HBO to offer select promotional content on HBO's new branded YouTube channel. Starting today, videos from HBO shows including "Flight of the Conchords," "The Wire," "Def Comedy Jam," "Real Time with Bill Maher," "Real Sports," "Extras," Stand Up Comedy, "Habla y Habla," and "Entourage," will be included in HBO's channel on YouTube. Full length episodes of HBO's original series "In Treatment" will also be available on the channel, as well as promotional content from HBO Films and HBO Documentary Films.

As the battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD becomes increasingly irrelevant while broadband Internet and video on demand emerge as the pipeline for programming and movies into the living room, VOD pioneer Studio 4 Networks reports a 300 percent increase in program views and 158 percent growth of views per VOD-enabled household.

In addition to shifting viewer consumption habits, the growth is attributed to multiple new system launches during the quarter. With the latest round of new carriage agreements, Studio 4 Networks now reaches 3 of the top 5 US cable and satellite services as well as the top 2 carriers in Canada among others.

CollegeHumor will bring its high-quality CHTV original videos to Joost. CollegeHumor's CHTV original videos will be made available on Joost through the newly launched "CHTV: CollegeHumor Original Videos" Joost channel. Initial programming includes a collection of CollegeHumor's most popular original series, including "Street Fighter: The Later Years," "The Michael Showalter Showalter," "Prank War," and "Hardly Working." Additionally, CollegeHumor will provide hit video satires "Brohemian Rhapsody," "Minesweeper: The Movie," and "Facebook Off." Moving forward, as CollegeHumor continues to launch new original videos the company will continue to make them available to Joost viewers through the CHTV Joost channel.

Ustream.TV is providing live streaming capabilities to Digg to enable a new series of virtual Digg Town Hall Meetings. The meetings, the first of which will be held on Monday, February 25th, will feature Digg founder Kevin Rose and CEO Jay Adelson providing attendees with updates on current Digg activities and addressing topics and questions proposed by the Digg community.

Ustream.TV enables people of all ages around the globe to connect with each other through the power of live, online video broadcasts. Since its launch in 2007, more than 190,000 broadcasters have joined Ustream.TV. Each day 9,000 hours of video are broadcast using the Ustream.TV platform with up to 600 simultaneous broadcasts taking place, attracting hundreds of thousands of viewers.

Classic TV shows from CBS are now available online. Full-length episodes of Star Trek, Melrose Place, Hawaii Five-O, MacGyver, and The Twilight Zone have been added to the CBS Audience Network, as well as its central streaming-video site. All of the shows are free and ad-supported. Currently select seasons of each show are available, however CBS has suggested that more episodes and additional TV shows will be added in the future.

Ultimate Fighting Championship announces that Yahoo! will be the new online distributor for UFC live PPV events, via Yahoo! Sports. Fans can view the next UFC event, UFC 82: PRIDE OF A CHAMPION, on March 1, 2008 at www.sports.yahoo.com/ufc82.

“This relationship with Yahoo! is an important step for the UFC to build its global distribution platform for live pay-per-view events,” said Dana White, UFC President. “We are looking forward to working with Yahoo! Sports to expand our reach and bring the sport of mixed martial arts to fight fans in every corner of the world in every possible language.”

NewTeeVee reported last week that online video firm Revver was purchased by LiveUniverses' Brad Greenspan for a little less than $5 million. Revver attempted to pioneer a new business model through which content creators and distributors shared revenue every time a video is downloaded. Revver is now expected to operate independently as part of LiveUniverse with about 25 employees.

Online video start-ups have struggled in the shadow of YouTube who hosted 2.6 billion video streams in December 2007, which is more than seven times the number of the second largest video site Yahoo. The deal demonstrates the difficulty online video firms are facing when trying to compete against Google's YouTube.

What are your thoughts on the Revver acquisition by LiveUniverse?

NBC Digital Entertainment and NBC Universal Cable Entertainment announce plans for streaming vintage television content on their entertainment websites. Full episode streaming of classic, fan-favorite series including "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour," "Kojak," "Miami Vice," the original "Battlestar Galactica," "A-Team" and "Emergency" will be offered on NBC.com, SCIFI.com, ChillerTV.com and SleuthChannel.com beginning this month.

"NBC Universal has a tremendous library of quality content and we are very excited to re-introduce these classic shows to a new web audience," said Vivi Zigler, Executive Vice President, NBC Digital Entertainment.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of “Online Video 2007 - 2011: Views, Category Share and Usage Analytics” to their offering

Online Video 2007 - 2011: Views, Category Share and Usage Analytics is a site, brand, network and aggregator analysis of video views delivered in 2007, augmented by historical data going back to 1998 and rigorous forward looking trend based forecasts.

National Lampoon announced a licensing deal to place content on Dailymotion. The agreement will bring National Lampoon’s web videos to Dailymotion’s global audience. In turn, the two companies will share in advertising revenues generated by the additional content.

The agreement gives Dailymotion access to National Lampoon's acclaimed comedy programming, including its hugely popular webisodes, which have drawn praise from top critics nationwide. National Lampoon will also be providing premium comedy content in HD on the newly launched Dailymotion HD player

AT&T U-verse IPTV and Internet services are now available to more than 135,000 living units in and around the Cleveland and Akron areas. Since introducing U-verse TV services in the Cleveland area in June 2007, AT&T has made the service available to more northeastern Ohio customers on an ongoing basis. U-verse TV is offered today in parts of more than 65 communities, including Akron, Canton, Cleveland and Mentor. There are plans to continue reaching even more customers.

Toshiba has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.

The NAB Show will expand its IPTV offerings with a new conference series and super session that will provide telecommunications and wireless professionals with insight into converging technologies, state-of-the-art concepts and equipment for IPTV and other next generation video business. Telephony and Broadcast Engineering Magazine, in conjunction with NAB, will also feature an IPTV Pavilion showcasing the latest products and services centered on content distribution and delivery. The events will take place April 14-17 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas.

Tilgin has signed a worldwide sales and marketing co-operation agreement with Nokia Siemens Networks a globally recognized system integrator regarding the sale of pre-integrated Tilgin IPTV set-top boxes to selected customers.

According to the agreement Tilgin will be promoted as a preferred supplier of Nokia Siemens, with respect to Tilgin products certified with the system integrator’s technical platform, which is known for its industry leading solution. Under the agreement, the Tilgin IPTV Mood product series will be specifically tailored for compatibility with the evolution of Nokia Siemens' technical platform end eco-partners for IPTV solutions. The agreement has an initial term of two years.

Espial has signed a reseller agreement with a major Network Equipment Vendor for its Evo IPTV Service Platform. According to the terms of the agreement, the NEV will resell Espial's Evo Service Platform to Telco and Cable operators within targeted regions in Europe. Evo IPTV Service Platform will be offered as part of a complete, turn-key IPTV solution for operators. The identity of the NEV is not disclosed due to confidentiality and competitive reasons.