Spike TV has struck a deal with movie studio Lionsgate that will bring the full "Rambo" series of movies -- including the latest installment -- to the cable net. The first of the movies will roll on Memorial Day weekend. "Rambo headlines a package of five action films that we are thrilled to deliver to Spike TV," says Rand Stoll, Lionsgate executive vice president of television sales. Spike will have the cable rights to Rambo for four years, beginning in 2010 and has also snared other Lionsgate films including "National Lampoon's Van Wilder," "Kickboxer" and "Replicant."

With its TV duopolies in four of the nation's largest markets, Univision Communications stations are set to add a third hour of local morning news on their duopoly partners, the owned-and-operated TeleFutura stations. Beginning April 28, Noticias Univision 41 Al Despertar (Univision 41 News at Dawn), which airs weekdays form 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. will produce an extra hour from 7 to 8 a.m. to air on TeleFutura outlets. The stations involved are in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Sacramento. "It's a creative use of the duopoly," says Ramon Pineda, general manager of Univision's New …

Nortel uses customers in a new TV campaign with the communications technology provider casting top business executives in 30-second spots designed to show how the company helped them innovate. The effort is part of Nortel's road to recovery after the $35 million it paid out last year to make charges of accounting fraud go away. Tagged "Business Made Simple," one of the new ads has the general director of India's Mumbai International Airport talking about how Nortel technology will make his facility among the most advanced of its kind. Print and online executions will support, along with …

Soccer channel Gol TV has inked a deal to broadcast 10 matches featuring 2006 World Cup champion Italy, with coverage to kick off when the team faces Belgium on May 30. The pact is with RAI Trade, which handles international TV distribution rights for Italy and gives Gol exclusive broadcast rights in the U.S. and Canada to five home Italian 2010 World Cup qualifying matches, plus six other matches in the next two years. Gol, which offers both English- and Spanish-language feeds, reaches some 16 million subscribers and has also nailed down the rights to 2010 World Cup …

The clock is still ticking for Fox Business Network to release ratings data publicly. As the nascent net passes its six-month anniversary, the FBN will remain in Nielsen's "Access Stage," which prohibits public release of ratings information -- even though it does have internal data. Only when a network becomes a "full service client," can the ratings be released publicly with Nielsen using them as part of its daily reporting. Gary Holmes, a Nielsen spokesperson, says "that decision is a business decision made by the network. In the life of a network, a time comes when they decide …

The Democratic Party is firing its opening ad salvo of the fall campaign this week, with a spot designed to make presumptive GOP nominee John McCain eat his words about the current economic situation. Titled "Better Off," it features video of McCain in January saying that "Americans overall are better off [than eight years ago] because we've had a pretty good, prosperous time," with low unemployment and low inflation. Overlays point out, however, that the U.S. has had the "highest inflation in 17 years," along with "1.8 million jobs lost" and "gas prices up 200%." Then the clincher: …