February 24, 2003
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PROGRAMMING
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BRIEFS
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WILSON TO HOST FIRST SPECIAL FOR SOAPNET Singer Carnie Wilson will host SoapNet's first original At Home With? special, which is scheduled to air...
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Cartoon Counts On the Force for Ratings Rebound
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Looking for something big to reverse a ratings slide this season, Cartoon Network will be adding Star Wars: Clone Wars, spun off from one of the biggest...
BY JON LAFAYETTE
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Coming Up
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WILL HISTORY REPEAT ?KILLING PABLO? RESULT? With the U.S. having trouble finding Osama bin Laden and about to hunt down Saddam Hussein, the...
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GAME SHOW PROMOTION GRADUATES
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Bank of America is going to school with Game Show Network's biggest promotion to date. B of A's student banking group, a first time advertiser on Game...
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DIGITAL PIPELINE
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BRIEFS
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BIGBAND STRIKES HDTV DEAL WITH SUSCOM BigBand Networks is big on HDTV, and it has the deployments to prove it. The vendor announced last week that Susquehanna...
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CAM SYS ASSISTS IN CATV AD MANAGEMENT
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Of the many hats a local cable operator has to wear in the course of a broadcast day, none gets more use than that of the traffic cop. But as the demands...
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Motorola Helps Put The Squeeze on MTV
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When pop tarts such as Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera want to squeeze into a garment that's about five times too small to accommodate them without...
BY ANTHONY CRUPI
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Pace Enters HD Box Race
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Introducing a new high-end set-top box is similar to rolling out a new model automobile: There may be a lot of oohs and aahs when the manufacturer lifts...
BY ANTHONY CRUPI
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MEET THE SYSTEM
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Pride Really Means Something in Toledo
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Buckeye CableSystem prides itself on meeting or beating customer service standards. But unlike companies that rely solely on call center stats, this...
BY STACI D. KRAMER
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COLUMNS
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Jamie Kellner isn't against PVRs, he just wants to engage in a smarter debate over their impact on programming.
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When Jamie Kellner discussed his concerns over personal video recorders during a lengthy interview with me last April, no one could have imagined that...
BY STACI D. KRAMER
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General
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?AND GROWING THE BOTTOM LINE
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Since Starz Encore Group is 100% owned by Liberty Media, its full performance picture is hidden. However, Liberty does reveal enough financial metrics...
BY JONATHAN BLUM, KAGAN
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ADELPHIA: NOT DEAD
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As grim as Adelphia's bankruptcy is, it does have one upside: the monthly financial reports from the bankruptcy court. Rather than being stuffed with...
BY JONATHAN BLUM, KAGAN
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At Starz, The Letters Line Up to Spell SVOD
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John Sie wants to retire. But he has a few things to do first. The founder and chairman of Starz Encore Group wants to make sure his company's subscription...
BY K. C. NEEL
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BRIEFS
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MARTIN SHEPHERDS FCC VOTE ON BELLS What do ?renegade? and ?Picasso? have in common? They were some of the colorful words provoked...
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Business as Usual at Turner
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The departure of respected broadcast executive Jamie Kellner from the top spot at Turner Broadcasting will have a minimal effect on the company's cable...
BY JON LAFAYETTE
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CABLE CONNECTIONS
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ABC FAMILY CHANNEL Rey del Valle to VP-finance, from CFO for the startup Sopresa TV. AMERICA ONLINE Ron Nenni to director of programming for AOL Radio
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CAN KENT BE SUPERMAN?
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Since ratings are down across Turner's holdings, it might be easy to paint outgoing Jamie Kellner as the king of Turner's discontent; but we're not buying...
BY JONATHAN BLUM, KAGAN
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COX REVAMPS THE REP FIRM
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Billy Farina's company just dumped the word ?cable? from its name in order to boost ? of all things ? cable ad sales. Starting...
BY ANDREA FIGLER
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High Noon for Adelphia Execs
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A showdown between Adelphia Communications lenders and creditors and a group of large shareholders is set to take place today in New York before the...
BY MAVIS SCANLON
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Late Breaking News
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Mag Rack en Español on Tap Mag Rack announced five new video magazines for hotel distribution at last week's Texas Cable and Telecommunications...
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Phil Kent to Pick Up Where Jamie Kellner Leaves Off
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After a brief and sometimes stormy tenure of two years as Turner Broadcasting chairman and CEO, Jamie Kellner stepped down last week to return to Santa...
BY STACI D. KRAMER
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Ratings
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| Top 40 Basic Cable Ad-Supported ProgramsWeek of February 10-16, 2003 |
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RCN Shadows Comcast's VOD, HD Rollout to Boston
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If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then Comcast should feel mighty flattered by its competition. Comcast New England last week officially...
BY SHIRLEY BRADY
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SHOOTING FOR THE STARZ?
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It's hard to find fault with how Starz Encore Group has performed. After being launched with the backing of cable titan John Malone and Liberty Media,...
BY JONATHAN BLUM, KAGAN
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System Sales Jump, as Does Cost
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Cable system sales are on the increase, and if Cequel III's $85 million purchase of Shaw Communications' Texas properties is any indication, prices are...
BY K. C. NEEL
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The Rate Card Game Is About As Schizo as They Come
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Imagine John Nash, the schizophrenic mathematician depicted in A Beautiful Mind, tediously calculating prices for local ad time. As he scans grid after...
ANDREA FIGLER
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TO HD OR?NOT TO HD?
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When you prosper as Starz CEO John Sie has, your opinion does carry weight. Sie claims that the industry is making a major mistake by supporting current...
BY JONATHAN BLUM, KAGAN
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