Multichannel News back issues from March 2000:
Case, Levin Offer D.C. A Very Open Access Plan.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... WASHINGTON -- Steve Case and Gerald Levin stormed Capitol Hill last week to participate in hearings about the pending merger between their two companies, armed with a memorandum of understanding to silence critics who said their union will hamper open access to broadband Internet services ....
GROUND ZERO: HOUSTON.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Time Warner, Disney Square Off Long-simmering tensions between programmers and cable operators boiled over last week, as Houston became the battle ground for two media giants -- The Walt Disney Co. and Time Warner Inc. -- to wage an extraordinarily nasty war over retransmission ...
News Nets Hit TWC Logjam.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Ohio News Network, Florida's News Channel and Texas Cable News all bill themselves as statewide news networks. But while they cover news all over their states, they don't have much coverage -- meaning distribution -- throughout their states. The missing link in their carriage is ...
Herman Bolts PPV Job for E! Gig.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Linda Moss contributed to this story. After only one year at the helm of In Demand, Mindy Herman is leaving to take the head job at E! Entertainment Television later this month. Unlike her start at In Demand, where she oversaw a complete overhaul of the pay-per-view ...
Ops Drop Ballot Initiative in St. Louis.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... St. Louis cable operators have withdrawn their petition for a November ballot initiative to challenge the city's open-access policy. Executives with Charter Communications Inc. and AT&T Broadband & Internet Services said they foresee a more positive outcome from negotiations ...
Nyuk: Turner Classic Movies had a Wire correspondent chuckling.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Nyuk: Turner Classic Movies had a Wire correspondent chuckling Friday morning with a bus-side poster that posed the following Q&A: ...
TV Guide Pulls Plug on Screen TV.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Monica Hogan contributed to the story. Citing an inability to elicit sufficient interest in its new Screen TV pay-per-view barker/programming service, TV Guide Inc. will pull the plug on the service indefinitely. Screen TV, an expansion of TV Guide's Sneak Prevue ...
Even AT&T Can Suffer a Phone Glitch.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... For anyone who doubts the level of difficulty connected with launching telephony, consider this: Telecommunications veteran AT&T Corp. recently had to step back from new product deployment in both its telephony and cable divisions in the Dallas area when glitches hobbled service delivery. ...
Clutter's On the Rise, Study Finds.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... If you suspected that television-and cable-network programs are a bit shorter these days, you were right. The amount of what the advertising and media industries call "nonprogram time" -- but what consumers consider clutter -- is creeping steadily upward, according to the latest ...
Ops Back Bill Restricting Muni Overbuilds.(Wisconsin legislature expected to pass a bill making it more difficult for municipal government to enter the telecommunications business)(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Cable executives expressed confidence that Wisconsin will enact a bill that stiffens requirements for municipalities that wish to get into the telecommunications business. The optimism exists despite the fact that the bill is opposed by the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, ...
Four A's Continues Network-Billing Probes.(American Association of Advertising Agencies' studies double-billing issue)(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... The American Association of Advertising Agencies' (Four A's) national television and radio committee is continuing to look into the double-billing controversy stemming from complaints about Home & Garden Television last year. In addition to the double-billing issue, the ...
Canadian Ops Ponder BCE's Game Plan.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... OTTAWA -- Canada's cable-TV industry is waiting to see the aftermath of the $US1.6 billion purchase offer by BCE Inc. -- the country's largest telecommunications company -- for broadcaster CTV. The acquisition target is Canada's largest privately held TV company and also owns ...
Lifetime Answers Oxygen with 'Live'.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... NEWYORK -- Lifetime Television, rejuvenating its daytime schedule in the face of competition from Oxygen, this week debuts the daily informational program Lifetime Live. Guests for its March 6 premiere will be Hillary Rodham Clinton and Melissa Etheridge. "We're ...
A&E Bulks Up Web Sites.(A and E Television Networks)(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... A&E Television Networks is bulking up its Internet strategy, with plans to launch several new Web sites. The company currently operates six sites: aande.com, historychannel.com, biography.com, historytravel.com, historyinternational.com and mysteries.com. A&E plans to announce a ...
Top Rank Maps Out De La Hoya Plans.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... With a successful Feb.26 fight under his belt, former welterweight champion Oscar De La Hoya is now being groomed for a potentially lucrative June pay-per-view event. De La Hoya -- who stopped welterweight contender Derrell Coley in his Feb. 26 Home Box Office bout -- will most ...
Discovery Plans Big, Hairy Marketing Effort.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Discovery Communications Inc. is leaving no stone unturned in its attempt to drive tune-in to its upcoming special, Raising the Mammoth, which will air worldwide March 12. The documentary is positioned as Discovery Channel's second "Watch with the World" event, meant to inspire ...
Lathen: Access Plans Need Fleshing Out.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... WASHINGTON -- The Federal Communications Commission is planning to hold cable operators to their word that consumers will have access to multiple Internet-service providers over facilities run with open technical standards. Both AT&T Corp. and the pending combination of America ...
Streamer Copyright Case Settled.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... WASHINGTON -- Movie studios, sports leagues and the corporate parents of several cable networks have reached an out-of-court settlement with the Canada-based Web site that streamed Buffalo, N.Y., TV stations over the Internet and inspired a lawsuit that produced a restraining order two ...
McCain Wants Hearing on Ness.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000 ... WASHINGTON -- Nearly nine months after being renominated, the Federal Communications Commission's Susan Ness is scheduled to get a hearing before Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) Commerce Committee March 22. Commissioner Ness' term expired in June, but she can ...
Sachs Chides B'casters on Blame Game.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... WASHINGTON -- Broadcasters should stop blaming the cable industry and others and accept responsibility for their failures in the transition to digital television, National Cable Television Association president Robert Sachs said in a Feb. 28 letter to Federal Communications Commission ...
Soccer-Driven Channels Charge Into Latin America.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Latin America is facing an influx of soccer-driven sports channels, as two services bow panregionally and a few more launch in Brazil. Those seeking regional coverage include: Pan-american Sports Network (PSN), which launched last month and is backed by the Dallas-based ...
Australians Gripe. But Note Successes at Confab.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA -- Sharp criticism of current government policy, word of a new interactive initiative, and gripes about the high cost of overseas programming punctuated this country's pay TV conference last week. The event, organized by the Australian Subscription Television ...
Austar, Telstra Form a Kiwi Joint Venture.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Australia-based Austar United Communications Ltd. and Telstra Corp. last month agreed to merge their New Zealand operations, with an aim to install a national broadband network passing 65 percent of the country's households. The new company, Telstra Saturn Ltd., will be headed ...
Comcast Portfolio Generates Net Gains.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Gains in digital cable and a new focus on high-speed Internet services helped to drive revenue and cash flow at Comcast Corp. for the fourth quarter of 1999 and the year. But one of the major drivers of new wealth for the company is coming from an unlikely source -- ...
Closing Prices.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
Mar 06, 2000 ... <Pre> Closing PricesMSOs PRICE PRICE 52-WEEK 52-WEEK COMPANY 2/29/00 2/22/00 % CHANGE HIGH LOW Adelphia 55.19 55.75 -1.0187.00 47.25 ...
Warburg Likes CLEC's Roll.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
Mar 06, 2000 ... Warburg Dillon Read LLC upped its 12-month price target for competitive local-exchange carrier Intermedia Communications Inc. to $85 from $60 and reiterated its "buy" rating. Analyst Linda Meltzer cited Intermedia's momentum executing its operating strategy and a stronger balance sheet ...
STOCK FOCUS.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
Mar 06, 2000 ... ECHOSTAR COMMUNICATIONS CORP. (NASDAQ-DISH) Shares of EchoStar have surged in the past week on investor optimism stemming from the addition of local programming in December. The stock rose nearly $26 per share last week, from $95 to $120.81. The company's stock has been on a ...
Wireless Ops Learn to Love Net.
Mar 06, 2000; ... NEW ORLEANS Internet euphoria swept over the mobile-wireless industry last week, ensuring that from now on, the pace of industry transition to ever-higher-speed-data services will be dictated largely by events beyond the control of individual carriers. Top executives from ...
Insight Adds Diva in Evansville, Indiana.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000 ... EVANSVILLE, IND. -- Fending off a tough local over-builder, Insight Communications Co. Inc. said last Wednesday that it has launched Diva Systems Corp.'s video-on-demand service here. The launch, using Motorola Broadband Communications Sector "DCT-2000" digital set-top ...
Road Runner Hit by Weekend E-Mail Outage.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Around 43,000 subscribers to the Road Runner broadband-cable online service in Wichita and Kansas City, Kan., and western Ohio were unable to receive electronic mail last weekend due to a problematic database server, the company said. "We did have problems that were resolved ...
Comcast Corp.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000 ... PHILADELPIIIA -- Comcast Corp. last week closed its acquisition of the 60.4 percent of Jones Intercable Inc. stock it didn't already own. Each former Jones shareholder will get 1.4 shares of ...
CAUGHT IN THE WEB.
Mar 06, 2000; ... Today's PPV Promotional Tool Is Tomorrow's Rival It's 8:15 p.m., and you sit down in the living room after a bard day's work, hoping to catch a movie. You scroll down a menu of video-on-demand movies to see the latest offerings. You finally find the movie you want to ...
BORN FREE.
Mar 06, 2000; ... PPV Realm Isn't for Super Bowl-Type Sports Events By the time Isaac Bruce hauled in Kurt Warner's rainbow pass and streaked 73 yards to the end zone in the St. Louis Rams' 23-16 victory over the Tennessee Titans, the estimated 130.7 million people who watched Super Bowl XXXIV ...
Maintaining THE LEAD.
Mar 06, 2000; ... DBS Beefs Up Potent Pay-Per-View Offerings With digital cable hot on their heels, direct-broadcast satellite providers are strengthening their pay-per-view strategies to protect their leadership stakes in the category. Since DirecTV launched service in 1994, DBS has ...
Sachs Taps Binzel as No. 2.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Top News Corp. lobbyist Peggy Binzel will soon join the National Cable Television Association as executive vice president. Binzel, who will begin March 27, resigned after seven years from her post as senior vice president of government relations at News Corp. last week. ...
AMC Gets Movies In Universal Deal.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000 ... BETHPAGE, N.Y. - AMC Networks replenished its libraries by signing a license deal with Universal Studios Pay Television for 250 movies, including titles such as American Graffiti, To Kill a Mockingbird and Jaws, officials said last week. The movies will air on American Movie ...
Cabil Corp. to Offer Data Access to Hotels.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000 ... POINT PLEASANT BEACH, N.J.- Cabil Corp. will offer operators a turnkey service that will deliver high-speed Internet-access services to hotels in cable-system service areas. "Fast-Net," which supports the Excite@Home ...
RCN Gets More OKs In Philadelphia Area.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000 ... PRINCETON, N.J.--RCN Corp. said last Friday that it obtained local regulatory approval to provide bundled phone, cable and high-speed Internet services in the cities of Prospect Park and Warminster, Pa. ...
Sweep Shows Big Slowdown for Cable.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Facing stiff competition from broadcast in the February sweep, basic cable saw a significant slowdown in its primetime-ratings gains, only increasing 1 percent, officials said last week. For a variety of reasons -- a drop in viewership for wrestling and pro basketball, a slow ...
Discovery People Fades Out.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Discovery Communications Inc. has had great success expanding distribution of the networks it has acquired, such as The Learning Channel and Travel Channel. But this was not the case with Discovery People, a service for which DCI once expressed high hopes. The former CBS Eye on ...
Telemundo Stanches Ratings Slide.
Mar 06, 2000; ... After two years of watching its small slice of the Spanish-language television market dwindle further, Telemundo is finally on a ratings comeback, with a new schedule that mixes traditional novelas with American-style sitcoms and talk shows. Telemundo programmers turned many ...
Then He Slammed Her Into the Ground.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... It turns out that Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, former pro wrestler and talk-radio personality, is no fan of the Federal Communications Commission. At last weeks National Governors' Association meeting, Ventura got to ask the first question of FCC Cable Service Bureau chief Deborah Lathen, ...
"Like you, I have never heard of FX, either," Stern told the assembled press. "I thought I was doing a show for Fox.".(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Shock jock Howard Stem was his usual irascible self last week at FX's X-rated press conference to promote Son of the Beach, the new scripted comedy series Stem is executive-producing for the network. After FX president Peter Liguori and senior VP of development Jeremiah Bosgang staidly ...
BET will team up with music trade publication Billboard to launch a rhythm-and-blues/hip-hop summit in August.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Black Entertainment Television chairman Robert Johnson continues to be aggressive in extending the BET brand outside of cable. BET will team up with music trade publication Billboard to launch a ...
The on-screen graphic -- which is piped through cable systems, but not generated by the operator -- said the test/disruption was "brought to you by MediaOne.".(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Carlos Santana's performance was anything but "Smooth" for Atlanta cable viewers watching the Grammys. About one minute into the multiaward-winning musician's performance, the signal was disrupted by a test of the Emergency Alert System for Atlanta. Apparently, when the Georgia Emergency ...
Nickelodeon is bringing Bill Cosby back to the big screen, sort of.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... The network -- with its Rugrats in Paris-The Movie to be released theatrically this Thanksgiving -- said its next theatrical spinoff, due in 2001, ...
Cox Va. Retrans Terms Come Out.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Nearly one month after both sides settled a five-week-long retransmission- consent battle Fox affiliate WVBT will get a lower channel slot in Hampton Roads, Va., from Cox Communications Inc., moving down to 14 from its current 43, officials said last week. The move comes as the ...
'Super Tuesday' an Ad-Sales Bust.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Cable MSOs and interconnects, battling broadcasters for ad spending related to this week's "Super Tuesday" presidential primaries, can relate to Democratic candidate Bill Bradley. Like the former New Jersey senator in his bid against Vice President Al Gore, they can't seem to make any ...
NAMIC Project Aims at Digital Divide.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... The National Association of Minorities in Communications will spearhead a partnership to help address the "digital divide," officials said last week. Digital Bridge Alliance will try to get communications, technology and Internet companies to communicate the importance of ...
MediaOne: We Hit Targets.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Despite its transitional status, MediaOne Group Inc. met or exceeded its financial goals for the fourth quarter and the year, executives said last week. MediaOne president Jan Peters told analysts last week that growth targets were either met or exceeded during the year, ...
Feeding the Web with News.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... NEW YORK -- A group of former network-news executives plans to launch a Web site that it hopes will attract broadband Web surfers with news feeds from broadcast and cable networks, local radio and television stations and documentary producers. Announced last week, The ...
Cox Southwest Systems Tee Up a Winner.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Cox Communications Inc. systems throughout the Southwest have linked up for a joint promotion they hope will earn them above-par ad dollars and viewer devotion. Cox CableRep Advertising in San Diego has launched a half-hour show, From the Tee, which highlights local golf ...
Satellite Industry Opposes Spectrum-Sharing.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000 ... ALEXANDRIA, VA.-The Satellite Broadcasting & Communications Association last week asked Federal Communications Commission chairman William Kennard to delay approval of Northpoint Technology Ltd.'s proposal to share spectrum used by direct-broadcast satellite carriers. Northpoint ...
Crossover Cartoons Work for Fox TV, Cable.(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Cartoon crossovers on sister broadcast and cable networks are working for Fox Kids and Fox Family Channel. Therefore, Nickelodeon's plans to rerun such Nick Jr. preschool series as Blue's Clues on CBS' Saturday-morning lineup, in the wake of the proposed merger between Viacom ...
Cartoon Net Sings for 'Looney Tunes'.(Cartoon Network planning new programming and enters agreement with Warner Bros.)
Mar 06, 2000; ... NEW YORK -- Boosting its original programming, Cartoon Network is adding four new primetime animated series through 2001, and it will also become the exclusive television home of Warner Bros. classic Looney Thnes this fall. At its upfront presentation last week in Manhattan, ...
TBS Airborne Thriller a Smooth Flight.(TBS Superstation 'Nowhere to Land' movie)
Mar 06, 2000; ... TBS Superstation's Nowhere to Land, an original movie about a 747 pilot's efforts to disarm a bomb during the last leg of a flight from Australia to Los Angeles, proves to be quite suspenseful. This film has all the usual elements of an aviation thriller -- the unflappable ...
Romance Execs Plan to Relaunch an 'Oasis'.(Romance Classics to relaunch under a new name)
Mar 06, 2000; ... NEW YORK -- With life in the women's niche looking more and more like the fast lane, officials at Romance Classics plan to soon relaunch the network under a new name. Romance had discussed a potential name changed with cable operators last fall, Multichannel News reported, but ...
Comcast Ups Golf Stake.(takes controlling interest in The Golf Channel)
Mar 06, 2000; ... PHILADELPHIA -- Comcast Corp. has taken a controlling interest in The Golf Channel, exercising an option that allowed the company to increase its equity stake from 40.1 percent to 54.7 percent. Comcast also wants to buy more stakes from minority holders in an effort to increase ...
Tae-Bo on PPV Hits DBS, TVN.(pay-per-view, direct broadcast satellite channel and TVN Entertainment Corp.)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Team Services Inc. hopes the successful Tae-Bo infomercial workout series will be as lucrative for the pay-per-view industry as it's been for the direct-response business. EchoStar Communications Corp., DirecTV Inc. and TVN Entertainment Corp. launched the innovative ...
PEOPLE.(includes information on various corporate personnel appointments)(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000 ... CISNEROS Francisco Sibauste has joined Cisneros Television Group as vice president of affiliate sales. He had held the same title at MGM Networks Latin America. Elisabet Blanco has been promoted to vice president of affiliate sales, Southern Cone and Brazil, from director of ...
Starz Encore Puts $30M Behind Digital, DBS.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
Mar 06, 2000; ... NEW YORK -- In an attempt to drive digital-cable and direct-broadcast-satellite penetration, Starz Encore Group LLC last Friday launched a $30 million national branding campaign. The company hopes its effort to drive customers to digital, to run through July, will also provide ...
Ciao, Chang; Hello SingTel.(Star TV CEO Gareth Chang resigns)(Brief Article)
Mar 06, 2000 ... HONG KONG -- News Corp. saw some new developments in its Asia business prospects last week, losing the top executive at its Star TV enterprise and forming an alliance with Singapore Telecommunications. After a mere 18 months on the job, Star TV executive chairman and CEO Gareth ...
Flush Mediacom May Look to Buy More.(Mediacom Communications Corp.)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
Mar 06, 2000; ... Flush from last year's $380 million initial public offering and a $640 million line of credit, Mediacom Communications Corp. chairman Rocco Commission last week vowed to seize acquisition opportunities this year. "There are still acquisitions to be made," the notoriously frugal ...
Interactive TV Looks Sticky To Cable Ops and Vendors.
Mar 06, 2000; ... NEW YORK Interactive services may still be in their infancy but according to panelists at an industry discussion here last week, some operators are finding that aside from additional revenue, interactive television is helping to retain and grow subscriber bases. In a panel ...
Microsoft Bites Peach for $75M, Adds to Interactive-TV Offerings.(acquires Peach Networks Ltd.)
Mar 06, 2000; ... NEW YORK Microsoft Corp. gained an inroad into digital set-top boxes through its agreement to acquire control of Israeli interactive-television company Peach Networks Ltd. Two-year-old Peach, based in Tel Aviv, provides software solutions that enable cable-television subscribers ...