BBC Worldwide has tapped Electronic Arts (NSDQ: ERTS) exec Robert Nashak to help build up its gaming offerings as EVP of Digital Entertainment. During the nearly two years he spent at EA, Nashak’s last role was as a VP charged with overseeing the company’s social gaming group. He previously led…

—Swedish music revenues: It’s long been regarded the “home of illegal file-sharing” but the Swedish music industry has seen its revenues increase 35 percent since 2000 to SEK1 billion (£86.4 million) a year, according to a report from analysts Trend Maze and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. From…

Now that the deal is done for Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) to acquire 51 percent of NBC Universaal from GE, pending regulatory approval, here’s a look at how it all unfolded: —Reaction To The Comcast-NBCU Deal In Tweets—Comcast-NBCU: Hulu Board Meetings Could Get Interesting; Premium Hulu ‘Not In The Cards’?—Video: Comcast-NBCU…

New ITV (LSE: ITV) chairman Archie Norman has high hopes for the broadcaster to shrink its reliance on advertising and get viewers paying for its ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 channels, if reports from the Mail on Sunday and Sunday Times are to be believed. We’re sceptical that enough people will…

By Mark Sweney: ITN is to freeze the pay of all staff next year and cut 29 posts as part of a restructuring designed to bring the company back to profitability after it recorded a pre-tax loss of £3m in the first six months of the year. The news supplier,…

England’s Football Association may not have had much of a say over last month’s groundbreaking online-only PPV England-Ukraine match - but now it’s embracing online-only distribution for itself… After testing exclusive free web streaming for England’s U21 UEFA Cup qualifier against Macedonia - two days before the more talked-about Ukraine…

Cable operator Liberty Global has bought German cable and broadband business Unitymedia for €2 billion ($2.96 billion; £1.79 billion) from its private equity owners BC Partners and Apollo Management. The deal expands Liberty’s worldwide network of companies and operators but it also means it takes on €1.5 billion of Unitymedia’s…

Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 grossed more than $300 million in sales in its first 24 hours just in the US and the UK, making it not just the biggest video game launch of the year, but the biggest entertainment launch, in any medium, ever. That most hyperbolic…

BT (NYSE: BT) is now using the cover of Project Canvas in its latest bid to get BSkyB’s channels on its Vision TV service. The telco has previously asked Ofcom to order cheaper wholesale channel availability from Sky. Now, in a submission (pdf) to Ofcom’s third pay TV consultation, it…

BSkyB (NYSE: BSY) is set to continue and expand its strategy of widening content distribution onto different platforms such as games consoles, computer operating systems and third-party devices, to counter the threat from rival, web-based TV services. CEO Jeremy Darroch told investors and analysts on a call to accompany its…

—Gamesload: The Deutsche Telekom-owned, German-based games download service is launching in 20 more European countries, including UK, Ireland, Sweden and Norway. The site, started in 2006, has 2,500 items to download. It still isn’t operating in France or Spain, but is offering to partner with distributors on a continent-wide basis.…

It’s already proved a thorn in the side of broadcasters once; now TVCatchup is trying again. The UK startup, about which little is known, is streaming 11 live British channels (from BBC, ITV (LSE: ITV), C4 and Five) to iPhone’s Quicktime via a new web adjunct (iphone.tvcatchup.com).

—YouTube auctions: Google’s YouTube is introducing an auction-based video ad platform in the UK which encourages advertisers to bid for keywords to appear in a new Promoted Video section in search results. Currently, Sponsored Links and are promoted through Google (NSDQ: GOOG) AdSense. From NMA. —ITV.com: After the hullabaloo of…

The business that operates one of six UK digital terrestrial TV multiplexes is now little more than a pension fund for ITV. COO John Cresswell, named interim CEO on Tuesday, has scrapped the sale of SDN and will instead use it as “asset backing” toward ITV’s pension scheme.

The online controller of the BBC’s Future Media & Technology department Anthony Rose rejects James Murdoch’s attack on the corporation, arguing that sharing its iPlayer technology will help rival broadcasters monetise online video content. Speaking at the launch of the MediaGuardian Innovation Awards 2010, at which Rose won Innovator of…

VMtv’s celebrity and lifestyle channel Living TV is expanding its online footprint with a new ad-funded VOD portal hosting short-form clips of shows and news. Liv is currently available on Livingtv.co.uk but will eventually be hosted on IPC Media fashion and style sites including Marie Claire, as Marketing reports.

Substituting ITV (LSE: ITV) regional news for proposed multimedia consortia from 2012 could be twice as expensive as simply funding conventional ITV regions replacements, Ofcom has warned. The Digital Britain policy paper advocated the exciting new prospect of eclectic, independently-funded news consortia (IFNCs). Ten Alps, Independent News & Media, Guardian…

—MySpace: The News Corp-owned social network is parting ways with its head of UK sales Nick Reid, who leaves at the end of October after three years. There’s no word on where the ex-Emap man is headed, but the departure is not thought to be linked to July’s restructure that…

Channel 4 CEO Andy Duncan is stepping down in January, after five years in charge. It comes at a period of huge uncertainty for C4, which is now seeking a CEO and a new chairman. The broadcaster’s TV travails are well-documented, but what must Duncan’s successor do online… ?