London, U. K. - The British entertainment group BSkyB's revenues grew 9 percent to £5bn ($10 bn) in the first two quarters, but operating profit fell 11 percent to £724m ($1,4 bn).

London - Six British Internet service providers have signed on to a voluntary code of conduct -- in the face of looming legislation -- that will see them send hundreds of thousands of letters to suspected illegal file-swappers and work with music and other rights holders "towards a significant reduction in illegal filesharing." U.K. ISPs Virgin Media, BSkyB, Carphone Warehouse, BT, Orange and Tiscali are party to the agreement, which came after negotiations facilitated by the U.K.'s Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), and also includes record label trade group the BPI, and the Motion Picture Association of America.

London - U.K. broadcaster and broadband provider BSkyB announced on Tuesday that it has formed a joint venture with major label Universal Music Group, that will create an MP3 store and accompanying unlimited download subscription service for the U.K. and Ireland. Sky, in which News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) holds a 39% stake, said it is also in discussions with other major and independent record labels on adding their tracks to the service, for which Universal will provide "hundreds of thousands of songs."

Los Angeles - The Championship Gaming Series, a worldwide professional video game players' league, has announced a deal with Eurosport and BSkyB that grants Eurosport the exclusive continental European broadcast rights for CGS. Along with CGS coverage on Sky in the U.K. and Ireland, on DirecTV in the Americas, and on STAR and ESPN STAR Sports in Asia and Australia, the company says its tournaments now have a potential TV audience of 400 million viewers.

London - Miniweb Interactive Limited on Thursday announced the launch of its interactive TV services company, which was formed following a buyout of the assets and infrastructure of the SkyKeys/Internet Sites services and global licensing of TV browser technology from BSkyB, a unit of News Corp. Financial terms of that deal were not disclosed. London-based Miniweb says its service will replace SkyKeys and be available in over 8.5 million BSkyB households by the end of the year. The service will combine TV viewing, online services and interactive advertising across multiple TV distribution systems.

London - News Corp.'s U.K.-based British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) has announced plans to offer a mobile soccer video clip service for English Premier League and European Champions League matches, New Media Age reported. The clips will cost about $10 per month or $1 each, and will be promoted in News Corp.'s The Sun and News of The World in the U.K. BSkyB will also soon begin streaming its Sky Sports channels, which carry many of these games, live to mobile phones.

London - The Chelsea Football Club, a popular team in England's national soccer league, announced that it has signed an agreement with Google's YouTube to add daily video clips and news to the video-sharing site. A Chelsea spokesman told Times Online that no money exchanged hands in the deal -- the first for an English Premier League club -- and that live video of matches will not be included. Chelsea Digital Media, a joint venture between Chelsea and News Corp.'s BSkyB, will manage the Chelsea-branded channel on YouTube.

Las Vegas - Satellite TV provider DirecTV on Tuesday announced plans to launch the Championship Gaming Series (CGS), an international video gaming league that will broadcast to over 100 million homes beginning in the spring of 2007.