Washington - A group of large and small webcasters, including NPR and those represented by the Digital Media Association (DiMA), on Wednesday asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to suspend the date on which new, higher webcasting royalty rates are due to take effect, until the court hears the webcasters' appeal of those rates. [more..]

Carlsbad, Calif. - RealNetworks announced on Thursday that the newest version of its RealPlayer will contain a feature that allows users to download any video they find online for later viewing via the RealPlayer, and even burn them to DVD and CD. [more..]

New York - TV ratings provider Nielsen on Thursday announced results of its first ratings data that include digital video recorder viewing, which showed that ads for some TV shows received higher ratings when viewed on DVR recordings than on their original broadcasts. [more..]

New York - The New York State Assembly has approved a bill, a similar version of which passed in the State Senate last week, that would ban the sale of violent and sexually explicit video games to minors. [more..]

London - Major record label Warner Music plans to put its entire music video archive online and make it available for free viewing, supported by ads, Reuters reported. [more..]

London - The worldwide mobile TV subscriber base is projected to grow from 4.4 million today to an estimated 155.6 million by the end of 2012, according to a report from market research firm Datamonitor. [more..]

Cupertino, Calif. - Apple has announced that it plans next month to begin making YouTube content available on televisions through its Apple TV wireless streaming device. [more..]

Redwood City, Calif. - The Associated Press announced on Thursday that it will work with a Redwood City, Calif.-based start-up called Attributor to monitor how its stories, photos and videos are used online, and detect copyright violations. [more..]

New York - Oberon Media, a publisher and distributor of casual games, announced on Thursday that it has acquired I-play, a developer of casual mobile games. While financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, Israel's Globes Online reported that Oberon will pay $110-120 million for London-based I-play, which was founded in 1998. [more..]

Menlo Park, Calif. - Emerging from stealth mode, Gizmoz, the developer of a new service that lets users create 3D talking characters and videos for use in blogs, social networks and e-mail, said on Thursday that it has raised $6.3 million in its first round of funding from Benchmark Capital and Columbia Capital. [more..]

Mountain View, Calif. - The Multiverse Network, the developer of an online games and 3D virtual worlds platform, announced on Thursday that it has raised $4.2 million in its first round of venture capital financing, led by Sterling Stamos Capital Management, with participation from several angel investors. [more..]

New York - Internet entrepreneur Jason Calcanis, who founded the now-AOL-owned Weblogs, on Thursday debuted his latest venture, the alpha version of a new online search engine called Mahalo. The service uses a team of 40 expert guides who arrange search results based on relevance, placing the primary results in a "top 7" at the top. Users can also contribute to the search engine's effectiveness by submitting relevant links to various search terms. Mahalo currently counts about 4,000 results pages, based on the most popular search terms, and plans to reach 25,000 by the end of 2008, TechCrunch reported. [more..]

Basking Ridge, N.J. - Verizon Wireless announced on Thursday that it is offering its subscribers the exclusive opportunity to download a free copy of Prince's new single, "Guitar," to their phones weeks before his forthcoming album "Planet Earth" is available in stores. In order to download the track, subscribers will have to utilize the company's free V CAST Song ID service, by holding their phones up to a speaker playing the song, which will be available on Verizon's site as well as YouTube, Revver, Veoh and MySpace. The service will then identify the song and download it to the phone. [more..]

Los Angeles - The Bigger Picture, a unit of digital cinema firm AccessIT, said on Thursday that it will offer a preview of a new in-theater digital concert series featuring performances from the South by Southwest Music Festival on July, 14, in advance of a nationwide run in the fall. The two-hour show, which was produced by Blaze TV and DirecTV, will be projected in digital cinema with 5.1 surround sound and feature performances from artists including The Polyphonic Spree, Peter Bjorn & John and Rocco Deluca. Tickets for the series are expected to range from $8.75 to $10.25, depending on the market. Previews will be held in Boston, Nashville, Dallas and Ft. Worth. [more..]

Los Angeles - Game developer Imagination International Corp. (IIC) announced on Thursday that it has signed a three-year agreement with Disney-ABC Domestic Television for the rights to develop a DVD game based on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire." The game, which will feature TV host Meredith Vieira, is slated to cost $19.99 as is set for release in the fall. [more..]