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Full-length movies, TV for YouTube LOS ANGELES : YouTube says it is partnering with major studios to stream full-length movies and TV shows on its site for free. The Web site owned by Google Inc. says it is teaming up on the initiative with Sony Pictures, CBS, MGM, Lionsgate, Starz and the BBC. Advertising revenue will be shared with the content providers. YouTube also says it will more broadly use video ads that play mid-stream in breaks on longer content. The movies and TV shows are currently limited to U.S. users.

TIP 19 Start trimming your phone, Internet, cable costs Telecom services offer large and relatively pain-free ways to reduce household bills. Do you really need a land line telephone? Is premium cable worth the money? (Is any cable? TV stations still broadcast for free, although you'll need to buy a new TV or digital converter.) Can you really tell the difference between cable Internet and cheaper DSL? From a simple phone bill 20 years ago, household telecommunication expenses have bloomed into multiple layers that can add up to more than $300 a month.

With 0-2 starts staring at me in two football leagues (thanks so much, Donovan McNabb and Larry Johnson), I'm trying my best not to focus on the fantasy details. Sometimes, it's worth standing back from the hurly-burly of whom to start and sit in a given week. When I think about how far fantasy sports have come from the homespun baseball and football leagues I started with school friends in the early 1990s, I'm amazed and perhaps a little aghast. More than 19 million people participate in the United States and Canada, according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John Kerry plans to say at a Senate hearing today that the system that should allow fans easy access to televised baseball games from multiple markets "is not working." In a statement to be delivered to the Senate Commerce Committee, the Massachusetts Democrat expressed reservations about a $700 million deal that could make Major League Baseball's Extra Innings package - which allows fans to watch out-of-market games - the exclusive property of the DirecTV satellite service.

Even before the deal was announced, Major League Baseball was feeling political heat over its pending agreement to award the Extra Innings television rights exclusively to DirecTV. So yesterday, when MLB officially unveiled the DirecTV deal, it apparently tried to turn down the heat. This arrangement for Extra Innings - the package of out-of-market games that allows an Orioles fan living in Austin, Texas, to follow his favorite team - might turn out not to be exclusive to DirecTV. The In Demand cable service and another satellite provider, Dish Network, are being given the opportunity to negotiate for Extra Innings, MLB chief operating officer Bob DuPuy said during yesterday's conference call.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have Orioles television news. No, not the announcement of on-air talent for games and the studio show. And, no, there isn't a deal that will put Mid-Atlantic Sports Network games on Dish Network. But yesterday, MASN did release its schedule of telecasts for spring training. Hey, you take what you can get. MASN will televise seven Orioles games, starting March 3 against the Washington Nationals in Viera, Fla. (Last year, two exhibition games were carried.) And because that is a Nationals home contest, we even know who will be calling the game - MASN's previously named Nationals pairing of Bob Carpenter and Don Sutton.

WASHINGTON - Washington Nationals fans, at least those who subscribe to DirecTV, can breathe easier. They finally can see more of their team's games on television. The satellite service announced yesterday that it has reached a deal to carry 68 games via the MidAtlantic Sports Network, or MASN, which holds the team's broadcast rights and had been shopping for an outlet to show additional contests. The 68 games are in addition to 67 games already scheduled to be aired on Washington station WDCA, which is also available over the air and on some cable systems in the Washington area.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - DirecTV Group Inc., the biggest U.S. satellite-television service, sold a 50 percent stake in a new unit that includes its Hughes Network Systems business to SkyTerra Communications Inc. yesterday. The deal is valued at $360 million. In addition to $251 million in cash, SkyTerra also will give DirecTV 300,000 shares. SkyTerra is an affiliate of private equity firm Apollo Management LP. Hughes Network Systems, based in Germantown, Md., sells satellite-networking services and equipment for credit-card verification and video teleconferencing.

COLLEGE PARK - Back in the old days at the NFL Network, the game plan was to supplement the coverage provided by CBS, Fox, ABC and ESPN. Showing live regular-season games was not in the playbook. Yesterday, barely 10 months after its launch, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said the network has been so successful that televising regular-season games is an option that is being seriously considered. The NFL might even think about making less money from television over the short term to get its own distribution system up and running, he said.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - DirecTV Group Inc., the biggest U.S. satellite-television provider, agreed yesterday to buy former marketing partner Pegasus Communications Corp.'s satellite-TV unit for $938 million to sell service directly to 8.4 million rural homes. DirecTV will pay $875 million in cash, the El Segundo, Calif.,-based company said in a statement. Pegasus previously held exclusive rights to provide DirecTV's service in rural areas of 41 U.S. states, sharing revenue with DirecTV. The number of subscribers to DirecTV services in rural areas has steadily declined in the past few years, and this deal will allow DirecTV to reverse that trend and increase its subscriber base in these areas, an analyst said.