"Comcast Chairman Brian Roberts and NBC Universal President & CEO Jeff Zucker faced a barrage of questions Feb. 25 in a marathon--over five hours with one break--hearing in the House Judiciary Committee on their proposed joint venture, their third Hill visit in as many weeks as they push for government approval of their $30 billion joint venture.\nDuring that time, the pair defended their records on diversity, and in some cases pledged to do better, reiterated their pledges to keep NBC free and over the air, and their programming available to competitive distributors."

"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."

"It looks like 99 cents could become the new $1.99 for TV shows on iTunes. A new report puts Apple in talks with CBS about discounting at least a portion of the network's TV shows sold on iTunes to 99 cents, down from the standard $1.99 price point. If true, the move would confirm a previous Financial Times report which asserted that Apple's content partners are considering cutting iTunes TV shows in half when the iPad is officially released come this March."

NBC-Universal Vice President Richard Cotton called upon internet service providers to be permitted to filter content over their pipes for copyright violations, and compared copyright filtering to filtering for computer viruses."

"Social media blogs complain about too much advertising on NBC's Vancouver Olympics. And yet NBC has released new viewer data showing that in virtually every single category - including brand recall, engagement, and other marketing metrics - numbers are up for advertisers who bought into the winter games. Viewership is up right now, too: some 25% higher than the 2006 games in Torino, Italy."

"Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT)'s release Wednesday of its Outlook Social Connector beta is another indication of how social networking has infiltrated not only the online world, but also enterprise software. The Outlook Social Connector, a new feature in Office 2010, blends social networking updates into the business functionality of the software. With Outlook Social Connector, a user can view an e-mail message and social networking activities from the same sender in the same window pane. For now, though, it doesn't allow posting updates back onto LinkedIn or other social-networking sites directly from the inbox."

Help wanted. Must tweet. If you're "passionate about engaging millions" in advancing President Obama's \nagenda, the commander in chief has a job for you. The Democratic National Committee and Organizing for America -- the successor organization to Obama for America -- are seeking a "social networks manager" to oversee Obama's accounts on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. The ideal new hire, according to the official job description, will possess "strong, sharp and personable" writing skills, as well as the ability to craft messages that "move people to act" and managing multiple "complex" projects."

"J.K. Rowling has been named in a lawsuit alleging she stole ideas for her wildly popular and lucrative "Harry Potter" books from another British author. The estate of the late Adrian Jacobs added Rowling as a defendant in a lawsuit it filed in June against Bloomsbury Publishing PLC for alleged copyright infringement, according to a statement released by the estate's representatives, who are based in Australia."

"Movie tie-in games are tough to pull off, especially if you stick too closely to the story of the movie (hello, spoilers). \nHowever, Toy Story 3 hopes to pull it off with an open world mode that stays true to the movie while still giving players something entertaining (and non-spoilerific) to do. Disney Interactive Studios announced a Toy Story 3 tie-in game Wednesday that's coming out for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, and the iPhone/iPod Touch. No surprises there; but we were glad to hear there's an \nopen world mode in the game that adds a touch of originality to the game called Toy Box."

"The future of print media is digital. Just as new printing techniques revolutionised the industry and gave birth to full page color images in print media, digital content will change the way we read and consume print media in the future. The ideals and stories will (hopefully) still be there at the heart of digital media but consumers will be given the opportunity to delve deep into the articles. Digital media will put elements that enrich the reading experience - like rich colour photos that can be enlarged, video, sound, animations and 3D images -at the fingertips of every reader"

"As Disney's Pixar prepares to release Toy Story 3 this summer, virtually every major toy maker -- including Barbie's Mattel Inc. -- has lined up to make dolls, action figures, construction sets, vehicles and board games based on the film. No fewer than 250 toys will begin appearing in stores before the movie's June 18 release -- three times as many as were made for Toy Story 2. And retailers are expected to clear shelf space for Buzz, Woody and pals, notwithstanding a recession that has slowed toy sales."

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski spoke today about some of the likely recommendations in the National Broadband Plan. Among them is a goal of 100 million households at speeds of 100 Megabits per second."

"Music fans were surprised to see some of their favorite Blogger-based music blogs wiped from the Web this week, a move Google said was in response to copyright claims."

A New York judge is due to rule on Feburary 18th whether Google's plans to make millions of in-copyright books available online are legal - potentially bringing an end to the company's controversial quest to create the world's biggest digital library."

"Twenty-five years ago, MTV was best known for music videos starring Michael Jackson and Madonna. These days, its reigning queen is not a recording star at all but rather Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, the rowdy party girl from the reality series "Jersey Shore. So maybe it's not surprising that this week the 29-year-old network bowed to the inevitable and finally scraped the legend Music Television" off its corporate logo."

"Who has time to sit on the couch and watch TV anymore? In the last 10 years, broadcasters have lost 25 percent of their audience. So to win back some viewers, the industry has a plan to grab their attention while they are on the move. Beginning in April, eight television stations in Washington, D.C., will broadcast a signal for a new class of devices that can show programming, even in a car at high speed. In all, 30 stations in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle and Washington have installed the necessary equipment, at a cost of $75,000 to $150,000

Walt Disney Co. is asking theater operators to agree to a shorter time between movie debuts and DVD releases, specifically starting with Alice in Wonderland, in an effort to boost home video sales. The move comes as studios try to find ideas to speed the release times of DVDs to fight slumping DVD revenues.

"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."

The shock departure of Owen Van Natta, MySpace's chief executive, a mere nine months after joining the business, has once again thrown the future of the depleted social networking site into the harsh limelight.

The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a new task force on intellectual property in an effort to crack down on a "growing number" of IP crimes in the U.S. and elsewhere, the agency announced.