Turner Sports, which operates TNT and TBS, will begin carrying NCAA tourney games next year along with CBS, which has done so since 1982. USA Today is reporting the two programmers have a joint 14-year, multi-billion-dollar rights deal to carry the tournament, which will have more than the current 65 games. The NCAA has exercised a right to opt out of an exclusive deal with CBS and ink the new one. It's unclear how Turner and CBS will split the games, and what networks Turner will use on its end.

Station groups have been touting a possible flood of political dollars this year from corporations after the Supreme Court ruled they can spend as much as they want to influence elections. But a station executive said last week he is not expecting the bounty, largely because corporations and interest groups for years have found ways to spend through other channels. Even with some primaries looming, a Bloomberg BusinessWeek report quoted a prominent Washington attorney this week saying so far not one large company "has made a palpable move to take advantage of (the ruling).â€� With President Obama and …

When Roger Goodell's legacy is written, two items may occupy the first paragraph: avid discipliner of players, and willing to take gambles to make the NFL on TV even more popular. The first has been well-chronicled this week with the suspension of Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger. The second takes center stage tonight with the NFL Draft on ESPN and the NFL Network going against CBS drama hits and more ratings winners. Last year, Goodell -- the NFL commissioner since 2006 -- made the striking decision to move the increasingly popular Draft to the most coveted real estate in television: …

When Roger Goodell's legacy is written, two items may occupy the first paragraph: avid discipliner of players, and willing to take gambles to make the NFL on TV even more popular. The first has been well-chronicled this week with the suspension of Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger. The second takes center stage tonight with the NFL Draft on ESPN and the NFL Network challenging a CBS drama hit and more ratings winners . Last year, Goodell -- the NFL commissioner since 2006 -- made the striking decision to move the increasingly popular Draft to the most coveted real estate in …

From the not-so-surprising department: The new Oprah Winfrey Network has landed its first major charter advertiser – Procter & Gamble. P&G has been heavy TV sponsor of “The Oprah Winfrey Show� in daytime syndication show. It is a big advertiser for many other daytime TV shows, especially those that target women 25-54. Reports suggests the multi-year deal is worth around $100 million. The Wall Street Journal first reported the story.

Imagine never leaving home without your friends…ever again.  Representatives from each stage in your life are there on every street corner, the seat next to you on the plane, in front of you on the checkout line and attending birthday parties from now until your last one.   Now, imagine that same friendly mob, hanging on your every move around the world-wide web.  Whether renting a movie, buying shoes, or getting directions, your friends are there, dropping knowledge at every turn. This is the new web in which everything you ever “liked;â€� your interests, favorite music, and restaurants compose a …

Rejecting the perceived omnipotence of crowds -- and their preferred platforms like Google and Wikipedia -- Oxford University Press has launched a collection of professionally-produced, peer-reviewed bibliographies in different subject areas. Ars Technica calls the new Oxford Bibliographies Online service “the Anti-Google,â€� and “sort of a giant, interactive syllabus put together by OUP and teams of scholars in different disciplines.â€� Users can explore specific bibliographic entries, which contain descriptive text and a list of references that link to either Google Books -- or to subscribing libraries’ own catalog entries -- by either browsing or searching. Along with concerns over …

Pontiflex, an agency that helps marketers generate email lists to use as sales leads, said the average cost for an email address it generates is 78 cents. Marketers pay it per lead generated. Pontiflex uses “cost-per-lead (CPL)â€� online ads to prompt people to sign up to receive brand communications, and advertisers then send an email looking to build a relationship. Pontiflex also said the average cost for an address or lead it generates for what it terms “premium fieldsâ€� is $2.46. Those leads are considered more valuable because they can include a person’s telephone number, Twitter handle or …

At the end of the fourth quarter of 2009, Skype had 560 million registered users, according to the company’s chief technology strategist, Jonathan Rosenberg -- and as reported by GigaOm. Skype added 39 million registered users in the fourth quarter, while the number of Skype-to-Skype call minutes totaled 36.1 billion in the final three months of the year. What’s more, Skype users made more the 250 billion minutes worth of Skype-to-Skype calls from the time the service was launched through the end of 2009. Furthermore, 36% of Skype-to-Skype calls as of the end of the fourth quarter included video, …

Eyeing ecommerce growth, Visa has agreed to buy online payment processing company CyberSource Corp. for about $2 billion. “Visa said the deal would increase the amount of online payments it processes and the resulting business for its client banks, which issue Visa credit and debit cards,â€� Reuters reports. PayPal parent eBay, meanwhile, had been better take notice. “We’re paying attention to PayPal, as well as other companies that are getting into the e-commerce space, and we are obviously concerned that that would have an effect on our market share ... This is somewhat in reaction to it,â€� Visa chairman …