International fans of Game of Thrones have been so eager to see the new series that they have broken piracy records by downloading theseason premiere in their thousands 24 hours after it aired on HBO. Hundreds of thousands of people have gone online to find an illegal copy of the programme, known as a torrent, to download and watch on a computer. Pirates in America made up 12.9% of the total, the largest share. Fans in the UK come a close second with an 11.5% share, and London was the top city for piracy, taking 4.3%.

Absolute Radio is to launch responsive design-based, personally targeted branded content opportunities for advertisers as it looks to further adapt its services to cater for the continued surge in mobile listeners. The move marks the latest step in the commercial radio network's overarching strategy to increase its registered listener base. In return for their registrations it provides additional content, 50% fewer and more personally relevant ads via its ad targeting service InStream.

Telegraph Media Group has underlined its investment in online ahead of the launch of its metered paywall by signing up former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie as a columnist for Telegraph.co.uk. MacKenzie was reputed to be paid GBP250,000 a year for his weekly Daily Mail column. His arrival comes as the Telegraph prepares to start charging subscriptions for online access (while still offering 20 articles per month free).

Rovio Entertainment, creator of the popular Angry Birds franchire, has announced a partnership with Brightcove Video Cloud to launch an Angry Birds Toons video channel. The tie-up will allow avian catapulting fans the chance to watch 52 on-demand eposodes from smart TV's, smartphones and tablets of the animated series which will be released on a weekly basis each Sunday at 8 am GMT.

Never Underdressed is a website which describes itself as a "digital magazine" and which will provide rolling news and features on global luxury-fashion and beauty. With up-to-date news from the industry, and footage streamed live from shoots and catwalk shows, Never Underdressed claims that it will "combine the high-gloss production values of monthly fashion magazines with the hourly speed and immediacy of the web".

Vdio, a new film and TV streaming service, has today been launched in the US and UK in an attempt to muscle in on the fast growing market. Sister entity to music streaming service Rdio the new operation will initially be available solely to existing subscribers before being rolled out to new members.

Matt Warman makes the case against six countries investigating the search giant, concluding that it is "obvious that, even with the enormous scale of the common market, Europe will always be a secondary market for Google compared to the US. If regulators make it harder for the company to operate in Europe, it is easy enough for it to simply switch bits off. So should you find that Streetview isn't available, but Microsoft's equivalent is, remember that it's Europe you have to thank for that surprising monopoly."

Angry Birds games attracted 263m monthly active players in December 2012, helping their publisher Rovio double its revenues for the calendar year. Rovio made 45% of its revenues in 2012 from its consumer products division, as sales of plush toys and other merchandise continued to grow. That's up from 30% the previous year as consumer product revenues more-than-tripled from EUR22.6m in 2011 to EUR68.5m in 2012.

Multi-screen video and brand advertising platform Smartclip has unveiled a global advertising partnership for Samsung Smart TVs and Blu-ray players through Samsung's digital advertising platform, Samsung AdHub. Samsung AdHub has been supporting advertising on smart devices including smart phones, tablets and Smart TV devices, and the deal with Smartclip will enable it to expand the sales coverage of Smart TV advertising covering 19 countries across North America, Europe, Russia and Australia.

The Cond Nast College of Fashion and Design will welcome students to their first Diploma course in October 2013. The college is currently advertising two courses, a ten-week course called the Vogue Fashion Certificate and a year-long course called the Vogue Fashion Foundation Diploma. The college says it may widen the course options in future, including an interior decorating involving House & Garden, as well as MA options.