Viacom has reached an agreement with AOL Time Warner to buy AOL's 50% interest in Comedy Central, the only all-comedy network in the U.S., for a total of $1.225 billion. The transaction is expected in the second quarter of 2003, whereby Comedy Central will be wholly owned by Viacom and join MTV Network's line-up of basic cable channels. Viacom is well positioned to do so, having just announced a 26% increase in net earnings in the first quarter of 2003. Viacom posted net income of $443M, or 25 cents a share, compared with a loss of $1.11 billion in 2002, or 63 cents a share.

Haim Saban's plan to buy KirchMedia has hit a snag because KirchMedia creditor banks are refusing to accept some terms of the deal, which they claim are different than what Saban originally proposed. "The most recently presented business plan (11 April) has substantial disadvantages for the banks' position in comparison with the originally presented business plan," credit bank, cooperative DZ Bank said in a two-page letter, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.

Manex Entertainment, Inc. reported revenues of approximately $1,750,000 with an operating profit of $400,000 in its preliminary unaudited results for the three-month period ended March 31, 2003. Manex Entertainment has been best known in the past for providing Oscar-winning visual effects for big-budget feature films such as THE MATRIX, WHAT DREAMS MAY COME and CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. It has west coast facilities in Los Angeles and Hayward, California and is proposing to build east coast facilities in Trenton, New Jersey.

Roger Chouinard, owner and co-founder of Duck Soup Studios in Los Angeles, has renamed his studio DUCK to go with a new image and logo, as well as new developments in the creative and technical direction of the studio.

Viacom's chairman/CEO Sumner Redstone has been juggling his board of directors, dropping it from 18 to 17 members to "enhance corporate governance," the media conglomerate said in its annual proxy filing. A power debate has been resolved beween Redstone and COO Mel Karmazin. Both have reupped with Viacom signing employment contracts that return significant powers to Redstone, 79, while maintaining Karmazin's authority to run Viacom on a daily basis. It was widely reported that issues had arisen between them when Viacom and CBS Corp., where Karmazin, 59, was CEO, merged.

Eric Fogel, creator of MTV's CELEBRITY DEATHMATCH and producing partner John Lynn have opened AniMotion Unlimited, a full service animation studio located in Midtown Manhattan. The studio's mission is to keep animation production alive and well on the East Coast, according to Fogel. Fogel was creator/director/co-exec producer of CELEBRITY DEATHMATCH, MTV's first clay-animated series that had a four-season run, starting in 1998.