– CNBC will begin streaming Asian markets news on its home page. The feature, dubbed CNBC Asia, will stream live from 5:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. EST. And on every Sunday night, the site will sharpen its focus with additional programs, including Squawk Australia, Asia Squawk Box, CNBC’s Cash Flow and Capital Connection.
— MTV’s college music network mtvU is partnering with online video manager ROO on a video player for more than 500 college newspapers’ websites within the Viacom unit’s College Publisher network. The player is customizable and varied set of on-demand content channels, including news, sports and entertainment from AP, Reuters and others.
— TBS’ new humor broadband network Super Deluxe has signed comedian Bob Odenkirk for an original series of shorts entitled Derek & Simon: The Show. The 12-episode comedy series premieres Wednesday, May 16, with a new episode each week. Odenkirk’s credits include writing for Saturday Night Live, The Ben Stiller Show, and Mr. Show, among others.
— AT&T touts success in IPTV service: AT&T has signed up an additional 15 thousand video subscribers to its IPTV service so far this year — that brings the total to 18,000, which it says is on target — and announced plans to roll out U-verse in the LA area soon. More details in the release. (AT&T also announced that U-Verse users would be able to program their DVR using wireless AT&T phones and devices.)
— AOL True Stories, a new site dedicated to documentary films, has struck a content partnership with Independent Television Service (ITVS). The site will offer advance expanded preview excerpts of ITVS’ originally produced documentaries Sentenced Home and Knocking before they premiere on PBS, ITVS’ broadcast distribution partner, as part of the Independent Lens series.
— Spike Lee touts Babelgum at Mip: Spike Lee has given Babelgum, the latest venture by Italian media magnate Silvio Scaglia, exclusive rights for three months to “Jesus Children of America,” his 21-minute segment/short film for the Unicef omnibus film “All the Invisible Children.” Online video service Babelgum has spent about $10 million to pay minimum guarantees for roughly 1,000 hours of programming across genres; it has deals with some 30 companies, including Reuters Television and ITN.
— MSFT-NY Television Festival team for producing contest: For the first time, xBox Live will make exclusive user-created entertainment content available worldwide for download.
— FearNet, the horror VOD channel and website joint-owned by Comcast, Sony Pictures Television, and Lionsgate, has expanded its social-networking capabilities, including a user-gen content area for members to post video, audio and text. The site has 50,000 registered users. In addition to the social net, director Darren Lynn Bousman is doing a production blog from the set of his film Saw IV.
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