Los Angeles - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace this week announced plans to host a concert in Kuwait for U.S. troops that will feature performances from Jessica Simpson, the Pussycat Dolls, Disturbed, Filter and DJ Z-Trip. The March 10 concert, produced with the Department of Defense's Armed Forces Entertainment and America Supports You program, will be webcast live at the Operation MySpace website. MySpace also intends the site to be a hub where troops' families and friends, as well as the entire MySpace community, can post videos and messages of support via a video blog. MySpace will also produce a one-hour version of the three-hour concert for national broadcast on FX on April 12.

Los Angeles - Facebook has pulled an interactive ad campaign for Universal's "Untraceable" due to its gruesome torture depictions, Variety reports. The campaign, created by marketer Picture Production Co., gradually unveiled more graphic elements of a torture sequence from the film as more users visited the film's Facebook page. "I am surprised and disappointed that Facebook has taken this action," PPC head of interactive Dan Light told Variety. "These sorts of social media campaigns are the only way to be competitive at the moment.

New York - The Harry Fox Agency (HFA), which issues licenses and collects royalties on behalf of 35,000 music publishers, said this week that it has licensed All Access Today's Live in a Flash service, which offers concertgoers the chance to purchase a USB wristband after the show containing a copy of the performance. "To walk out of show literally wearing the songs on your wrist is a cool option and it extends the live experience beyond those 90 minutes or so on stage," said Gary Churgin, president and CEO of HFA.

Cambridge, Mass. - OneHen.org, an interactive website developed by Sapient and designed to engage and educate children, parents and teachers on the benefits of microfinance and ultimately stimulate a call to action, announced its launch on Friday. Through games and activities, the site introduces important financial concepts such as entrepreneurialism to help children "understand how they can make a broader impact,"Sapient said.

San Bruno, Calif. - Google's (NASD: GOOG) YouTube plans to launch a live video streaming feature later this year, co-founder Steve Chen told video blogger Sarah Meyers on Pop17.com. "Live video is just something that we've always wanted to do, we've never had the resources to do it correctly, but now with Google, we hope to actually do it this year," Chen told Pop17.com, according to a transcript posted by TechCrunch.

New York - Managers of top recording artists are considering legal action against major record labels, saying that Universal, Warner Music (NYSE: WMG) and EMI are dragging their feet in distributing hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements from copyright infringement lawsuits against file-sharing firms like Napster and Kazaa, the New York Post reported. "Artist managers and lawyers have been wondering for months when their artists will see money from the copyright settlements and how it will be accounted for," attorney John Branca, who has represented Korn and The Rolling Stones, told the Post. "Some of them are even talking about filing lawsuits if they don't get paid soon."

Los Angeles - Major record label Universal Music Group, a unit of Vivendi, announced that it will acquired the Latin music recording and publishing division of Spanish-language media firm Univision Communications, effectively making it the largest player in the U.S. Latin music market.

Washington - Still awaiting approvals from the Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission, D.C.-based XM Satellite Radio (NASD: XMSR) and New York-based rival Sirius (NASD: SIRI) said on Friday that they have extended their merger deadline until May 1. Both companies have expressed optimism about receiving the necessary regulatory approvals, although some analysts have expressed concerned about the delays in recent weeks.

San Diego - Video-sharing site Veoh is looking to raise $40 million in new financing and has hired Bear Stearns to facilitate the process, Silicon Alley Insider reported.

Redwood City, Calif. - Just days after rejecting a $2 billion unsolicited takeover offer from Electronic Arts (NASD: ERTS) (EA), video game developer and publisher Take-Two Interactive (NASD: TTWO) said in a regulatory filing that it has since received "informal indications of interest" from other potential suitors.

In recent weeks, Low Power Television stations have been the center of attention in Washington in connection with the Digital television transition. While all full-power television stations are set to convert to digital operations less than a year from now, ceasing analog operations at the end of the day on February 17, 2009, there is no specific deadline for LPTV stations to convert to digital. As the NTIA rolls out its coupon program for the purchase of converter boxes that will take digital signals of over-the-air television stations and convert them to analog for those who do not have digital television receivers (see our summary here), LPTV advocates noted that many converters do not pass through analog signals.

Los Angeles - "Quarterlife," an original Web series co-produced by MySpace (NYSE: NWS), pulled in dismal ratings in its debut as an hour-long TV series on NBC (NYSE: GE), according to The Hollywood Reporter, marking the network's "worst time-period performance in the 10 p.m. hour in at least 17 years." The show averaged a 1.3 rating and 4 share among viewers ages 18 to 49, and just 3.1 million viewers. "The Web site traffic went up a huge amount and we continue to try new things and new models," NBC co-chair Ben Silverman told THR. "It's very inexpensive but we hoped for higher ratings." THR reports that the series will continue its six-episode run on NBC before moving to NBC Universal's Bravo cable network.

New York - CBS's (NYSE: CBS) music discovery service Last.fm on Thursday announced the launch of a new section that showcases third-party applications designed to work with the service. The company estimated that activity around third-party applications on other websites added 19 million users to its service in January, in addition to the 21 million active users engaging with the Last.fm site itself. "We'll be moving into mobile, games consoles and partnering with other great media platforms to guarantee that Last.fm continues to drive the best music discovery and listening on the Web," said co-founder Richard Jones.

San Francisco - Blinkx, the developer of a video search engine, on Thursday announced content partnerships with the BBC, CBS and The Weather Channel. With the agreements, the site will further expand its programming, which already includes 18 million hours of indexed video and audio content from more than 220 partners.

Burbank, Calif. - Disney Interactive Studios (NYSE: DIS) on Thursday announced plans to publish "Ultimate Band," a music-focused game for the Nintendo Wii and DS that will utilize the Wii controller and DS stylus as musical instruments, a la the popular "Rock Band" (MTV/Harmonix) and "Guitar Hero" (Activision). Disney has partnered with London-based music consultants Radial Music to select music for the game, which is being developed by Fall Line Studios for release in the fall.

Shanghai - Following similar actions recently taken by major record labels, two groups representing Chinese musicians have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Baidu, the country's most popular search engine, Reuters reported.

Palo Alto, Calif. - Hoping to capitalize on the success of rival MySpace, where a reported 7 million musical acts have set up shop, online social network Facebook on Thursday introduced a new music section, that allows bands to create profiles and post their songs, photos and music videos. Some 80 artists have already set up profiles, including Alicia Keys, Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay, Justin Timberlake and the Decemberists.