The Microsoft damage control machine kicked into high gear yesterday afternoon, denying that the company was working with NBC on filtering software for the media device. From the Microsoft Zune Insider blog:

We have no plans or commitments to implement any new type of content filtering in the Zune devices as part of our content distribution deal with NBC.

Saul Hansell of the The New York Times Bits blog posted an update to his original story:

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This is no joke. PaidContent wrote last night that Turner will fold comedy site SuperDeluxe into Adult Swim and lay off much of the SuperDeluxe staff. Turner sent us the following statement this morning:

“Effective immediately, we will begin transitioning the content of Super Deluxe.com to Adult Swim.com and merge the operation of both sites. This move allows us to grow more strategically and create a richer, stronger platform that builds on Adult Swim’s number-one position with young adults.”

The move isn’t a surprising one (we predicted it back in November) given that Adult Swim was a much stronger, edgier brand for Turner. Why compete against yourself when you’re also trying to fend off the likes of College Humor, Funny or Die and Comedy Central? Not to mention upstarts like My Damn Channel and 60Frames and all the sitcoms the network is putting online.

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Yesterday we wrote that the Microsoft Zune was like the football character Rudy, only it turns out that the Zune is actually more like Rudy’s uptight college R.A.. One of the reasons NBC went with Microsoft, according to The New York Times, is because the Redmond giant may put anti-piracy protection on its device.

J.B. Perrette, NBC Universal’s president of digital distribution, told The Times that his company and Microsoft will work to create:

“…filtering technology that allows for playback of legitimately purchased content versus non-legitimately purchased content.”

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Microsoft’s Zune is like the titular character in the movie Rudy. It’s a small fry with a lot of heart that doesn’t give up despite the giant odds (iPodds?) it’s up against. And just like Rudy, Microsoft suited up and scored a little win today nabbing TV shows like The Office and Heroes from NBC — shows Apple doesn’t have.

In a very public split last year, NBC yanked its shows from iTunes over the insistence of Apple pricing shows at a firm $1.99. The Zune Marketplace on the other hand will sell NBC’s shows for… $1.99, though the deal allows room for flexible pricing.

Microsoft will also sell shows from Comedy Central and MTV, offering an initial library of about 800 episodes total for purchase. iTunes has thousands of episodes from 600 different shows.

Just like Rudy, this big play won’t catapult the Zune into the big leagues. But a win is a win. (Cue the chanting “Zu-nee, Zu-nee, Zu-nee!”)

(DVD cover art for the film courtesy of Amazon.)

Apple said yesterday it had finally scored deals to sell movies from almost every major studio on the same day they come out on DVD. What’s surprising is that the company will lose a dollar on every new release it sells, according to the Wall Street Journal.

New movies will cost $14.99 for consumers, but $16 wholesale for Apple, making them a loss leader for the retailer, the WSJ’s sources said. (iTunes sells most older titles for $9.99.) I’m not quite sure what the difference is between $15 and $16 — either one of them sounds like more than I would pay for a movie.

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Viacom to Shell Out $100 Million for New Pay Channel; company will be lead investor but not majority owner. (Multichannel News)

7 Million Downloads for South Park; animated franchise is MTV’s best-selling show on iTunes and Xbox. (Silicon Alley Insider)

Silverman: OdTeeVee Will Be Event-Driven; NBC Entertainment co-chair says broadcast TV will only be good for high-profile events like the Super Bowl and the Oscars. (TVWeek)

Hearst-Argyle Selects Anystream; company’s Media Lifecycle video transcoding platform to be used by 11 of 29 Hearst TV stations. (VideoNuze)

Redbox Filing for IPO; DVD rental kiosk company owned by McDonald’s and Coinstar looking to file statement in Q2 of this year. (Video Business)

Squeegees Gets Syndication; Stage9’s sitcom to get distribution across Hulu, Zvue, Xbox and iTunes. (release)

ABC will test inserting multiple commercials into ad breaks for primetime shows viewed through its broadband player next week, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The move would break the norm of having a single advertiser within a longform web vid and begin the downward spiral toward making web video as irritating as oldteevee.

Albert Cheng, executive vice president at Disney-ABC Television told The Reporter, “It would be premature for us to say people only want one ad.” He continued: “It’s a likely sort of thinking, but we want to push it a little bit to see how it would go.”

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