Two more Sony Pictures TV current executives have departed as part of Sony Pictures Entertainment's companywide layoffs. Debra Curtis, vice president, current programming, and Rose Lee, manager of current programming, join SPT's longtime head of current programming Jeanie Bradley, who is leaving after 25 years at the studio. SPE said this month that it will lay off 450 staffers, or nearly 7% of the Culver City studio's worldwide work force of 6,800 employees. The cuts at SPT are not expected to be particularly deep as most of SPE's pink slips will be in the home video and IT departments. …

At midnight Friday HBO will premiere "Funny or Die Presents," a new half-hour series that compiles clips from the comedy video Web site that Adam McKay and Will Ferrell co-created in 2007. It joins other new HBO comedies, including, the premiere of "The Ricky Gervais Show" and the season eight of "Real Time With Bill Maher." "Funny or Die Presents" is the culmination of a 2008 deal between the site and HBO, which purchased a piece of FunnyOrDie.com reportedly in the neighborhood of about $10 million. There's further overlap in that HBO airs the McKay and Ferrell-produced hit …

According to an internal memo, AOL will expand Patch, its network of local news blogs, from 30 sites to "hundreds," by the end of 2010. The company's goal: "To be leaders in one of the most promising 'white spaces' on the Internet." The reason is money. While AOL gets most of its revenues through its Internet service provider business, CEO Tim Armstrong's strategy is to turn the company into a next-generation media giant. Enlarging Patch is part of that overall mission.

Reed Elsevier, the publisher of Variety, B&C magazines, forecast a lower profit margin after 2009 sales figures were announced. Full-year revenue excluding currency effects and acquisitions was $9.5 billion. Reed Elsevier forecast the rate of decline will slow and said weaker sales would lead to a "modest" reduction in adjusted operating margin. It also will mean cost efficiencies and cuts at Reed Business Information will continue. Reed Elsevier, which has been in talks to sell dozens of U.S. trade magazines to individual publishers, said "late cycle effects" in 2009 will be particularly severe in the first half this …

Tribune Co was granted until the end of March to file a plan of reorganization and avoided the immediate threat of starting a "litigation nightmare" over its 2007 leveraged buyout. Judge Kevin Carey said it may be Tribune's "last best chance" to resolve seemingly entrenched disputes. The company now has until the end of next month to resolve the main issue of its bankruptcy, the role of its 2007 $8.2 billion leveraged buyout that was led by real estate developer Sam Zell. The official committee of unsecured creditors have blamed banks that financed the deal for the company's bankruptcy, …

HBO is on the verge of unveiling its Internet streaming service in a wider way. A Web site called HBO GO, subtitled "It's HBO on your computer," appeared online weeks ago, promising access to scores of TV episodes and films. But you mustbe an HBO subscriber through your cable or satellite company to get it. The Web site currently works in beta form for Comcast and Verizon FiOS subscribers. The site is an outgrowth of the company's tests of HBO on Broadband, an effort to export the on-demand experience of television to the computer. HBO GO is part …

There's a heated turf war going on inside The New York Times over the iPad, pitting print die-hards against the digital unit. The outcome will determine pricing for some marquee content on Apple's tablet. The internal fight might also determine how relevant - and profitable - the nation's most prominent newspaper can remain in the digital future. On one side is print circulation, which thinks it should control the iPad, since it's just another way to distribute the paper. They'd like to charge $20 to $30 per month for iPad app. The price is high because they fear …

The fledgling Fox Business Network has stolen a big name from CNBC. Charlie Gasparino, a former Wall Street Journal and Newsweek reporter, was the first to report that the federal government was considering a bailout of the insurance giant American International Group. Though he is said to have felt under-appreciated at CNBC, he calls it an "amicable" exit. But he did issue a warning to his former employer: "My job is to rip the lungs out of the competition for Fox Business Network." Fox Business reaches 50 million homes, about half as many as CNBC.

Three more top ad managers are following Michelle Myers out the door at Time Inc., to Condé Nast. Myers went to Lucky from People StyleWatch. Now Julie Arkin, who was the ad director at People StyleWatch, is moving to Lucky as associate publisher. In addition, Kim Conrad and Sarah Menninger, who were job-sharing as beauty directors at StyleWatch, will split the job of executive beauty director at Lucky. The new moves came the same day that Time Inc. tapped Karin Tracy to fill the publisher's job Myers left.

Barclays analysts raised their 2010 revenue expectations for television and also went positive on radio. The revised forecast moved upward for all major media in the U.S. "We now estimate that total 2010 U.S. advertising will increase 3.5% (vs. our estimate for flat prior) to $167.6 billion," according to a recent report. The company is particularly bullish on national advertising, noting a "transformative 'Wal-mart effect' taking place in media that structurally favors national advertising, as the impact of scale disparity in corporate America has a gradual structural impact on multinationals' advertising and maketing strategies. Long-term, it's predicted local …