Forty-six percent of internet users in the UK watch brand-related online videos every week, according to Visibility IQ's Social Video Report 2012. The study, conducted by Entertainment Media Research, showed that of consumers who watch product demonstration videos, 96% are likely to consider purchasing the item afterwards. Almost six in 10 (57%) have actually gone on to buy the item after seeing it in an online video.

Austrian rights holders group IG Autoren made waves this past weekend with a statement that suggests it wants to broadly expand levies on storage media. Consumers in Austria already pay levies on blank CDs and DVDs. Rights holders have been advocating to expand these kinds of fees to hard drives and other forms of storage media as well, and apparently aren't just thinking about local storage.

TThe new features announced by music service Spotify on Thursday constitute its biggest and best product upgrade since launch, plugging its worst, most lingering hole with exciting aplomb after several unimpressive attempts. But, whilst the new functionality helps solve Spotify's music discovery problem with features familiar to "social" platform users, they are actually a concession to the reality that taste-makers, not our friends, better inform our music listening.

The UK-produced video has gained a worldwide audience since it was posted, attracting views in the USA, Mexico, Canada, Germany, Brazil, Australia and most recently, Saudi Arabia. There have been 103 views from the Vatican City and three views from Tokelau, a tiny of New Zealand with a population of approximately 1,400 people. Charlie bit my finger - again! was initially more popular among females, at over 60% of the viewing audience in 2007, but its audience is now broadly split between males and females.

German business daily Financial Times Deutschland bade farewell to its readers on Friday in a final edition packed with gallows humour cartoons and melancholy musings on the revolution in the media industry that sealed its fate. Publisher Gruner + Jahr decided to shut the FTD after accumulating what German media said were EUR250m (GBP202m) in losses since its launch in 2000. Around 330 employees are expected to lose their jobs.

Companies including supermarket giant Coles and telecommunications company Telstra have pulled their advertising from Sydney radio station 2Day FM in an effort to distance themselves from the station in wake of the hoax call linked to the death of nurse, Jacintha Saldanha. In a panicked response, Austereo has made the decision to withdraw all advertising from the station until the situation has "settled down".

Internet communication platform Skype is all set to launch the new video-messaging feature that would allow its users to send short, pre-recorded messages to other Skype users. Skype revealed in its updated terms that unlimited video messaging will only be offered to Skype Premium service users. The service will be extended to non-premium users and they will also be allowed to send video messages, but with limited messages.

Consumers spent an average 56% more time watching an online video ad in Q3 compared with Q2, according to the findings from Adform's Media Barometer. The report found that consumers in Spain and Finland spend the longest time in Europe watching online video ads, followed by consumers in the UK.

Speaking at a privacy symposium in Sydney, Australia, the judge said that legislation would protect privacy, but also safeguard freedom of expression on the internet. Lord Leveson was criticised for only giving the internet a very limited mention in his 2,000-page report on UK press regulations and standards last month. He was accused of being out of touch after the report suggested that online material did not have the same reach and credibility as traditional print media.

Cyber criminals have stolen EUR36m from users across Europe using malware that can be installed on a PC and mobile phone, and work in harmony across both devices. According to the Financial Times, the Eurograbber malware is thought to be the first of its kind in that it infected a desktop PC and a mobile device. It also took advantage of two-factor authentication used by online banking systems. Around 30,000 people are thought to have been caught out by the malware across Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.