Neither side had been in contact for the past few days, according to a person familiar with the matter, suggesting a stalemate. Clear Channel, the largest US radio station operator, has become a test of banks’ willingness to fund highly leveraged private equity deals agreed when credit was readily available and inexpensive. (Financial Times)

Justice Dept. OKs merger of XM, Sirius; now it's up to FCC

The Justice Department gave its OK on Monday to a deal that would put Howard Stern and Oprah Winfrey under the same satellite radio company roof. Antitrust officials said that they saw no reason to block or put conditions on Sirius' acquisition of XM, leaving consumers with a single satellite radio provider. "We determined that we did not have evidence to support a challenge," says Thomas Barnett, who heads the antitrust division. (AP, Financial Times, PR)

More TV ads allowed under Ofcom plan

Proposals that could see more commercials, broadcast more often, on television were published on Wednesday by Ofcom. The broadcasting regulator was responding to the European Union’s directive “Television Without Frontiers” that relaxed restrictions on advertising minutage – the average number of minutes per hour that advertisements can run on television. (Financial Times)

Comcast Hits 7 Billion Views On Demand

Comcast, a leading provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services in the U.S., announced today that its signature On Demand service continues to be a one-stop destination for entertainment, with more than 7 billion VOD views and 1 billion hours watched since 2003. "The numbers speak for themselves...each month our customers watch roughly 40 million movies On Demand," said Derek Harrar, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Video Services for Comcast. (PR)

Bertelsmann keeps deal powder dry

Bertelsmann believes it can exploit its private status to buy assets from struggling private equity groups, but its new management admitted yesterday that it first needed to clean up underperforming corners of its portfolio. Net income plunged in 2007 from €2.46bn ($3.9bn) to €405m, owing to writedowns of its North American book and music clubs, the costs of settling litigation over the Napster digital music service and the absence of 2006’s gains from selling BMG Music Publishing. (Financial Times)

Video game sales grow 34 percent in February, PS 3 stays ahead of Xbox 360

Total video game industry sales were up 34 percent to $1.3 billion, year over year. Hardware was up 19 percent, a strong showing in spite of recent price cuts. Software was up 47 percent and accessories were up 36 percent. Year to date, the industry was up 26 percent. (Venture Beat)

DirecTV to Start On-Demand

The No. 1 satellite-TV provider by subscribers is testing its own version of an on-demand movies and television service that it plans to launch in the second quarter. If successful, the offering could give DirecTV a weapon to lure customers who want on-demand offerings previously available only on cable or newer phone-company TV services. (Wall Street Journal)

How to safeguard public service media

Channel 4 on Thursday announced an imaginative self-help programme designed to support the public service end of its output in a changing market. It already helps itself – with new channels such as More Four, with commercial sales and new media activity. It will drive these further, add new partnerships for special interest programming and create links that build intellectual property rights in its output. Will this effort deliver enough ? (Financial Times)

Setback for Viacom in Google suit

Viacom was denied a request to seek punitive damages against Google in the $1 billion copyright infringement case the media company filed against the Web giant last year. This development, though, does not affect the original suit that Viacom filed against Google, arguing that the company's YouTube property profited from copyrighted Viacom content that was illegally put on the video-sharing site. The media conglomerate had filed a motion to amend this suit, asking for punitive compensation beyond the initial complaint. (Hollywood Reporter)

Global IPTV subscriptions pass 12m at end 2007

The total number of IPTV subscribers grew by 117 per cent in 2007 to reach 12.34 million, up from 5.71 million at the end of 2006, according to research by Informa. The biggest world region remains Western Europe, which passed 6.9 million IPTV subscribers in 2007 to account for 57 per cent of the global total. The bulk of subscriptions were in France, where incumbent France Telecom and alternative operators Free, Neuf and Telecom Italia's Alice, had attracted more than 5 million IPTV customers by bundling the service free with broadband. (Advanced-Television)

Babelgum invests $15 million in shorts

Internet TV network Babelgum has earmarked Euro 10 million ($15.4 million) fund that will invest in new, original and exclusive content. Babelgum is “transforming into a digital media studio,” spokesperson Andrea Giannotti said of the company, which uses peer-to-peer technology to deliver professionally produced content, instead of the user-generated clips of sites such as YouTube. (Variety)

SXSW: Moby on free music, sneaking into concerts

Electronic artist Moby said he's had high hopes to expand his Moby Gratis site, which makes largely original music freely available to independent and non-commercial filmmakers, but has had trouble persuading other artists to join in. Moby, speaking at the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, Texas, said he's uploaded about 70 pieces of music on his site since announcing its launch last year. (LA Times)

Tiscali expands IPTV service

Tiscali has launched a new PVR (personal video recorder) for its ‘Tiscali TV’ IPTV service in the UK. The Tiscali+ has a 160 GB hard drive and three TV tuners, allowing users to record two channels while watching a third. The PVR supports high-definition content and is compatible with the BBC’s iPlayer, and Channel 4’s 4oD, on demand services.

HD falters in Europe

The recent closure of two of Germany's HDTV channels has cast a shadow over European hopes for a rapid transition to high definition, according to Strategy Analytics. The report concludes that Europe's television providers should concentrate their resources initially on building pay television rather than advertising-based business models in order to reach the critical mass of HD content and receivers necessary to make HDTV a self-sustaining business (Advanced Television)

Apple Falls Short of Rental-Movie Target

Apple Inc. has fallen substantially short of its target of having 1,000 movies available for rent on its Apple TV set-top box by the end of February, and is blaming studios for the discrepancy. A complete count of the number of movies available on the box was elusive, but appeared to be between 400 and 500. Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs told shareholders at the annual meeting Tuesday that he's ''not happy'' with the shortfall, according to the San Jose Mercury News. (AP)

Russia seeks to limit foreigners in media, Internet

Russia may limit foreign ownership of Internet providers, electronic mass media and publishing houses, extending a list of industries deemed strategic, a senior lawmaker told Reuters on Wednesday. Russia's parliament is set to debate the controversial law this month amid a tussle between government officials and the security services over what industries should be deemed sensitive and how much to limit foreign investment in them. (Reuters)

MTV and MySpace band together

Music channel MTV has struck a deal with social networking site MySpace to create a weekly chart show. The show, called The MySpace Chart, will be shown on the MTV2 channel. It will feature the best music videos as voted for by viewers watching the channel and MySpace users of the forthcoming mtv.co.uk/myspacechart website. (The guardian)

Sirius Says It Could Do Without XM

Sirius Satellite Radio said that it gained subscribers in the fourth quarter and lost less money, signs that its business is improving even as the company's merger with XM Satellite Radio Holdings remains stuck in a regulatory limbo more than a year after it was proposed. (Washington Post)

VOD targets $10 bil in 5 years

Revenue for VOD services will top $10 billion within the next five years, according to a report published by Informa Telecoms & Media. The report indicates that by 2012, 909 million homes will have access to true VOD or near-VOD technology, equivalent to 78% of the world's TV households. (Hollywood Reporter)