It didn't make headlines outside the UK, but Al Gore and Joel Hyatt's Current TV has shuttered its doors and gone off the air in the UK.

Satellite broadcaster BSkyB told Current in January no more funding after the present deal expired, but did offer to keep it on its electronic program guide as an advertiser or subscription-funded channel. Current TV MD Jane Mote told C21 Media the offer came too late.

“We totally accept it is Sky’s right to stop funding Current but we don’t accept the way that it was done, using out-dated inaccurate audience figures, or that we were given no warning before a sudden cut-off in funding just before Christmas, making a rescue plan unachievable.” She added, “We were very close to finding a sustainable model but had an impossibly short amount of time given the late call by Sky on our funding.”Continue reading...

Archie Comics celebrates gay marriage in new cover.

Bristol-Myers to buy Inhibitex for $2.5 billion.

CBS introduces all-new CBS This Morning show.

Cadillac unveils ATS small sedan as import-fighter at Detroit Auto Show, which signals a turnaround for the industry.

Chick-fil-A cuts calories in kids' meals.

CES loses clout as tech-industry platform.

Current TV and Keith Olbermann make up following election coverage dispute.

Denny's promotes healthier media options.

Disney marketing head MT Carney departs.

Dow sponsorship of London 2012 Olympics continues to raise hackles.Continue reading...

BMW projected to beat Mercedes-Benz for US luxury crown.

PepsiCo reportedly mulls layoffs and salary freeze to appease Wall Street.

Kodak bankruptcy report in WSJ slams stock price.

Apple hires Adobe exec to oversee iAds, threatens to sue company behind Steve Jobs doll and rises at Foxconn's expense.

Australia's Commonwealth Bank crowdsources customer ideas.

Arm & Hammer ordered to pull TV commercial criticizing cat litter competitor.

Audi's China sales outstrip Germany.

Boeing closes premier factory in Wichita.

Burberry is now the most popular luxury brand on Facebook, as YouTube, MTV and Coca-Cola lead in FB engagement.Continue reading...

There was a subtle but significant tinge to Fox News’s lineup of moderators for the big debate of Republican presidential contenders last week: Bret Baier, Chris Wallace and Megyn Kelly don’t hail from the network’s robust lineup of red-meat, all-American conservatives.

Apparently that casting was part of a larger “course correction” Fox News has been undertaking as the nation moves heavily into 2012 campaign mode. Fox News head Roger Ailes has “quietly adopted” a bit of a tack toward the center recently, according to media reporter Howard Kurtz in The Daily Beast – a move that also has included parting ways with bomb-thrower Glenn Beck and paying less attention to the Tea Party movement.Continue reading...

As Dow closes down 634 points, the S&P downgrade of U.S. probed by Congress.

AIG sues Bank of America and its subsidiaries, Merrill Lynch and Countrywide.

BlackBerry cringes at association with U.K. riots, as violence continues to escalate.

Spotify reportedly has 1.4 million U.S. users, and now valued at $1.1 billion.

BMW leads global luxury auto brand sales through July, followed by Audi.

CenturyLink brand launches in former Qwest markets.Continue reading...

A new entrant in the highly competitive luxury e-commerce sales game, Joyus, is being closely watched as it aims to make over the bad image that infomercials gained on late-night TV through the years.

The reason: Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, the former Google executive who dreamed up Joyus after being named one of Fortune's 50 Most Powerful Women in Business (and one of its new "Valley Girls" shaking up Silicon Valley).

"If you think about the ways to sell online, video is underutilized," she observes to the New York Times' Bits blog. "It’s a new way for brands to merchandise their product."Continue reading...

All Nippon Airways defers deliveries of some 787s from Boeing and projects profit drop in wake of Japan disaster.

Bank of the West breaks brand ad.

BSkyB board votes to retain James Murdoch as chairman as the company plans a share buyback and a higher dividend and new phone-hacking allegations emerge and UK's top media regulator resigns.

Current TV names new CEO from “old” ranks.

Epocrates “free” ad-supported app lures doctors.

Fiat consolidates management of Chrysler with new global org chart.Continue reading...

While nowhere near as shocking as News Corp.'s surprise closure of News of the World, across the Atlantic CNN delivered its own shocker this week. Eliot Spitzer is out as CNN replaces his nine-month old In the Arena roundtable program that followed the demise of Parker Spitzer, and faithful Anderson Cooper regains his flagship positioning with Anderson Cooper 360 moving to 8 p.m. ET starting August 8th.

Spitzer's ouster isn't the only news. Additional changes to the CNN schedule include the shifting, in late September, for The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer from 5-7 p.m. to a late afternoon 4-6 p.m. slot; John King’s show will move to 6 p.m.; while Erin Burnett, recently hired from CNBC, will assume the 7 p.m. slot as the lead-in to Cooper.

The only prime-time show unaffected is Piers Morgan Tonight, the 9 p.m. interview show introduced six months ago to replace Larry King.Continue reading...