Japan’s ministry of communications will spend about $2 billion facilitating the switchover to digital broadcasts from analog, which will take place in 2011, Daily Variety reports. More than half of Japanese households are unable to receive digital broadcasts, the newspaper…
James Lesure, who played hotel-security supervisor Mike on “Las Vegas,” will appear on multiple episodes of “Lipstick Jungle,” TV Guide reports. Lesure will play the boss to Brooke Shields and Kim Raver’s characters, TV Guide says. —Danny King
NBC is in talks with Rosie O’Donnell about her hosting a weekly prime-time variety show, Entertainment Weekly reports. O’Donnell may be viewed as a fall-back option in case the network’s discussions with Jay Leno about his own show break down,…
Debra Mooney, formerly of “Everwood,” will play Chi McBride’s character’s mother in at least one upcoming episode of “Pushing Daisies,” Entertainment Weekly reports. Mooney will play a private investigator who helps McBride with a case, the magazine says. —Danny King
DirecTV’s push for higher-end customers by marketing itself as the premium satellite company may eventually hurt earnings in a down economy, Reuters reports, citing Kaufman Bros. analyst Todd Mitchell. DirecTV may have gained as few as 100,000 subscribers in the…
ESPN networks will air more than 400 college football games this fall, including more Thursday night games and more games shown on ESPN Mobile TV, Multichannel News reports. The Walt Disney-owned network will also offer every live Thursday and Saturday…
Spike TV’s animated series “Afro Samurai” will debut on the network as a full-length movie in January, Multichannel News says. Samuel L. Jackson will continue to voice the title character while Lucy Liu will voice his seductive archenemy, Multichannel News…
Thomson, whose units include film-processor and set-top box maker Technicolor, tapped Alcatel-Lucent executive Frederic Rose for its new chief executive officer, Broadcasting & Cable reports. Frank Dangeard stepped down as Thomson’s CEO in February and resigned as chairman two months…
Online-video site Redlasso put the brakes on its service that lets users take archived clips from networks and add them to other sites like blogs after being sued by Fox Television and NBC Universal, Broadcasting & Cable reports. The site…
General Electric’s NBC Universal division was unaffected by the parent company’s restructuring, Reuters reports. GE, which earlier this month said it would spin off its industrial and consumer divisions, created a separate division for its energy business while folding its…