Los Angeles - News Corp.'s Fox Broadcasting Company said on Monday that it has partnered with Passenger to power an online community for viewers of Fox drama, reality, comedy and animation progams. Gearerd toward viewers ages 18-49, Passenger's service provides social networking, community-building and collaboration technologies.

It is coming up on 2 years post my declaration that only a moron would buy Youtube and that Google was crazy for actually going through with it. In that period of time, while Youtube traffic has skyrocketed, they have been steadfast in their admission that they haven't been able to monetize Youtube's traffic in a profitable manner. Youtube has become the poster child for the old saying "we are losing money on every sale, but we will make it up in volume".

Hulu.com., the joint venture between Fox and NBC that provides streaming video content online, announced a deal this week that The Colbert Report and The Daily Show are now available through the site. Hulu.com came out of beta on March 15 and has seen a steady share of US Internet traffic since, as illustrated in the following chart.

New York - "American Idol" winner David Cook saw a record 14 of his songs enter the Billboard Hot Digital Songs chart today, including the No. 1 "The Time of My Life," which sold 236,000 downloads.

New York - Redlasso, a Web service that lets bloggers search national and local TV and radio broadcasts and create clips for posting to their websites, has received a cease and desist notice from broadcasters NBC (NYSE: GE), CBS (NYSE: CBS) and Fox (NYSE: NWS), who allege the site is violating their copyrights, Reuters reported.

Los Angeles - A 2006 album from current "American Idol" contestant David Cook that was the top-seller at Amazon.com's (NASD: AMZN) MP3 store over the weekend, besting even Mariah Carey's new album, has now been removed from the store, FoxNews.com reported. Whether the album was taken down by Cook himself or at the behest of someone else remains a mystery.

Cambridge, Mass. - JumpTap, a provider of mobile search and advertising services, announced on Tuesday deals with Fox Mobile Entertainment (NYSE: NWS) and NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) to provide mobile ad services across a range of sites. The company will sell available WAP ad inventory for mobile sites associated with Fox, FX, Speed, National Geographic Channel and Fox Reality Channel, in addition to NBC Entertainment, NBC Sports, Universal Pictures, USA Network, SCI FI Channel and Bravo.

Cupertino, Calif. - Apple (NASD: AAPL) said on Tuesday that it will begin offering exclusive audio and video downloads of every performance from the top 24 semifinalists on Fox's "American Idol." Song versions will cost $0.99 each, while videos will sell for $1.99 each. Fans will also be able to subscribe to automatic downloads of performances from favorite contestants the day after they after their on-air broadcast.

Los Angeles - RDF, the producers of the Fox series "Don't Forget the Lyrics," are creating a companion online game for the show that will allow viewers to upload videos of themselves singing, for consideration to become future contestants on the program. RDF is also working on a mobile game for its "The Two Coreys" series on Fox.

The answer to that question, my American Idol-loving friends, is that Drew has been asked to appear in court on Sierra’s behalf by her lawyer, says TMZ.  The former Idol star is facing two misdemeanor charges – disorderly intoxication and obstructing justice – and two felonies – cocaine possession and felony battery.

The misfortunes of Jessica Sierra, former American Idol finalist, continue.  Or, perhaps, her fortunes have improved.  It seems a mandatory addition to any wannabe celebrity’s portfolio is a sex tape, and today it has been announced that Sierra finally has hers (see Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Pam Anderson, et al, ad nauseum for more examples).

Organizers of the 2008 Super Bowl in Glendale, AZ have announced that Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers will play the halftime show, Reuters reports. Prince put on a memorable performance in 2007, with 140 million people watching. According to Reuters, the Super Bowl is annually the year’s No. 1 U.S. television event.

Los Angeles - ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox will earn an estimated $120 million this year from advertisements that run alongside their free TV shows streams on the Internet, FT.com reported, citing a representative from media buying agency Starcom. The revenue estimate is newsworthy given the networks' reluctance to release such data, and their contention in ongoing negotiations with striking writers that Internet streaming is mainly a promotional vehicle.

New York - News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) has reportedly lifted a moratorium on the use of Universal Music Group (NYSE: GE) artists in Fox TV shows and movies, ending a year-long ban that was instituted shortly after Universal sued News Corp.'s MySpace for copyright infringement, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

Redwood Shores, Calif. - Electronic Arts on Tuesday announced the North American release of its "The Simpsons Game," created in partnership with 20th Century Fox Licensing and Merchandising. The game features an original script penned by the show's writers, and is voiced by the original cast from the show. Separately, EA said that it signed actors Natasha Henstridge ("Species") and Carl Lumbly ("Alias") to appear in the live action, HD video sequences in the upcoming "Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath." Developed at EALA, the game is slated to ship in the spring of 2008.

Los Angeles - Film studio 20th Century Fox plans to release a special edition DVD of "Live Free or Die Hard" that includes a copy that can be played on a computer and certain Windows-based portable media players, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Consumers will enter a 16-digit code from the DVD case on their computers, and then be able to download a copy of the film to their computer or any portable device supporting Microsoft's PlaysForSure technology. Fox also plans to include the Digital Copy feature -- a first for the industry -- on other future DVDs.

Los Angeles - Capcom Interactive and Fox Mobile Entertainment on Wednesday announced plans to release a mobile game based on the Fox game show "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" The title will be available from U.S. carriers in the coming weeks.

Los Angeles - News Corp.'s Fox will offer free downloads of the premiere episodes of many of its fall television shows from Apple's iTunes Store.