Trade Round-Up: Downloading Chandler
Warner Bros TV finally caves to iTunes peer-pressure and will provide series like Friends for downloading on the service, meeting the demands of fans who can't be bothered to catch the reruns that are broadcast roughly sixty times per day on TV and basic cable. WB is also offering recently aborted pilot Aquaman, which new network The CW neglected to include on its fall schedule. [Variety]
Fox Interactive Media President Ross Levinsohn now speaks exclusively in the dialect of Myspace's legion of fourteen-year-old users, declaring the online service "so not about social networking anymore" while discussing his plan to better harness the site's influence for News Corp evil. [THR]
· Quickly running out of employees to lay off, Disney buys the Indian children's television channel Hungama, then immediately fires its entire staff. Layoff jokes: somewhat funny because everyone in this town is afraid of losing his or her job! [Variety]
Madonna's husband happily accepts his pigeonholing as a hacky director of gangster films, signing on to rewrite and direct the "gangster odyssey" Static for Columbia Pictures. [THR]
Sean Hayes and his producing partner move their production company from NBC Universal to CBS Paramount Network TV, where the actor will spend the next year turning down offers to play sassy, gay sidekicks while waiting for better roles that never materialize. [Variety]