London - The BBC announced on Wednesday that it will release a version of its BBC iPlayer video-on-demand service for the Nintendo Wii. Once the service goes live, a message will be sent to all Wii consoles in the U.K. connected to the Internet, letting them know about the new feature. The BBC said that the total number of requests for downloads and streams of its programming via the iPlayer was 17.2 million in March, up from 14 million in February and 11.2 million in January.

London - The BBC announced this week that it has made its iPlayer, a Web-based service that lets U.K. citizens watch the broadcaster's programming on demand, available on Apple's (NASD: AAPL) iPhone. Programming will not be accessible over the EDGE cellular network; instead, users will have to be within range of a Wi-Fi network to access the iPlayer.

San Francisco - Blinkx, the developer of a video search engine, on Thursday announced content partnerships with the BBC, CBS and The Weather Channel. With the agreements, the site will further expand its programming, which already includes 18 million hours of indexed video and audio content from more than 220 partners.

Brussels - The European Union has invested $20.5 million in a research project that is exploring the use of peer-to-peer technology for Internet television delivery across Europe. The P2P-Next project is using an open-source BitTorrent client called Tribler, which partners including the BBC and European Broadcasting Union plan to use to stream live TV.

London - The BBC announced on Tuesday that it has added several of its TV programs to the offering at the U.K. iTunes Store, including episodes of "Torchwood," "Little Britain" and "Life On Mars." The programs, which will cost about $3.69 each, are not scheduled to be made available on iTunes in the U.S. "With more people now choosing to watch TV shows on their iPods, fans of series such as The Mighty Boosh and The Catherine Tate Show can now enjoy those shows wherever they are," said Simon Danker, director of digital media at BBC Worldwide.

New York - KickApps, a provider of on-demand social media technology, said on Wednesday that it will power the online community functions for "Upstaged," a new multi-platform reality TV show from Endemol that will air on the BBC in the U.K. The show will see amateurs submit audition videos of their particular talent, with the best then chosen to face off head-to-head with the goal of entertaining a live audience. Viewers will then vote on these competitions and eventually choose an overall champion.

Santa Monica, Calif. - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace has signed an agreement with BBC Worldwide that will bring clips from BBC shows like "Doctor Who," "Torchwood, " "Top Gear" and "The Mighty Boosh" to its members worldwide, Reuters reported. The deal calls for MySpace and the BBC to share advertising revenues.

UK Internet traffic to the BBC’s iPlayer website increased 14-fold between the week ending 8 December 2007 and the week ending 5 January. The online catch-up TV service ranked as the 80th most visited website in the UK for the week ending 5 January 2008, having peaked at number 62 on New Year’s Day.

London - Three U.K. broadcasters -- the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 -- on Tuesday announced plans to launch an online video-on-demand joint venture in 2008, codenamed "Kangaroo." The U.K. service will carry over 10,000 hours of current and archived TV programming, initially made available for streaming and downloading from the Web, both for free, and as rentals and paid downloads.

Minneapolis - Game publisher Activision has partnered with ABC Entertainment and BBC Worldwide America to develop a game for the Nintendo Wii based on the reality TV series "Dancing with the Stars." The game will see players using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to physically mimic dance moves. Activision will also release a version for PlayStation 2 compatible with that platform's Dance Pad accessory.  

London - The BBC on Thursday announced details of its "Delivering Creative Future" plan, which will include 1,800 layoffs, an integration of its TV, radio and Internet news operations, and 10% less original programming.

San Jose, Calif. - The BBC said on Tuesday that it has partnered with Adobe Systems to make its free "catch-up" TV service, the BBC iPlayer, available as a streaming service by the end of the year. The on-demand streaming service, available across PC, Mac and Linux platforms to U.K. residents only, will be offered in addition to the TV show download service currently offered by the BBC.

London - BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the British broadcaster, announced on Monday that it has acquired Lonely Planet, the publisher of travel guides and other travel-related media, for an undisclosed sum.

Palo Alto, Calif. - Azureus, a provider of peer-to-peer file-sharing technology, said on Tuesday that its Vuze high-resolution video portal has reached over seven million users in its first six months online. The company also said it has posted the complete two seasons of the U.K. version of the TV series "The Office" in both standard and high-definition, for streaming for the first time in the U.S. -- offering the first episode for free. Other BBC series available on Vuze include "Little Britain," "Fawlty Towers" and "Doctor Who."

Reports in the British press over the weekend suggest that the BBC may be considering greatly increasing its creation and promotion of video games.  Specifically, newspaper Scotland on Sunday is suggesting that a major announcement is expected at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival on August 14th.

London - The BBC on Friday launched its long-awaited iPlayer, an online service that allows British users to download a large portion of the broadcaster's programming from the past week, Reuters reported.

Seattle - Broadband video application service provider thePlatform announced on Wednesday that BBC Global News will use its media management and publishing system to distribute short-form video content to YouTube. BBC Global News plans to publish up to 30 news clips per day on a dedicated YouTube channel. Seattle-based thePlatform was also tapped to power the forthcoming joint venture online video service from News Corp. and NBC Universal.

Today, Hitwise is issuing a news release about the growth of the Entertainment category. In doing our research, we noticed that YouTube looks set to overtake BBC.co.uk in share of UK visits within a matter of weeks.

Toronto - Maximum Awards, a provider of consumer loyalty rewards services, announced that it has acquired Plays On the Net, a provider of downloadable theatre, literature and music content that owns rights to BBC audio archive materials, in a deal valued at about XX (180 million shares, otcbb mxrw). Toronto-based Maximum Awards also said that Maxwell Thomas has resigned as CEO and CFO of the company, as well as from its board. Following the transaction, the company will become known as Logica Holdings.