Word leaked earlier this week that YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG) was going to start renting out premium movie content, putting it in a position to compete directly with iTunes. But now there’s a snag. Executives at Fox and Paramount both say they won’t move ahead with a deal because “YouTube and…

Judging by today’s hearings, some members of Congress are willing to consider radical measures to rid the internet of “rogue” websites accused of piracy. Among them: getting search engines like Google (NSDQ: GOOG) to tweak their search results, and ordering ISPs to block certain websites from U.S. viewers altogether. Until…

They may be embroiled in a legal fight to the death, but that doesn’t mean Google (NSDQ: GOOG) can’t be admiring of Viacom’s employees. Alex Carloss, executive VP of digital distribution at Paramount, has been lured over to YouTube, according to AllThingsD, marking the second Paramount-to-YouTube hire since December.

Viacom’s Paramount Home Entertainment will provide Redbox with its new releases on the same day they go on sale, under a long-term agreement. Paramount is joining Sony (NYSE: SNE), Lions Gate, and Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS)—all of which let Redbox rent their new DVDs on the same day they go…

Another win for fledgling premium net Epix HD: a deal with Dish Network to offer the service to those of its 14.1 million customers who subscribe to HD. It’s the first national deal for the net, which already has signed up *Charter*, Cox , Verizon FiOS, Mediacom and NCTC. When…

Paramount Home Entertainment (PHE) and Redbox have extended their trial rental rev-share agreement by six more months. The two companies first announced the deal in August; it gave Viacom-owned Paramount an undisclosed percentage of the $1-per-night fees that Redbox charged for any of the studio’s movies it rented, for four…

Last month, Viacom (NYSE: VIA) CEO Phillipe Dauman confidently said he expected new premium network Epix to add more distribution partners before its fall launch but the Oct. 30 launch date announced this week still has only one launch partner: Verizon (NYSE: VZ) FiOS. The joint venture of Viacom, Paramount,…

Funny how certain Hollywood studios have chosen to embrace certain new movie distribution strategies, and yet fight hard against the evolution of others. Warner Bros., Lionsgate, Sony (NYSE: SNE) Pictures and Paramount have all agreed to seed a new download-to-own movie store from DivX (NSDQ: DIVX) and film site Film…

The Hollywood/Redbox saga continues, though Paramount has added an interesting twist. The Viacom-owned movie studio is testing out a new rental revenue-sharing deal with Redbox, which is different than the wholesale deals the DVD kiosk company currently has with Sony (NYSE: SNE) Pictures and Lionsgate. The LAT reports that Paramount…

Update: A source has confirmed that the talks are ongoing, but are preliminary (not advanced, as FT reported), and include the other studios as well, besides Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Fox. This is more of a backend physical production+distribution merger talks to save on costs.

The high-profile premium movie JV from Viacom (NYSE: VIA), Paramount, MGM and Lionsgate, now called Epix, is still optimistic on getting a distribution deal on cable or satellite by fall this year, despite worsening economic conditions. The JV has already announced that it will go ahead with an online/broadband launch…

Back when I started writing about cable programming, if a wannabe network couldn’t get distribution on cable, it tried satellite in the hopes that would put pressure on cable or at least give the network a way to move off paper and into some homes. If it couldn’t get satellite,…

So much has been written about the new premium movie channel that is supposed to be launched jointly by Viacom (NYSE: VIA) with MGM, Lionsgate and its own Paramount Pictures in the fall of 2009, including the fact that it may have run into some trouble on the distribution side,…

Or you could just keep your existing PC/Mac and shell out $15 for the iTunes download… In its first step towards setting up a digital content storefront to rival that of iTunes, Dell has signed on Paramount Pictures to entice consumers with Iron Man preloaded into new computers—for an additional…

Paramount Pictures, the Viacom-owned movie studio, has made its first gaming related acquisition: it has bought Seattle-based game developer ScreenLife, the creator of the popular DVD game “Scene It?”. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but last week SeattlePI first broke the story and mentioned that the deal…

It was leaked weeks ago but the players involved in the new premium network wouldn’t confirm officially: Mark Greenberg is president and CEO of the new premium entertainment JV recently announced by Viacom (NYSE: VIA) with MGM, Lionsgate and its own Paramount Pictures. Greenberg had a long career at Showtime,…

One sign that a company is ultra serious about a new venture: when the CEO of a major media company does press calls on a Sunday afternoon. Viacom (NYSE: VIA) CEO Philippe Dauman was doing just that today, as he explained the surprising decision to band together with Lionsgate and…

Something unusual happened for iTunes users when Juno made its DVD debut this week: the Fox movie was also for sale as an iTunes download for $14.99 as the News Corp (NYSE: NWS) unit tests downloads of new releases. It’s not a wholesale change—Fox told Variety more movies are likely…

—*NBCU* to offer original webisodes of its primetime shows: NBC Digital Entertainment will release original web content based on its existing primetime shows this July, Variety reports.. The webisodes, based on such TV shows as The Office, 30 Rock and Heroes, will be connected to the on-air content. Also in…