While NBC continues its battle for viewers, the net is making a heavy online push as well. The Peacock's digital division, under chief Vivi Zigler, has assigned writers to pen Web-only episodes to complement existing shows that are intended to help build buzz for comedies "Community," "Parks and Recreation" and "The Office," among others. Scribes are part of the show's staff and members of the net's online team, and are embedded in the writers' room. From a business standpoint, the Webisodes and other online components are a way to generate ad coin from sponsors and companies trying to …

Elle, perhaps more than any other magazine, has embraced television as a way to enhance its brand and broaden its audience. In 2004, the magazine's fashion director at the time, Nina Garcia, appeared on the first season of Bravo's "Project Runway" before anyone knew it would be a success. A job at the magazine was the top prize on the CW reality show "Stylista," which ran in 2008 for just one season. Later that year, cameras from "The City" were invited into Elle's offices on the 44th floor of Paramount Plaza in Midtown. They have remained there pretty much …

Media agency veteran Steve Grubbs has signed on as senior strategic advisor to BrightLine iTV, the New York-based developer of interactive TV ad campaigns. In addition to helping shape the overall strategic direction of the company, he will explore potential partnership opportunities for BrightLine and creative advertising and media agencies. BrightLine, founded six years ago by CEO Jacqueline Corbelli, works directly with major TV advertisers, such as Unilever, to create interactive ad campaigns that typically reach 75 million households across various cable and satellite TV platforms. The company, which has doubled its revenue in each of the last two years, …

Warner Bros. is in talks to buy "Supernanny" and "Who Do You Think You Are?" producer Shed Media, which owns production assets including Ricochet Media, Twenty Twenty and Wall to Wall. The British company been seeking a buyer for much of the last year. Earlier this month, Shed said it had walked away from talks with private-equity funds Bowmark Capital and Darwin Private Equity, but was in talks with another possible suitor. The move is being handled by Warner Bros. U.K., which recently hired former Tiger Aspect managing director Andrew Zein to oversee its commercial operations and grow its …

Liberty Media Corp, the media conglomerate controlled by mogul John Malone, said on Sunday it plans to spin off two of its units -- investment arm Liberty Capital and pay TV and Hollywood studio unit Liberty Starz, which trades under three tracking stocks: Liberty Starz and Liberty Capital, as well as Liberty Interactive, reports Reuters. Liberty Interactive holds assets including interests in home shopping network QVC, internet company IAC and travel Web site Expedia. Liberty says it's doing this to provide greater transparency into the operations of its Liberty Interactive group, reports Daily Finance. That should make it …

NBC News is combining its communications, marketing and promotion arms into one department, NBC News Marketing and Communications. Lauren Kapp, who has been with NBC since 2002, most recently as vice president, NBC News Communications, is being promoted to oversee the new unit. She said the entire teams of each department will remain intact and no layoffs would take place as a result of the combination. A key recent promotion in the department was Ryan Osborn as the first social media director of NBC News. Kapp has been the chief spokesperson for NBC News and its president Steve Capus …

CNN's Anderson Cooper has spent more time in Louisiana -- about 20 days -- than any other national television anchor since the leak began. Evincing his frustration and his perseverance, he keeps a daily on-air tally of the number of days BP has ignored his interview requests. Cooper's 10 p.m. program, "AC360," and others like it have gained notice for trying to hold BP and the government accountable for the oil leak and the cleanup effort. As the crisis nears the two-month mark, the news media is taking on a more adversarial role, just as they did after …

"Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" may have been off the air at Bravo for more than five years, but the cabler built their network around a show that no longer exists. "The five genres that ["Queer Eye"] embodied -- beauty, fashion, food, design, pop culture -- those are the tenets of what we are structuring the network and basing our content on," says network general manager Frances Berwick. "We want to show A&E as offering engrossing, 'lean-forward' television," says Bob DeBitetto, president of A&E and Bio channels. His network has long had a hand in nonfiction programming, but …

A divided Federal Communications Commission advanced a plan backed by Google Inc., EBay Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. to regulate Internet service providers, reports Bloomberg. The FCC, by a 3-2 vote, opened a process to seek comments on its legal authority to regulate how companies including AT&T, Verizon Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp. deliver high-speed Internet service, or broadband. All three Democrats endorsed the action and both Republicans dissented. The vote is a step in FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's drive to reclaim authority undermined when a court ruled that the agency lacked jurisdiction to censure Comcast's Web practices. The …

Almost two dozen, mostly Republican, representatives told the FCC June 17 that they were concerned about "any further delay" in the FCC's review of the proposed Comcast-NBC Universal joint venture. Led by Energy & Commerce Committee ranking member Joe Barton (R-Tex.) and Communications Subcommittee ranking member Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the reps said in a letter to FCC chairman Julius Genachowski that they believed the voluntary public-interest commitments the two companies have made should be sufficient. "The commission should act on this pro-consumer, pro-competition transaction without delay," they said, praising Genachowski for his handling of the review so far. …