Washington - The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) on Monday issued a ruling denying motions submitted by various webcasters asking the judges to reconsider new, higher royalty rates for streaming music online. [more..]

Mountain View, Calif. - Google announced on Monday a multi-year agreement with Clear Channel Radio that will see the broadcasting giant provide Google the rights to sell a guaranteed portion of 30-second ad inventory across 675 of its stations. [more..]

New York - Online retail giant Amazon.com is poised to launch its own digital music download store in May that will sell songs in the unprotected MP3 format, Billboard reported.
[more..]

Los Angeles - NBC Universal general counsel Rick Cotton has called for the creation of a Cabinet-level position to address piracy of intellectual property, Variety reported. [more..]

Washington - The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), a trade group representing U.S. video game developers and publishers, announced on Monday that a federal court recently ordered the state of Louisiana to pay $91,000 in legal fees the ESA tallied during its successful challenge to the state's law banning the sale of violent games to minors. [more..]

Seoul, Korea - Korean consumer electronics firm Samsung has announced plans to introduce a dual-format player that will support both Blu-ray and HD DVD high-definition formats in time for the holidays. [more..]

Sunnyvale, Calif. - Yahoo announced on Monday that it has expanded its partnership with 12 newspaper companies, and will now provide search and advertising technology across all 264 newspaper sites, as well as share local news stories. [more..]

New York - News Corp., NBC Universal and Comcast on Monday announced a comprehensive distribution agreement in which Comcast's Comcast.net and Fancast.com will serve as key distribution sites for News Corp. and NBCU's recently announced online video venture. [more..]

Las Vegas - Web and desktop publishing software developer Adobe on Monday introduced a new media player, essentially a standalone desktop version of its Flash Player browser plug-in. [more..]

Raleigh, N.C. - The director of Student Legal Affairs at North Carolina State University has advised students who received file-sharing pre-litigation settlement letters from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to remain anonymous, and offered to represent students wishing to challenge any subpoenas, Technician Online, the N.C. State student newspaper, reported. [more..]

Cannes, France - Video game publisher Electronic Arts announced on Monday that it has partnered with TV producer Endemol on Virtual Me, a project that will combine avatar creation technology with Endemol's reality TV shows and launch a variety of online competitions. [more..]

New York - Publisher Dow Jones & Company announced on Monday that it will acquire London-based eFinancialNews, a publisher of financial news and provider of related services, for about $43 million. [more..]

Los Angeles - Reunion.com, an online social network with 28 million users that targets adults who want to keep in touch with friends and family, announced on Monday that it has raised $25 million in a new round of venture capital financing, led by Oak Investment Partners. [more..]

Atlanta - Intent MediaWorks, a provider of digital media content and advertising distribution technology, announced on Monday that it has raised $10 million in its second round of funding, led by Grecroft Partners, SoftBank Capital, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments and Allen & Co. [more..]

San Francisco - VideoEgg, the provider of a video advertising network, announced on Monday that it has received a strategic investment from communications services group WPP. [more..]

Burbank, Calif. - MESoft, a developer of remote collaboration and secure distribution software for media producers, announced that it has raised $6 million in new funding, from a group led by Peninsula Equity Partners and Sid R. Bass Associates. [more..]

Berkeley, Calif. - Yardbarker, a site that aggregates sports-related blogs, announced on Monday that it has raised an undisclosed sum of seed funding, led by Russell Siegelman, a partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. [more..]

Las Vegas - Microsoft on Monday introduced Silverlight, a new plug-in that allows media firms to deliver video, animation and games over the Web. Similar to Adobe's Flash browser plug-in, Microsoft's Silverlight will work with Apple's Safari and Mozilla's Firefox browsers. Media companies that have announced support for Silverlight include Major League Baseball, Netflix, Brightcove, Akamai, Limelight Networks and Pinnacle Systems. [more..]

London - Jalipo on Monday announced the launch of its online video distribution network, which will initially offer rights-protected content from providers including BBC World, Bloomberg and Al Jazeera English, Reuters reported. Unlike YouTube, Jalipo will sell access to live and on-demand video clips on a pay-per-minute basis. "We're hoping to create a much more user friendly way to buy video content that means you can now monetize your content online while still maintaining your rights," Jalipo CEO Alex Taylor told Reuters. The company's management team also includes former Sony Europe president Chris Deering, who serves as chairman. [more..]

Helsinki, Finland - Mobile phone makers Samsung and Nokia announced on Monday that they will collaborate on interoperability among their mobile TV-capable devices, so that network operators can offer multi-vendor mobile TV services. The companies will work to make their mobile TV devices, which use the DVB-H standard, work with the same standards as the Nokia network services system, and the OMA BCAST standard for mobile operators. [more..]

London - Online social music networking site Last.fm announced on Monday an agreement with digital music distributor IODA (Independent Online Distribution Alliance), which will make IODA's full catalog of over 800,000 tracks available to Last.fm's global user base. In addition, over 24,000 pre-cleared PromoTracks from IODA will be available for free on-demand streaming and download by users of Last.fm, which also has partnerships with The Orchard, EMI, Warner Music Group and others. [more..]

New York - The Associated Press' asap multimedia news service on Monday announced plans to launch a new blog focused on the AP wire, as well as two new video news segments. The "Far and Wide" blog, which launches on Tuesday, will include text, audio, video and photos in up to 25 posts a day on a variety of news areas. Readers will be able to respond to stories and interact with AP staffers. AP also plans to launch a biweekly video show on religion called "Everything Sacred," and a weekly video game report called "Up Down Left Right." [more..]

Redwood City, Calif. - YuMe, a broadband video advertising network, announced on Monday a partnership with Azureus, a provider of peer-to-peer file-sharing technology. Under the deal, advertisers will be able to incorporate customized ads within select licensed and self-published content online video content distributed on Vuze, a new download service from Azureus. Advertisers and Azureus will be able to track when and where viewers download their ad-supported content, how often they view it, and how they interact with ads. [more..]