Many Americans are changing how they watch movies - especially young people, the most avid moviegoers. For 13 weekends in a row, box-office receipts have been down compared with a year ago, despite the blockbuster opening of the final "Star Wars" movie. And movie executives are unsure whether the trend will end over the important Memorial Day weekend that officially begins the summer season. Meanwhile, sales of DVD's and other types of new media continue to surge.

Viacom expects to make a final decision about dividing itself into two companies by the end of June, its chairman and chief executive, Sumner M. Redstone, said yesterday as he affirmed his interest in the move at the company's annual meeting. Wall Street has generally warmed to the concept of dividing the company. The faster-growing unit would include MTV Networks and the Paramount movie studio. The second company would include CBS along with Infinity Broadcasting, Paramount Television and the book publisher Simon & Schuster.

Massive audiences for the finales of "American Idol" and "Lost" turned Wednesday into one of the most-watched TV nights of the year.

Ahumdinger TV season wrapped Wednesday night, with Fox claiming its first-ever No. 1 finish among the 18- to 49-year-olds advertisers covet, CBS clocking the biggest win in 16 years among viewers of all ages, and ABC rising like a phoenix on the success of three freshman series -- and scripted ones at that. Only the peacock network had nothing to crow about, having plunged from first place to fourth in the key age bracket that is the basis for sales of all its ad time.

If billionaire Mark Cuban has his way, theatrical distribution may never be the same. 2929 Entertainment, the company the Dallas Mavericks owner founded with partner Todd Wagner, is determined to collapse the traditional distribution windows by simultaneously releasing films across theatrical, home video and cable. But even though the experiment has barely begun, it already is running into steely opposition from theater owners across the country.

A member of the Federal Communications Commission, Jonathan S. Adelstein, today warned about the "increasing commercialization of American media" and called on his agency to toughen its requirements and expand its investigations into the practice of product placement.

Neal Shapiro, the president of NBC News since 2001, has told his superiors at the network in recent days that he would like to leave his post, two senior executives at NBC Universal said yesterday.

Broadcasters in the nation's capital, including five stations owned by Allbritton Communications (which also owns a cable channel in the market), Gannett Television, Tribune Broadcasting and Fox Television, are calling for Nielsen to delay the June 2 launch of the LPM service until it receives accreditation from the Media Rating Council, which isn't scheduled to audit the market until September.

Gannett, parent of USA TODAY, said Wednesday that its top television executive, Craig Dubow, will take charge of the USA's largest newspaper company on July 15. He replaces CEO Douglas McCorkindale, 65, who'll remain chairman until July 2006.

Carrie Underwood said winning "American Idol" was "the best night of my life" ? and she had an estimated 29.4 million witnesses. The preliminary audience estimate from Nielsen Media Research was up slightly from the 28.8 million who watched Fantasia Barrino take the "American Idol" crown last year.