Denver - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV Networks hopes to expand the 500-song catalog available for its "Rock Band" music game franchise to as many as 5,000 by year's end, Billboard reports. By contrast, Activision's (NASD: ATVI) "Guitar Hero" currently offers fewer than 100 songs, but publisher Red Octane told Billboard that weekly music additions are planned this year. The latest version of Guitar Hero sold twice as many copies as Rock Band 2 last year, according to NPD data.

London - Activision's (NASD: ATVI) "Guitar Hero: World Tour" sold 3.4 million copies in the U.S. last year, or twice as many as MTV Networks' (NYSE: VIA) "Rock Band 2," which moved 1.7 million units, GameSpot reported, citing new data from market research firm NPD Group. The report notes that "Rock Band 2" did not become available for the PlayStation 3 or Nintendo Wii until shortly before the holidays.

New York - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV Networks on Monday announced the launch of Comedy Tribe, its newest vertical ad network, anchored by its ComedyCentral.com site. Launch publishers for the new ad network include parody video producer JibJab.com.

New York - Viacom (NYSE: VIA) has reached a deal with EchoStar (NASD: SATS) that will see content from its MTV Networks, BET and Paramount Pictures become available on Sling.com, the new video streaming site launched by the makers of the Slingbox set-top, the Wall Street Journal reported. Viacom also signed a similar carriage deal with EchoStar sister company DISH Network (NASD: DISH).

New York - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) Harmonix game studio, the unit of MTV Networks that developed "Rock Band," said on Monday that Pearl Jam will offer the reissue of its debut album "Ten" as a download for the game on the same day as its physical release on Mar. 24. Initially released in 1991, the album has since sold 12 million copies worldwide.

Los Angeles - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) Harmonix game studio, a unit of MTV Networks, disclosed recently in its Rock Band Community Zine that players have to date purchased over 28 million song download add-ons to the music game, Shacknews reported. The "Rock Band" store features just 345 tracks from 239 artists.

New York - Media conglomerate Viacom (NYSE: VIA), which owns Paramount Pictures and a range of cable channels under MTV Networks, announced on Thursday that it will cut 850 jobs across all sections of the company, or about 7% of its total workforce, citing evolving economic conditions. "We are moving rapidly to adapt to the challenges presented by the current economic environment," said Viacom president and CEO Philippe Dauman.

Orlando, Fla. - eJamming, a developer of real-time online music collaboration technology, said on Tuesday that it has licensed its flagship product to Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV Networks Music Group. The company's eJamming AUDiiO will allow MTV to integrate a social network that lets musicians find collaborators and play live together over the Internet into its virtual worlds and new music sites.

McLean, Va. - Clearspring Technologies, the developer of a widget network designed to connect publishers and advertisers to audiences on social networking sites, said on Thursday that MTV Networks will use its syndication platform to deploy selected widgets and related content. The deal will allow MTV to distribute its content across social networking sites, blogs and start pages.

Los Angeles - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace online social network announced on Monday that it has partnered with online video advertising company Auditude and Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV Networks, to enable ads to be inserted in audience-uploaded videos on MySpace.

New York - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV Networks on Monday debuted a new website that will host exclusively music videos from the company's expansive catalog. Like the Hulu video joint venture between NBC and News Corp., MTVmusic.com seeks to draw traffic from the Web's other huge music video depository, YouTube. The site, which also offers live performances and interviews, will allow users to embed music videos on blogs and social networking profiles, as well as rate and comment on music videos.

New York - Viacom's Atom.com digital comedy network said this week that it has signed a first-look production deal with writer-director Sandeep Parikh, whose "Legend of Neil" series on the site has generated 700,000 plays since debuting in August. In addition to new original content, Parikh is also in talks on future seasons of "Legend of Neil," about a man sucked into Nintendo's "The Legend of Zelda" game.

New York - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV Networks announced on Monday that it has acquired Social Project, the company with whom it collaborated on the development of its Flux social media platform.

New York - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV Networks on Monday announced the launch of Tribes, a series of demographic-focused vertical ad networks. The first such network, MTV Generation Tribe, launched today with Pepsi as its charter advertiser, and will include publishers focused on music, movies, teen sports, gaming and style. The company will also launch Tribes from CMT, Spike and VH1 this month, while a Comedy Central Tribe is set for the first quarter of 2009. Burst Media will serve ads and recruit and manage publishers for Tribes.

New York - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV Networks said this week that it will begin offering owners of its "Rock Band" video game to download full albums compatible with the game beginning next week, to include records from Judas Priest, the Cars and the Pixies.

New York - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV Networks said on Wednesday that it streamed more than 57 million mobile videos over the past year across all of its brands, representing 94% year-over-year growth. The figure includes 17 million streams from its MTV properties. Comedy Central now streams nearly 1 million mobile videos a month, up 28% on a year ago, while mobile streams are up 70% at Nickelodeon.

Cambridge, Mass. - Video game developer Harmonix, a unit of Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV Networks, announced on Tuesday that its version of "Rock Band" for the Nintendo Wii will ship to retailers on June 22. Published by Electronic Arts (NASD: ERTS), the $169 bundle will include guitar, microphone and drums accessories for the Wii.

Nashville, Tenn. - Guitar manufacturer Gibson has filed a second patent infringement lawsuit over guitar-replica controllers used in the video games "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band," this time suing "Rock Band" makers Harmonix, Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV Networks and Electronic Arts (NASD: ERTS). Gibson also last week filed suit against a number of retailers, including Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), for selling Activision's (NASD: ATVI) "Guitar Hero" in violation of its 1999 patent.

New York - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV Networks on Friday announced that MTV president Christina Norman is stepping down at the end of the month, to pursue new opportunities. MTV Music and Logo Group president Van Toffler will assume her duties until a replacement can be found.