New York - News Corp., the media conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch, has made a $5 billion -- or $60 per share -- unsolicited buyout offer for Dow Jones & Co., the New York-based provider of business news and information services and publisher of The Wall Street Journal. [more..]

Mountain View, Calif. - Responding to a $1 billion copyright infringement filed against the company by media conglomerate Viacom, Google said in a court filing that its YouTube video-sharing site has not infringed copyrights, and furthermore that the lawsuit threatens free expression. [more..]

New York - A federal jury charged with determining whether Yahoo's Launchcast streaming radio service infringed major record label Sony BMG's copyrights found in favor of Yahoo last week, ending a six-year dispute. [more..]

Philadelphia - Comcast, the nation's largest cable TV provider, has signed a multi-year advertising deal with Yahoo, which will provide display and video ads on Comcast.net, a site that garners over 80 million video views and 15 million unique users per month. [more..]

London - The BBC has authorized the launch of a previously announced service that will allow U.K. residents to watch a selection of its programs online for free for a week following their initial broadcast. [more..]

London - Musician Peter Gabriel has announced the launch of a new digital music venture, We7, that will offer free, ad-supported music downloads free of digital rights management (DRM). [more..]

New York - The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences on Tuesday announced the winners of the 11th annual Webby Awards, which included lifetime achievement awards bestowed on David Bowie and eBay founder Meg Whitman, and People of the Year awards for YouTube co-founders Steve Chen and Chad Hurley. [more..]

Emeryville, Calif. - MobiTV, a provider of mobile and broadband television and music services, said on Tuesday that company co-founder Phillip Alvelda will step down as the company's CEO to focus on the Westminster Institute for Science Education (W.I.S.E.), an educational organization he co-founded last year. [more..]

Richmond, Va. - Velocity Micro, a builder of custom computers and workstations, said on Wednesday that it has acquired Overdrive PC, a boutique manufacturer of gaming and multimedia computer systems based near Atlanta. [more..]

Toronto, Canada - Canadian independent production company Barna-Alper Productions announced that it has made an undisclosed strategic investment in iThentic, a New York-based online and mobile video company. [more..]

London - British broadcaster ITV has announced plans for a $40 million redesign of its online service at ITV.com, which will offer both live streaming and on-demand programming, Reuters reported. In addition to archives of series like "Rising Damp" and "Upstairs, Downstairs," the site will feature original interviews with actors, guest columns, and the ability for users to upload their own videos for possible inclusion on ITV newscasts. The news comes as fellow U.K. broadcaster the BBC gave the green light to its similar iPlayer service, set to debut later this year. [more..]

New York - Sirius Satellite Radio announced on Tuesday that it added 556,490 subscribers during the first quarter of 2007, and now counts a total of 6.6 million, up 61% from a year ago. "Sirius once again led the satellite radio segment in net subscriber additions marking the sixth straight quarter of leadership," said Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin. "At the same time, we increased revenue by 61% and reduced our net loss by 68% from last year's first quarter. We are very pleased with our strong operating results and we are on track to meet our 2007 guidance." [more..]

New York - Joost, a peer-to-peer-based, streaming TV service designed by the creators of Kazaa and Skype, on Tuesday expanded its beta test and announced that campaigns from 32 advertising partners will launch on Joost this month. Joost beta testers now have an unlimited number of invitations to join the beta they can send to friends and family. The company also announced that Turner Broadcasting will distribute content on Joost, including programming from its CNN and Adult Swim networks. Programming from Hasbro, the NHL, Sports Illustrated and Sony Pictures Television is slated to become available later this month. [more..]

Atlanta - Turner Broadcasting announced on Tuesday that it will introduce new features at its GameTap subscription-based broadband games and entertainment site, to include the ability for subscribers to begin playing games on the same day they become available for sale at retail, or purchase them outright directly from GameTap. The first such "day-and-date" title available on GameTap will be Eidos' "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary." The service will also launch a rotating selection of free, ad-supported games. GameTap said its subscribers played more than 20 million games in 2006, or more than 54,000 per day. [more..]

San Francisco - Pure Digital Technologies on Tuesday introduced a new line of digital camcorders designed to make it simple for consumers to shoot video and upload it to video-sharing sites like YouTube. The Flip Video camcorders -- priced at $119 for a 30-minute model and $149 for a 60-minute model -- have a built-in USB connector and onboard software that automatically transcodes video into formats suitable for video-sharing sites. [more..]

Los Angeles - BurnLounge, a service that lets fans create their own digital music stores for their favorite artists, said on Tuesday that it will make its entire licensed catalog available for purchase in the MP3 format, including tracks from partners The Orchard and IODA. The company also launched a new version of its software that includes BurnPages, a free social networking service. [more..]

Washington - The nonprofit AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) on Tuesday announced the launch of a music website where users can create their own customized online radio stations. The organization partnered with Pandora, a service that generates artist recommendations, to power the service, and solicited artists Patti LaBelle, Corinne Bailey Rae and Joss Stone to create Pandora-powered stations featuring their favorite artists. The site will also feature social networking elements, allowing visitors to post music reviews on blogs and discussion boards. [more..]

Arlington, Va. - PBS said on Tuesday that it has picked up the first season of "Wired Science," a new weekly primetime series produced by KCET in Los Angeles in association with Wired Magazine. The one-hour show will debut Oct. 3 and run for 10 weeks, chronicling "the scientific advances and technologies that are transforming the world." [more..]

Acclaim Games announced today that it passed 1 million registered users for the multiplayer online robot fighting game BOTS.  Customers can play the game for free by registering and downloading it to their PC.  Acclaim will hold a BOTS 1 Million Players Event from May 2-7 where players can play to win prizes and earn major points. [more..]

Santa Monica, Calif. - Video game publisher Activision's Beenox studio said on Tuesady that the company expects to triple its workforce over the next two years, creating over 200 new jobs in the Quebec area. Founded in 2000, Beenox has more than doubled its staff over the past 18 months, and will focus on developing titles for next-generation consoles. [more..]