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Electronic Arts will be moving away from distributing externally-developed games to focus more on its internal titles, which can generate higher margins, the company said Monday, and it plans to keep its headcount steady through its upcoming fiscal year.

"New fancy TV/video digital providers beware: Not all content providers are interested in your new platform -- especially if you can't verify your audience through research.\nA CBS technology executive says CBS won't deliver content to alternative distribution systems that have no reliable audience measurement -- and this includes mobile DTV."

When Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) announced its Nook e-reader in October, the ability to pursue a dual in-store and online sales strategy appeared to be one of the clear advantages it might have over Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN). But, as we first reported then, the chain didn't plan to sell Nooks to go in all its stores for the 2009 holidays-and, as it turned out, the combination of demand and distribution issues kept the device from store shelves. Instead, most people who bought Nooks at B&N stores were placing online orders for delivery weeks or months into the future-not buying them for same-day use.

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.

Article describing an ongoing battle between the Walt Disney Company and Cablevision over the distribution payments Disney wants for ABC from Cablevision

Facebook, Twitter, and the iPhone are TV's only hope, according to Elisabeth Murdoch, CEO of Shine Limited, a British television production and distribution company. According to Broadcasting & Cable, Ms. Murdoch told TV producers and distributors at the annual National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) convention: "We in the TV business have to catch up with \nwhat our audience is doing. We can no longer afford to be one-screen business."

A jury ruled on Friday in favor of shareholders who said the French media group Vivendi lied to the public about its shaky finances, setting the stage for a possible distribution of billions of dollars in damages to investors.

Congressional hearings for the Comcast/NBC case are scheduled for Feb. 4. There are many opponents to the deal, including consumer activists and media watchdogs, Local affiliates are concerned that Comcast could "gradually migrate some or all of the most compelling sports, news and entertainment programming and talent away from free, over-the-air distribution on NBC to its newly owned cable channels that are made available only to paying subscribers, such as Bravo and USA Network."

The video website, launched by studios to distribute TV shows over the Internet without charge, now is considering ways to draw revenue, including charging for some episodes of popular shows.

Apple is looking to renovate old media and content distribution in the home and classroom

"There's an iPhone App for CBS News and the network's content is available on FLO TV, both distributed via devices with the type of audience data the network seeks. Seidel said the network elected not to participate in the Open Mobile Video Coalitions because it has no audience authentication for over-the-air, mobile DTV."

""Mobile has become an invaluable screen to the digital consumer," said Matt Murphy, senior vice president, Digital Video Distribution, Disney and ESPN Media Networks. "To super serve sports fans, you have to provide live coverage on the go, and we are excited to be working with Sprint to provide this offering to its customers.""

Predictions that content fees will become more widespread by 2012. Describes various models for content fees and explains challenges for news, TV, cable, music.

Exclusive output deals between HBO and three major Hollywood studios stand as major obstacles to a robust movie-dowload business, holding back a potentially lucrative distribution channel and creating conflict between the powerhouse divisions of TimeWarner -- HBO and Warner Bros. -- who for once find their interests at odds.

Mark Cuban weighs in on the internet's potential to replace cable. It may not happen as fast as one would think...