New York - Media conglomerate Viacom (NYSE: VIA) announced on Monday that it has formed a joint venture to create a premium TV channel and video-on-demand service that will feature classic and new movies and TV shows from five studios. Scheduled to launch in the fall of 2009, the service will feature programming from Viacom's Paramount and Paramount Vantage, MGM, United Artists and Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF).

Morristown, N.J. - Access Integrated Technologies (Access IT) (NASD: AIXD), a provider of digital cinema projection systems for movie theaters, announced on Tuesday a massive deal with four major movies studios, to provide movies to up to 10,000 digital cinema systems in the U.S. and Canada.

Hollywood, Calif. - Confirming its support for Toshiba's HD DVD format in the wake of Warner Bros. defection to Sony's rival Blu-ray format, Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) Paramount Home Entertainment on Thursday announced its slate of HD DVD releases for the first quarter. The will include "Zodiac," "Beowulf," "Into the Wild" and "The Kite Runner." Viacom's DreamWorks Animation also remains committed to HD DVD, and will offer "Bee Movie" in March.

If a studio is going to experiment with the launch of a major motion picture on the internet, the Jackass franchise is probably a smart bet. The Hollywood Reporter said today that Paramount Digital Entertainment and MTV New Media, co-producers on Jackass 2.5, will release the film at blockbuster.jackass.com, skipping theaters entirely in a rare move for a franchise that has already had two box office hits.

Singapore - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) Paramount Digital Entertainment unit has partnered with Hungama Mobile to develop and distribute mobile content for Paramount titles in India, Variety reports. The mobile content will be released to promote Paramount's theatrical releases in the country. "This deal is really all about synergy and having Hungama Mobile do for us what they do for Bollywood releases," Paramount Digital Entertainment VP, Interactive and Mobile Entertainment, Asia Pacific, Pradeep Mittur, told Variety. "At this stage, this relationship is more about promotion of our movies, than trying to develop a new revenue stream."

Santa Clara, Calif. - VUDU, the developer of a set-top box that features on-demand movies licensed from the major studios and many independents, announced on Thursday that it has signed deals with Universal, Paramount and Lionsgate to add HD movies to its service. The HD films will be available to VUDU owners during the traditional home video and video-on-demand windows. Santa Clara, Calif.-based VUDU's Internet-connected set-top box went on sale last month for $399; consumers also pay fees to rent or permanently purchase titles from the rotating library of 5,000 films.

Los Angeles - Looking to offer a relatively cheap alternative in China, the world's largest pirate DVD market, Hollywood movie studios Warner Bros. (NYSE: TW) and Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) Paramount and DreamWorks have partnered to sell new DVDs for $2.95 there as soon as two months after a film's U.S. premiere, Variety reported.

London - Apple on Wednesday launched video downloads at its U.K. iTunes Store, initially offering American TV shows from partners including ABC, and MTV Networks' Nickelodeon, MTV and Paramount Comedy.

Los Angeles - Vivendi's Sierra Entertainment announced on Thursday that it will publish "The Spiderwick Chronicles," a game based on the best-selling book series and forthcoming film from Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Films. The title is currently in development at Stormfront Studios for Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS and the PC for release in February 2008.

San Diego - Eyespot, a provider of online video editing software, said on Wednesday that Paramount pictures is using its technology to allow film fans to create their own movie trailer mash-ups. The first title under the agreement is the upcoming film, "Shooter." More than 20 clips from the movie, as well as its official trailer, still photos, sound effects and music from the original score will be made available online to Eyespot users.

New York - Media conglomerate Viacom announced on Tuesday that it will distribute MTV, BET and Paramount content on Joost, the peer-to-peer-based streaming TV platform launched by the creators of Kazaa and Skype.

San Francisco - Apple announced on Tuesday that its iTunes Store has now sold more than 2 billion songs, with over a billion of them sold in the last year alone.