A new Viacom study on social media has revealed that viewers engage around seven different types of social TV activities per week. Viacom's national online survey looked at research from 1,500 Viacom Media Networks viewers aged 13-54. The research found that young viewers who watch TV with “others” score 85% among all respondents. Searching supplemental TV content was at 61%, while viewing TV show clips on social networks was at 58%.

A federal appeals court in the U.S. has revived a $1-billion lawsuit by Viacom against YouTube over the company's unauthorized posting of Viacom content. Viacom had previously sued YouTube, claiming the website allowed users to post copyrighted Viacom content without permission between 2005 and 2008. The US Second Circuit Court of Appeals has reassigned the case to a lower court, instructing it to determine whether YouTube was aware of the copyright infringements.

Amazon.com has struck a digital content licensing deal with Discovery Communications. Under the terms of the agreement, Amazon will add series from Discovery's lineup to Amazon's subscription-based streaming video service. Subscribers to the Amazon Prime shipping service will be able to stream a considerable amount of Discovery's content, including content from the company’s 25-year programming library.

Viacom's profits plummeted 65% in the fourth quarter due to lower advertising sales at its cable television networks. The media company depends almost entirely on its cable channels, including MTV, Nickelodeon, BET, VH1 and Comedy Central, for its income. 

Facebook now ranks as the third largest video site on the Web in terms of unique viewers according to comScore, with an estimated 51.5 million people on Facebook watching a video during the month of July.