A bidding war for UK media buyer Aegis loomed on Tuesday as advertising giant WPP teamed up with U.S. private equity firm Hellman & Friedman in a second takeover approach, sources close to the matter said. Aegis is already in buy-out talks with France's Publicis, which approached the UK media firm last month with an offer of 140 pence a share, or about 1.57 billion pounds ($2.76 billion).

Hungering for new cash, the three major networks might start selling on-demand viewing of hit shows next season for $1 a peek - without the commercials. Viewers could also choose to watch shows for as little as 50 cents a pop if they let commercials run in full, keeping advertisers partially satisfied and letting couch potatoes enjoy their customary snack breaks.

David H. Courtney is resigning as chief financial officer and head of corporate products at TiVo, leaving the company to face one of the biggest challenges of its young life without one of its top executives. Mr. Courtney is responsible for two of TiVo's three operating divisions -- the media and advertising-services unit, which manages content delivery and audience measurement for advertisers, content creators and distributors; and the service-provider division, which handles TiVo's distribution agreements with satellite, cable and telecom customers.

The average American is a ravenous media junkie, consuming up to nine hours a day of television, web time or cellphone minutes, according to new research which raises fresh questions about how technology is revolutionising society. From iPods filling commuters' ears, the screens scrolling headlines in the elevator at work to proliferating on-the-move tools like cellphones and Blackberry handhelds, media is everywhere in the United States, like much of the rest of the developed world.

The WB is blending its comedy and alternative programming departments into one unit, in hopes that the combined entity will have a greater chance of producing hit shows by including both scripted and non scripted elements.

What Hollywood and Madison Avenue euphemistically call "brand integration" was hard to miss last season. Gabrielle Solis, Eva Longoria's character on ABC's "Desperate Housewives," found herself hard up for money and reluctantly agreed to don an evening gown and extol the virtues of a Buick LaCrosse at a car display. Network, advertising and production executives say that this season, more and more brands will venture outside the confines of 30-second ads. They may have no choice: As technology and clutter blunt the effectiveness and reach of the commercial spots that have underpinned the television business for nearly 50 years, the …

One year ago, after the first two weeks of the new network television season, all anyone was talking about was "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives." A year later, two weeks into the new season, all anyone is talking about is "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives." ABC's two blockbuster hits of last fall, which are back and overpowering their competition again, may have led network executives to think that other shows could perform that kind of instant magic this fall. But early ratings suggest that, far from duplicating that kind of outsize success, the new television season will offer nothing even to approach …

It's the Holy Grail of accountability, and for video on demand, it's right around the corner. Marketers just moved a step closer to knowing who's actually watching their ads, thanks to a beta test by Rentrak, which now has a product to measure commercials watched as part of the cable industry's free video-on-demand service.

Coming to a movie theater near you: Show biz gossip, juicy news tidbits and TV show previews - all from E! Entertainment Television. Think going to the movies is just for watching flicks? Think again. New York-based Screenvision, whose clients include the city's Loews theaters, is set to strike a deal with cable network E!, to spruce up its before-the-movie, "pre-show."

BMW of North America, which played a major role in pioneering the new era of branded entertainment, has suddenly ended its use of that marketing technique. The German automaker has long dominated the space in the automotive category, creating the benchmark for product placement. Its vehicles have appeared in the James Bond movies and its online short-film The Hire also spawned its own comic book collection.