Warner Bros. just became the latest studio to announce cut backs, unveiling plans to eliminate 800 jobs, about 10% of its global workforce, through layoffs, attrition and outsourcing. The move follows similar cut backs at Paramount Pictures and NBC Universal, as well as earlier downsizing moves by Warner Bros. parent Time Warner. In a memo to staffers announcing the cuts, Warner Bros. toppers Barry Meyer and Alan Horn called the decision painful but necessary.

Los Angeles - Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) Warner Bros. studio is laying off nearly 800 of its employees, or 10% of its total staff, according to an internal memo posted by Deadline Hollywood Daily.

Las Vegas - MOD Systems, a provider of digital media download kiosks to retailers, said on Thursday that it has signed agreements to distribute digital video content from Warner Brothers and Paramount Digital Entertainment via downloads to SD flash memory cards in retail stores. MOD already offers nearly 4,000 titles from studios including Anchor Bay and Image Entertainment, in addition to nearly 4 million music tracks for download from its kiosks.

Burbank, Calif. - Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) Warner Bros. said on Wednesday that its "The Dark Knight" sold a record 1.7 million units on Blu-ray in one week, and is set to become the best-selling 2008 title overall this week. The company said combined Blu-ray and DVD sales worldwide during the first week totaled 13.5 million. Warner Bros. added that so far, the digital copy of the film included on Blu-ray and Special Edition DVD has been activated nearly 300,000 times by consumers.

Los Angeles - Citing rampant piracy Warner Bros. (NYSE: TWX) is withdrawing from the DVD market in South Korea, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company plans to shutter its DVD operations there, and instead assign licensing and distribution rights to a local company. Warner Bros. recently launched a video-on-demand service in the region that is seeking to stem piracy by offering films before their official DVD release dates.

London - Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) Warner Bros. announced on Wednesday that it will be the first Hollywood studio to make its new release movies available digitally in China through video-on-demand services. The first distribution deal is with Union Voole Technology's Voole.com, which will rent movies like "I Am Legend," "Speed Racer" and "Fool's Good" for between 59 cents and $1.02 per title.

Las Vegas - Martin Cooper and Donald Linder, developers of the world's first cell phone, were among 12 prominent industry leaders who have been inducted into the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) announced.

Los Angeles - Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) Warner Bros. Digital Distribution unit plans to try to curb piracy of its films in South Korea by making them available on video-on-demand systems two weeks before they are released on DVD in the country, Variety reports. "According to the Korean Film Council, more than 47% of people surveyed said they had downloaded movies from the Internet at least once," Harrison Lee, managing director of Warner Home Video Korea, told Variety.