Headlines: Cable, Upfront, Google

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Cable Bill’s Rate Effect Disputed

In the wake of an intense lobbying campaign, it appears likely that major telephone companies will win the right to more easily compete against cable TV companies in California, the Sacramento Bee reports. Whether consumers will see lower prices and other benefits is still unclear. By a final 77-0 vote, the state Assembly passed AB 2987 this past Wednesday and the Senate is expected to take up the bill later this summer. If it clears both houses, the bill would provide for a blanket agreement allowing telephone companies to offer cable TV service in California, eliminating the need for phone companies, such as AT & T; Inc., to negotiate separate deals with every municipality. In making their pitch to the Legislature, phone company officials have maintained more competition will yield lower prices and better service for Californians. In opposing the bill, cable industry officials have argued that the legislation would allow phone companies to “cherry-pick” only the most affluent neighborhoods for their service, and not offer them in poor and minority communities.





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Ad Firms Wait to Get TV Spots


This might be the year that the springtime tradition known as the “upfront” television advertising market fails to live up to its name, the Los Angeles Times reports. Every May for as long as anyone can remember, the networks have wooed Madison Avenue with elaborate presentations of new fall lineups. And almost every year by mid-June, those same networks have sold the bulk of their commercial spots for the coming TV season. But this year advertisers are holding money out of the market this year because they want to experiment with other forms of media. Last June, the six broadcast networks took in $9.1 billion in commitments for prime-time shows for the current season. But this year, industry experts predict that total will shrink by as much as $500 million , and not only because there soon will be just five networks. Already one major advertiser, Johnson & Johnson, has said it will sit out this upfront. The demand for network advertising has slowed down a bit, and that gives the buyers more leverage, industry experts say.





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Google To Launch Online Spreadsheet


Google said it will launch a Web-based spreadsheet application Tuesday, the latest in a series of shots it has taken at Microsoft, the San Jose Mercury reports. Google Spreadsheets, a free program that requires no downloads and allows people to share or work on the same document online, won’t offer all of the bells and whistles that Microsoft’s Excel program offers. And the program will be available only to a small number of users who request to participate in a beta, or testing, period. Google moved into online word processing earlier this year with the acquisition of Upstartle, a small company that developed Writely, a way to allow people to create, share and store text documents online for free. Microsoft’s Excel and Word programs each cost $229 for a new user and $109 for an upgrade. Microsoft’s response to the flowering of new companies such as Writely, which create free Microsoft-like products, is its “Live” brand, which was announced in November.



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