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…

—Sky/Brightcove: Sky Italia is picking Brighcove for its sky.it sites. This will extend the pay-TV company’s web efforts with advertising. Content includes Serie A matches. —Spotify: More real-world traction points. After getting a deal to sell its subs at Swedish Pressbyrån and 7-Eleven stores in September, it’s now taking it…

Vivendi (EPA: VIV) may not be able be able to agree a price to offload its 20 percent stake in the NBCU JV—but at home, the French multimedia group has no doubts about plans to grow its domestic TV empire. On Monday the company announced a deal to buy the…

NBC Universal’s Peacock Fund led a $9 million third round for online ad inventory manager The Rubicon Project. Peacock provided $6 million, with the rest provided by existing backers Clearstone Venture Partners and Mayfield Fund. With this round, Los Angeles-based Rubicon has raised $42 million since launching two years ago.…

While *News Corp*. COO Chase Carey, *NBC Universal* CEO Jeff Zucker and others have been out touting the desire to charge for some content through their Hulu JV, Hulu has been working out the logistics for doing just that. StreamingMedia.com’s report that a subscription beta test is underway internally would…

NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) is close to launching a sports video site in India, focused on live streaming, we have learned. Sab Kanaujia, the VP of Digital Product Strategy & Development, confirmed as much in a tweet last week, and for now it is doing closed trials with cricket streaming…

I’m sitting outside on a lovely Friday morning, sipping a cup of tea and catching up on the news. What’s wrong with this picture? It’s the final Friday of Wimbledon and I’m reduced to either watching a pirated feed from a place where the broadcasters value live sports or following…

A flurry of stories this week bit again at Hulu‘s hoped-for upcoming UK launch, again betting on a September launch. There’s little new here - We learned nine months ago the News Corp/NBC/Disney (NYSE: DIS) US online TV venture wanted to open shop in the UK depending on the outcome…

Forget the international date line. I crossed the international tennis line when I flew to the UK this weekend, leaving behind a place where I could follow most of Wimbledon live online at no charge on NBC, which even will stream the finals live, and ESPN (NYSE: DIS)  for one…

—BSkyB (NYSE: BSY) music: Long after plans of the scheme first surfaced, more detail on BSkyB’s music download subscription service, run in partnership with Universal. The service, called Sky Songs, will reportedly charge from £4.99 per month for five tracks to £11.99 for 20 tracks and two complete albums, according…

After their attempts to shut down The Pirate Bay in Sweden, Europe’s entertainment companies have a new target: Pablo Soto, a 30-year-old man behind three P2P file-sharing protocols, MP2P, Piolet and Blubster. On Thursday, he goes before a Madrid court charged with creating unfair competition for music companies—the Promusicae association…

Published reports to the contrary, I am hearing that nothing is set about online video portal Hulu’s plans to launch in the UK—including what form that presence would take. The Telegraph reported Wednesday that Hulu wants to launch in the UK this September with 3,000 hours of U.S. programming and…

Music, games and TV group Vivendi (EPA: VIV) says it can continue its impressive Q109 performance through 2009, despite the bulk of extra revenue coming from the integration of recent acquisitions. On Thursday, the company announced revenues 23.7 percent higher year on year at €6.5 billion (£5.8 million) for Q1,…

—BBC-Celebdaq: The BBC is resurrecting its online celebrity news-based stock exchange game Celebdaq. Though the game is still played by around 25,000 people a week, its popularity waned since the buzz surrounding it briefly prompted a spin-off BBC3 TV show in 2003. The re-launched game, developed by Monterosa, will incorporate…

—NBCU in Greece: NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) has launched its Universal Channel on Greek telco OTE’s Conn-x IPTV service. Series like Flipping Out and Flashpoint will get national premieres on the channel. Via C21. —Geewa games: The Czech Republic-based social casual games provider has partnered with the country’s big Seznam.cz…

Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge has backed the UK’s government plan to warn unauthorised downloaders. Appearing on a panel at Friday’s Digital Britain Summit, he proved difficult for chair Nick Higham to pin down, speaking initially only philosophically: “This is like a storm - it’s illegal file-sharing affecting every…

Latest European mobile news from our sister site mocoNews.net... —Orange iPhone TV: In France, the telco is rolling out an iPhone app that will allow subscribers to get more than 60 television channels live, including the country’s national channels, TNT channels and thematic channels, in what could become an interesting…

For years UK cinema-goers have been warned that copying, downloading or buying copied DVDs and CDs is a crime, in short adverts using the slogans “you wouldn’t steal a car, you wouldn’t steal a handbag…buying pirated films is stealing” and “don’t be a knock-off Nigel”. But now the film industry…

—Muzu: Irish video-sharing site Muzu has partnered with online ad sales house eType to step up its display and video-ad revenues. The deal covers the main Muzu.tv site as well as videos distributed on sites in Muzu’s distribution network. Muzu shows music labels’ videos on a 50-percent revenue-sharing basis and…