cable networks

Seventeen more cable TV networks said Tuesday they are joining an online video trial by Comcast Corp., a move that tacitly acknowledges advertising isn't enough to support shows streamed over the Internet.

The networks join a growing roster of content providers -- including CBS, HBO, Cinemax, TBS, TNT and Starz -- that have agreed to participate in Comcast's test, bringing the total to 23 programmers since the initiative was announced in June.

Amid the rush to make programming available for free online, Time Warner and Comcast are fighting back. The companies on June 24 announced a new model that will require viewers to prove they are cable subscribers before they can stream hit shows online. The announcement puts both companies squarely into the fray of a growing debate over whether people should be forced to pay for content online instead of getting it for free.

Time Warner Cable and Comcast reportedly have been holding separate talks with the owners of major cable-TV networks with the goal of finding ways to give cable subscribers online access to much of the programming that cable has to offer.

YouTube and the William Morris Agency are nearing a deal that would put the Hollywood talent broker's clients in made-for-YouTube productions, according to a report in The New York Times.

The YouTube deal would reportedly give William Morris clients an ownership stake in the videos they create for the popular video Web site. William Morris represents the likes of actors Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe and producers Michael Bay and J.J. Abrams.

Google will begin selling ads on some cable networks owned by NBC Universal in a new partnership that will expand Google's efforts to become a force in television advertising.

Under the agreement, NBC Universal will make a relatively small amount of advertising time on networks like MSNBC, CNBC, Sci Fi and Oxygen available for sale through Google's TV Ads program in the coming months, the companies said. The partnership could later be extended to other NBC Universal properties.

ABC has a new Webcast deal, this time with Internet television service Veoh. Under the arrangement, full-length episodes of Desperate Housewives, Lost and Ugly Betty will be available on Veoh's Web site. The deal is only the second time ABC has licensed content to an independent vendor.

Other networks, notably NBC, have moved much more aggressively into the strange new land in which networks produce content for broadcast, then license other sites to replay it. NBC and Fox joined forces last year to create Hulu.com, a portal for the networks' content.

Time Warner has decided to sell its cable operation even as it struggles to correct its ailing America Online unit, CEO Jeff Bewkes announced in the company's quarterly earnings call Wednesday. On the positive side, income from the company's cable networks and film operations offset a whopping 23 percent decline at AOL.

"We've decided that a complete structural separation of Time Warner Cable, under the right circumstances, is in the best interests of both companies' shareholders," Bewkes said. "We feel these companies would be better off separated than they are together."