Davos, Switzerland - Activision Blizzard (NASD: ATVI) CEO Bobby Kotick confirmed on Friday that a new music-centered video game called "DJ Hero" is in development and due out in 2009. [more..]

New York - MTV's former President Christina Norman is named CEO of Discovery Communications' forthcoming Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). [more..]

Seattle - Microsoft is apparently looking at opportunities to expand the Halo franchise including "additional ways to tell the story that may not be game-related at all." [more..]

New York - New ABC/Nielsen research revealed at the NATPE show that doubling the number of ads within a show from four to eight "did not affect the viewers' overall experience with the ABC.com player," according to AdAge. [more..]

Washington D. C. - The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bill on Thursday to delay the national transition to digital television to June 12 from February 17. [more..]

Los Angeles - Tribune Co.'s L.A. Times will cut 300 jobs, according to an internal memo sent out of Friday. Newspaper publisher A.H. Belo Corp. also announced on Friday it will lay off 500 workers, or about 14 percent of its work force at The Dallas Morning News, The Providence Journal in Rhode Island, The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif., and The Denton Record-Chronicle in Texas. [more..]

Los Angeles – Recent data showing a plunge in DVD shipments threaten to reduce profit for studio owners Time Warner Inc.,Walt Disney Co.,Viacom Inc. and News Corp., and may force them to write down the value of movies, said analysts Bloomberg has spoken to. [more..]

Round Rock, TX - Computer maker Dell is looking to enter the smartphone market with phones based on Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating systems, reports the Wall Street Journal [more..]

San Francisco - Mobile game ad network Greystripe has hit 140 million ad-supported game downloads thanks to iPhone users. [more..]

Atherton, Calif. - Michael Arrington, the founder and co-editor of TechCrunch, a popular blog focused on Internet products and companies, said on Wednesday that he plans to take off most of February to reassess his future following an incident on Tuesday in which someone deliberately spat in his face at an event in Germany

San Francisco - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has reportedly recruited Internet service providers AT&T and Comcast to participate in a new anti-piracy campaign, which would see the companies send warning notices to repeat file-swappers, eventually suspending or even terminating their accounts, according to CNET News.com.

Washington - The U.S. Trade Representative is claiming victory over China in a World Trade Organization dispute over the country's protection of intellectual property, and the unauthorized sale of copyrighted and counterfeit goods in the country.

Social networks overtook adult websites last October in the UK and have remained ahead since, blogs Robin Goad.

Tokyo, Japan - In line with what the company announced last week, electronics and media giant Sony today reported its first annual losses in 14 years on Thursday. The net loss amounts to Y10.4 billion ($115.6 million) for the October-December 2008 period, which represents a 95% drop in profits when compared the same period the previous year.

Seattle - Casual games developer and publisher PopCap Games announced an exclusive publishing agreement on Thursday with Sony Online entertainment to bring five of its titles, including Bejeweled 2, to the PlayStation Network in North America.