Cable Industry

AT&T Inc.'s plan to acquire BellSouth Corp. fueled speculation Monday that competitors, namely Verizon and Qwest, would be forced to make deals of their own to keep up with a rejuvenated Ma Bell. New York-based Verizon Communications Inc., which in January acquired MCI Inc., might be the first to make a move. One potential takeover target is Alltel Corp., a Little Rock, Ark.-based regional wireless carrier with 11 million subscribers.

A simmering battle between the cable TV industry and major phone companies is about to boil over. Cable operators plan to start running ads today that accuse AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and other major phone carriers of lying to the public and elected officials as the companies use their networks to roll out new television services.

Two leading U.S. senators sided with the cable TV industry on rules that would govern the introduction of competing video services by telephone companies such as Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. The phone companies want federal rules that let them add TV service without having to get permission from every municipality first. Sens. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) and Daniel K.

The Federal Communications Commission has warned the nation's two leading cable TV companies that unwanted conditions could be imposed on their proposed acquisition of a rival if they do not agree to curb the proliferation of sexually explicit programming, according to company sources. Faced with what some are describing as an ultimatum, Time Warner Inc. and Comcast Corp. have sought to satisfy FCC Chairman Kevin J.

Re "L.A. OKs Plan to Improve Cable Service," May 14: The city of Los Angeles needs to clean its own house before it places any new restriction on the operation of the cable industry. Just try to reach any city agency and go through the telephone menu of pressing many buttons before reaching a live person -- much longer than 30 seconds. Then being transferred several times until a responsible person is reached. Most of the time a voice mail message is the only response from the city. If Los Angeles is going to regulate cable service and impose restrictions, why only that service?

Seeking to head off tougher government regulation of their industry, cable TV officials said Wednesday that they planned to launch a public service ad campaign telling parents how to use blocking features to shield children from inappropriate programs. At a news conference, officials of the National Cable and Telecommunications Assn. estimated the value of the campaign at $250 million. In addition, starting June 1, cable operators such as Comcast Corp.

Whether depicting intimate acts on HBO's "Sex and the City" or uttering a single four-letter expletive 162 times in one episode of Viacom Inc.-owned Comedy Central's "South Park," cable programmers have long sought to lure subscribers by dramatizing the very things that federal regulations prohibit on broadcast television.

A nearly $8-billion offer by Cox Enterprises Inc. to take its cable television business private gave a lift to industry stocks Monday after months of steady decline. The family-owned media company already controls 62% of the publicly traded shares of Cox Communications Inc., the nation's fourth-largest cable television provider, which serves some 6.3 million cable subscribers nationwide and about 800,000 in Southern California.

Inviting more competition in high-speed Internet access, a federal appeals court this week refused to reconsider an order requiring cable operators to share their networks with rivals. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco dismissed arguments from the Federal Communications Commission and the cable industry that cable-based Internet access should be exempt from the rules that require telephone companies to lease their lines to competitors.