New York - Vuguru, the entertainment studio founded by former Disney head Michael Eisner, has teamed with Cyber Group Animation and Big Fantastic to create 50 two-minute webisodes based on author Robin Cook's forthcoming novel, "Foreign Body," the New York Post reports. The ad-supported webisodes will debut weekly beginning on May 27, leading up to the book's release on Aug. 5. "This is a whole new way to get an audience that's not reading as much as they did in the past to get to know the characters in a novel," Eisner told the New York Post. "Hopefully they'll get attached enough to go out and buy the book." Vuguru also developed the "Prom Queen" Web series.

New York - The Nielsen Company this announced the launch of a new video-on-demand audience measurement service, with Comcast (NASD: CMCSA), the nation's largest cable TV provider, signing on as the first data provider and customer of the service. Nielsen On Demand Reporting & Analytics (NORA) will aggregate and anonymously report on video-on-demand usage, based on real-time transactions collected at the set-top box level.

New York - SpiralFrog, a free, ad-supported Web-based music service that launched in mid-September, said this week that it now counts more than 400,000 registered users, and has received over 1 million unique monthly visitors this month, according to Google Analytics. New York-based SpiralFrog's service offers a catalog of more than 1 million tracks, which users can access for free as long as they keep their free subscriptions up to date.

Foster City, Calif. - Sony Computer Entertainment America this week began offering MTV programming on the UMD format for its PSP handheld game device. An initial slate of UMD videos, priced at $14.99 each, will contain episodes of shows including "Beavis & Butt-head," "Jackass" and "Aeon Flux." Sony has sold more than 10 million PSP units in North America.

London - "Manhunt 2," a violent game from Take-Two Interactive's (NASD: TTWO) Rockstar Games, is once again banned from sale in Britain, after the High Court there ordered a government agency to reconsider its ruling that overturned an earlier ban on the game, GamesIndustry.biz reported.

Davos, Switzerland - News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) chairman Rupert Murdoch said on Friday that he plans to keep a large portion of the content on the website of his newly acquired Wall Street Journal behind a subscription firewall, and indicated that subscription prices are likely to rise, The Journal reported. The remarks, made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, countered earlier hints that Murdoch was contemplating making the entire site free to access.

Arlington, Va. - Super Bowl XLII is expected to drive sales of approximately 2.4 million high-definition televisions, according to a survey conducted by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the Sports Video Group.

Los Angeles - En2go, a company developing digital entertainment and applications for computers, TV and mobile devices, announced on Friday that it has raised $1.35 million in a private placement of its shares.

San Jose, Calif. - Days after reports surfaced that she would retire, Meg Whitman, the president and CEO of eBay (NASD: EBAY), made it official, saying that she plans to step down on March 31. She will be replaced by John Donahoe, who joined eBay in 2005 following six years as the worldwide managing director of Bain & Company.

Los Angeles - Channel M, a provider of out-of-home entertainment and advertising content for video screens, has raised $6 million in its third round of funding, led by Ascend Venture Group.

Mountain View, Calif. - Ooyala, a developer of online video and advertising delivery technology that was founded by a group of former Google employees, said this week that it has raised $8.5 million in its second round of venture capital, from Sierra Ventures and private investors.

San Mateo, Calif. - Integrated Media Measurement Inc. (IMMI), the provider of an ad and media monitoring service that tracks impressions on consumers' cell phones, has raised $25 million in its third round of venture capital financing, led by advertising giant WPP's Kantar Media Research division.

This is a new and influential position on McGraw-Hill Broadcasting’s digital leadership team.