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The number of media and entertainment media and acquisitions deals fell by 49 percent in 2009, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The accounting firm's 2010 U.S. Entertainment & Media M&A Insights report said the deals totaled $77.4 billion last year, the lowest level since 2004. There were 714 deals, down 29 percent from 2008 and the smallest number in seven years.

"Walt Disney Co.'s fourth-quarter results should cheer media investors fretting about whether legacy businesses can thrive postrecession. The Burbank, Calif. company just about matched its profit for the last three months of 2008 thanks to strong performances by its cable channels and movie studios. Theme parks, however, stalled in the bad economy as families cut back on luxuries."

RealNetworks has agreed to kill its DVD-copying software and pay $4.5 million in settling a copyright-infringement lawsuit filed by Hollywood studios. As part of the settlement announced Wednesday, the provider of online entertainment services also agreed to drop its appeal of a San Francisco federal court ruling that barred RealNetworks from distributing or supporting RealDVD or any other technology that enables the duplication of the studios' copyrighted content. The 2008 lawsuit filed by Viacom and the Motion Picture Association of America claimed that RealDVD illegally circumvented the anti-piracy technology embedded in DVDs. The DVD Copy Control Association, which licenses Hollywood-sanctioned copyright-protection technology, joined the suit later, claiming RealNetworks was also in violation of its DVD CCA license.

"When AT&T debuted its Mobile TV service with FLO in May 2008, the carrier touted the fact that it had "exclusive" rights to CNN Mobile as provided through the Qualcomm unit. In other words, the channel was unavailable to subscribers of Verizon Wireless, which also offers a mobile TV service provided by FLO."

"A patent application by Google (GOOG), filed in August 2008 and only made public last week, shows that the company is working on an automated way to split printed magazines and newspapers into individual articles that it could then deliver separately. Although this could allow Google to convert stacks of periodicals into electronic archives, it potentially sends the company headlong into conflict with a famous Supreme Court ruling on media law."

This article contains a good example of Ben Silverman's strategy at NBC. He was heralded for his ability to to create a web presence for his popular primetime comedies. NBC has had successes in producing crossover content (The Office and SNL) but they have also had failures (Kathy and Kim, mentioned in the article). Overall this a good example of the extendable strategy.