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Google Inc. on Monday announced partnerships with media and Internet companies that will provide content for its new television service that debuts this month in devices made by Sony Corp. and Logitech International. Amazon Inc.'s Video on Demand will give Google TV viewers instant access to more than 75,000 movies and TV shows for a fee and Netflix Inc. will make video streaming available. "One of our goals with Google TV is to finally open up the living room and enable new innovation from content creators, programmers, developers and advertisers," Ambarish Kenghe, developer product manager for Google TV, said in a blog post.

Once considered the scourge of traditional entertainment, YouTube is making an aggressive new play to earn friends in Hollywood. The Google Inc.-owned Web video giant Thursday unveiled a new section on its site and an advertising program designed specifically to showcase TV episodes and feature films. YouTube's effort to play nice with studios and networks underscores how important Hollywood's content is in the company's efforts to increase revenue and develop a profitable business model.

M-Go, a Burbank-based online entertainment service founded by DreamWorks Animation and Technicolor, has signed licensing deals with five of the six major Hollywood studios, the company is expected to announce Wednesday. The deals with NBCUniversal, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros. help fill out the library of movie and television titles M-Go will offer when it launches in the fourth quarter. Unlike Netflix, M-Go doesn't plan to offer unlimited video for a flat monthly fee. Nor does it plan to offer free television reruns, unlike Hulu or the networks' sites.

"Community," NBC's quirky Thursday night comedy, has been a slacker in the ratings. The sitcom about misfit community college students, starring Joel McHale and Chevy Chase, has averaged about 4 million viewers an episode this season, not enough to guarantee survival in the dog-eat-dog world of network television. The tepid ratings prompted NBC to put the show on hiatus. Still, despite its struggles, the series is headed toward the promised land of syndication. Just a few years ago, a syndication sale for a modest performer like "Community" would have been unthinkable.

For millions of U.S. consumers, one screen in the living room is not enough. A new study from KPMG finds that 60% of American television viewers are devoted multitaskers, watching TV and accessing the Internet at the same time. "We continue to see that multitasking is getting bigger and bigger," said Paul Wissmann, leader of KPMG's U.S. Media & Telecommunications practice. "It's getting to older generations as well, as there are more and more options in front of them. " IN CASE YOU MISSED IT  SAG 2013:   Winners  | Quotes  |  Photo Booth   |  Backstage  |  Best & Worst That has implications for network programmers and advertisers, which can no longer be sure which screen is drawing the viewer's eyes, Wissmann said.

When singer-songwriter Alicia Keys wanted to create an animated children's television series about the exploration of music, she turned to Burbank animation firm Bento Box for ideas. Bento's producers suggested an alternative: Instead of a TV show, how about an interactive storytelling app? That idea became "The Journals of Mama Mae and LeeLee," which was released through the iTunes store last fall for $3.99 and expands to Android mobile devices and tablets this month. Featuring original compositions from Keys, the animated series uses music, games, rewards and a journal to tell the story of a relationship between a young girl and a mystical grandmother.

Earlier we showed some of the first April Fools' Day pranks posted online by tech companies, with Google notably leading the way, but more companies have joined in on the humorous holiday with pranks of their own. From Netflix's super-specific movie and TV show suggestion categories to Microsoft's April Fools' Day jab at Google, tech companies have been relentless with their pranks Monday. You can check out the first dose of pranks in our earlier post or in our photo gallery , and you can find more pranks below.

As part of its ongoing efforts to get more people watching on weekends, CNN has announced that "Super Size Me" director Morgan Spurlock will be getting his own series, starting in April 2013. Spurlock's show, "Inside Man," will take the adventurous documentarian inside such subcultures as gun lovers, marijuana growers, migrant farm workers and end-of-life caregivers. "Inside Man" will be paired with globe-trotting chef Anthony Bourdain's untitled new show in an effort to use their celebrity to combat the news network's ratings woes.

Nielsen is rethinking how it measures television viewing. Responding to pressure from the television industry, the ratings company is making a bigger push to measure viewing in a way that reflects the different means by which television content is distributed and consumed in the digital age. The first step for Nielsen is to redefine what it considers a "television home. " Starting this fall, homes that receive content on their television through video-game consoles or through broadband connections will be included in its sample.