Sony Corp said on Wednesday it was in exclusive negotiations with movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc on a possible takeover that could bolster its film library but put a dent in its finances.

CBS unveiled a fall primetime schedule that has the fewest new hours and shows of any broadcast network, with three new dramas (including "CSI: New York)" and two sitcoms.

Coming soon to a T-shirt near you: trailers for "I, Robot," the upcoming sci-fi thriller starring Will Smith. In the never-ending search to capture the attention of consumers bombarded by commercials, billboards and a massive array of other advertisements, 20th Century Fox debuted an innovative guerilla marketing tactic at the E3 gaming expo in Los Angeles last week: T-shirts embedded with video screens that played "I, Robot" trailers.

ABC is mounting an extreme makeover of its primetime schedule for next season. The network, in a fourth-place slump this season, is expected to announce Tuesday a schedule that reduces its comedy contingent from 10 shows to eight, and from three nights this season to Tuesday and Friday in the fall. The schedule also includes four hours of reality programing, including the newcomer "Wife Swap."

Recent financial troubles at the First Church of Christ, Scientist -- which owns The Christian Science Monitor -- have Monitor employees bracing for a cost-savings plan that could cut the paper's staff, increase subscription rates, institute a Web charge, or all three, employees said.

A week of Hispanic TV upfront presentations kicked off yesterday with a little guerrilla marketing as NBC-owned Telemundo enlisted teams to place white barricades in front of media agencies' New York offices to call attention to the Spanish-language TV network.

Tony Randall, the comic actor best known for playing fastidious photographer Felix Unger on "The Odd Couple," has died. He was 84.

DirecTV is nearing a deal to take over TiVo's nascent advertising sales business, said a senior advertising industry executive close to the situation. The pact presumably would help TiVo, the digital video recording service, to compete with the onslaught of DVR competitors.

Will "Arrested Development" come to a premature end? Can "8 Simple Rules" live on for another season without its original star, John Ritter? And just what will become of "Whoopi?"

Weeks ago, advertisers and agencies began preparing for negotiations with the broadcast television networks to buy commercial time ahead of the 2004-5 season by unleashing perhaps the most vigorous round of jawboning since the guy in the Meineke commercials insisted, "I'm not going to pay a lot for that muffler."