deal

Hearst-Argyle, which owns 29 local news stations in the United States, has signed a licensing deal with YouTube that will allow its stations to share in the ad revenue. Hearst-Argyle's stations are affiliated with all the major networks and reach about eighteen percent of the households in the United States.

YouTube will actually pay a licensing fee for news, weather and entertainment from these stations. This is the first time YouTube has struck such a deal.

Jon Lovitz recently signed a rather Faustian contract with Jamie Masada, the owner of the Laugh Factory comedy club that will require Lovitz to appear on stage at the Los Angeles club every Wednesday for the rest of his life. In addition, Lovitz will write a blog for the Laugh Factory in which he'll offer advice to young comedians.

Really? The rest of his life? That seems so depressing. Will he be bound by his contract to simply sit on the stage in a wheelchair for a twenty-minute set that consists of nothing more than drooling and an occasional story about wars he never actually fought in?

Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec, the creators of the ABC drama October Road, which was recently renewed for a second season, have singed an overall development deal with ABC, according to Variety.

The article doesn't go into much detail about the deal, except that ABC had essentially negotiated with Appelbaum and Nemec about developing new shows before October Road's renewal was set in stone.

After NBC picked up the drama series Journeyman, its director, Alex Graves (The Nine, The West Wing), has inked a deal with 20th Century Fox Television that will allow him to develop another series while still serving as an executive producer on Journeyman. If the new series is picked up, he'll step away from his duties on Journeyman. If it isn't picked up, he'll stick with the show.

Journeyman, about a man (Kevin McKidd) who travels back and forth through time, was picked up for a thirteen-episode order. It was created by Kevin Falls (North Shore, The West Wing). McKidd's character, Dan, is joined by actress Moon Bloodgood as Livia, his dead fiance who is also traveling through time. Yeah, I don't quite get it either, it sounds like an odd combination of Quantum Leap and Slaughter-House Five. I was kind of hoping it was about the Eric Clapton album.

UPDATE: Preview vid from NBC after the jump.

You've all heard about the upcoming video-sharing site from NBC and News Corp. Well, now CNET has joined the venture and will be providing content for the new site. CNET, which also owns GameSpot.com and TV.com, will provide "thousands of clips" to the new service and also serve as a distributor. NBC and News Corp already have distribution deals with Yahoo, MySpace, MSN, Comcast and AOL (which owns TV Squad).

The site launches this summer with full TV episodes and more from close to twenty television networks and two movie studios.

I'm always in favor of more ways to view television programs, so I'm anxious to see how this new site turns out. I just hope they allow user comments like YouTube does, because if I can't read a comment from CyberMonkey56 in Sheboygan telling me "thjs showes is sucks!" it's just not worth my time.

If you've been having trouble sleeping at night because you're concerned about what might become of Notes from the Underbelly creator Stacy Traub if her show doesn't make it, you can stop worrying. Traub has signed a two-year deal with Warner Bros. Television that will allow her to develop new series should Notes from the Underbelly not get picked up for another season. Otherwise, Traub will remain with the show as a show runner and executive producer. As far as what new shows she would develop, Traub says she likes shows with "flawed characters." She's also written for Kitchen Confidential and Spin City.

Notes from the Underbelly is about a young couple who become pregnant and must settle into a more mature lifestyle while simultaneously hearing advice from meddlesome family and friends. It will air on ABC.

War, what is it good for?

It's good for Ken Burns, we know that much. The documentary filmmaker behind the hugely popular Civil War documentary series is preparing to delve into war yet again with a new PBS documentary about World War II. Burns originaly didn't want to do another war documentary, but decided the story needed to be told while there were still people alive who fought in the war.

The War will air starting on September 17 and will be the first new series created by Burns after he inked a deal to have his work shown exclusively on PBS until 2022. The 14-hour documentary does include some swearing from soldiers who describe their time serving during the war, which means two versions of the series might be offered to stations who want to avoid any FCC problems. I would hope stations opt to show the uncensored version, since a few curse words seems perfectly appropriate when describing one's personal war experiences.

If you don't have Comedy Central, you just might have a chance to catch two of the network's series anyway when both Reno 911! and Chappelle's Show go into syndication this fall. Of course, one would assume these episodes will be edited for syndication, either for content or to sandwich in more commercials, which is one of the reasons I never bother to watch the syndicated version of South Park. Still, it's another chance to catch these shows, and that's not a bad thing at all. The two series are the first to be syndicated through a deal between New Line Television and MGM.

Comedy Central has also picked up Reno 911! for a fifth season, and the movie Reno 911: Miami will hit theaters next month.

AOL Video is announcing today a new deal with Paramount Pictures that will allow Web surfers to purchase both Paramount movie and television titles through the video portal site. AOL will also announce new partnerships with Plum, MyPath TV, BlueHighways TV, the Employment and Careers Channel and the Hip Hop Hall of Fame. At this time most of the press I've read about this focuses mainly on the movie titles being made available, but I assume we'll know more about which TV shows will be offered soon. Unfortunately, none of the movies or TV shows will be free, and will only work with Windows Media Player technology. AOL Video currently has a library of over 300 free and pay-to-download TV shows and movies.

TV Squad is an AOL site.

Not too long ago I mentioned that CBS and YouTube had struck a deal where clips from various CBS shows would become available on a special YouTube channel. That channel, which you can find at youtube.com/cbs doesn't have a ton of clips on it just yet, but you can catch bits from Late Show with David Letterman, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, NCIS, Jericho, and clips from CBS News. The deal also includes content from CSTV and Showtime, though currently it looks like the majority of the content is from the CBS network. The deal with YouTube also allows CBS to keep or remove copyrighted content from the site if the network so chooses, which I assume is a way to get people to watch CBS content through this specific channel, only. I think now that networks are offering full episodes, a few small clips aren't going to impress Web surfers too much. What do you guys think?

CBS President and CEO Leslie Moonves and YouTube co-founder and CEO Chad Hurley announced today a deal with the streaming video site that will feature short-form content from CBS, Showtime and CSTV on a daily basis starting this month. Clips from such shows as Survivor, 60 Minutes, Late Show with David Letterman, CSI, The Early Show and CBS Evening News with Katie Couric will be featured as well as clips from Showtime series Dexter, The L Word, Brotherhood and Sleeper Cell. Sports footage from CBS Sports will also be included. YouTube and CBS will share any ad revenue, and CBS will be able to keep or remove any copyrighted content found on the site.

I'm not going to pretend to know how these sort of deals work, but if a network is going to strike a deal like this, I don't know why they wouldn't just offer full episodes, even if it's for a limited time. Maybe that's not feasible, but I can't imagine people getting too excited over mere clips. What do you guys think?