New York - Viacom's MTV Networks plans to invest more than $500 million in video games over the next two years, as part of a plan to incorporate games into all new programs at their inception, Reuters reported. [more..]

New York - Video game publisher Take-Two Interactive has announced that the company received notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it may file charges in relation to Take-Two's stock option granting practices. [more..]

New York - Following the collapse of a planned merger with fellow video-sharing site GoFish, New York-based Bolt, Inc. has ceased operations, according to a note on the company's website. [more..]

New York - Hearst-Argyle Television, which owns 26 U.S. TV stations, including ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates, on Thursday announced the launch of High School Playbook, a new service that will offer coverage of high school sports via TV, Web and mobile platforms. [more..]

San Francisco - Kongregate, a community site for online games, announced on Thursday that it has raised over $5 million in a new round of financing, led by Greylock Partners. [more..]

New York - New York public radio station WFUV (90.7 FM), which has been licensed to Fordham University for the past 60 years, announced on Thursday that it has been awarded a $500,000 grant from The New York State Music Fund to develop a second streaming radio station targeted to music fans in their 20s and 30s. [more..]

Rochester, N.Y. - Harris Interactive, an online market research firm, on Thursday announced that it has acquired two market research firms, one in Canada and one in Asia. [more..]

Los Angeles - PeopleJam, a social network focused on healthy lifestyles, has raised an undisclosed sum from backers including TiVo CEO Tom Rogers and former AOL Time Warner executive Robert Pittman, Variety reported. [more..]

Hamburg, Germany - Northworks, a German developer of online sports games, has raised an undisclosed sum of funding from High Tech Grunderfonds and ICS Holding, Alarm Clock Euro reported. [more..]

Scott Goldberg interviews the President & CEO of The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Peter Price. [more..]

Dulles, Va. - AOL said on Thursday that it has launched a new version of video site Truveo.com. [more..]

Los Gatos, Calif. - A start-up called Your Free Music Downloads on Thursday announced the alpha launch of its service, which offers a catalog of over 1 million MP3 files that can be downloaded for free, once users complete marketing surveys and provide other detailed personal information. [more..]

London - Game Domain International (GDI) has announced that game publishers including 2K Sports, Atari, Codemasters, Eidos, Sega and THQ have signed on to provide more than 70 PC games to "A World of My Own," the company's 3D virtual world and online game-playing community. [more..]

Santa Monica, Calif. - GGL (Global Gaming League), a media network dedicated to video games, said that it has signed an agreement with Sony Computer Entertainment America, to produce a series of live online game tournaments for PlayStation 3 online titles. [more..]

New York - Atari announced on Thursday that it will distribute five new titles from Russia-based developer 1C in the fall. [more..]

New York - 2K Games, a unit of Take-Two Interactive, said on Thursday that it will publish "Borderlands," the latest title from developer Gearbox Software, for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the PC, in the fall of 2008. [more..]