Reston, Va. - U.S. consumer spending on "Cyber Monday" rose 21% over last year to a record $733 million, with Amazon.com and Walmart.com leading the pack of online retailers, according to a report from Internet audience metrics firm comScore. [more..]

St. Louis - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit has refused to rehear an appeal of a ruling that said fantasy baseball game providers can use actual names and statistics on players in their games, the St. Louis Business Journal reports. [more..]

New York - Movie rental giant Blockbuster is in discussions with cell phone makers on how to provide movies that can be viewed on mobile devices, Reuters reported. [more..]

New York - Corbis, a provider of stock photography, will begin offering bloggers free access to versions of its images that feature embedded advertising, Reuters reported. [more..]

Cambridge, Mass. - Brightcove, a provider of online video hosting and distribution services, has announced that it will no longer support uploads of user-generated videos as of next month, as the company shifts focus instead on the video it distributes for major media partners. [more..]

Paris - Agence France-Presse (AFP), the French newsgathering agency, announced on Wednesday that it has taken a minority stake in Scooplive, a service that lets users sell their pictures and videos on current news and receive a commission. [more..]

San Francisco - Amobee Media Systems, a provider of mobile advertising services for network operators, announced on Wednesday that it has received a strategic minority investment from Spain-based wireless giant Telefonica. [more..]

Shanghai - Linktone, a provider of mobile entertainment and advertising services in China, announced on Wednesday that Indonesian media firm PT Media Nusantara Citra (MNC) has agreed to purchase at least 51% of its outstanding shares. [more..]

Amsterdam - Spotzer Media Group, a provider of video advertising services, has raised $14.8 million in a new financing round led by Sierra Ventures. [more..]

New York - Gilt Groupe, an invitation-only service that offers consumers access to fashion "sample sales," has raised $5 million in financing from Matrix Partners, PEHub.com reported. [more..]

Seattle - Big Fish Games, a developer and distributor of online games, announced on Wednesday that it has acquired Thinglefin, a developer of massively multiplayer online games. [more..]

Ottawa, Canada - Iotum, a provider of voice services for social networks, announced that it has received a new investment from Verdexus. [more..]

We are very happy to announce a partnership with Canadian Music Week (CMW), Canada’s leading annual entertainment event dedicated to the expression and growth of the country’s music, media and entertainment industries, to host the next edition of our youth-focused media conference The Millennials in Toronto on March 5, 2008, as an integrated part of the CMW. [more..]

Working without a contract for over two years, writers for CBS News are reportedly “strongly considering” to strike on December 10th [more..]

I predicted that Apple’s real endgame was to break the wireless carriers’ stranglehold on handsets, so that Apple could sell iPhones on any network. Sure enough, Verizon announced that next year it would allow any phone — and any application on any phone — to be used on its network, blogs Scott Karp. [more..]

Robin Goad of Hitwise UK blogs about what gadgets people are searching for this year in time for Christmas. [more..]

Fox News reported today that Chevy Chase will rejoin the cast of NBC’s Saturday Night Live. [more..]

West Hollywood, Calif. - IAC's Ticketmaster on Wednesday announced the launch of a U.S. online affiliate network, which will provide commissions to consumers and organizations that generate ticket sales via links from their websites. [more..]

Los Angeles - The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with Singapore's Media Development Authority to create the Center for Content Protection, which will promote secure distribution of digital video content in the Asia-Pacific region. [more..]

San Francisco - Google on Wednesday announced the beta launch of a new service that will enhance its mobile mapping system by calculating the position of cell phone users, based on information broadcast from cell towers. [more..]

Austin - Pluck, a provider of social media services for media companies, said on Wednesday that it plans to connect its platform with the Facebook and OpenSocial APIs, linking the Web audiences of Pluck clients such as Gannett, Reuters and The Washington Post with users of Facebook, MySpace and other social networks. [more..]

Dulles, Va. - AOL on Wednesday launched a new beta version of its Money & Finance site, featuring news headlines from more than 3,000 sources, interactive charts and other investing tools. [more..]

Tokyo - Nintendo said on Wednesday that it will work with Japanese broadband provider NTT to cross-promote broadband access and the online features of the Wii video game console, Reuters reported. [more..]

Silver Spring, Md. - More than 18 months after losing The New York Times as a partner on the venture, Discovery Communications said that it will change the name of its "Discovery Times" channel to "Investigation Discovery," beginning Jan. 27. [more..]

New York - Hearst-Argyle Television, which operates 29 TV stations and their corresponding websites, said on Wednesday that it has signed a deal with Google to become the first TV industry reseller of the Google AdWords ad program. [more..]

San Francisco - Following reports that broadband providers Comcast and Cox have been interfering with their subscribers' peer-to-peer traffic, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on Wednesday released tools for Internet users that can be used to test for "packet forgery" or other ISP interference on their connections. [more..]

Alviso, Calif. - TiVo announced on Wednesday that it has signed an audience research agreement with Carat, one of the largest media buying firms in the world. [more..]

Singapore - Viacom's Paramount Digital Entertainment unit has partnered with Hungama Mobile to develop and distribute mobile content for Paramount titles in India, Variety reports. [more..]

Redwood City, Calif. - Zazzle, an on-demand retail platform, said on Wednesday that it has partnered with Live Nation's recently acquired Signatures Network merchandise and licensing company. [more..]