This Just In

New York— Insight Communications Co. Inc. has hired former NTL Inc. executive Dinni Jain as chief financial officer. Jain, who had served as a regional managing director for the U.K. cable and telephone service provider, takes one of the titles from Kim Kelly, who remains the MSO's executive vice president and COO.

In a research report, UBS Warburg LLC high-yield cable analyst Aryeh Bourkoff called the hiring a positive move that shows Insight is bolstering its management team.

Insight's president and CEO Michael Willner is a director of NTL, which is also based here.

Atlanta— Powered by VOD rollouts at Time Warner Cable, Concurrent Computer Corp. reported a profit of $56,000 in its second quarter, versus a net loss of $4.2 million in the prior-year period.

The company reported revenue of $22.5 million during the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2001 compared to $14.5 million in the year-earlier span. Most of the increase came from its Xstreme video-on-demand division, where quarterly revenues jumped to $12.4 million from $1.8 million.

President and CEO Jack Bryant expects VOD division revenue to be in the $12 million to $14 million range for each of the next two quarters, paced by the five to seven new VOD rollouts Concurrent expects in the first quarter.

Los Angeles— Lifetime Television vice president of affiliate ad sales and distribution marketing Dave McFarland left the women's-targeted network last week, several industry sources said.

McFarland is scheduled to co-chair the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau's Local Sales Management Conference, set for June in Salt Lake City, Utah. The CAB offered no word as to whether McFarland's role may change.

Lifetime did not return phone calls by press time.

New York— In a rare movie window coup for the pay-per-view industry, TVN Entertainment Inc. and In Demand will distribute Buena Vista Television's family-oriented Max Keeble's Big Move on pay-per-view well in advance of the film's home video release.

TVN is currently offering its customers Keeble, which isn't slated to hit home video until June, network executives said. In Demand will debut the movie, which generated $17.1 million at the box office, in February. Buena Vista PPV representatives would not comment on its decision to offer the movie to PPV first.

Washington— Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell, hospitalized twice this month with an undisclosed illness, was expected to return home Friday to recuperate after a new round of testing, FCC spokesman David Fiske said.

Powell, 38, became ill two weeks ago with a suspected case of food poisoning in Las Vegas and entered a local hospital for two days. Last week, Powell, still under the weather, checked into Walter Reed Army Hospital here, where he underwent a battery of tests.