New York  - MTV's former President Christina Norman is named CEO of Discovery Communications' (NASD: DISCA) forthcoming Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). Ms. Norman will work alongside OWN Television President Robin Schwartz to greenlight programming for the network's late 2009 or early 2010 launch, on what is currently the Discovery Health Channel, available in 70 million homes, reports AdAge.

Los Angeles - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV is reportedly developing a reality show produced by Mark Burnett based on its forthcoming karaoke video game "Rock Band 2," if casting calls posted to Craigslist in Los Angeles are to be believed, Variety reports. "The creator of 'Rock Star' and 'The Apprentice,' Mark Burnett and MTV bring you the first show based on the new game 'Rock Band 2,'" reads the ad, which is looking for "four people to form their own band and show us their stuff live on stage for the chance to win the Ultimate Rock Band Experience."

New York - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV is set to launch a new Web-based interactive TV social game, "Backchannel," that lets viewers comment on shows like "The Hills" in real-time, and garner points when their comments are liked by others, as well as when they predict which comments from others will become popular. The company partnered with game developer Area/Code on Backchannel, which will make its debut during the season premiere of "The Hills" next Monday.

New York - Media conglomerate Viacom (NYSE: VIA) on Monday announced deals with Amazon's (NASD: AMZN) CreateSpace, to offer a number of series on its MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and VH1 networks for the first time on DVD through the on-demand publishing service. Series to be initially available exclusively on Amazon.com through the service include "Celebrity Rehab," "Drake & Josh" and "My Super Sweet 16."

New York - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV on Wednesday introduced a website that will allow viewers to identify the roughly 1,500 music cues -- outside of music videos or performances -- that are integrated into its programming each week.

New York - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV Games and Harmonix studio said on Monday that "Rock Band 2," the sequel to their 15 million unit-selling music game with vocal, guitar and drum accessories, will be released to retailers in September. The game will initially be exclusive to the Xbox 360, but then launch on other platforms before the end of the year.

Seattle - RealNetworks (NASD: RNWK) on Monday unveiled a "Music Without Limits" initiative, which includes the launch of a new DRM-free Rhapsody MP3 store and 100,000 album giveaway, full-song streaming and MP3 sales partnerships with iLike, MTV (NYSE: VIA) and Yahoo (NASD: YHOO), and an unlimited mobile subscription service deal with Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ). The Rhapsody MP3 catalog will include more than 5 million songs from all four major labels, available both for purchase and as full-song samples (25 songs per person per month) -- a feature not available at Apple's iTunes Store.

Philadelphia - Comcast (NASD: CMCSA) announced on Monday that it has added full-length streaming episodes of Viacom-owned programs including "South Park," "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" to the offering at its Fancast.com service. As part of the deal, Comcast's video-on-demand service will also expand carriage of standard and HD content from MTV and BET.

New York - Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA) today reported that its quarterly net profit rose 33 percent, beating Wall Street forecasts, on strong sales of the "Rock Band" video game and higher advertising revenue at its cable networks, including MTV Networks. The company said that revenue for the period rose 15%, to $3.12 billion, from $2.72 billion in the first quarter of 2007.

Basking Ridge, N.J. - Verizon Wireless announced on Friday that Viacom's MTV Tr3s and Disney's ESPN Radio have launched mobile TV channels exclusively for its V CAST Mobile TV service. The company also launched MySpace Mobile, and mobile sites for Viacom's MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and CMT for subscribers to its "Mobile Web 2.0" service.

Cambridge, Mass. - Harmonix, the video game studio unit of Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV Networks that created the "Rock Band" music game, announced on Thursday that more than 6 million song downloads have been purchased for the game since its launch just over three months ago. Over 70 songs are currently available for purchase and download for the game, priced at $0.99 to $2.99 per track, with the vast majority selling for $1.99. "The success of Rock Band downloadable content to date firmly reinforces our vision and its potential as a platform for music discovery," said Paul DeGooyer, SVP DVD, Gaming and Audio, MTV.

New York - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV and Dickhouse Productions on Wednesday announced the official launch of JackassWorld.com, a site devoted to the MTV hit show "Jackass" and its spin-offs. The daily-updated site will feature original programming, unreleased footage and will eventually host Big Brother, the skate culture magazine that was the inspiration for Jackass. MTV said JackassWorld.com has generated over 2.6 million streams of "Jackass 2.5," an hour-long collection of clips, since the site launched in beta just over two months ago.

New York - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV said this week that it will send a team of citizen journalists to cover elections in Super Tuesday primary states, who will stream live video broadcasts throughout the day via mobile phones to its MTVNews.com and ChooseorLose.com sites. The citizen journalists will be equipped with Nokia N95 mobile devices, which will capture video that will then be streamed live onto the Web using technology from Flixwagon.