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Without much advance fanfare, digital-cable customers in Lexington, Ky., last month saw a new application appear on their set-top boxes: a remote-controlled home-shopping service called the Insight Digital Mall.

Through a partnership with Commerce.TV Corp. and Liberate Technologies, Insight Communications Co. soft-launched the television-commerce application last month, after beta testing by local Insight employees.

For local cable advertising executives, the future is not quite here yet. Most of them say that it's a bit too soon to focus on interactive television, local People Meters or digital-network insertion — although a few MSOs might start some initial tests of the latter late this year.

In a move to unload its domestic broadband holdings, France
Telecom S.A. said last month that it agreed to merge certain cable assets with those of NC
Numericable, the cable operator owned by French pay TV group Canal Plus S.A. and Exante, a
financial holding led by Callahan Associates International LLC.

In a second step, France Telecom plans to divest its stake
in the partnership within the next three years by selling it in an initial public
offering.

San Diegans bored with attractions such as Sea World and
the city's world-famous zoo now have another facility that hopes to pique their
interest: Time Warner's Southwestern Cable campus.

In order to more firmly assert its identity -- Time Warner
toils in the shadow of Cox Communications Inc.'s larger and more publicized Cox Cable
San Diego -- the system has opened its shop for tours. This makes the cable operation one
of only four local businesses -- including Qualcomm Stadium and the local newspaper --
that conduct regular plant tours.

GoodLife TV Network will celebrate the accomplishments of parents across the
United States by marking the 10th annual "National Parents’ Day" with a six-hour
American Family marathon Sunday, July 27, from 8 p.m.-2 a.m.

American Family is hosted by clinical psychologist and former ABC News
senior correspondent and anchor Bettina Gregory.