• All-HD for All HBO, Cinemax Feeds
• Paul Allen Praises Charter
• Rebuffed Rogers Buys Stations
• Nearly 12M Watch Finale of The Sopranos
• Bravo Hypes Top Chef Teaser
• Public Groups Back Cablevision in Network-DVR Fight
• Retirement Living Launches Live Show

• NBC U, Netflix: I Love This Movie!
• TNS Lowers Ad-Growth Projections
• CableLabs Goes for the Interception
• TBN Acquires Theme Park
• Treece Rejoins Comcast
• Lime Time for Reilly, Reick
• WWE Names GM of Digital Media

• Lewand to Help Fuse Go Digital
• Correction
• Rather Rips Moonves in Fox News Interview
• USA Wins Weekly Primetime Battle
• Cable, DBS Fail to Impress in Call-Center Survey

All-HD for All HBO, Cinemax Feeds
HBO will make all 26 feeds of its HBO and Cinemax multiplex channels available in HD. The rollout will begin later this year, with completion expected by the end of the second quarter of next year, according to HBO chairman and CEO Bill Nelson. DirecTV already committed to offering some of the new HDTV services. The satellite provider will begin launching the HDTV feeds of 11 HBO and Cinemax channels nationally in September as part of its HDTV expansion, DirecTV officials said. DirecTV plans to debut up to 100 national HD channels by the end of the year following the launch of its D10 satellite next month. HBO was the first national cable network to offer HD feeds, with HBO HDTV launching in 1999 and Cinemax HDTV in 2003. click to read more...
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Paul Allen Praises Charter
Charter chairman Paul Allen heaped praise on the cable op’s management team at its Tuesday annual meeting of shareholders in Seattle, stating that the St. Louis-based cable operator is in its best position in years. The annual meeting, held at a hotel near Allen’s home town every year, was short and sweet – about 45 minutes with one short question from the floor – typical of past meetings. At last year’s annual shareholder’s meeting Allen praised CEO Neil Smit (hired in August 2005) for his moves to shore up Charter’s balance sheet through a series of debt refinancings and its efforts to launch voice service. This year, he said those efforts are paying off in spades. “With an intense focus on the fundamentals of the business, that momentum I spoke to you about in 2006 continues to build and is now translating into real results for all of our shareholders, as Charter’s stock has nearly tripled since our last meeting.” Charter stock closed at $3.84 per share in 4 p.m. trading Tuesday. The stock closed at $1.34 per share on Aug, 29, 2006, the date of its last annual shareholders meeting. click to read more...
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Rebuffed Rogers Buys Stations
Rogers Media shifted quickly to plan B, saying Tuesday that it agreed to buy five TV stations from CTVglobemedia after failing to buy a TV-station group from Chum. Rogers, which owns Canada’s largest cable operator, said its Rogers Broadcasting arm would buy the five Citytv stations for $375 million in cash. click to read more...
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Nearly 12M Watch Finale of The Sopranos
Almost 12 million people tuned into HBO Sunday night to see how things would turn out for America’s favorite mob family. The Made in America finale of The Sopranos ranked as the second-most-watched Sopranos telecast since 2004, trailing only the season-five premiere on March 7 of that year, which garnered 12.1 million viewers. click to read more...
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Bravo Hypes Top Chef Teaser
Bravo turned up the heat Tuesday in New York’s Union Square to promote the season premiere of Top Chef Season 3: Miami. The network -- together with the city’s marketing and tourism branch, NYC & Company -- staged a “quick-fire” outdoor cook-off hosted by series host Padma Lakshmi and head judge Tom Colicchio. The event also proceeded the city’s mid-July Restaurant Week, during which participating restaurants discount their menus. Mixing with press and fans during the event, Bravo president Lauren Zalaznick said that while the network had not decided whether to serve up a fourth season of Top Chef, the show’s special one-hour cook-off between past season finalists had done well last week. click to read more...
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Public Groups Back Cablevision in Network-DVR Fight
Several public-interest groups are backing Cablevision Systems in its fight to legalize network digital-video recorders. Cablevision -- which hoped to cut costs and widely deploy DVR service by delivering programming to set-tops in subscriber homes by relying on shows stored on computers stored in neighborhoods -- was ordered to halt its plans after losing a lawsuit in March. The cable operator, which filed an appeal in June, is fighting plaintiffs 20th Century Fox Film, Universal City Studios, Paramount Pictures, Disney Enterprises, ABC, CBS, NBC and Cartoon Network. In briefings filed recently at the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New York, Public Knowledge and 10 other industry and public-interest groups backed Cablevision in its bid to overturn the March decision from a U.S. District Court, which ruled that Cablevision’s network-DVR plans would violate copyright. click to read more...
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Retirement Living Launches Live Show
Retirement Living TV, the cable network created for people aged 55 and over, will launch Daily Café June 18 on DirecTV’s Channel 364 and regionally through Comcast. The two-hour live weekday program is hosted by former CNN anchors Mary Alice Williams and Felicia Taylor. click to read more...
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NBC U, Netflix: I Love This Movie!
NBC Universal Digital Studios will produce a series of online Webisodes, which will provide an entertaining take on classic movies, for Netflix. The broadband show, launching later this year and titled I Love This Movie!, will highlight a classic film in each Webisode that will introduce new audiences to some of the best of Hollywood’s past. click to read more...
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TNS Lowers Ad-Growth Projections
TNS Media Intelligence downgraded its advertising-growth projections for 2007, predicting growth in U.S. ad spending of 1.7 %, or $152.3 billion for the year. TNS predicted that cable network advertising will grow by 5.9% over 2006 rates. Other predicted growth sectors: Internet (16%); outdoor (4.6%); consumer and Sunday magazines (4.5% each); Spanish-language media (3.7%); network television (1.3%); and syndicated TV (1.2%). click to read more...
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CableLabs Goes for the Interception
Cable Television Laboratories issued its Cable Broadband Intercept Specification to assist cable operators and law-enforcement agencies in meeting legal mandates under the federal Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. The cable industry’s research-and-development arm said CBIS is designed to be a "safe harbor" under CALEA, so operators that are compliant with CBIS are, therefore, deemed to be CALEA-compliant. click to read more...
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TBN Acquires Theme Park
Trinity Broadcasting Network acquired a theme park in Orlando, Fla., Holy Land Experience. click to read more...
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Treece Rejoins Comcast
John Treece rejoined Comcast as Southern division vice president of capacity management. Treece most recently had been director of cable business development for Juniper Networks. click to read more...
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Lime Time for Reilly, Reick
Heather Reilly and Kristen Reick joined green-living multiplatform brand Lime. Reilly, Lime’s new director of integrated sales and marketing, had been account manager, ad sales at Music Choice. And new ad-sales marketing director Reick had been director of marketing and public programs at Hudson River Park Trust.. click to read more...
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WWE Names GM of Digital Media
Brian Kalinowski joined World Wrestling Entertainment as general manager of digital media. Kalinowski had been chief operating officer at Lycos. click to read more...
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Lewand to Help Fuse Go Digital
Beth Lewand joined Fuse as vice president of digital media. Lewand had been VP of digital-media programming and production at Comedy Central. click to read more...
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Correction
The Women in Cable Telecommunications Gala is scheduled for Thursday, November 15 at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C. Monday’s issue contained the wrong date.