Hulu keeps trucking along with Plan A, even though its corporate parents and the rest of the market have developed a case of the meanies. As long expected, the site is making a play into music, today announcing a limited distribution deal with EMI and the launch of a Norah Jones music video section.

The market for music is not as wide-open as was Hulu’s opportunity with TV shows a couple years ago. Universal Music Group and Sony Music are working with YouTube on the launch of a new destination site called Vevo, which has been called from the outset a “Hulu for music videos.” Warner Music also just made up with YouTube, allowing for its content to return to the site itself.

The Norah Jones deal includes a library of the artist’s music videos, concert footage and interviews accessible to Hulu’s U.S. users. and accompanied by lovely 30-second pre-roll ads (grr). EMI said artists from its Virgin, Capitol and Blue Note labels will follow Jones onto Hulu.

Hulu’s Andy Forssell, senior vice president for content and distribution, told the New York Times that Hulu has revised its idea of a massive music video library to building “an immersive experience around certain artists.” While a more limited approach is going to seem odd to users, it might be financially prudent; the music labels have been able to extract an arm and a leg for their content from many web startups, and Hulu doesn’t want to give up any more of its limbs.

Nov. 11 is not a good date for Current TV employees. For the second year in a row, the network/web site hybrid Al Gore built has announced layoffs on that day in the double digits. But while last year, the eliminated jobs were attributed to “a new cross-platform programming strategy,” the bulk of today’s 80 lost jobs are directly tied to the cancellation of Current Tonight, Current Takeover and Current Exposed.

The canceled shows were part of a change in strategy for Current following the hiring of new CEO Mark Rosenthal, according to COO Joanna Drake Earl. “We had a chance to step back to see what’s working and what’s not,” she said via phone, “which led to the decision to move away from an over-reliance on short-form content.”

The layoffs will allow the company to reinvest in programming, marketing and affiliate sales hiring, areas where Earl admitted Current is looking for “more experienced leadership,” as well as invest more in longer-form shows like Infomania and The Rotten Tomatoes Show, both of which she described as successes.

When it comes to finding ways to make the web and TV play nice together, Current has always been an innovator, whether being one of the first to incorporate Twitter updates on news broadcasts or what Earl described as Rotten Tomatoes‘ “low-bar audience participation format.” We’ll just have to see if the next reorganization comes on Nov. 11, 2010.

Comcast’s bid to buy NBC Universal from GE has cleared another hurdle — the price point. The two parties have agreed to a $30 billion price tag for the TV and movie company, sources familiar with the matter tell The Wall Street Journal and Reuters.

The deal would give the cable network a 51 percent stake in the newly combined venture. And the deal could include a stipulation that over the following seven years, GE would sell all or part of its remaining stake in the company to Comcast.

One variable to closing this deal is French media company Vivendi, which has a 20 percent stake in NBCU. Vivendi has been talking about selling its stake for a while, but it’s not clear whether the company has agreed to the deal being negotiated between Comcast and GE.

Comcast is expected to contribute between $4 billion and $6 billion to the venture, but the cash payment would depend on how well NBC performs financially. If NBCU’s financials get worse between the signing of the deal and final closing, Comcast could wind up paying less.

The Journal reports that the final details are being worked out, and we could get an announcement by the end of this week. (We’ve heard that one before.) Getting the regulatory approvals is expected to take eight to 12 months.

DirecTV Added 136,000 Subs in Q3; revenue was up 9.7 percent to $5.5 billion. (Multichannel News)

Target Rolls Out Web Vids for Holiday Shopping; comedic clips cover such topics as family traditions and other oddities. (AdWeek)

Boxee to Unveil Beta on Dec. 7; new version will have a new UI, better navigation and more. (Boxee Blog)

Live Music to Debut on Mobile and Theaters at the Same Time; crowd-sourced movie will play on 500 screens in front of the animated movie Planet 51. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Fred Movie Looking for a Dad; production is looking for “cameo names only” to play the pipsqueak’s pop. (Tubefilter)

Blake Krikorian, who left left Sling Media earlier this year, the place-shifting startup that he sold to Echostar for $380 million in September 2007, is going to join the board of directors of Clicker.com, a Los Angeles-based online-video content discovery company started by Jim Lanzone, the former CEO of Ask.com. Krikorian is also going to make an undisclosed amount of money in the company; a news announcement is likely to be made later this week.

Clicker is backed by veteran venture capitalists Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital and Geoff Yang of Redpoint Ventures, who have invested $8 million in the company. Clicker is going to be unveiling its service to the world at our NewTeeVee Live conference, which will be held on Nov. 12 in San Francisco. (To buy tickets for the conference, click here. ) Liz covered the company in The Best Guides to Watching TV Online. Continue reading at GigaOM.

Comcast/NBCU Announcement This Week? Two sides have reportedly reached a tentative deal wherein the cable company would own 51 percent of NBC Universal. (The New York Times)

uTorrent 2.0 to Be a Network Friendly BitTorrent Protocol; will eliminate the need for ISPs to throttle BitTorrent traffic because the protocol will be network-aware and will throttle itself. (TorrentFreak)

FOX to Do On-Air Scavenger Hunt for The Simpsons; during the week of Nov. 9 – 13, viewers can watch for Simpsons shout-outs, tributes and clues, and enter to win a prize package. (TV by the Numbers)

TV Networks Tuning In to Google Video Box Ads; the ad, which brings up video when clicked on, being used by The CW, ABC, and USA. (MediaWeek)

FiOS TV Growth Slowing Down; telco added 191,000 video subscribers, and is now at 2.7 million overall. (Multichannel News)

Can Twitter and Social Marketing Save the Movies? Revision3 CEO says his company was able to help Paranormal Activity become a hit by using social media in conjunction with Rev3’s shows and talent. (Jim Louderback)

What’s next for YouTube? Branded entertainment, or when a sponsor pays creators to make something that will bring its brand to their audience.

YouTube is extremely bullish on branded entertainment, Kevin Yen, director of strategic partnerships for the site, said on a panel I moderated a few days ago. Expect a lot of branded projects to hit YouTube “in the coming quarters and months,” Yen said. But he added that the site is still evaluating the questions, “How do you scale it?” and “Can it be a $100 or $200 million a year business?”

Branded entertainment isn’t simple like Google AdWords; it would be hard to set up a product that automated these deals. YouTube is undergoing an “adjustment period” in which it learns how to moderate the various creative and controlling forces involved in commissioning sponsored videos from its users, Yen said. For instance, it connected Carl’s Jr. with nine YouTube stars earlier this year and coordinated their simultaneous launch of videos sponsored by the fast food chain to their 3.8 million combined subscribers (see the one from Nigahiga embedded above).

Read more of this story

CBS Interactive CEO Quincy Smith is leaving his job, a move that wasn’t altogether unexpected. But the departure is clearly on good terms; CBS announced the news today with a press release headlined “QUINCY SMITH SIGNS MULTI-YEAR ADVISORY AGREEMENT WITH CBS CORPORATION” after Kara Swisher had the scoop.

Smith is to stay in his current role until the end of the year, at which point he will move onto “an independent advisory business” that will advise CBS on digital. He will continue to be involved in CBS Interactive’s monetization, authentication, partnerships and other “growth opportunities” — so just about everything, unless of course his other clients want some of his time! CBS Interactive President Neil Ashe will be staying on to lead the division.

Smith had been with CBS Interactive since Nov. 2006, and has made some big digital bets, such as the acquisition of CNET; March Madness On Demand and other live sports streams; and the wide online syndication of CBS shows. In a statement, CBS President and CEO Leslie Moonves called him “one of the finest minds working in Interactive media today.” Smith also has extensive experience in investing with Allen & Company and The Barksdale Group, but it would be a tough time to raise a fund right now.

Want to hear what’s next for Smith? Come to our NewTeeVee Live conference in San Francisco in a few short weeks. Smith will be joining us on stage for what’s sure to be a fantastic fireside chat with GigaOM founder Om Malik.

Juniper Makes Strategic Investment in Ankeena; company also gives Ankeena access to its JUNOS Software and development platform to help MSOs, telcos and ISPs manage new media infrastructure. (emailed release)

Eye-Fi Shares Videos Directly to Facebook; wireless memory card for digital cameras can now wirelessly upload videos to the social network. (emailed release)

5min Partners with HealthCentral; the two will create a new online video health network. (emailed release)

Voddler Launches a Hulu-like Service in Sweden; offered through ISP Bredbandsbolaget, it will stream U.S. movies from Paramount, Disney and others. (Variety)

Hulu No. 2 on MediaWeek’s Digital Hot List; premium content site the only video site on the list. (GigaOM)

Televisa Takes Soccer Into 3D; Spanish language network broadcasts the game into four theaters in Mexico for 89 pesos ($6.70) a ticket. (Variety)