Turner Broadcasting System Inc

Turner Broadcasting Reports Quarterly Loss: Citing the costs of retiring debt and fallout from the major league baseball strike, Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting System Inc. said it lost $5 million in the third quarter ended Sept. 30. The media company, which owns the Atlanta Braves and televises the baseball team's games, said the strike reduced Braves operating results by $15 million from last year. Its loss for the period amounted to 2 cents a share.

The NBA on Thursday detailed plans to dramatically expand its digital business deal with Turner Broadcasting System by turning over operation of its league website, a 24/7 digital television channel and a cable and satellite television package that lets avid fans watch out-of-town games. NBA Commissioner David Stern's decision to partner with a media company on digital rights runs counter to the go-it-alone strategies adopted by the NFL and MLB.

A year ago, Turner Sports dived into postseason baseball without so much as warming up in the bullpen. "It was like trying to start a car in winter," said TBS producer Tim Kiely. It wasn't as if the company didn't know its way around a diamond. TBS, after all, had been doing Atlanta Braves games for 30 years. But still, for a general public used to dealing with the broadcast networks and ESPN in the postseason, it was disconcerting.

Something is missing from the TBS baseball studio show. Something that could bring excitement, unpredictability, controversy. Something that could light the spark clearly missing when Cal Ripken and Dennis Eckersley, along with Curtis Granderson (division series) and Harold Reynolds (championship series) join host Ernie Johnson to analyze the plays, the players and the moves in the games of the day. Something that could lighten the analysis and sharpen the criticism.

New York to Boston: Get over it. The Big Apple's neighbor to the north was brought to a halt Wednesday when some harmless blinking signs advertising a cartoon were mistaken for bombs. In New York? Fuhgeddaboudit. The city's 911 operators logged no calls -- not a single one -- when the identical devices depicting in lights a character from "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" were planted around Manhattan and Brooklyn several weeks ago.

Turner Broadcasting has agreed to pay all costs of a security scare triggered by a marketing campaign that disrupted travel in Boston, a spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas Menino said. Travel on major roadways and rail lines was suspended as police responded in large numbers Wednesday after discovering the battery-powered devices, which were intended to promote a cartoon on a Turner cable network, in Boston and surrounding cities. Authorities blew up one of them.