Wednesday News from the Western Show

NEWS FROM THE WESTERN SHOW Top Execs Sound Off On Key Cable Issues

LOS ANGELES -- Kicking off the Western Show here, cable industry leaders sounded off on government intervention, competition, sliding share prices,and programming issues in a wide-ranging panel discussion led by veteran journalist and author Ken Auletta.

The hot-button issue for the panel, which included Barry Diller, chairman and CEO, USA Networks, Dr. John Malone, chairman of Liberty Media, Dan Somers, President and CEO, AT&T Broadband, and Michael Willner, president and CEO, Insight Communications, was government intervention in the affairs of the media business, a topic precipitated by the extensive FTC review period for the pending Time Warner- AOL merger.

As media consolidation accelerates, the more issues there are, Diller said. As more outlets are controlled by fewer companies, the worry is that it will become harder and harder for the smaller or independent voices to be heard.

That does not mean that government should become the final authority on who or what companies get to join forces, Malone said.

"We have to be careful a review doesn't become so convoluted" that it will cause extensive delays in the approval process, he added. William Kennard, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, was also scheduled to speak before the packed audience, but cancelled at the last minute for personal reasons. Cable Diversity Initiative

The Cable and Telecommunications Human Resources Association drafted an industry-wide diversity initiative designed to help companies deploy employee hiring and retention standards.

Some 40 industry companies have signed off on the employee practices drafted by the group, which includes most of the top MSOs, programming networks and vendors.

“We have come to recognize that workforce diversity is not just ‘the right thing to do.’ It is vital that we increase sensitivity at every level to effectively match the virtually limitless diversity of the global market for cable services,” says Pandit Wright, SVP-human resources for Discovery Communications and CTHRA president.

Diversity shouldn’t be just a recruiting effort and it should be more than an affirmative action initiative, panelists at a diversity panel held during the Western Cable Show in Los Angeles Wednesday. Affirmative action is thought of terms of numbers and requirements while diversity is a way of thinking and acting, says Pat Andrews-Keenan, president of the National Association of Minorities in Cable and VP for AT&T Broadband in Chicago.

Among the principles encompassing the standards initiative:  Focus on acquiring talent by expanding the resource pools contacts to identify possible candidates.  Make sure managers are good managers. Ensure the integrity and effectiveness of management processes, not just for minorities, but for all employees by establishing good employee relations, managing conflict and providing training and developmental opportunities.  Understand cross-cultural differences and reward achievement.  Be accountable individually and corporately.  Promote diversity inside and outside the company by supporting minority vendors. National Geo Teams With Times

LOS ANGELES--The National Geographic Channel will team with The New York Times Television on a weekly series. The Times will also make contributions to the fledgling channel’s nightly news program.

National Geographic, which launches Jan. 7, will debut the hour-long Science Times on Tuesdays in primetime come June. The initial commitment calls for 26 episodes of Science Times, each consisting of three segments covering the full spectrum of scientific knowledge. The New York Times has published a Science of The Times section, which runs on Tuesdays, since 1979.

In addition, the channel will include “Science Times” segments on its daily show National Geogrpahic Today, which will air at 7 and 10 p.m. Some of the newspaper’s scientific correspondents may also intermittently appear as commentators on the daily program. Former ABC News correspondent Tom Foreman and news anchor Susan Roesgen will co-anchor National Geographic Today.

Under the two-year deal, The Times and National Geographic Channel will provide promotional support touting the respective vehicles. Fox Adds Comcast

Fox News Channel signed a distribution arrangement with Comcast, which will roll out the network in a majority of its major markets over the next three years. In November, Comcast launched FNC in Baltimore and Sarasota, Fla.

Fox News today also said it plans to drop its contract with Voter News Service, the combine that helped the TV news networks make inaccurate and premature calls on Election Night. Fox said it will not renew its VNS contract unless it received an adequate explanation of what happened election night and is exploring other polling options for future elections. FX Tops 65M

Rounding out its distribution roster with the major MSOs, FX has reached a new long-term affiliation agreement with Comcast Cable. The agreement pushes carriage commitments for the general entertainment network past the 65 million mark.

Lindsay Gardner, EVP of affiliate sales and marketing for for Fox Cable Networks Group, says that FX will air on 80% of Comcast’s system within 24 months. Currently, FX is in about 1.5 million Comcast homes, largely in systems the MSO took over via acquisitions. Like the balance of the network’s carriage, the Comcast agreement will put FX on expanded basic. Gardner says all of FX’s carriage and commitments to same are on basic or expanded basic.

“We have had talks that have been continuing for years. This is the culmination of a lot of discussions and hard work,” says Gardner, adding that FX’s coverage of NASCAR was a real driver for the deal. “Comcast has a strong presence in the southeast, where the sport is very popular. The Michigan 500 will be carried on FX and Detroit is another key market for Comcast.” NUE Gets Cox Deal

LOS ANGELES – New Urban Entertainment Television said Wednesday it signed a carriage agreement with Cox Communications and acquired programming from Paramount.

The agreement, which goes into effect immediately, gives NUE-TV, an urban-oriented lifestyle channel, access to Cox’s 6.2 million customers.

Cox is the latest cable operator to carry the upstart network. AT&T and Time Warner have already sealed deals with NUE-TV.

The network will offer Paramount movies and series, such as 48 Hours and Hoop Life.New Shows from Oxygen

Oxygen’s second programming season will feature five new original series, a biographical special and a pair of acquisitions.The new series include the stripped music show Daily Remix and Dot Comedy, a web-based skein that will also appear on ABC. Who Does She Think She is?! will feature five one-hour biographical specials on powerful women. On the acquisition side, Oxygen will air Xena: Warrior Princess and Pond Life, a British animated skein. Another Comcast-Disney Extension - Walt Disney Co. and Comcast Corp. agreed to extend their retransmission consent standoff until New Year’s Eve. ABC owns stations in Comcast markets in New Jersey, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toledo and Flint. Comcast, Juno Ink Access Deal

Comcast Communications, the third largest cable operator and Juno Online services, the third largest Internet Service provider, have signed a deal to offer Juno's high-speed Internet service over Comcast's cable systems.

The two companies plan to conduct trials of the service during the first quarter of 2001 in the Philadelphia area. The agreement will make Juno the first non-affiliated company to offer Internet access over Comcast systems, which has a contract with Excit@Home.

Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission has decided to, again, postpone its decision on the America Online Time Warner merger in order to review the terms of the Time Warner-Earhlink access deal, according to FTC sources. The commission continues to build a case against the merger in the case the two companies do not meet their regulatory demands, sources said, with regulators also examining if content from Time Warner's news properties will be available to Internet services not affiliated with AOL. NCTA Outlines Open Access Fight at FCC

Calling the current fight over open access provisions at the FCC the most significant issue facing the industry this year, National Cable Television Association President Robert Sachs outlined the group's arguments against the principle in a press conference Wednesday at the Western Cable Show.

In a filing at the commission, the NCTA said cable modem service should not be considered a telecommunications service because the 1996 Telecommunications Act expanded the definition of cable services to include interactive functions like high-speed data service.

Even if the commission were to decide that cable broadband should be classified as a telecommunications service, the 1996 would only require companies to interact "directly or indirectly" with other carriers, the NCTA added. This requirement, the association argues, is met through existing peering arrangements that permit cable broadband subscribers to send and receive email with anyone on the Internet and access online content. C-SPAN, Cable Nets to Air Supreme Court Audio C-SPAN and cable networks CNN and Court TV won a partial victory at the Supreme court, convincing Justices to allow them to broadcast audio transcripts of arguments concerning the Florida vote counts in the Presidential election. The court, which does not normally allow audio or video broadcasts of its proceedings, will provide the news organizations with tapes of the hearings that will be broadcast in full on C-SPAN and inpart on CNN and Court TV. The Justices agreed to release the tapes after theRadio-Television News Directors Association and C-SPAN appealed to theJustices individually to allow cameras into the courtroom. The court declined the request but offered the audio tapes as a compromise. SeaChange Shares Drop SeaChange International shares plummeted after the maker of digital video systems announced a large profit decline for its fiscal third quarter.Maynard, Mass.-based SeaChange said it earned $4,000, or less than a penny a share, for the quarter ended Oct. 31. That compares with $292,000, or 1 cent a share, for the three months ended Sept. 30, 1999. Revenue for the quarter jumped 12%, to $24.2 million, up from $21.2 million in the prior year period. Revenue at the firm's broadcast segment jumped 47%, to $7.2 million, boosted by system shipments to international customers. Still, shares of SeaChange slid nearly 17% Wednesday, or $4.13, to $23.88.

In a statement, SeaChange president and CEO Bill Styslinger was optimistic for the company's growth opportunities. ``Four major US cable operators expect to deploy SeaChange ITV systems in the next two quarters,'' Styslinger said. ``With our initial ITV System installed at Cablevision, we have begun deployment to their 2.9 million subscriber network in metro New York. The extent of this deployment will increase sharply in the fourth quarter. In addition, we plan to install ITV systems at 5-7 divisions of Time Warner beginning in the fourth quarter. "

He added that the company expects aggressive deployments at two other major US cable operators over the next six months. Styslinger said he was comfortable with current analysts' revenue estimates for the fourth quarter of approximately $30 to $32 million and net income of approximately $0.05 per share. Separately, SeaChange said Wednesday it has extended its VOD alliance with Liberate in two product areas. The two companies will expand their alliance in support of the Motorola DCT 5000 with Liberate TV Navigator standard, as well as their support of the Motorola DCT 2000 class of devices and network infrastructure.