Bethpage, N.Y. - Cablevision, a provider of cable TV services to 3.1 million subscribers and owner of Madison Square Garden and several sports teams, announced on Wednesday that it has agreed to be taken private by the Dolan family in a deal valued at about $10.6 billion. [more..]

Dallas - Video rental giant Blockbuster announced on Wednesday that it has sold Games Station Limited, its chain of 217 video game stores in the U.K., to European retailer The Game Group for about $150 million in cash. [more..]

Dulles, Va. - AOL's decision last year to eschew its subscriber model in favor of ad-supported services paid off handsomely in the first quarter, parent Time Warner said on Wednesday. [more..]

New York - Video game publisher Atari, which has been struggling of late and last month saw the departure of founder, chairman and CEO Bruno Bonnell, announced on Wednesday that it will lay off about 20% of its workforce as a cost-saving measure. [more..]

Los Angeles - The user-edited news aggregation site Digg.com has seen a revolt by its users over the past 24 hours, after administrators first tried to delete mentions of a key that can unlock the security on HD DVD discs, later capitulating to the community and in the process opening itself to potential litigation from owners of the technology. [more..]

Washington - A group of more than 70 webcasters, artists and labels met with nearly 100 members of Congress yesterday to seek support for the Internet Radio Equality Act, a recently introduced bill that would largely unburden webcasters from new royalty rates that many say will drive them out of business. [more..]

Los Angeles - Notorious Sweden-based file-sharing community The Pirate Bay plans to launch what it claims is a "completely untraceable" open source file-sharing application, as well as a subscription-based service at Playable.com where users will pay what they like and the company will compensate artists, the Los Angeles Times reported. [more..]

Seattle - Getty Images, a licensor of stock photography, announced that it has acquired PunchStock, a Wisconsin-based stock image provider. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. [more..]

McLean, Va. - Bucking a national trend for daily newspapers, Gannett's USA Today said that its daily circulation increased 0.2% during the latest six-month reporting period, as it remained the top selling paper in the U.S. [more..]

San Francisco - Delivery Agent, a provider of shopping-enabled programming for TV shows, movies, sports, publishing and music videos, announced on Wednesday that it has added $18.5 million to its third round of venture capital financing, which closed with a total of $35 million. [more..]

Palo Alto, Calif. - Itiva Networks, a provider of video content delivery network services, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $7 million in its third round of financing, from private investors. [more..]

University Park, Pa. - Penn State University recently announced that it will end its relationship with Napster at the end of May, and has instead signed with rival Ruckus Network to provide a campus digital entertainment service, starting in the fall. The service will give students access to a library of 2.75 million songs, as well as movies and short-form videos, and a social network. "Napster helped Penn State greatly in taking a bold and ultimately successful step, but we believe the new Ruckus service will provide greater flexibility for the university marketplace going forward," said Penn State president Graham Spanier. [more..]

North Hollywood, Calif. - The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' Interactive Media Peer Group on Wednesday announced a call for entries in the category of 2006-2007 Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Television. To qualify, an interactive TV program, series or service for primetime TV programming must have been commercially deployed between June 1, 2006 and May 31, 2007. Last year's winners were the TiVo service and ABC.com's full episode streaming feature. Entries for this year's awards must be received by May 31. [more..]

New York - CBS News announced on Wednesday that it will use Internet TV distributor Brightcove's services to syndicate ad-supported video from CBS News across the Internet. CBS News video, including clips of "CBS Evening News" and "The Early Show," are already available on AOL News, Comcast and YouTube, but under the new partnership will be accessible to thousands of smaller websites and blogs. [more..]

San Mateo, Calif. - Jaman.com, an online community for world cinema, announced on Wednesday that it is streaming several full-length feature films screening in the International Showcase portion of the 6th annual Tribeca Film Festival. The films -- including "A Guest of Life" (Hungary), "The Tree" (Argentina) and "The Optimists" (Serbia) -- are being offered for free on a limited, rolling basis during the film festival. [more..]

Los Angeles - Gemstar-TV Guide International, a provider of electronic program guides for digital TV services, said on Wednesday that it has signed a license agreement with Verizon. Under the deal, Verizon will include Gemstar's program guides with its FiOS TV digital TV service. The companies will also collaborate on technology allowing FiOS subscribers to remotely schedule digital video recordings. [more..]

Irvine, Calif. - Online game publisher K2 Network on Wednesday announced an agreement with Korea's Samsung Electronics, to publish Korean developer L & K Logic Korea Co.'s massively multiplayer online game "Red Stone" this summer in North and South America, Turkey, India and Poland. The game currently counts over one million players in Japan. [more..]

San Mateo, Calif. - Mobile entertainment publisher Glu Mobile announced on Wednesday a deal with Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, for the rights to develop and distribute mobile games and content based on Warner Bros. properties. The deal includes films and cartoon brands like DC Comics and Hanna-Barbera. Separately, Glu said it will distribute Warner Bros. Entertainment mobile games for "Ocean's Thirteen" and "300." [more..]

New York - Mobile game developer and publisher Gameloft said on Wednesday that it has signed a deal with 20th Century Fox to publish a mobile game based on "Live Free or Die Hard," the upcoming sequel in the Bruce Willis action film series. The mobile game is slated to launch shortly before the film's theatrical release on June 27. [more..]