Cable Systems

Stephen A. Burch was named yesterday president of Comcast Corp.'s Mid-Atlantic Division, overseeing operations in Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and Washington. Headquartered in Philadelphia, Comcast has about 1.5 million customers in the region. Burch expects that number to reach nearly 2 million as Comcast continues to acquire other local cable systems. Burch, 50, was formerly the regional senior vice president for Comcast. But the company's growth in the area prompted Comcast to form the Mid-Atlantic Division in May. Birch's responsibilities will remain the mostly same.

In the short term, Comcast's purchase of Home Team Sports is likely to mean little to local sports viewers. Orioles, Washington Wizards and Capitals games will still air on the channel, most likely with the same announcers and production staffs. Over the long haul, however, the HTS sale may position Comcast, the nation's third-largest cable carrier, as a dominant player in sports in the Baltimore-Washington corridor on both the distribution and programming side. HTS is currently available to 4.9 million homes in a region that extends from North Carolina to southern Pennsylvania.

The debut of "The Sopranos" Sunday night appears to have prompted a boom in subscriptions to HBO as well as big ratings, according to preliminary figures and estimates from the cable channel. Hard numbers are elusive, but the Baltimore area's two largest cable providers have both seen a marked increase in the number of HBO subscriptions in recent weeks. And while it's impossible to say precisely why people chose to add HBO just as "The Sopranos" was gearing up for a second season, it's a safe bet there's a connection.

NEW YORK -- AT&T Corp., soon to be the largest U.S. cable TV operator, announced yesterday that Leo Hindery, president and chief executive officer of its cable unit, is unexpectedly leaving the company to pursue other interests.Hindery, 51, was president of Tele-Communications Inc., the cable TV company that AT&T acquired for $59.4 billion in March. He is the latest top-level executive to leave AT&T since Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael Armstrong joined in November 1997.Hindery's departure comes at a critical time for AT&T, which has bet much of its future on cable systems that will offer phone service, data communications and Internet access as well as television programming.

ATLANTA -- Cox Communications Inc., the No. 5 U.S. cable operator, said yesterday that it will swap $2.85 billion in AT&T Corp. stock for some AT&T cable systems and $750 million in cash, to become the dominant provider in Louisiana and Oklahoma. Cox will swap 50.3 million AT&T shares for systems serving 495,000 customers in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arkansas, Utah and Nevada. That and other pending acquisitions will give Cox a total of 5.5 million customers. AT&T, the No. 2 cable TV operator, is selling systems to concentrate on major markets and head off regulatory concern that its pending acquisition of MediaOne Group Inc. might make it too big. Cable companies such as Cox are building large regional groupings, or clusters, to market and deliver new services such as digital cable and high-speed Internet access more efficiently.

There's a price to be paid for everything in life and, within a few months, cable subscribers will be paying a healthy price for the pleasure of being able to watch the NFL in their homes, whether they like pro football or not.Word has spread through the cable industry that ESPN is seeking a major hike in the figure it charges individual cable systems for the right to carry its signal. A report in yesterday's Wall Street Journal indicated that ESPN may be seeking a 20 percent or more annual raise in its rates through the year 2006.

CBS will finally get in the cable business today with its launch of a promising new channel, CBS Eye On People. The problem with this Eye, though, is that very few will be able to see it -- at least for the immediate future.The channel, which is self-described as "entertainment and information programming focusing on people and personalities," has great brand identity going in, thanks to CBS News personalities ranging from Charles Kuralt and Mike Wallace to Mark McEwen and Paula Zahn. With CBS News providing 70 percent of the programming from archives and new reports, Eye On People resembles MSNBC, which launched with a bang in July thanks to the NBC News archives and the presence of Jane Pauley and Brian Williams.

Steven Fischer of Gambrills has grand plans for the cartoon comedy team he invented a decade ago -- Bluey the blue dog and his human partner with big hair, Steve.They are hosts of a radio show. They perform their comic routine in palaces. The sky is the limit when you're creating an entertainment career on paper.But in real life, to get Steve and Bluey where they are today, Fischer, 24, has put in long hours drawing, writing scripts, recording voices and learning the ins and outs of production.

Discovery Communications Inc. will invest $500 million or more in a long-term partnership with the British Broadcasting Corp. to develop programming and new cable TV channels in the U.S. and abroad, the Bethesda company said yesterday.The deal is expected to lead to a BBC cable channel in the United States that would be owned by the British government-controlled broadcaster, yet distributed through Discovery's relationships with local cable systems.It also will give Discovery the right of first refusal to show nearly all of the BBC's nonfiction programming in the U.S., and the right to work with the BBC to develop programs for Discovery's present and future cable channels, including the Discovery Channel, the Learning Channel, and the Animal Planet Channel.

Comcast Corp. said yesterday that its key earnings measure rose 13.5 percent during the second quarter.A successful crackdown on cellular phone fraud and big gains at its QVC cable shopping network led the way.The Philadelphia-based cable company, which operates local systems in Baltimore, Howard and Harford counties, reported net income of $16.8 million, compared with a loss in last year's second quarter.The primary difference was a $40.6 million gain from the initial public offering of Comcast affiliate Teleport Communications Group Inc. in June.