Monterey, Calif. - Over 24.9 billion video streams were served across all entertainment and media sites in 2006, an increase of 38.8% from the previous year, according to a report from AccuStream iMedia Research. [more..]

Burbank, Calif. - Hollywood movie studios Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures announced on Tuesday that they have partnered with a number of theater owners on a joint venture that will deploy a digital cinema delivery system. [more..]

Beijing - Citing "Internet addiction" among its youth, China has banned the establishment of any new Internet cafes for the remainder of this year, the Xinhua state news agency reported on Tuesday. [more..]

San Francisco – Telephia, a provider of syndicated consumer research to the telecom and mobile media markets, reported at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) a 61% revenue increase to $151 million in the mobile games market in Q4 2006, according to a press release by the company. [more..]

Alviso, Calif. - TiVo announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with Internet service provider EarthLink, to offer bundled high-speed Internet and digital video recorder services. [more..]

McLean, Va. - Gannett, the publisher of USA Today and 89 other daily newspapers, said on Tuesday that it will pay $73 million to acquire certain assets of Southern Connecticut Newspapers Inc. (SCNI) from rival publisher Tribune. [more..]

Santa Monica, Calif. - Video game publisher Activision announced on Tuesday that it will acquire DemonWare, an Ireland-based developer of network middleware technologies for console and PC games. [more..]

Boston - Eons, an online social network targeting users over 50 years old, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $22 million in its second round of venture capital financing, led by Charles River Ventures. [more..]

Redwood City, Calif. - YuMe Networks, an online advertising network optimized for broadband video, has announced its official launch, with backing of over $7 million in venture capital from investors including Khosla Ventures, Accel Partners and BV Capital. [more..]

New York - Narrowstep, a provider of Internet-based video content delivery services, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $7.1 million through a private placement. [more..]

Arlington, Va. - Clearspring Technologies, a provider of syndication services for widgets -- or small applications that can be embedded on Web pages to personalize or customize them -- announced on Tuesday that it has raised $5.5 million in its second round of financing. [more..]

Irvine, Calif. - MPLC, the parent company of digital entertainment publisher New Motion, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $10 million in a private placement of its shares. [more..]

New York - News Corp. is contemplating allowing users of its MySpace online social network embed Fox TV shows and other video produced by the company on their profile pages, BusinessWeek reported, citing an industry executive familiar with the matter. MySpace currently features a Fox TV profile that streams Fox shows, but does not allow its video clips to be embedded by MySpace's millions of users on their profiles. [more..]

Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. - CBS SportsLine on Tuesday announced the launch of its NCAA March Madness on Demand service, which will again this year offer free online streaming of all 56 games from the early rounds of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship broadcast by CBS Sports. Last year, the company served over 19 million streams. This year's service will feature a 50% larger video screen, and also for the first time offer live audio streaming of Westwood One's radio broadcasts of the tournament's first two rounds. A new, live halftime show produced for MMOD, sponsored by AT&T, will feature SportsLine's Jason Horowitz paired with a college coach. [more..]

Paris - Venerable French film magazine Les Cahiers du Cinema plans to launch an online, English-language version this week, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The publisher of the nearly 60-year-old magazine told THR it hopes to add 3,500 subscribers by year's end, but will make individual issues available for $5 each. [more..]

San Antonio, Texas - AT&T said on Tuesday that it has added a feature to its Homezone service -- which bundles satellite TV, broadband Internet and home networking services -- that allows customers to manage their television recordings using their mobile phones. The company also said that it has added thousands of video-on-demand titles from Akimbo to the service, joining existing providers including Yahoo and Movielink. [more..]

Hudson Valley, N.Y. - Pump Audio, a provider of licensed independent music for use in various productions, said on Tuesday that it has partnered with online video and photo hosting service Photobucket, to provide music for Photobucket users creating photo and video mixes using the free Adobe mixing software recently added to the site. Photobucket's 35 million users may now add any of hundreds of licensed songs from Pump Audio's catalog of over 70,000 tracks to their mashup creations. [more..]

San Francisco - Casual games publisher PlayFirst said on Tuesday that it has opened access to its Playground SDK game development tools, to accelerate the market growth of casual games. The company also launched Developer Dash, a new developer funding program that will distribute up to $100,000 in cash to encourage independent developers to create new and innovative games. [more..]

San Diego - Sony Computer Entertainment America on Tuesday shipped its "MotorStorm" title for PlayStation 3 to North American retailers. The game was developed by Evolution Studios, which also created the "World Rally Championship" series, and includes a soundtrack featuring artists including Nirvana, Slipknot and Queens of the Stone Age. [more..]

Redwood City, Calif. - Electronic Arts on Tuesday announced the release of "Def Jam: Icon" for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. A collaboration with hip-hop record label Def Jam, the game features the likenesses of and tracks from artists including Big Boi, Lil Jon, Ludacris and T.I. Separately, EA launched an online music competition wherein consumers can record and upload their own "Simlish" version of Lily Allen's "Smile," sung in the Simlish language featured in its "The Sims" game franchise. The winner will receive the chance to record a song in Simlish for possible inclusion in a future Sims video game. [more..]