Washington - The U.S. Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced on Monday the finalized specifics of its coupon program that will subsidize U.S. consumers' purchases of converter boxes, so they remain able to receive signals on their analog TVs once analog broadcasts are ceased on Feb. 1, 2009. [more..]

Beverly Hills, Calif. - The Tornante Company, a venture founded in 2005 by former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, announced on Monday the formation of Vuguru, an independent studio that will produce and distribute original content for the Internet and emerging digital platforms. [more..]

Seattle - Getty Images, a provider of stock photography services, announced on Monday that it has acquired Glasgow, Scotland-based Scoopt, an aggregator and distributor of user-generated, newsworthy photos and videos. [more..]

Hong Kong - Hong Kong-based digital media firm TOM Group announced on Monday that it will pay about $200 million to take its TOM Online mobile content distribution arm private. [more..]

New York - Accenture, the global provider of management consulting, technology and outsourcing services, announced on Monday that it has acquired Paris-based Digiplug, a provider of mobile content repurposing and distribution services, from Japan's Faith Inc. [more..]

Dulles, Va. - AOL said on Monday that it has signed a two-year deal with publisher Gannett's PointRoll unit to develop new rich media products and formats for marketing partners. [more..]

New York - Peer39, a developer of online advertising marketplace technology, has raised $3 million in its first round of financing, led by Dawntreader Ventures, VentureBeat reported. [more..]

Cambridge, England - Short Fuze, the developer of a machinima (3D movie) engine, announced on Monday that it has raised $2 million in its first round of venture capital financing, co-led by Create Partners and IQ Capital Partners. [more..]

New York - The New York Times announced on Monday that it has made its subscription-based archives, TimesSelect, available for free to all college students and faculty with a valid .edu e-mail address. The company also announced that it has again partnered with News Corp.'s MySpace for a second annual "Win A Trip With Nick" African reporting competition. The contest will send one college student and one middle or high school teacher on a reporting expedition to Africa with Times columnist Nick Kristof. [more..]

New York - Coffeehouse giant Starbucks, which in recent years has begun selling music in its stores with some success, plans to launch its own record label, the New York Post reported, adding that sources familiar with the plans say the company is close to a deal to put out a release from Sir Paul McCartney. While Starbucks' existing Hear Music venture releases compilation CDs featuring licensed recordings, the Starbucks Records label is expected to sign, record and produce its own artists. Sources told the Post that Starbucks could announce the label as early as this week. [more..]

New York - Digital music service eMusic announced on Monday that it plans to produce and distribute live recordings from a set of concerts it will put on this week in Austin during the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. The concerts will be co-sponsored by Urban Outfitters and held at the store's outlet in Austin, and later distributed exclusively on eMusic and through Urbanoutfitters.com. Participating artists include The Broken West, 120 Days and Frightened Rabbit. [more..]

Rochester, N.Y. - eBaum's World, a user-generated video content site, announced on Monday that it has signed an agreement with mobile network operator Sprint, to offer eBaum's World Mobile as a premium mobile channel. Content submitted to the eBaum's World site will be reformatted for mobile, and updated three times weekly for Sprint subscribers. Launched in 1998, eBaum's World now counts over 9.6 million unique visitors per month. [more..]

Dulles, Va. - AOL said that it will stream Monday night's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony live on its newly launched Spinner.com music site. It marks the first time the induction ceremony has been made available for live web viewing. Beginning Tuesday, site visitors also will be able to watch a catalogued and segmented version of the ceremony on demand. This year's inductees are Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, R.E.M., The Ronettes, Patti Smith, and Van Halen, with inductions by Jay Z, Keith Richards, Eddie Vedder, Velvet Revolver and Zach de la Rocha. The ceremony will take place at The Waldorf-Astoria in New York. [more..]

North Hollywood, Calif. - Disney Online announced on Monday the launch of a virtual concert series that will feature Walt Disney Records artists and screen on Disney Xtreme Digital, a social network on Disney.com. The three-month "D*Concert: Disney Channel Concert Series" will feature Disney artists including Hannah Montana, The Cheetah Girls and the cast of "High School Musical." In addition to the online concerts, Disney will offer exclusive concert badges, chat rooms and D*Concert games. [more..]

Seattle - Amazon.com on Monday announced the launch of a new online Classical Music Blowout Store, which will showcase a hand-picked selection of more than 2,000 affordable classical titles from Amazon's catalog of 100,000 classical releases. "The demand from our customers for classical music continues to outpace other music categories," said Thomas May, Amazon.com senior music editor and classical music expert. "But the disappearance of prominent brick and mortar music stores and the fact that most music retailers are scaling back their selection of classical music means that more and more classical music lovers are relying on Amazon to continue offering the deep selection and low prices that they are looking for." [more..]

Burbank, Calif. - Thomson's Technicolor Digital Cinema unit announced on Monday that it has selected digital cinema projectors from manufacturers Christie, Dolby and Doremi to deploy in its North American beta test of an end-to-end digital cinema delivery system. Covering 250 screens in the U.S. and Canada, the test will evaluate at least three different projectors, in combination with a minimum of two servers. Technicolor Digital Cinema said the test is part of a broader rollout of complete digital theater systems at up to 5,000 screens over the next 3-4 years; parent company Thomson said it intends to equip at least 15,000 screens in the U.S. and Canada. [more..]

New York - Viacom's MTV Networks said on Monday that it has licensed technology from San Francisco-based Rapt that will provide pricing and inventory controls, analytic infrastructure, and decision support capabilities for advertising sales across all of its online properties. MTV Networks operates 44 websites and 10 broadband services in the U.S. alone, which registered more than 37 million unique users in January, according to comScore. Rapt's clients also include Yahoo, Microsoft, NBC Universal and Dow Jones & Company. [more..]

New York - Sports Illustrated magazine and NBCSports.com announced on Monday that they will share video, news and photography on their websites. Financial terms were not disclosed. [more..]

Los Angeles - Finland's Sulake Corporation, parent company of the Habbo online virtual world for teens, on Monday announced the launch of a snowball fight multiplayer game across its 29 Habbo communities around the world. To promote "SnowStorm," Habbo is also offering a range of snow-themed stickers, gadgets and furniture for Habbo users' personal pages. Habbo currently counts a total of over 7.5 million unique monthly users, including 2 million at its North American sites. [more..]