But those factors didn’t prevent Chelsea Clinton from landing a plum assignment: joining the board of Barry Diller’s Internet media holding company.

In her new role, the daughter of former President Bill Clinton and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be the youngest member of IAC’s board by seven years.

Fellow directors include Michael Eisner, former chief of Walt Disney Co., and Edgar Bronfman Jr., chairman of Warner Music Group.

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The removal of an unspecified number of movies stemmed from a contractual issue between Sony and Liberty Media Corp.’s Starz cable channel. Starz supplies Netflix Watch Instantly with movies from Sony and Walt Disney Co. as part of its deal to show the studios’ movies on its pay-cable television channel.

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Nearly 25 percent of survey respondents picked Google, almost twice as many as chose Apple Inc., which ranked second. Walt Disney Co., the U.S. State Department and Amazon.com Inc. rounded out the top five.

To conduct the survey, Universum asked 10,306 young professionals–defined as college graduates with one to eight years of work experience–to pick as many as five ideal employers out of a list of 150.

Respondents also could write in companies not on the list. The top write-in was Facebook Inc., followed by the Department of Homeland Security and the United Nations.

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As part of the shift, Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger and News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey may give up their board seats, the people said, potentially distancing the two men from day-to-day decision-making at the Web-video joint venture.

The move to a smaller board is an attempt to streamline operational decision-making within the venture, one of the people familiar with the plans said. Hulu’s board until recently has included 12 members, according to a list on its website, including three each from three media companies that have at times differed on strategic direction. It remains unclear how many people would remain on the board under the plan being discussed.

Hulu declined to comment. A spokesman for Disney and a spokeswoman for News Corp. also declined to comment.
Hulu is jointly owned by News Corp., NBCUniversal, Disney, Providence Equity Partners and Hulu employees. News Corp. also owns The Wall Street Journal (and All Things Digital).

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The free online television service has become one of the most-watched online video properties in the U.S. and a top earner of web-video ad dollars since its 2008 launch.

But its owners–industry powerhouses NBC Universal, News Corp. and Walt Disney Co.–are increasingly at odds over Hulu’s business model. Worried that free Web versions of their biggest TV shows are eating into their traditional business, the owners disagree among themselves, and with Hulu management, on how much of their content should be free.

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Apple earlier this month announced the service when it unveiled a revamp of its Apple TV device, which delivers programming over the Web.

Walt Disney Co.’s (DIS) ABC network and News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox broadcasting have agreed to make their shows available for the service, while other national broadcast networks owned by NBC Universal and CBS Corp., as well as major cable networks, have chosen not to participate.

One key concern on the part of TV network owners is Apple’s (AAPL) price of 99 cents, the same price it charged as it became the dominant music retailer through its iTunes store.

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The network said that in the 10 days since the iPad’s debut, its TV-show watching app has been downloaded 205,000 times, giving the Walt Disney Co. (DIS) unit a presence on nearly half the 450,000 devices that Apple says it has sold. Moreover, users have watched at least part of 650,000 television episodes using the app, generating “several million” ad impressions, according to an ABC spokesman, although the precise number is still being calculated.

Disney-ABC television President Anne Sweeney says the network is pleased with the initial results.

Advertisers on the iPad so far include Clorox (CLX), Lexus, AT&T (T), Heineken, Sears (SHLD) and Target (TGT). For now, Disney is delivering the same kind of 30-second spots seen on television.

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Discovery Communications Inc., Sony Corp. (SNE) and Imax Corp. (IMAX) are planning for a 2011 debut of their 3-D network in 2011. News of the new venture, confirmed by Discovery, could be announced as early as Tuesday in the run-up to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Walt Disney Co.’s (DIS) sports-TV unit ESPN separately announced Tuesday that it will launch a 3-D television network in the U.S. later this year. The new network will include matches from soccer’s World Cup, as well as from U.S. sports, like college football, the company said.

The new Discovery-Sony-Imax network will be structured as a joint venture, and include 3-D content from both Sony and Discovery. Unlike the ESPN channel, which a spokeswoman says will be available only when events are aired, the Discovery-Sony channel will be on the air 24 hours a day, seven days a week, one of the people said.

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Yet, while its funding is secure, Touchmedia increasingly faces a backlash from its target market: taxi passengers.

In many Shanghai taxis, a Touchmedia screen is installed in the head rest, putting the device inches from a rider’s face. The touch-friendly screen shows video clips, poses quizzes, chirps out music and otherwise begs to engage the rider with interactive content. Most of the content is infotainment from big brands like Walt Disney Co. (DIS), Pepsico Inc. (PEP) and L’oreal S.A.

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