Tci

If you are a TCI Cable customer in Baltimore City who was confused when you turned on your television yesterday morning, you're not alone.As of yesterday, TCI has rearranged its channels. No channels have been removed, however, said TCI customer service representative Dana Holt.The change is a step toward eliminating cable boxes and creating cable-ready television, Holt said.TCI customers were alerted to the changes through television commercials and inserts in their November cable bills, Holt said.

Comcast Corp. said yesterday that it has completed its $500 million acquisition of Baltimore cable provider TCI Communications, but it might not be until next year that customers will see upgrades in service, such as digital cable and high-speed Internet access. One immediate change for the 13,000 Baltimore customers will be on the August bill, which will have the new logo. There are no planned price increases for this year, said Kenneth Crooks, Comcast vice president and general manager.

I LOVE THIS town and will probably remain here the rest of my days. But in some ways, my beloved Baltimore has failed me. Take the area of cable television, for instance. Let's go back a year and a few months, to January 2000. America's No. 1 religious event, the Super Bowl, was playing on network television. Super Bowl XXXIV pitted the Tennessee Titans against the Los Angeles Rams, who play out of St. Louis these days. It was the waning seconds of the game. The Titans trailed by seven points but had the ball.

I LOVE THIS town and will probably remain here the rest of my days. But in some ways, my beloved Baltimore has failed me. Take the area of cable television, for instance. Let's go back a year and a few months, to January 2000. America's No. 1 religious event, the Super Bowl, was playing on network television. Super Bowl XXXIV pitted the Tennessee Titans against the Los Angeles Rams, who play out of St. Louis these days. It was the waning seconds of the game. The Titans trailed by seven points but had the ball.

NEW YORK -- Tele-Communications Inc. Chief Executive John C. Malone has held discussions with Time Warner Inc. executives about joining an international cable music program to compete with Viacom Inc.'s MTV channel, executives close to the discussions said yesterday.The discussions could threaten an agreement in principle that TCI reached in September with Germany's Bertelsmann A. G. to launch their own channel competitive with MTV.Time Warner's Warner Music Group, Sony Corp.'s Sony Music, Thorn EMI PLC's EMI Music unit and PolyGram, majority-owned by Philips Electronics, revealed in January that they were setting up their own international music channel.

The cable company that serves the Annapolis area has rejected a proposal by the city government to add more sports programming to the basic cable packages.The Annapolis City Council voted unanimously last month to approve a new contract requiring TCI Cablevision to include in a basic cable package extras such as Home Team Sports and ESPN2, which feature local sailing shows and the Orioles, the Capitals and the Bullets.TCI Cablevision had 30 days to review that proposal and rejected it Friday, the last day of the old contract.

Ushering in a new era in home television viewing, the nation's largest cable television operator said yesterday that it would soon employ a revolutionary technology capable of providing more than 500 TV channels to cable subscribers.The announcement by Tele-Communications Inc., which serves more then 9 million homes nationwide, is the first major step in what is expected to be a worldwide shift to so-called "digital video" technology.By converting a video image into the ones and zeros of computer code, digital video makes possible a huge increase in the number of channels.

WASHINGTON -- The federal government took a big step toward redefining the Internet yesterday when the Justice Department approved the proposed $31.8 billion acquisition of the cable giant Tele-Communications Inc. by AT&T.The deal, announced in June, cannot be closed without the consent of the Federal Communications Commission, whose officials said yesterday that the agency's staff was more than a month away from finishing its review under different standards and laws from those considered by the Justice Department.

IT WAS unusual, for a Super Bowl game. The one played this past Jan. 30, the ballyhooed Super Bowl XXXIV, was actually exciting. So there you were, sitting in front of the television as the Tennessee Titans, seven points behind, drove for a touchdown that might have tied them with the Los Angeles Rams, who are playing out of St. Louis. Titans quarterback Steve "Rubberarm" McNair miraculously escaped two tacklers to fire a pass to a receiver deep in Rams territory. Then, with five seconds left, McNair faded back to pass and Nothing, if you were a customer of TCI cable in Baltimore City.

NEW YORK -- Tele-Communications Inc. is negotiating to purchase Viacom Inc.'s cable television systems for about $2.2 billion, according to investment bankers on both sides of the transaction.The purchase would be one of the largest cable television system transactions in years, and the first big sale in the industry since the Federal Communications Commission in February ordered cable operators to lower their rates.A TCI-Viacom transaction would also patch up the bitter rivalry between two industry heavyweights: Viacom Chairman Sumner M. Redstone and TCI Chief Executive John C. Malone.

What should have been two hours of cheering turned into a frantic search for television reception for thousands of Terps fans yesterday as a TCI Communications cable outage knocked out service to parts of the city. Fans fled affected bars and apartments across downtown after television screens turned to snow shortly before the Maryland-Stanford 4:40 p.m. tip-off, desperately seeking bars spared from the outage. The Terps' victory provided only limited consolation to those forced to spend half the game driving around town or settling for a wavy picture.

In Baltimore City TCI to increase rates for expanded cable TV service Baltimore's cable carrier is raising its rates for expanded cable service, the company said yesterday. Starting Feb. 15, customers of Tele-Communications Inc. will pay $1.84 more each month for expanded basic service, increasing the cost from $20.89 to $22.73. Basic service will decrease in price by 34 cents, from $9.04 to $8.70, according to TCI customer service representatives. TCI officials could not be reached yesterday to explain the increase.

In the Region TCI decides to lower basic cable rate, raise expanded rate TCI Communications said yesterday that it will decrease its rate for basic cable television service for its 115,000 Baltimore city customers. The subscription rate for basic service will drop $2.48 per month to $9.04 on June 1, said TCI spokeswoman Kirsti Durr. Meanwhile, TCI said its rate for expanded cable service will rise June 1 by $1.75 to $20.89. Customers who subscribe to expanded service must also subscribe to basic service, meaning that expanded customers would still see an overall rate decrease of 73 cents per month, Durr said.

IT WAS unusual, for a Super Bowl game. The one played this past Jan. 30, the ballyhooed Super Bowl XXXIV, was actually exciting. So there you were, sitting in front of the television as the Tennessee Titans, seven points behind, drove for a touchdown that might have tied them with the Los Angeles Rams, who are playing out of St. Louis. Titans quarterback Steve "Rubberarm" McNair miraculously escaped two tacklers to fire a pass to a receiver deep in Rams territory. Then, with five seconds left, McNair faded back to pass and Nothing, if you were a customer of TCI cable in Baltimore City.

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.

The Baltimore City Council gave preliminary approval last night to a proposal to convert a Charles Street apartment building into a senior citizens' home, displacing its 150 occupants.Under the proposal, which will be up for final approval next week, the Northway Apartments at 3700 N. Charles St. would become a home for the elderly that would offer assisted living.Tenants are protesting the change, saying it will push middle-income residents out of the city and that nursing homes in the area are not fully occupied.

There's only one real problem with the Internet -- getting connected to it.For most computer users, that means using a modem to dial up another computer a few miles away that's directly attached to the Net via a high-speed communication line.Those few miles might as well be a thousand, because the phone lines that connect you to that big, fast Internet computer are too slow to bring you all the information waiting out there for you. Until somebody does something about this, you'll grow old watching graphics-laden Web pages trickle onto your screen.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Home Shopping Network Inc. and Tele-Communications Inc. said yesterday that they would form a joint venture to market cable-television programs abroad.The venture, to be called Home Shopping Network International, will be Home Shopping's first foray outside the United States, where its shop-at-home programs have been highly successful."We are convinced that there is enormous opportunity to develop TV retailing beyond the U.S.," said Gerald Hogan, Home Shopping's president and chief executive.

The City Council delayed action last night on a bill to create a cable franchise that would provide services in the Inner Harbor area, after Baltimore's primary cable provider raised concerns about competition.Flight Systems Cablevision asked the council for a cable franchise that would bring Internet and other data services through expanded cable lines to the Inner Harbor. But the legislation lacked support from the majority of council members, so Council President Lawrence A. Bell III postponed action on the bill.

Television viewers in parts of Baltimore were shut out for most of the crucial fourth game of last night's World Series between the New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves because of technical problems at cable-provider TCI Communications.For eight innings, customers in postal ZIP codes 21201, 21202 and 21223 in downtown and Southwest Baltimore were without cable service. A little after 11 p.m. -- with the Yankees ahead by three runs after a Jim Leyritz home run in the bottom of the eighth inning -- service was finally restored.