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LOS ANGELES: Tori Socha has been promoted to VP of original series at Spike TV.

NEW YORK: Spike has greenlit a 30-episode fifth season of its original show Bar Rescue, as well as ten Back to the Bar specials and a late-night talk show pilot from series star Jon Taffer.

NEW YORK: VH1 Classic is being rebranded as MTV Classic, with a programming lineup to feature hits from the 1990s and early 2000s like Beavis & Butt-head and Laguna Beach.

Second-quarter deal volume in the entertainment, media and communications sector in the U.S. rose by 3 percent to 188 announced transactions, PwC reports. Deal value was also up, hitting $41 billion, the highest it's been in 12 months.

LOS ANGELES: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) has appointed Kevin Conroy, formerly of Univision, to the newly created position of president of digital and new platforms.

SANTA MONICA: Following a recent Emmy nod, the character Triumph the Insult Comic Dog is set to return to Hulu for a new hour-long political special.

NEW YORK: Spike has ordered a ten-part, half-hour game show that it is billing as "Cash Cab meets karaoke," to be produced by CORE Media Group.

LOS ANGELES: Justin Rosenblatt, a programming executive at The CW, has been named executive VP of original programming and development at U.S. network Pop.

BELLEVUE/NEW YORK: Apollo Global Management has announced the acquisition of Outerwall, parent company of the Redbox DVD-rental business, for $1.6 billion.

LOS ANGELES: NFL Media has reached an agreement with Sony Interactive Entertainment for national distribution of NFL Network and NFL RedZone on internet-based live-TV service PlayStation Vue.