I really want to believe Brian Roberts and the hype from Comcast and CableLabs about the potential of interactive TV and open standards. But after watching the industry’s OpenCable project fail to deliver tangible results – more than 10 years after it was formed -- I’ve become a skeptic.

Roberts drew some buzz at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Monday, when he unveiled plans to work with Panasonic to sell portable video players next year, allowing Comcast subscribers to take shows they record on a digital video recorder on the road. There were no major OpenCable accomplishments touted at CES, other than a new name for the platform -- tru2way.

The Comcast chief spoke again Tuesday morning at CES about working with Panasonic and other CE manuf...Read More

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We dig Keith Olbermann’s daily “Worst Person in The World” segment, which closes his 8 p.m. program on MSNBC. Since NBC News fired Don Imus in April, it’s the best thing going on MSNBC.

Case in point – Tuesday’s clip exposing CNN anti-immigration apostle Lou Dobbs, who Olbermann calls a hypocrite since the “elitist” horse show jumping industry – supported by Dobbs and his two equestrian daughters – e...Read More

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Don Imus pledged to never again use racist language as he returned to the air Monday morning for the first time since he was fired in April for insulting the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.

But the shock jock, whose Imus In The Morning program is broadcast nationwide on ABC Radio and simulcast on RFD-TV, also pledged that his radio show wouldn’t see big changes.

“No much has changed. Dick Cheney is still a war criminal. Hillary Clinton is still Satan, and I’m back on the radio,” Imus said Monday morning, drawing applause from a live audience at The Town Hall Theater in New York.

Imus spent the first half hour of his pro...Read More

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Flying 35,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean Sunday, dozens of TV screens installed on the back of the seats of the Jetblue Flight 76 were tuned to the New England Patriots – Indianapolis Colts game on CBS. The game, featuring two undefeated NFL teams, had been touted all week as a showdown of Super Bowl caliber, and passengers on the flight from West Palm Beach, Fla., to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport barely missed a minute of it.

When I booked my flight a few weeks ago to attend the baptism for my two-month-old cousin Erin (my goddaughter), Jetblue’s 36 channels of broadcast and cable network programming – d...Read More

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For months, NBC and Fox have teased Hulu, their joint Web venture that promised to deliver both full length episodes and clips from top TV series. But Web surfers that were looking forward to watching full-length episodes of 24 and other Fox and NBC hits may be disappointed with Hulu, which launched its public beta test Monday.

24, arguably the best series from either Fox or NBC, could have been an anchor draw for Hulu. The ad-supported site could have become an instant hit with legions of 24 fans by offering every episode from the first six seasons for free.

Instead, Hulu chose to offer just three episodes from 100-plus shows in the ...Read More

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Its new Web site may be crashing Thursday afternoon because of traffic, but Comedy Central’s bold move to put thousands of clips from The Daily Show online is very cool nonetheless.

13,000 clips of Jon Stewart interviewing everyone from Bill Clinton to Robin Williams. All for free, with a minimal amount of advertising. It’s a very consumer friendly move, and a smart way for Comedy Central to woo Web surfers back to its own Web site.

What next? Will Comedy parent Viacom put thousands of hours of additional free clips from other networks, including Nickelodeon, MTV, BET and Spike TV on the Web for free? It’s a good bet that it will.

For the last few years, Viacom and Comedy Central have watched YouTube and other Web rivals run unlicensed vide...Read More

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You’ve got to give CNBC some credit for choosing not to ignore new rival Fox Business Network this morning. Covering the 9:30 a.m. opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ has long been a staple of CNBC’s morning coverage, but Monday morning, Fox Business anchor Alexis Glick and network executive Kevin Magee rang the bell at NASDAQ. While Bloomberg TV chose to ignore the new competitor, CNBC ran video of the Fox crew ringing the bell.

The fact that CNBC was bold enough to give a free plug to its rival just a few hours after Fox Business flipped the switch is by no means a sign that the network doesn’t fear the new competitor.

For more than a year, C...Read More

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My favorite memory of Jim Robbins is from 2003’s National Show convention in Chicago. It was a rare opportunity to see Robbins, who passed away Wednesday night, in action, schmoozing a vendor on the show floor.

On the last day of the convention, I checked out some of the new companies pitching cable operators with my good friends and colleagues, Multichannel News editors Ted Hearn and Mike Farrell.

We swung by the booth of Vonage, then a little known startup that had begun marketing VoIP phone service through high-speed Internet connections delivered by cable operators and telephone co...Read More

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Any day now, you’ll no doubt begin to see appearances from Oxygen’s Campus Ladies crew and other talent from the women’s network spotlighted by Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera on NBC’s Today Show.

As the New York Posts’s Phil Mushnick often notes, the Today Show has become an “infomercial” for NBC’s primetime programming, from previous hit The Apprentice to current big draw The Office.

And with NBC Universal agreeing to shell out nearly $1 billion for Oxygen, ...Read More

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You’ve got to feel for Comcast. That year-old viral video featuring a Comcast technician sleeping on a subscriber’s couch is still burning up the Internet. And now influential Ad Age columnist Bob Garfield has launched a Web site, ComcastMustDie.com, dedicated to lampooning the big cable TV company. It’s also a forum for subscribers to vent on Comcast (Garfield encourages Web surfers that leave comments on the site to post their Comcast account numbers, which would allow Comcast the site closely, to take action).

Comcast acknowledges that its local customer service and field technician teams in Maryland could have done a better job installing Garfield’s digit...Read More

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I was checking my email a few minutes after tuning into Versus Saturday morning to watch the final time trial in the Tour de France when I heard two women debating who they’d rather have sex with – David Hasselhoff or Flavor Flav.

Who were these women -- sitting at a bar -- discussing which position they’d prefer with The Hoff during the Tour de France? What happened to ...Read More

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Was strolling through the hall with tabletop exhibits at the CTAM Summit in D.C. late Wednesday when I saw a couple of guys getting shoe shines.

Two young Latino men wearing shirts with “Kiko’s Professional Services – Shoe Shine & Repair,” written on the back, were giving two cable execs in sport jackets the free shoe shines. Next to the shoe shine stand was a sign. On top, it read “Power to The People.” That’s the theme of this year’s CTAM Summit. Below “Power to The People” the sign said, “Gallery Player.”

Gallery Player, a high-definition programming supplier, sponsored the free shoe shines.

Nothing wrong with getting a shoe shine – just an unusual juxtaposition with the si...Read More

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