Cable Television

Network television hasn't been unleashing many major programming events this summer, unless singing bees and the real-life legal woes of sometime "Prison Break" actor Lane Garrison qualify as major events. But cable is another story. Take, for example, TNT, which has been pounding the drums for "The Company," its sweeping, $30-million adaptation of Robert Littell's Cold War spy thriller with Chris O'Donnell, Michael Keaton and Alfred Molina.

No one has been more swept up in the euphoria of the overheated housing market of the last few years than cable television networks. First came "Property Ladder" and "Flip That House" on Discovery's TLC and "Flip This House" on the competing A&E Network. As home values soared, so did the number of real estate programs. TLC came up with "Real Estate Pros," and A&E later served up "Sell This House." Bravo jumped into the act this summer, introducing "Flipping Out."

The number of gay characters depicted on TV is falling on network series but rising on cable, a study by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation found. In the 2007-08 TV season, broadcast series will feature seven regularly seen characters who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, down from nine characters in 2006 and 10 the season before, GLAAD said Monday. Most are on one network -- ABC. By comparison, cable shows will feature 40 gay characters as series regulars, GLAAD said.

After huge fines and public outrage, the now infamous Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" at the 2004 Super Bowl was supposed to have had a chilling effect on broadcast television's drive to rattle the cages of social convention. But instead, the major networks have only gotten hotter, particularly when it comes to language.

The Dolan family, which built Cablevision Systems Corp. into one of the most successful cable TV providers in the country, is going to have to keep dealing with public stockholders for the foreseeable future. Shareholders on Wednesday rejected a $10.6-billion bid from the Dolans to take Cablevision private, clearly seeing the company as more valuable than the price the Dolans had agreed to pay.

Federal regulators on Wednesday approved a rule that would ban exclusive agreements that cable television operators have with apartment buildings, opening up competition for other video providers that could eventually lead to lower prices. The Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved the change, which Chairman Kevin J. Martin said would help lower cable rates for subscribers who live in apartment buildings and other multiunit dwellings, or about 25 million households.

Federal Communications Commission member Robert M. McDowell said he wouldn't support a report that would give the agency more power to regulate cable television operators. A draft of the annual video competition report, backed by FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin, a fellow Republican, says cable operators such as Comcast Corp. control enough of the pay-TV market to warrant more oversight. "This is a radical departure for the commission," McDowell said.

A group of Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives raised objections Tuesday to a Federal Communications Commission proposal that could lead to tougher regulation of cable television operators. A letter signed by 23 House Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee expressed serious doubts about the prospect of a regulatory crackdown on the cable industry, raised in a report that FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin has circulated among the agency's other commissioners.

It is late November 2007 and the NFC is hours away from its most important game of its season. Do you know where your Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys are? Chances are, they won't be on your home television screen. When the 10-1 Packers play the 10-1 Cowboys at Texas Stadium on Thursday evening, CBS, NBC, Fox and ESPN will be on the inactive list. The game will be carried live nationally only on the NFL Network, which is available in about 35 million households in the U.S.

Two key House lawmakers announced Monday that they were investigating the Federal Communications Commission, accusing its chairman of "possible abuse of power" and a failure to operate fairly and openly in handling proposed cable TV and media ownership regulations. "Given several events and proceedings over the past year, I am rapidly losing confidence that the commission has been conducting its affairs in an appropriate manner," Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.