Fines might follow 2 lengthy tarmac delaysJetBlue Airways Corp. and AMR Corp.'s American Airlines could face huge U.S. fines after their passengers sat for hours in jets stranded on a snow-covered tarmac near Hartford, Conn., this weekend. The U.S. Transportation Department is investigating the JetBlue reports and "several other possible delays," but couldn't comment immediately on American Airlines. Under rules in place since April 2010, most tarmac delays at U.S. airports are limited to three hours for domestic flights and four hours for international flights, the agency said. If the airlines are charged with breaking the tarmac-delay rule, they face fines of $27,000 for each stranded passenger.

News Corp., DirecTV make a dealNews Corp. has struck a new deal to that will keep its powerful cable and broadcast channels on satellite broadcaster DirecTV. The two sides had been feuding over a new contract and DirecTV, which has more than 19 million subscribers, was set to drop more than two dozen News Corp.-owned Fox cable networks on Tuesday. Channels that are part of the agreement include the popular FX network and regional sports outlets. Monday's accord not only consists of Fox's cable channels but also the local television stations that carry the programming of the Fox Broadcasting Co., including National Football League games and the popular comedies "Glee" and "New Girl."

Who guitarist calls iTunes a 'digital vampire'The Who's Pete Townshend branded Apple Inc.'s iTunes a "digital vampire" that profits from music without supporting the artists who create it. In a lecture Monday the guitarist said that faced with the Internet's demolition of established copyright protections, iTunes should offer some of the services to artists that record labels and music publishers used to provide. These include employing talent scouts, giving space to allow bands to stream their music and paying smaller artists directly rather than through a third-party aggregator. Townshend asked if there was any reason iTunes "can't provide some aspect of these services to the artists whose work it bleeds like a digital vampire" to make money. ITunes declined to respond.

Home video market rises 5% for the quarterAmericans' spending on home videos has finally emerged from the recession -- helped by more purchases of higher-priced Blu-ray discs and greater outlays on cut-rate rentals from Netflix and Redbox. For the three months through September, home movie spending rose nearly 5 percent from a year earlier to $3.9 billion, the first increase since early 2008, according to industry organization, the Digital Entertainment Group. Buying digital copies of movies and ordering them from set-top box video-on-demand services also rose. People bought fewer DVDs and made fewer trips to brick-and-mortar video rental stores, cutting into the gains. For the year overall spending is down about 2 percent at $12.3 billion.

FROM NEWS SERVICES