The move, which has yet to be announced, is being driven by the Walt Disney Co.(DIS), which signed on to distribute Spielberg and Co.'s films in February. That deal included a provision by which Starz would distribute Disney's films under an existing agreement by which Starz distributes all of Disney's films to its pay TV customers. Now, it appears that Starz doesn't want to distribute Dreamworks movies to its cable and satellite viewers, and is pressuing Disney to find someone else to do it instead. Enter Showtime.

Why wouldn't Starz want to show films from the hitmakers at Dreamworks or, more importantly, give up a shot at Spielberg flick? Starz, Dreamworks and Showtime aren't commenting. But try to follow Starz' reasoning, if you can: pay channels like Starz get a piece of the annual $10-12 a month that a cable operation collects from customers who get the channel. So, let’s say that Starz has 18 million subscribers, the last number Liberty reported to the SEC. If it gets, say $5 a month from each of those subscribers, it generates revenues of $90 million a month or about $1.1 billion a year. The problem comes in the payout to Disney. Pay channels pay studios a fee on the number of films they get from the studio, but the fee escalates as the film does better at the box office.

BusinessWeek staffers learned of Neal’s departure through a memo sent out by Norman Pearlstine, Bloomberg’s chief content officer. “We are grateful for the tremendous foundation that he has built for the digital properties,” Pearlstine said. “Roger’s digital team will report to Bloomberg’s Kevin Krim.”

Earlier, BusinessWeek President Keith Fox and Editor-in-Chief Stephen J. Adler announced they would be leaving the magazine. Fox will remain at BusinessWeek’s parent, McGraw-Hill Cos.

Neal was recruited to BusinessWeek from eBay in 2006 where he served as director of strategic partnerships. During his tenure at BusinessWeek, traffic to the magazine’s website grew from 6.4 million average monthly unique visitors to more than 10 million. Among Neal’s other initiatives was to create the Business Exchange, a social networking site for the business community in which McGraw-Hill invested more than $20 million. While accounting for 16% of digital revenues so far in 2009, BX has yet to meet online traffic and revenue goals.

"I'm enormously proud of the great strides we've made growing Businessweek.com, launching Business Exchange, and finding a great home for the franchise at Bloomberg," said Neal, who was directly involved in presentations during the sales processs. "There is enormous potential in the continuing evolution of digital media and I'm very excited to pursue new opportunities in this arena."

In other personnel news, Pearlstine said BusinessWeek publisher Jessica Sibley would remain in her job following the transition to Bloomberg, as will Carl Fischer as head of marketing and communications. Tania Secor, BusinessWeek’s vice president of finance, will also be retained and fill a larger finance role with Bloomberg News, including at BusinessWeek and at Bloomberg Markets magazine.

Pearlstine said executive editors Ellen Pollock and John Byrne and managing editor Ciro Scotti would continue in their roles. He also reassured the staff that the majority of BusinessWeek employees would be hired by Bloomberg.

The search for a new editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek continues, said Pearlstine.

Sometimes even a wheeler-dealer like John Malone outsmarts himself. That’s seems to be the situation at DirectTV. (DTV), where the razor sharp media baron seems to have dealt himself out of installing his own choice as CEO of the satellite TV giant despite once owning 57% of the company’s stock. Instead, he controls 24% of the company’s votes, but seems to have been bottled up by a very independent DirecTV board.

Those are the details that are emerging from a recent SEC filing by DirecTV. The satellite company clearly wanted to stop Malone, who buys and sells companies faster than most people change socks, from exerting too much control over the company. So in what has to have been a wing ding of negotiations, the DirecTV board swapped the DirecTV stake that Malone’s Liberty Media (LMDIA) once held for shares in DirecTV that Liberty will distribute to its shareholders. In addition, DirecTV took a $2 billion loan off Liberty’s hands that it used to buy those shares in the first place, but took Liberty’s 65% stake in the Game Show network and three Fox Sports regional networks. Malone got super-voting shares that are capped at 24% of the company’s voting shares.

What motivated DirecTV’s board to do the deal? They were angling for “the elimination of a single shareholder …with the ability to veto change of control provisions,” the company said in its SEC filing. More important, the board wanted to “reduce the level of influence that Malone could exert,” they added. Anyone need more of a roadmap than that?

Why’d Malone do the deal? Mostly for tax reasons, which seem to drive much of what the media baron does. The stock-for-stock swap allows him to avoid a ton of taxes on the appreciation in DirecTV’s stock in 2006. DirecTV sweetened the deal by giving Liberty shareholders a 5.6% premium on top of that tax-free treatment. DirecTV’s shareholders will vote on the transaction on Nov. 12.

The panel was assembled to help promote a new book, “The Curse Of The Mogul, What’s Wrong With the World’s Leading Media Companies,” in which the co-authors skewer media executives for their companies’ poor financial performance over the years and for propagating a “myth” about the necessity to do mergers. Needless to say, there was no shortage of opinion on Monday night.

Lead panelist and co-author of the book, investment banker Jonathan Knee, kicked it off by saying that media executives have essentially tried to merge their way to excellence by “convincing the world there is something special and magical about media.” To hear more from Knee, click here

Details are still be worked out, according to those with knowledge of the arrangement, but it is being portrayed internally as a promotion for the 49-year old Grainge, who is highly regarded by executives at Universal’s Vivendi parent company. When they signed Morris to a four-year contract extension last year, Vivendi top executives encouraged their long-time Universal chief to bring in a successor, BusinessWeek has been told. Morris will continue to work on key projects for Universal, but will turn over day-to-day operations. Morris expects to maintain his seat on the Vivendi management board, which includes top executives from the French conglomerate’s business units.

Morris, a one-time songwriter with wrote the 1966 Chiffon’s hit “Sweet Talking Guy,” was a record producer before becoming president of Atlantic Records in 1980 and president of Warner Music (WMG) in 1994. In 1995, he moved over to Universal Music’s predecessor, MCA Records, as its chairman and CEO. The company was renamed Universal the next year, and acquired Polygram in 1998. That deal gave Universal labels like Motown and A&M Records. Universal currently sells more than one-third the music sold in the U.S..

Fox, 44, informed colleagues of his decision in a staff memo Friday afternoon, less than three weeks after McGraw-Hill announced it had reached an agreement to sell BusinessWeek to Bloomberg LP.

"I am proud that I played a role in ensuring that BusinessWeek has a new home at Bloomberg, where it will thrive under the leadership of Norman Pearlstine," Fox told staffers (see full memo below). "I am committed to the transition and helping in any way that I can." A veteran of McGraw-Hill, Fox did not specify the new role he will play at the company. He said he will take on new responsibilities in 2010, after assisting the BusinessWeek team with the transition to Bloomberg. The sale is expected to close in early December.

Norman Pearlstine, Bloomberg's chief content officer, who will serve as chairman of BusinessWeek, said: "I got to know Keith during the weeks we were doing due diligence prior to agreeing to acquire BusinessWeek. In the weeks since the acquisition was announced, my admiration for Keith and the team of senior managers he assembled
-- many of whom will continue in leadership roles after BusinessWeek is acquired by Bloomberg -- has only grown. McGraw-Hill is fortunate to have Keith in the company. We wish him and McGraw-Hill all the best."

Fox's resignation from his post follows a similar announcement from BusinessWeek editor-in-chief Stephen J. Adler, who told staff on Oct. 22 that he was stepping down. “Keith has been an extraordinary leader in the most difficult of times. He built a stellar business team, created a culture that combined high performance with exceptional collegiality, and won the respect and affection of the entire staff," Adler said of Fox on Friday. "To me, he was the ideal collaborator and the most generous of colleagues.”

The Journal's newsroom has been abuzz for several weeks about possible layoffs. This comes as the period to accept attractive severance offers, made to senior staffers following News Corp.'s acquisition of Dow Jones at the deal's close two years ago, is set to expire in December. That could prompt additional resignations from editors not wanting to miss out on a lucrative buyout deal.

Since late 2007, The Journal has laid off about 50 people, mostly due to the closing of the news desk in South Brunswick, N.J. and its fashion industry reporting bureau. Earlier this week, three people were let go from the color lab within The Journal's art department.

Forbes announced this week it would be cutting staff, perhaps by as many as 50 positions. And The Times is looking to reduce its newsroom by 100, first by offering voluntary buyouts and then through layoffs.

Smith will continue to provide consulting services to CBS on its various interactive ventures, but is leaving in January to start his own consulting firm. A one-time venture capitalist and investment banker with media firm Allen and Company, Smith had advised Comcast (CMCSA), Google (GOOG) and CBS in his prior life. At CBS, he is CEO of the unit that included CNET sites like CNET.com, Chow.com, and BNET.com as well as the cbs.com and cbsports.com that distribute shows from CBS's existing businesses.

Smith was also a key driver behind CBS's efforts to stream high-end sporting events, including the annual March Madness college basketball tournament games, which had grown greatly in popularity. Under Smith, CBS had kept its distance from Hulu.com, the online site that currently streams shows from NBC, Fox, and ABC. The company was instead building its own TV distribution arm through its TV.com site.

Current interactive president Neil Ash will continue as president of the interactive unit.

In hope of attacking that situation, and maybe of keeping dive-bombing DVD sales from falling even faster, Hollywood is contemplating all kinds of course changes. They include charging more to RedBox and Netflix, selling their DVDs to those companies later than they sell them to retailers like Wal-Mart, and making the companies destroy old DVDs rather than putting them in a cheapie bin somewhere. What’s the common theme? They want the consumer to pay more to rent, or better yet, to buy their discs.

Which is why I loved today’s announcement that Paramount Pictures (VIAB) has found a different way to generate more revenues from its films and the DVD market. Quite simply, they’ve made a fairly inexpensive film called Circle of Eight and are premiering it online with MySpace (NWS). The idea is to create buzz, and then rent or sell it through Blockbuster (BBI) and, I have to assume, other retailers down the road.

"We've been spending time on long-term spectrum policy for the country because there is a spectrum gap that the data suggests that we face," he told a group of BusinessWeek staffers. "The demands that are being created by the iPhone and other mobile broadband technologies threaten to outstrip the amount of spectrum that's available for commercial mobile, and it's important for the country that we get long-term planning right here because it takes time to identify spectrum and put it on the market. We're looking at potential innovations in spectrum policy, like secondary licensing for spectrum, and other more creative ideas for unlicensed spectrum."

Genachowski, who has been on the job for three months, addressed a wide range of issues during his visit. Read the full Q & A.

Adler informed his staff of his plans in a memo Tuesday night. He declined to comment beyond what he wrote in the memo (see full memo below). On Oct. 13, BusinessWeek's parent McGraw-Hill Cos. announced it was selling the magazine to Bloomberg after a months-long sales process.

Adler’s resignation eliminates any question as to whether he would continue on under Bloomberg’s ownership and gives Bloomberg’s chief content officer, Norman Pearlstine, the opportunity to hand pick his own candidate for BusinessWeek’s top editorial job. Adler and Pearlstine, who will become chairman of BusinessWeek, were once colleagues at The Wall Street Journal. It is rare that the top editor of a magazine that is acquired stays on in that role.

“It was hugely important to me to help find the right owner for BusinessWeek and to work closely with our business-side colleagues to ensure that staffers would be provided appropriate benefits under any circumstances,” Adler wrote in his staff memo. “Now that these goals have been accomplished, I’m considering other opportunities, and I believe it makes sense for a new owner to move forward with a new editor.”

Pearlstine, who has recruited his old friend, Jim Kelly, the former managing editor of Time Inc. to help with the transition, says: "Steve Adler is a great journalist, editor and friend. We respect his decision to pursue other opportunities. He will remain on board until the acquisition is completed, and we are actively recruiting a new editor to ensure that BusinessWeek delivers the powerful, authoritative content that senior managers, government officials and thought leaders rely upon." Kelly could not be reached for comment.

Azoff, who initially derided the press reports as “either wishful thinking or idle speculation,” went to great lengths during his 30-minute question answer presentation to present Ticketmaster’s case that scalping should be declared illegal so that his company and “rights holders” (i.e. sports teams and rock stars) could control the flow of tickets and prices that consumers pay to get them. “It’s up to those rights owners to decide what they want to do with those tickets.”

Azoff says he has been meeting in Washington with various congressional members to press federal legislation to put curbs on scalping. (The majority of states have laws that allow scalping, and several have removed anti-scaling provisions in recent years,) “I tell them that they wouldn’t allow someone on the street to scalp a gallon of gasoline when there’s an oil crisis” says Azoff. “Why would they allow someone to stand on a street corner and scalp a ticket when it’s in high demand, too?”

During his talk, Azoff did not address reports that his company and Live Nation may be pondering making concessions, including selling off some ticketing sites, in order to curry favor with regulators who worry that the combined company would control too many venues and drive out competitors. “We would never have undertaken this merger if we thought it wasn’t legal,” he said.

Instead, Azoff said he rarely reads newspaper accounts of the deal, although he had seen some recently and dismissed the leaked accounts. “I know that the Justice Dept hasn’t been the source of any of these leaks,” he said, hinting that interested parties were trying to squash the merger. “Despite what (rival concert promoter) AEG might think, this is not a popularity contest,” Azoff added.

Azoff did offer one potentially pro-consumer initiative. Early next year, said Azoff, it plans to introduce “dynamic pricing” of tickets it sells. Under dynamic pricing, a virtual open market would be established for tickets, with the most popular tickets commanding the highest prices based on the numbers of folks wanting them. Alternatively, less attractive tickets would command lower prices. According to Azoff, about 40% of concert ticket seats go unsold these days because they often are too high priced. With dynamic pricing, “we’d have lower priced tickets, more tickets sold and more opportunities for venues to sell popcorn and beer,” the Ticketmaster CEO says.

Trust Bob Iger to tell it like it is, while the rest of Hollywood sugar-coats the obvious. The Walt Disney Co. (DIS) CEO, who first broke ranks with fellow media moguls to say that falling DVD sales was due to more than just the recession, now is sounding warning signals that DVD’s next generation Blu-ray discs also may fall short of the mark.

Speaking before a gathering of lawyers at a symposium at USC today, Iger all but predicted that Hollywood’s hopes for a boost in DVD sales from the new high-definition discs could never offset the continued fall of traditional DVD sales. His reasoning: folks who love to collect DVDs already have 80 or so in their libraries, the new Blu-ray machines are “backward compatible” (meaning that they can play the standard DVDs) and folks simply aren’t going to go out and replenish those libraries as they did when the DVDs first replaced VHS tapes. “We have seen some but not as much as we would like,” he told the gathering.

Try to get other executives in Hollywood to say the same thing. But then again, Iger seems to have a far more realistic outlook for the film business anyway. The business of making films and other entertainment, he says, has fallen prey to the many more choices that folks have to entertain themselves these days. As proof, he trots out the experience of his 11 and seven year old sons, who he says “are the best laboratory I know.” His kids, he says, would be just as happy to “play free casual games all day long.” Other folks have even more things to divert their attention, he says.

That puts the entertainment business in the unenviable position of facing up to the fact that “the opportunities to monetize its content are not what they once were.” Yup, Bob, you said it. DVD sales this year are likely to be off more than 9%, continuing a slide that began two years back. If Iger’s right, those sales won’t likely fully return. And no one thinks that online sales of movies will make that up anytime soon.

That’s a big problem. Sales of those shiny discs, which carry humongous profit margins, have always been the great equalizer for studios whose executives have become addicted to spending big to produce and market films. A few years back, if a film flopped at the box office, it might still make back a chunk of its expenses on DVD sales.

No more, Iger seems to be saying. That why, he says, he began a major overhaul of Disney’s studio. It produces fewer films, is looking to keep costs down, and has focused of brand name producers who cut through the clutter of other filmmakers and might even bring gamers like his sons to the movie theaters. Since taking over as CEO four years back, Iger bought Pixar, has a deal pending to buy Marvel(MVL), and has struck a deal to help finance films made by superstar director Steven Spielberg’s newly reconstituted DreamWorks studio.

Those outlets produce the kind of “brand name” films that folks go the movie theater to see, Iger told the USC gathering. “I don’t think people go to see a film that’s made by Warner Brothers (TWX),” he says, “but they’ll go to a film that’s been made by Disney, or Pixar or Marvel.” That’s likely true. And, if Iger’s right (and I’m betting he is), folks might just also buy some of those shiny new Blu-ray discs.

On hand will be Bloomberg President Dan Doctoroff, chief content officer Norm Pearlstine, Bloomberg News editor-in-chief Matt Winkler, and the head of multimedia services Andy Lack.

The meeting will be held in the second floor auditorium of the McGraw-Hill building on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan.

Expect updates as the meeting progresses.

Terms of the offer will not be disclosed by Bloomberg and BusinessWeek parent McGraw-Hill Cos. But knowledgeable sources say that Bloomberg’s cash offer is in the $2 million to $5 million range and that it has agreed to assume liabilities, including potential severance payments. It remains to be seen how much of the magazine's 400-plus staff Bloomberg plans to cut, but reports of a planned scorched earth campaign are overblown, say sources. BusinessWeek editor-in-chief Steve Adler told his staff shortly after the deal was announced Tuesday that part of the deal guaranteed that McGraw-Hill benefits would be extended to employees for one year after the deal closes.

If the deal closes as anticipated by Dec. 1, it will be unprecedented for both buyer and seller. For Bloomberg, buying BusinessWeek will be its first major acquisition ever and a significant departure for a 28-year-old company nurtured on a "build, don’t buy" culture. “The BusinessWeek acquisition will yield huge benefits for users of the Bloomberg terminal, for our television, online and mobile properties,” says Daniel L. Doctoroff, president of Bloomberg LP and a former deputy mayor of New York City appointed by Mayor Bloomberg. “We couldn’t be more excited...We are not buying BusinessWeek to gut it. We are buying it to build it.”

The deal also signals a shift by Bloomberg into more consumer-focused media. “The reporting and analytical resources of Bloomberg and BusinessWeek are unparalleled in their ability to deliver timely, distinctive and credible content to an influential and highly sought-after audience,” says Bloomberg LP Chairman Peter Grauer.

BusinessWeek, launched 80 years ago, will give Bloomberg entrée to a much larger business audience of corporate executives and senior government officials, beyond what has been its sweet spot of catering to Wall Street and the professional investor community. And by broadening that reach, it will allow Bloomberg to deliver a new breadth of information that will help make its main business -- data terminals -- even more attractive to potential subscribers of those terminals. “We are uniquely positioned to preserve and build the market presence of BusinessWeek,” says Norman Pearlstine, Bloomberg chief content officer and a former editor-in-chief of Time Inc. and executive editor of The Wall Street Journal. “Our shared values and complementary resources give us the editorial and technological expertise, data, analysis and depth of reporting to create a new model for the business weekly.” Pearlstine will become chairman of BusinessWeek and serve as liaison between the magazine and the Bloomberg news staffs. A BusinessWeek publisher and editor-in-chief will report to Pearlstine.