Fox News Channel erroneously reported early in its coverage Monday of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's alleged involvement in a prostitution ring that the governor had resigned.

Shepard Smith reported that Spitzer had announced his resignation during a brief media statement, but the governor had made no mention of the possibility.

"He came in, he resigned and that was it," Smith said.

Smith, who was on location in Mississippi, said he based his report on two sources, including a Fox executive. He and his guests then began a discussion of what Lt. Gov. David A. Paterson's administration would be like.

A few minutes later, Smith corrected himself, saying, "Excuse me, I'm now told he did not resign in his statement."

Adding to the confusion, Smith then conducted an interview with Alfonse D'Amato, the former Republican senator who said that his sources had told him that Spitzer had resigned. "That's my understanding, from pretty reliable sources, that the lieutenant governor is ready to step in if he hasn't already," D'Amato said.

Smith read Spitzer's statement, and D'Amato then said his sources were wrong. "But I don't think he will be able to withstand the incredible pressure," D'Amato said.

Forty-five minutes later, a headline on Fox's screen said: "N.Y. Gov. Eliot Spitzer Expected to Resign Later Today."

About an hour after that, Fox interviewed Jeannine Pirro, a former GOP district attorney from New York's Westchester County.

"Everyone expected him to resign today," Pirro said. "He didn't."

Fox News Channel spokesman Brian Lewis did not immediately return phone calls about the report. (David Bauder, AP)

HBO has picked up a television series based on Alexander McCall Smith's book "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" and its popular sequels, which relate the adventures of Precious Ramotswe, a no-nonsense investigator who runs a detective agency in Botswana.

A two-hour pilot, starring Jill Scott ("Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?"), recently was filmed on location in Botswana, directed by Anthony Minghella, who co-wrote the script with Richard Curtis. HBO, in partnership with the Weinstein Co. and the BBC, ordered 13 additional one-hour episodes of the series, which will begin filming this summer. (Matea Gold, Los Angeles Times)

The Walt Disney Co. expects to collect $1 billion in revenue from online content this fiscal year, a significant rise from estimates for fiscal 2007, CEO Robert Iger said Monday.

Iger told analysts the company has been "fairly aggressive" in expanding onto the Internet to extend consumer contact with its most popular franchises and create new revenue streams.

"If we're not there, [people] will just access someone else's content," he said in comments Webcast from Bear Stearns' 21st Annual Media Conference in Palm Beach, Fla.

Disney's online revenue came from advertising during its ABC network hits such as "Lost" and "Grey's Anatomy" that are rerun on ABC.com; ads on sites such as ESPN.com; subscriptions to online games; downloads of movies and music; and e-commerce that is not related to its theme parks.

Online sources account for less than 3 percent of company revenue. Disney posted total net income of $4.7 billion on $35.5 billion in revenue last year.

The last time the company estimated digital revenue was in June 2007, when chief financial officer Tom Staggs said he expected the company to post more than $700 million for fiscal 2007, which ended in September.

The company does not break out online revenue in its quarterly earnings releases.

Last month, Disney announced it had created a special studio to develop short-form dramatic and comedy series exclusively for broadcast on ABC.com and Google Inc.'s YouTube. (Ryan Nakashima, AP)