Englewood, Colo. - Liberty Media's (NASD: LINTA) Starz has announced plans to offer the first two episodes of its first original series, "Crash," as free previews via the video-on-demand services of Comcast, Cox, Charter, Time Warner Cable, Verizon FiOS TV, Mediacom and Insight. The previews will run from Oct. 1 through Oct. 17, when the series makes its official broadcast debut. Starz has also partnered with Best Buy to give away 100,000 "Crash" DVD previews to customers purchasing TV shows on DVD.

Englewood, Colo. - Liberty Media (NASD: LINTA) announced on Wednesday that it plans to split off its Liberty Entertainment group, which includes the company's stakes in DirecTV, Starz, FUN Technologies, GSN, WildBlue Communications and Liberty Sports, into a separate public company.

Los Angeles - Vongo, the Web video-on-demand service launched by Liberty Media's (NASD: LINTA) Starz unit back in 2006, is being shut down at the end of next month, according to a note on the website.

New York - Verizon (NYSE: VZ) announced on Tuesday a multi-year deal to offer Starz Play, a broadband video service from the Liberty Media (NASD: LINTA) unit, to its 8.5 million broadband subscribers. The $5.99 per month Starz Play service will offer both live Starz programming, and downloads of 2,500 movies and videos such as "Spider-Man 3" and "Ratatouille" for unlimited viewing for as long as a subscription is current. The deal will also see Verizon offer Starz products to its FiOS TV, FiOS Internet and DSL subscribers.

Englewood, Colo. - Starz Entertainment, the pay-TV movie network and unit of Liberty Media, said on Monday that it has acquired multi-year distribution rights to more than 100 films from Screen Media Ventures, for release on its Vongo online movie download service. The deal includes films such as "Piranha," "Mojave Moon," "Men Seeking Women" and "Johnny Skidmarks." Vongo charges $9.99 per month for access to more than 3,500 movie and video selections, as well as a live, streaming Starz TV channel.

New York - Liberty Media's cable TV venture Starz Media said on Monday that it has licensed 40 hours of popular Japanese manga content for distribution on its soon-to-relaunch Manga.com, as well as to independent site Heavy.com. The deal includes popular franchises "Ghost in the Shell," "Astro Boy" and "Ninja Scroll."

Telegent Systems, a provider of single-chip solutions enabling free-to-air and pay-per-view mobile TV in cellular phones and portable media devices, recently appointed Stephen Zadig as vice president of global operations.  A seasoned semiconductor executive, Zadig joins Telegent Systems with more than thirty years of operations management experience.

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Facebook has hired Chamath Palihapitiya, a former AOL marketing executive to the post of Vice President of Product Marketing and Operations, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The 30-year-old Palihapitiya, who has been an investor at the Mayfield Fund venture capital firm since December 2005, will gradually make the transition out of his current job over the next two weeks before moving to his new role at Facebook.

El Segundo, Calif. - Satellite TV provider DirecTV has announced plans to launch a range of new HD channels in the fall, and reconfirmed its plans to have up to 100 national HD channels by year's end. The company plans to launch six new HD channels from Discovery Communications, five from Starz, and other new offerings from The History Channel and A&E. DirecTV also plans to offer local HD channels in 75 U.S. markets by the end of 2007.

Palo Alto, Calif. - Azureus, the provider of a file-sharing program that uses the BitTorrent protocol, on Thursday announced the launch of Vuze (formerly codenamed Zudeo), a peer-to-peer service that will deliver high-definition programming from providers including the BBC and Showtime Networks.

Los Angeles - Liberty Media's Starz Entertainment cable TV network has sued Disney's Buena Vista Television unit, over the sale of Disney movies on Web services like iTunes and Wal-Mart Downloads for which Starz claims it held an exclusive license, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Palo Alto, Calif. - Azureus, a BitTorrent-based peer-to-peer file-sharing application, announced on Monday that it has signed an agreement with Liberty Media's Starz, to distribute Starz video content on its Zudeo file-sharing network.

Englewood, Colo. - Liberty Media's Starz Media on Tuesday announced a multi-year licensing agreement with Vongo, Starz Entertainment's broadband video download service. The deal will provide Vongo with more than 250 new movies and other video titles for on-demand rental, or purchase and download through its service. Vongo offers unlimited streaming access to 1,000 movies and 2,500 videos, as well as a streaming Starz TV channel, for $9.99 per month.