The six big TV-and-movie conglomerates — CBS, Viacom, Disney, NBC Universal, News Corp. and Time Warner — suffered in a handicap yesterday by Lehman Brothers analyst Anthony DiClemente, who downgraded the companies' ratings and stock-price targets. CBS fared worst, but even News Corp. didn't come out unscathed, and all six saw their respective share prices drop on the news. DiClemente's "color" had a familiar refrain — while DVD sales are only down 5 percent over 2007, the analyst doesn't expect digital downloads and other new media distribution revenues to keep pace with the decline in lucrative sales of packaged plastic. In other words, movies and television will take the same hit that music labels and newspaper publishers have. But what does this mean to your average plebe blogger with a script treatment busy shooting sketches on digital cameras and looking for a break?

Accel partner Jim Breyer and Venrock's David Siminoff plan to take money from Hollywood talent agency William Morris and AT&T to form a new fund, according to the New York Times. It will be financed with "tens of millions of dollars" and looks to invest as little as $250,000 in digital-media startups based in Southern California.