Time Warner

The ABC.com episode player has delivered more than a half-billion episodes and a billion ads while ABC and Disney (NYSE: DIS) have sold "tens of millions" of episodes through iTunes, Anne Sweeney, co-chair, Disney Media Networks, and president, Disney-ABC Television Group, said during an Industry Insider session at CES this afternoon.

Asked what Time Warner's plans for the AOL business and all its discordant parts—from access service to content and ad sales—CFO John Martin, in a Q&A the 2009 Citigroup Global Entertainment, Media & Telecommunications Conference in Phoenix, said that the company is still enthusiastic about exploring "strategic relationships." However, to be realistic, this is not the kind economic environment conducive to quick action.

-Google CEO Eric Schmidt says there's not much his company can do to ease the newspaper industry's death agonies. "We...can't materially change the way consumers behave." Uh, isn't that exactly what Google does? [Fortune]

Around the Net In Online Marketing: Time Warner Forced To Write Down AOL, Other Asset Values

Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) is warning investors that it will report a net loss ranging from $1.04 to $1.07 a share profit. Back in November, the company said it expected to income to grow 5 percent over 2007's $12.9 billion. The company is also expecting an impairment charge of $25 billion.

-Time Warner Cable has agreed to pay for the right to retransmit CBS shows over its tubes. The deal is a huge victory for CBS even though, whether to save face or avoid setting a precedent, the payments will take the form of higher fees paid to carry Showtime. [WSJ]

-Former Time Warner chairman Dick Parsons is under consideration to be the next secretary of the Commerce Department. [B&C]

—Lonely Planet : Lonely Planet, the travel brand owned by BBC Worldwide, has hired Dow Jones' digital strategy and operations SVP Matthew Goldberg as its new CEO. He will replace Judy Slatyer. Goldberg had led the Wall Street Journal Digital Network's business operations, including those for WSJ.com, MarketWatch, Barrons.com and AllThingsDigital.com. When he starts with Lonely Planet in March, he will be charged with maintaining its core printed travel guides business and growing its digital and multiplatform opportunities.

-While you were getting drunk on champagne in the early minutes of 2009, executives from Time Warner Cable and Viacom were hammering out a new carriage agreement, ending an ugly stand-off. [THR]

-Kathy Griffin brought a little extra salt to CNN's New Year's festivities. Anderson Cooper was simply scandalized. [NYP]

Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) Cable CEO Glenn Britt and Viacom (NYSE: VIA) CEO Philippe Dauman are both standing by as negotiations continue in a fee dispute that could result in MTV Networks being pulled from TWC at midnight.

-The Village Voice has laid off Nat Hentoff, who's written for the paper since 1958. That's just sad. [NYT]

-Viacom cable channels are due to disappear from Time Warner Cable at midnight tonight unless the two conglomerates can agree to new carriage terms. Viacom is appealing to consumers in hopes that they'll pressure Time Warner to cut a deal. [WSJ]