TVSquad

Came across this interesting news while perusing the personal blog of the Newark Star-Ledger's Alan Sepinwall: The Bravo network, part of the NBC Universal family, has bought Television Without Pity for an undisclosed sum.

In the deal, site founders Tara Ariano and Sara D. Bunting will remain on board as editors, and the site's other co-founder, lead designer and community engineer David T. Cole (who is Ariano's husband) will stay on as a manager of media technology production. The site will be part of the growing number of sites under the Bravo banner, including Brilliant But Cancelled, OutZoneTV.com, and getTrio.com. Ariano's side project, Fametracker.com, was also acquired.

According to Sepinwall, the founders told reporters on a conference call that they will retain full editorial control, which (for now) puts questions of their objectivity to rest. In other words, if they want to eviscerate Top Chef, they're still free to do so. FYI, they also told reporters that the recent closing of a TWoP message board thread on The Real Housewives of Orange County, a Bravo show, was merely a coincidence.

Rumors have been swirling around for a couple of months that Google was going to buy the out-of-nowhere video sharing sensation YouTube, even though Google had their own video sharing site. Well, those rumors have become a reality, as the search engine company has bought the video company for $1.65 billion of Google stock. The YouTube brand will remain intact, as will the company's entire staff of 67, including founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. You know what that means... high corporate positions and heftly salaries on top of the Google stock. Not a bad haul for a company that has yet to turn a profit.

The interesting aspect of this deal is that Google Video, while not at the level of YouTube, was still a widely-used product. Is this going to get tossed in favor of YT, or will both embedded video systems continue on parallel tracks? The article doesn't say. Either way, Google seems to be following the Microsoft model of competition: if you can't beat 'em, buy 'em.