Have media stock prices bottomed out yet? That's the multi-million dollar question facing investors of Time Warner, News Corp., Disney, Viacom, CBS and other major media firms. According to analysts cited by Reuters, media stocks are looking mighty cheap these days, although they disagree on where the sector will bottom out. On the one hand, it can't really get much worse: S&P's Movie and Entertainment sub-industry index is down more than 42% so far this year, compared to a 45% overall drop for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Analysts pointed out that media shares are often the first to …

In a recent address at Harvard Business School, Adeo Ressi, founder of VC rating site TheFunded, proclaimed that the VC industry is "broken" because VCs are chasing too few opportunities. As a result, VC returns over the past five years have fallen below the total amount of money invested over that same time period. Certainly, that's bad news, but is this enough to proclaim the demise of the VC industry as we know it? Hardly, says GigaOm's Matthew Ingram. While it's true that too many funds are popping up and pouring money into startups in the hope that they'll …

eHulu, the joint online video venture from News Corp. and NBC, looks poised to match YouTube in U.S. advertising revenues next year, according to a new estimate. This is shocking, considering that YouTube has more than 10 times as many monthly visitors as Hulu (83 million vs. 6 million). Nevertheless, Screen Digest is forecasting that both Hulu and YouTube will earn $180 million in revenue in 2009. The research group estimates that YouTube will make $100 million in U.S. revenue this year, compared to Hulu's $70 million. Silicon Alley Insider points out that Screen Digest is most likely talking about …

The Wall Street Journal profiles a new Web startup that combines aspects of social networking, "American Idol," and online multiplayer gaming. Called Music Mogul LLC, the startup will next week unveil a new virtual world that allows members to upload videos of themselves performing to compete for a three-song demo deal with a production company. Inside the virtual world, users can also attend virtual concerts as well as events with real-life celebrities, play games and complete missions to increase their status on the site. Analysts and industry experts believe one of the keys to the growth of virtual worlds is …

Yahoo shares may have fallen from $33 to $10 in the past twelve months, but the Web giant is still far more valuable in the eyes of Madison Avenue than it is in the eyes of Wall Street. Indeed, size still matters to Madison Avenue. "Advertisers are looking at where's the traffic, volume and value is today. And today is very positive for advertisers at Yahoo," said Chris Moloney, chief marketing officer at Scottrade. "Google is considered to be the 800-pound gorilla of the internet but it doesn't have content the way Yahoo does. It receives a massive volume of …