If you were a fan of the offbeat humor of the low-rated show "Better Off Ted," here's some cheering news. Victor Fresco, "Ted" creator, has a new project: he'll be the exec producer on the ABC pilot "Man Up." Fresco was also working on a new family comedy for the network.

Although Hugh Hefner was said to control the limited partnership that purchased Playboy Enterprises last month, his stake is only about 37%, writes Jeff Bercovici in Forbes. But Hef does have "the right to approve the overall image, costume and promotional outfits used by Playboy Bunnies" -- and isn't that what's most important?Actually, Hef's key priorities were his employment contract's guarantee of full editorial control of the publication, along with the right to continue living in the Playboy mansion for a "nominal rent," Bercovici reports.

Optimists abound at Comcast, according to All Things Digital's Peter Kafka, who reports on the company's earnings call. Though it again lost cable subscribers -- 135,000, to be exact -- that loss was minimized, with company reps playing up the fact that the decrease was lower than losses of a year ago -- as well as last quarter's. And this time, unlike previous earnings calls, there was no talk of cord-cutting, either by analysts or reporters."The cable industry has had a consistent response [to such talk]: Any drop in cable subs has to do with increased competition and a crummy …

Product placement will be allowed on U.K. television for the first time at the end of the month -- and, unlike its U.S. version, any segments with such placements must be clearly identified to viewers with a specially designed logo.The new product placement rules "will enable commercial broadcasters to access new sources of revenue, whilst providing protection for audiences," according to a media regulator. (Love the "whilst" in that quote.)

Worried, professionally or personally, about whether a certain TV show will be coming back next season? TV Guide lays out the odds in its handy-dandy breakdown of which shows are already renewed, as well as ones for whom things are "looking good" and "looking not so good."Personally we're rooting for "The Good Wife" (looking good) and "Chuck" (looking not so good). And, yeah, "$#*! My Dad Say" (which we're not rooting for) is in the latter category.

New York magazine's Daily Intel got ahold of a very telling memo from iPad pub The Daily's editor-in-chief Jesse Angelo. This pep talk urges editorial staffers to "Get in front of a story and make it ours - force the rest of the media to follow us." Seems like somebody read all the criticism of the Daily last week and realized that, as the memo says, "It's good stories that will keep people coming back to The Daily - we've assembled a crack news team, so let's show the world what we can do." Score one for realizing the virtues …

Apple just announced its subscription plans for apps sold through iTunes. The terms are unlikely to please Time Inc. (which previously pledged to work with other mobile platforms on digital subscriptions of its mags) or, probably, video services like Hulu Plus or Netflix: 30% of revenue must be paid to Apple, and a company that offers any kind of subscription deals for mobile digital products on its own platform must also sell through the iTunes store with the "same (or better) offer," notes All Things Digital, quoting from Apple's press release.

Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners has founded K.B.S.& P. Ventures, an investment division to fund "early- and mid-stage companies that focus on advertising and mobile technologies and design," writes Tanzina Vega in the New York Times. First company to receive funding is Yieldbot, "which helps publishers increase revenue from Web search results."

In what one analyst calls "a first for the industry," two newspapers have ventured into ecommerce deals that go beyond selling reproductions of historic front pages. The Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune opened up large shopping sections on their Web sites in the last quarter of 2010, in a move to diversify revenue streams in the face of... well, you know the rest. (This item in the Financial Times reminds us that both newspapers' parent, the Tribune Company, is in bankruptcy.) Each newspaper has partnered with online coupon site Groupon to provide deals, and also offers …

After many missed deadlines that irritated early adopters of the device, Boxee has begun rolling out an app that provides access to the entire Netflix catalog.