Conan O'Brien leaves NBC for $45 million deal

NBC's late-nightmare is over. The network announced Thursday (Jan. 21) that Conan O'Brien will leave "The Tonight Show" and NBC.

O'Brien is expected to tape his last "Tonight" on Friday (Jan. 22).
NBC and O'Brien agreed to a $45 million deal wherein Conan receives $33 million under the condition that he not return to television for eight months.

There is also no provision that says his $33 million will go down by the amount of his new television deal, as was previously speculated. The rest of the $45 million will go towards the severance package for his "Tonight Show" staff members. Jay Leno will return to hosting "The Tonight Show" after the Winter Olympics.

The official deal comes after almost two weeks of sturm und drang about the future of O'Brien and Leno, and to at least some degree of the network as a whole. NBC said Sunday, Jan. 10 that the prime-time "Jay Leno Show," which had pulled weak ratings and damaged affiliates' local news numbers, would end, and network chairman Jeff Gaspin floated a plan to give Leno a half-hour show at 11:35 p.m., pushing "The Tonight Show" to just after midnight and "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" to 1 a.m.

Two days later, however, O'Brien released a statement saying he didn't want to move to midnight. "I sincerely believe that delaying 'The Tonight Show' into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting," he said. "'The Tonight Show' at 12:05 simply isn't 'The Tonight Show.'"

That kicked off a round of sniping that played out in the two hosts' monologues -- as well as those of David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel and Craig Ferguson -- intense negotiations and lots of reports about when O'Brien would be doing his last show.

Negotiations dragged on as NBC and O'Brien's camp hammered out details, with reports of "it'll be done tomorrow" trickling out for almost a week.

Now it's done and Conan O'Brien will receive $33 million for seven months' work. Not a bad deal, though we'd wager he still feels pretty raw about the whole thing.

Microsoft Sues TiVo over Video Patents

Microsoft on Wednesday filed suit against TiVo in a California District Court, accusing the company of violating several patents regarding video programming.

Microsoft claims that components of TiVo's set-top box products, subscription services, and software infringe on Microsoft-held patents for a "system for displaying programming information" and a "system and method for secure purchase and delivery of video content programs."

"We remain open to resolving this situation through an intellectual property licensing agreement, and we have initiated discussions to engage TiVo in negotiations," Kevin Kutz, Microsoft's director of public affairs, said in a statement.

TiVo said the Microsoft suit is simply a means to defend AT&T in a separate case.

In August, TiVo filed a patent suit against AT&T and Verizon in a Texas District Court, accusing them of infringing on patents related to its digital video recorder (DVR) patents. TiVo pointed to AT&T's U-verse service as one of the infringing products.

On Friday, Microsoft filed an intervention complaint in that case, stating that TiVo's case against AT&T involves Microsoft as well.

"U-verse is a subscription service provided by certain subsidiaries of AT&T Inc. As part of the television subscription, a U-verse subscriber is provided with a set-top box with certain digital video recording and playback functionality," Microsoft wrote in its complaint. "The set-top boxes run Microsoft software known as Mediaroom. [TiVo's] accusations of infringement by AT&T Inc. therefore implicate Microsoft software and technology."

"Microsoft's recent legal actions, including its decision to seek to intervene on behalf of its customer, AT&T, and its recent complaint against TiVo in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California do not bear on whether the AT&T products and services that are the subject of TiVo's complaint infringe the patents asserted by TiVo," TiVo said in a statement. "Rather these actions are part of a legal strategy to defend AT&T. We remain confident in our position that AT&T will be found to infringe on the TiVo patents asserted."

Sony delays PlayStation 3 motion controller

Sony has pushed back the release of its highly anticipated motion controller for its PlayStation 3 console until the autumn of 2010.

The controller, which tracks a player's body movements to play a game, was planned to go on sale in spring.

The delay will mean that it will launch around the same time as Microsoft's hands-free games controller, known as Project Natal, for its Xbox 360.

Both are seen as rivals to Nintendo's popular system for its Wii console.

Although demand for Nintendo's game's machine has slowed recently it still dominates console sales.

It has sold more than 56m units worldwide, compared to Microsoft's Xbox 360 which has sold 39m units and Sony's PS3 which has sold around 30m units.

Nintendo's console was the first to have a mass-market motion-detecting controller, allowing the gamer to control the onscreen action with body movements rather than controlling a joystick.

Sony's device is similar to Nintendo's controller. A camera sits on top of the TV and detects the motion of a coloured orb attached to the end of a wand held by the player.

It will be available in North America, Europe, Japan and other Asian countries. Sony has not confirmed its cost.

Unlike its rivals, Microsoft's Natal does not use a controller. Instead, a series of sensors allow the gamer to control the action using gestures, movement and speech.

It will be available in November this year.