Internet Programming

The founders of Joost are trying to map television's future. But they're starting with a bunch of reruns. Joost, the Internet TV outfit started by the team behind the Kazaa file-sharing program and Skype Internet phone service, said Tuesday that it had struck deals for shows and shorter clips from Time Warner Inc., Sony Corp., the National Hockey League and Hasbro Inc.

Several media giants are teaming up to challenge Google Inc. and its YouTube video-sharing service, seeking to blunt their incursion into the entertainment business. News Corp. and NBC Universal plan to announce as soon as today that they are creating an online video site stocked with TV shows and movies, plus clips that users can modify and share with friends, according to people close to the negotiations. The two companies enlisted help from some of Google's biggest Internet rivals.

Twenty years ago, CBS producer Susan Zirinsky helped inspire the character of Jane Craig, the hard-charging television producer played by Holly Hunter in "Broadcast News" who fiercely resists the devolution of news into show business. Now Zirinsky herself is on the frontier of melding journalism and entertainment in an online project for one of CBS' prime-time shows.

A Chicago employment consulting firm did the math and figured out that the people who watch the NCAA men's basketball tournament on their computer at work will cost the nation's employers $1.2 billion in productivity. "We here at CBS want to apologize for slowing down the American economy for two days every year, but that is the price you pay for March Madness," Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports, said with a laugh Tuesday.

A group of U.S. venture capital firms, including Disney's investment arm, was set to announce today that it had invested $23.5 million in UUSee, a major Chinese video website. UUSee distributes live and on-demand TV from CCTV, China's largest TV broadcaster; CSAT, China's largest satellite TV company; and Beijing TV. The investment round is being led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Highland Capital Partners. It included Steamboat Ventures, the venture-capital vehicle of Walt Disney Co.

In a victory for the Writers Guild of America, a National Labor Relations Board judge has rejected an NBC Universal complaint that the union illegally hampered the production of Web episodes of such TV shows as "The Office" and "Heroes." NBC had alleged that the guild pressured "show runners" -- writer-producers who oversee shows -- to refrain from overseeing the writing of "webisodes."

Viacom Inc., owner of MTV Networks and Paramount Pictures, said Tuesday that it planned to deliver free films and television shows through Joost, a rival to YouTube run by pioneers of Internet calling and music sharing. The companies didn't disclose the terms of the agreement, which is multiyear, said Jeremy Zweig, a spokesman for New York-based Viacom. Joost's website is expected to begin operations sometime next month.

Warner Music Group has signed a deal to allow its entire catalog to be played over the fast-growing social networking music service Last.fm. The deal with Warner is the first with one of the major labels, and the network's co-founder, Martin Stiksel, said it was in talks with the other three major labels and content holders. With more than 15 million active users per month, Last.

Google Inc.'s YouTube.com agreed to display warnings on its website in Japanese not to upload copyrighted materials to the popular Internet service, a group of Japanese media firms said Tuesday. The decision comes as a part of ongoing talks between YouTube and the Japan Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers, which last year pushed the San Mateo, Calif.-based company to erase 30,000 video clips from its pages because of copyright infringement.

Viacom Inc.'s demand Friday that YouTube remove more than 100,000 clips from the popular online video site is more than brinksmanship at the bargaining table. It's a battle of the brands. The entertainment conglomerate's insistence that YouTube remove such coveted content as highlights from "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" signals that it believes these brands have enough cachet to attract an online audience, with or without YouTube.