Los Angeles - Rainbow Media's (NYSE: CVC) newly-acquired Sundance Channel plans to launch a new video-on-demand service for cable and satellite systems that will offer some of the many films submitted and screened at the Sundance Film Festival that did not receive a theatrical release, the Los Angeles Times reports. Sundance Selects aims to offer 50 new titles a year, more than a third of which will be nonfiction; movies on the service are expected to cost $7 or $8 each. Rainbow also operates the independent film video-on-demand services IFC in Theaters and IFC Festival Direct. The company told the Times it currently has no plans to bring Sundance Selects online.

New York - Sundance Channel founder Robert Redford, who along with partners NBC Universal and Showtime, sold the network to Cablevision last month for $500 million, plans to produce a series of short films for mobile phones for the network, The New York Times reported. Redford, who will continue to consult for the network, told The Times he would probably direct and possibly appear in the short films.

Bethpage, N.Y. - Cable TV service provider Cablevision's (NYSE: CVC) Rainbow Media Holdings announced on Tuesday that it has completed its $496 million acquisition of Sundance Channel from previous owners NBC Universal, Showtime Networks and entities controlled by Sundance founder Robert Redford.

New York - News Corporation and NBC Universal said on Wednesday that their as-yet-unnamed digital distribution joint venture has signed a raft of deals with new content partners, including Fuel TV, Oxygen, Speed, Sundance Channel and TV Guide. The video destination and distribution network, set to launch this summer, will offer full-length shows, clips and movies through distribution partners including AOL, MSN, MySpace, Yahoo, Comcast and CNET.