MTV expected to announce Beatles "Rock Band" deal

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The Beatles' Apple Corps and Viacom's MTV Networks have been in talks for months. They issued media invitations to a teleconference on "a global music project" on Thursday, but did not give more details.

The Wall Street Journal reported that The Beatles have licensed their songs to "Rock Band," citing people familiar with the matter.

The deal would be a major win for "Rock Band" - which is developed by MTV's Harmonix and published by Electronic Arts - against Activision Blizzard's rival "Guitar Hero" video game. Both franchises let fans play plastic guitars along with music on television screens.

Pop music fans consider The Beatles, who broke up in 1970, one of the greatest rock bands of all time. Surviving members of the group as well as its representatives have jealously guarded the distribution of their music online.

For example, Beatles songs are not available on Apple's iTunes over concerns by the band members and others close to them that the songs could be easily pirated.

Other bands that have licensed their music to "Guitar Hero" or "Rock Band" include classic rock veterans Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC and others.

The teleconference is at 10 a.m. EDT (2 p.m. British time) Thursday in New York. Among those scheduled to attend were Apple Corps Chief Executive Jeff Jones, MTV Networks Chairman and CEO Judy McGrath and MTV Networks President Van Toffler.

(Reporting by Paul Thomasch and Tiffany Wu; Editing by Gary Hill)