London - Amazon.com has held a series of talks with U.K. record labels, and plans to launch its MP3 download store in the U.K. next month, New Media Age reports. The store was launched a year ago in the U.S., and currently offers over 5 million songs, from all four major labels and a bevy of independents.

Los Angeles - Peer-to-peer based streaming TV service Joost has begun offering the new Web-based version of its service, which will replace the downloadable client application that previously delivered its range of video programming, PaidContent reports. "One of the great things about working at a startup is the ability to be flexible and make changes when our users, trends or data suggest a new direction," Joost CEO Mike Volpi wrote on the company's blog. "For much of the past year, we've listened to the feedback we've received from many of the people who use Joost, making decisions about what makes our product and our company special, and building a new product based on those recommendations."

Tokyo - Sony Computer Entertainment (NYSE: SNE) on Thursday announced the release of "Life with PlayStation," a new "lifestyle service" that offers PlayStation 3 owners "a new visual and interactive way to use their PS3 to access news and information from around the world." The free broadband service will pull cloud imagery from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; weather information from The Weather Channel; news headlines from Google News; and live camera images from The Earth Television Network of nearly 60 cities around the globe.

Englewood, Colo. - Liberty Media's (NASD: LINTA) Starz has announced plans to offer the first two episodes of its first original series, "Crash," as free previews via the video-on-demand services of Comcast, Cox, Charter, Time Warner Cable, Verizon FiOS TV, Mediacom and Insight. The previews will run from Oct. 1 through Oct. 17, when the series makes its official broadcast debut. Starz has also partnered with Best Buy to give away 100,000 "Crash" DVD previews to customers purchasing TV shows on DVD.

New York - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) Comedy Central on Thursday unveiled a redesigned website for fans of its "The Colbert Report" show, ColbertNation.com, which features clips from every episode dating back the Peabody Award-winning program's launch in 2005. The site added a searchable database, community features, and information on upcoming guests and special events. "I'm thrilled with our new Web site. I only wish John McCain knew how to get there," said Colbert.

Austin, Texas - Comedian Amy Poehler, who recently announced she would be leaving the cast of "Saturday Night Live," is set to launch a new original online series with ON Networks next month. "Smart Girls at the Party" will see Poehler and friends interview "a girl with a unique talent, community interest or point of view" in each episode. In addition to ON Networks, "Smart Girls" will be distributed via iTunes, Adobe Media Player and a range of other websites, digital TV and mobile partners.

New York - The first mobile phone to utilize Google's (NASD: GOOG) new Android operating system software, HTC's Dream, will cost $199 when it goes on sale later this month, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Sunnyvale, Calif. - Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) announced on Thursday that it has partnered with RealNetworks' (NASD: RNWK) Rhapsody digital music service to deliver full-song streams in search results when users type artist-related searches on its service.

Mountain View, Calif. - In the absence of any official opposition from regulators, Google (NASD: GOOG) plans to go ahead with its proposed search advertising deal with Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) less than a month from now, CNET News.com reported, citing statements by Google CEO Eric Schmidt in a meeting with reporters at its headquarters.

Seattle - Amazon.com (NASD: AMZN) is preparing to launch its own content delivery network service, aiming to offer even smaller websites faster, more efficient delivery of their media and other content to end users, Webmonkey reports, citing a post on the Amazon Web Services blog.

Los Angeles - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has filed court documents seeking sanctions against Ray Beckerman, an attorney who defends those accused of illegal file-sharing and runs a blog documenting those and other related cases, called Recording Industry vs. The People.

New York - U.S. advertising spending was down 1.4% in the first half of 2008 compared with the same period last year, propped up by increases in cable and syndicated television ad spending that offset declines in other sectors like image-based online ad spending, which was down 6%, according to a report from Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Cable and syndicated TV ad spending were up 8.1% and 7.2%, respectively, while declines were seen in spending on ads on network TV (-6%), local newspapers (-7.3%), business to business magazines (-8%), national newspapers (-8.1%) and spot radio (-10.1%).

Toronto, Canada - Orbit E-Commerce, a developer of IPTV services for the Chinese market, said on Thursday that it will acquire NexTube Broadcasting.

Hollywood - Hollywood Interactive Group, a developer of entertainment content sites that include women's casual gaming site MyHollywood.com, said on Thursday that it has raised a $5 million first round of funding, led by BlueRun Ventures.