September 22, 2003
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NEWS
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ESPN HD IS BLURRY IN NYC
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ESPN's high-definition service left the starting block in March, and in short order the sports network cut affiliation deals with Insight Communications, Cox Communications, the NCTC, RCN, Charter Communications, EchoStar and DirecTV.
BY MAVIS SCANLON
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CABLEVISION DBS PLAN MAY BE GRANDER THAN IT SEEMS
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One big question hanging over Cablevision Systems Chairman Chuck Dolan's ambitious plans to launch a direct broadcast satellite business is whether the service will have enough bandwidth for all he envisions.
BY MAVIS SCANLON
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WORLDGATE EXITING ITV BIZ, EYES PHONES
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WorldGate Communications chairman and CEO Hal Krisbergh expects to get a green light today from his shareholders to launch the company in a new direction: videophones.
BY SHIRLEY BRADY
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BRIEFS
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COMCAST FINDS A FOE IN PARK CITY
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Eric Hutchins' plan to launch a local information station on a leased access channel in Park City, Utah, has hit a formidable stumbling block ? cable consolidation.
BY K. C. NEEL
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HI-DEF LIFTOFF
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By the end of the year, only 1.2 million cable subscribers are likely to have installed the equipment necessary to view hi-def programs.
BY BRIAN SANTO, KAGAN
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ITV ON THE SKIDS
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Interactive TV may have fallen out of favor in the cable industry, but it's taken an even greater hit on Wall Street.
BY BRIAN SANTO, KAGAN
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LATE BREAKING NEWS
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SENATE AIMS RESOLUTION AT CONSOLIDATION, STRIKES POWELL
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The Senate approved a disapproval resolution last week of the new media ownership rules voted on by the Federal Communications Commission in June, but the bill will find no shelter on the House side.
BY ALICIA MUNDY
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FEATURE
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A TOUGH ACT TO FOLLOW
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As broadcast networks gear up their new fall lineups, viewers may find themselves sampling new shows such as Whoopi on NBC or rubbernecking the fallout of ABC's risky decision to continue 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Daughter without John Ritter. Of course, the real appointment viewing in many homes will be NBC's Thursday night anchor, Friends, which this week starts its final season.
BY SHIRLEY BRADY
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QUIET, GENIUS AT WORK
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There's cause for celebration and concern every time a new series makes its debut on HBO. Celebration, because the first thought is usually: What have those programming geniuses brought us now! Concern, because the second thought is usually: What if those geniuses brought us a flounder!
BY VERNE GAY
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THE REAL K STREET PLAYS A LOT ROUGHER
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How real is the new HBO series K Street? At one point, it was so real that a Democratic political consultant who has handled major candidates said, ?Jeez, why'd they give away so much good advice for free? I mean, if that's what they're telling Howard Dean on a TV show, how am I gonna charge my candidate to give him the same, special advice??
BY ALICIA MUNDY
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PROGRAMMING
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LOSSES FOR WOMEN AT TOP AND ON FIELD
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On the same day that a panel of leading female news executives called for greater gender equality, one of their ranks made headlines with her own ouster.
BY SHIRLEY BRADY
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BRIEFS
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DIGITAL PIPELINE
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CAN TECHNOLOGY SAVE SMALL OPS?
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Being an independent cable operator these days is an awful lot like being Tokyo during a fight between Godzilla and Mothra. While the gigantic, nuclear-power-agitated lizard of programming costs smashes away at your underpinnings with its great tail, the terrifying airborn mutant that is satellite sprays the rooftops with lasers. The next thing you know, your entire infrastructure is in smoking ruins, and everybody's either dead or screaming.
BY ANTHONY CRUPI
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BRIEFS
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MEET THE SYSTEM
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THE INCREDIBLY POPULAR CABLE CO.
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Customer service at Time Warner Cable's system in Greensboro, N.C., really rocks. In the company's most recent internal semiannual survey Greensboro ranked first in customer service among all of the cable operator's systems nationwide.
BY ANDREA FIGLER
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COLUMNS
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ALPHABET SOUP
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Comcast launches hi-def in Denver ? RCN does HD in Comcast's hometown ? Adelphia's ?value? to Buffalo ? Cox calls on Mexico ? Cablevision gets fashionable, hits the runway
BY SHIRLEY BRADY
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THERE'S AN OASIS FOR EVERY DESERT OF VALUES, EVEN WHEN IT'S BEYOND SIGHT
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Don't look now, but it's only six weeks to Hallowe'en, and that conjures up memories of history's worst market crashes. Whether we held stock through them or not, who among us can ignore the specter of these dates?
BY PAUL KAGAN
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WHEN IT COMES TO EDUCATING SCHOOL CHILDREN, CABLE HAS A GREAT STORY TO TELL
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Back-to-school signs were everywhere a few weeks ago. My friends with school-age children looked a little relieved, and my friends with college freshmen looked a little wistful. For a few weeks, education and school systems were in a bright spotlight as the country switched seasonal gears.
BY LIBBY O'CONNELL
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DEPARTMENTS
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CABLE CONNECTIONS
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RATINGS
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