Through The Wire
By Jim Forkan, from bureau reports -- Multichannel News, 6/3/2001 8:00:00 PM
Eye on the Prize
AT&T Broadband's Denver headquarters buzzed with excitement last Tuesday (May 29) as staffers and their children awaited the arrival of Mike Bolt. While most in the building didn't know who Mike Bolt was, they were all aware of the cargo he carried: Lord Stanley's Cup, awarded each year to the National Hockey League champion.
Hockey's cherished chalice, which is typically displayed at non-commercial venues, was at the MSO's HQ for barely a half-hour, but hordes of kids and cable staffers sidled up to the silver to take a picture with the treasured trophy. Credit ESPN with pulling a few strings with the NHL to make the AT&T visit happen.
Seeing the Cup in person was just one of the highpoints of a very exciting hockey weekend for one Wire reporter. Soaking in the "Cup Crazy" atmosphere outside the Pepsi Center before Game 1 of the Colorado Avalanche-New Jersey Devils Stanley Cup Finals, a chance meeting with an Avalanche staffer led to a glorious ride on the Zamboni during the first intermission.
But it was all look and no touch — and certainly no donuts — on the ice inside the Pepsi Center, whose Zamboni operators are "lifers" in their particular profession. This driving duo has been shaving and resurfacing ice rinks for more than three decades, dating back to the Central Hockey League Denver Spurs, which briefly held court at the Denver Coliseum in the mid-1970s.
Ferree Forecasts
It turns out that W. Kenneth Ferree, the new chief of the Cable Services Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission, is not quite the tabula rasa on cable regulation that many had at first believed him to be.
Writing in 1999 for the Web site FindLaw.com, Ferree had some rather blunt assessments about the future of cable regulation as the industry faces growing competition, most likely from direct-broadcast satellite providers.
"Once there are meaningful alternatives to cable in the market, the justification for continue(d) regulation in this area will be extremely weak," Ferree wrote when he was an attorney with Goldberg, Godles, Wiener & Wright. So far, so good.
On program access — the FCC rules that require cable operators to sell programming to competitors — Ferree showed a little less enthusiasm for deregulation, noting that the rules do not apply to unaffiliated programmers and to networks not distributed via satellite.
"Unfortunately, Congress built into its program access rules two easily exploitable loopholes," Ferree wrote. Later this year, the FCC under Ferree will begin to study whether program-access rules need to be extended beyond Oct. 5, 2002, or perhaps extended to include the loophole beneficiaries.
'Family' Programming
One of the songs played just before each morning's sessions at the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau's Local Cable Sales Management Conference in Orlando, Fla., late last month was the theme from The Sopranos , by A3. Since Home Box Office doesn't take ads, the song's significance stemmed from its title, "Woke Up This Morning."
Later, one attendee asked confab keynoter and Turner Broadcasting System Inc. CEO Jamie Kellner if he foresees a time when The Sopranos might play on basic cable. "I would love to bring The Sopranos and Sex and the City" to ad-supported cable, he said, but "my guess is it's years ahead." (Kellner sounded like he wanted to put a Mob hit out on TiVo Inc., when he said, "It's the devil. It scares me to death!")
Meanwhile, Pax TV included a related bit of humor during its mid-May Pax upfront in New York. A mock CNBC newscaster said in a "bulletin" that Pax would run a family-friendly version of The Sopranos, from 8 to 8:03 p.m. one night a week — its brevity apparently owing to episodes whacked of sex, violence and profanity.
Cable 'Survivor'
The CBS reality series Survivor reality series has inspired Adelphia Media Services, the ad-sales unit of Adelphia Communications Corp., to create better client presentations.
As explained briefly by Adelphia sales executive Tom Gombas during the "30 Great Revenue-Building Ideas in 30 Minutes" at the CAB local conference, its account executives were challenged to devise the best client pitch. Each week, he said, "the lamest" idea was voted down until each office had a victor and one ultimate MSO-wide "Project Survivor" winner was chosen, he said.
Taxi!
Lee Davis — the writer and director of Showtime's upcoming film 3 A.M. about a serial killer who targets night-shift cab drivers — considers Spike Lee his mentor. His film was also produced by Lee's 40 Acres & A Mule production house.
So it comes as no surprise that Lee will have a cameo when 3 A.M. bows in primetime on July 1. The film director won't have to stretch his acting talents too far for the part, though: The New York Knicks season ticketholder plays himself, hailing a cab to the pro hoops action at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan.
The cabbie is played by actor Danny Glover, who in real life once called a press conference to complain that too many Manhattan hacks won't pick up black fares.
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