One day after Wal-Mart announced it was going back online to try to sell videos -- this time by making them available for download -- Amazon said that it will begin testing a movie downloading service of its own that won't even require a computer. It will require a TiVo digital recorder, however -- something that will allow the downloaded movies to be played immediately on a TV set. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart's new website received failing marks from critics Tuesday. The British tech site The Inquirer called it "an embarrassment of awfulness," adding that "any teacher would flunk a first-time HTML student for turning in a basic assignment that looked like this. ... You have to question if it tested this at all." Separately, Daily Variety reported today (Wednesday) that Apple agreed to pay more for digital copies of Paramount's library of movies than bricks-and-mortar retailers do. Even so, it will not be able to offer new titles from Paramount, since Apple insists on being able to price the movie downloads at prices that are lower than what retailers charge. (It has signed a new-movie deal with only one studio, Disney, where Apple chief Steve Jobs is the largest stockholder.)

Paramount on Tuesday confirmed that it will release the next Indiana Jones installment on Thursday, May 22, 2008. The studio also said that it plans a simultaneous worldwide release of the as-yet-untitled film, which will be produced by Lucasfilm Ltd., directed by Steven Spielberg, and star Harrison Ford. Frank Marshall will receive the top producer's credit, while George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy will serve as executive producers. The screenplay was written by David Koepp. The studio had previously announced that production will begin in June.

In a state-of-the-industry report released in Washington Tuesday, the Motion Picture Association of America said that movie and TV businesses were responsible for contributing $60.46 billion to the country's economy and that they were responsible for generating 1.3 million jobs in 2005. Speaking to an MPAA symposium, MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman said, "The creative output of the American motion picture and television industry is widely appreciated around the world, yet its contribution to the nation's economy is seldom recognized. This report ... confirms the importance of filmed entertainment production to America's economy."

Offering a different type of digital movie competition, Supervalu Inc., a nationwide grocery supply chain, and Redbox, the country's largest provider of DVD kiosks, announced Tuesday that they have agreed to roll out Redbox's DVD kiosks in some 1,500 supermarket outlets throughout the country, including Albertsons, Jewel-Osco, Acme, Hornbacher's, and Shop 'n' Save. Each of the new kiosks can hold more than 500 DVDs, which rent for $1 per night. They can be returned to any Redbox kiosk nationwide. Customers can also select their desired DVDs online at www.redbox.com and pick them up at their nearby supermarket. Redbox has already installed some 2,500 DVD kiosks throughout the country, including many McDonald's locations, Wal-Marts, apartment complexes, university campuses and convenience stores. At least two dozen other companies are also competing in the DVD kiosk business.

"I always knew that Harry's story would end with the seventh book, but saying goodbye has been just as hard as I always knew it would be," J.K. Rowling has written on her website, referring to her completion of the final Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. She continued: "Even while I'm mourning, though, I feel an incredible sense of achievement. I can hardly believe that I've finally written the ending I've been planning for so many years. I've never felt such a mixture of extreme emotions in my life, never dreamed I could feel simultaneously heartbroken and euphoric." She suggested that whenever she feels like "collapsing in a puddle of misery" over putting Harry behind her, she thinks to herself: "While each of the previous Potter books has strong claims on my affections, Deathly Hallows is my favorite, and that is the most wonderful way to finish the series."

Fox's American Idol may have attracted 33.65 million viewers last Tuesday and 31.5 million on Wednesday, but those two audience totals combined would not have come close to equaling the 93.18 million who tuned in for CBS's coverage of the Super Bowl on Sunday. CBS wouldn't have needed to place another show in the upper rankings of the Nielsen ratings list for the February sweeps week -- but it did. Besides pre- and post-game shows and the Sunday airing of Criminal Minds, the network also scored solidly with two editions (one, a repeat) of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (Nos. 9 and 17), Shark (No. 11), CSI: Miami, (No. 13), Two and a Half Men (No. 16), and NCIS (No. 18). For the week, CBS wound up with a whopping 12.6 rating and a 20 share. Fox, its closest competitor, turned in a 6.7/10. NBC placed third with an average 5.3/8, while ABC trailed with a 4.9/8.

The top ten shows of the week according to Nielsen Research: 1. Super Bowl XLI, CBS, 42.6/64; 2. Super Bowl XLI Post Game 1, CBS, 38.1/56; 3. Super Bowl XLI Post Game 2, CBS, 28.1/44; 4. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 18.6/28; 5. American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 18.0/27; 6. House, Fox, 15.6/24; 7. Criminal Minds (Post Super Bowl), CBS, 15.1/26; 8. Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 15.0/22; 9. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS, 13.5/20; 10. Deal or No Deal (Monday), NBC, 10.4/16.

Analysts pointed out that several shows last week got a boost as a result of college-age viewers being included in the Nielsen survey for the first time. As Washington Post TV writer Lisa De Moraes observed, "Previously, they got in on the Nielsen action only when they went home to do laundry at holidays." ABC's Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, and What About Brian; NBC's Scrubs and The Office; Fox's Til Death; and CW's Gilmore Girls all saw huge leaps of 50 percent or more in their ratings for 18-49-year-olds. Scrubs, in fact, saw its ratings in that demo double.

American Idol returned just as strong as ever Tuesday night, beating last Tuesday's ratings results. The Fox talent show drew a 19.3 rating and a 28 share (33.07 million viewers). House followed with a 15.7/23 (24.95 million viewers), holding 75 percent of the Idol audience. Somewhat surprisingly, CBS's NCIS continued to hold its own against the Fox blockbuster, posting a 10.3/15 (16.17 million viewers).

In advance of tonight's (Wednesday) return of Lost to ABC's schedule, the network has posted an, er, "survivor" guide to the series on its website. The hour-long clip show, which can also be viewed on TV.Yahoo.com, is intended to brings fans -- or non-fans -- up to date on what has gone on in previous episodes. The ABC site is also streaming the first six episodes of Lost that aired at the beginning of this season before the series took a break 12 weeks ago. The network also moved the show to 10:00 p.m. presumably to avoid the competition from Fox's American Idol.

Bob Edwards, the host of NPR's Morning Edition for some 25 years before he was fired in 2004 when the public radio network decided it wanted to take the program in "a new direction," will now be faced with taking the American Federation of TV and Radio Artists in a new direction as the union enters the age of digital broadcasting. Edwards was named on Tuesday to replace John Connolly as AFTRA president after Connolly stepped down to become national executive director of Actors' Equity. Edwards currently hosts an interview program on XM Satellite Radio.

A British newspaper, The Sun , has created a new furor over U.S. government secrecy by posting on its website a 15-minute cockpit video recording of a "friendly fire" incident that occurred during the 2003 invasion of Iraq in which a British convoy was fired upon by American A-10 attack jets, killing Lance Corporal Matty Hull. A coroner's inquest into Hull's death had been suspended after word of the cockpit video came to light. The Pentagon provided the video to British authorities but refused on security grounds to allow it to be shown at the inquest. After the Sun released the video, it was picked up by British television networks, whereupon the U.S. agreed to release it. An earlier U.S. investigation had concluded that the pilots "followed the procedures and processes for engaging targets." However, Tom Newton Dunn, defense editor of The Sun, ticked off six basic safety procedures that were broken by the pilots and insisted that the U.S. had kept the video secret to avoid legal action and embarrassment. The video ends with one of the pilots remarking, "I'm going to be sick." Another is later heard crying out, "I'm dead." State Department spokesman Sean McCormack commented late Tuesday that the pilots "immediately understood that this just was a terrible, terrible mistake and that they felt an immediate remorse for what happened."