Viacom

Any company that broadcasts such shows as Jackass and Beavis and Butt-Head can't get overly worried about controversy. But Viacom - the corporate giant behind CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon and numerous other networks and media properties - might be taking its biggest TV programming gamble yet with Logo, the long-awaited gay cable channel. Today, the media giant will roll out the network in roughly 10 million U.S. homes, making it the first widely available, advertiser-supported channel for the community known by the acronym LGBT - lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., the Hunt Valley-based broadcast company, is selling one of its top-performing television stations, in Sacramento, Calif., to Viacom Inc. for $285 million as part of a plan to leave markets where it can't own two stations. The company said yesterday that it will sell its CBS affiliate KOVR-TV, Channel 13. Sinclair added the station, in the country's 19th-largest television market, to its portfolio when it merged with River City Broadcasting in 1996. Since 2001, Sinclair has sold $443.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell has recommended that Viacom Inc.'s CBS unit be fined $550,000 for airing the Super Bowl halftime show at which Janet Jackson's breast was exposed, FCC officials said. The fine, if approved by the four other FCC commissioners, would be the highest ever imposed by regulators on television stations. The Democratic commissioners are likely to object that the penalty isn't high enough, and Powell may be prepared to compromise, said the two officials, who asked not to be named.

II'VE BEEN following the stock of Viacom Inc. lately. What is the outlook for this company? -- C.L., via the Internet Despite more plot twists in its executive ranks than an episode of its hit CBS television series CSI, this remains an impressive and diversified entertainment company that's loaded with cash. Its famous brand names include CBS, MTV, VH1, BET, UPN, Nickelodeon, Infinity Broadcasting and Paramount Pictures. It also owns 81 percent of video-rental retailer Blockbuster, which it hopes to spin off this year.

Mel Karmazin, the one-time radio ad salesman who rose to the top of CBS but struggled for power with Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone, resigned yesterday as president and chief operating officer after a frequently tense four years. To replace Karmazin and to calm Wall Street jitters, Viacom named MTV Networks chief executive Tom Freston and CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves as co-presidents and co-chief operating officers. Redstone, 81, said it is "extremely likely that one of them will be my successor" as CEO, possibly in three years.

Since Richard Clarke's March 21 appearance on 60 Minutes to discuss a new book in which he sharply criticizes the White House for its approach to fighting terrorism, some sympathetic to the administration say CBS failed to reveal its ties to his publisher for ideological reasons. A desire to promote corporate interests seems more plausible. In the past two years, the program has aired segments on six newly published books on topics ranging from the story of a reporter who made up articles to the insider insights of President Bush's first Treasury secretary.

Media giant Viacom Inc. and EchoStar Communications Corp., which operates the satellite DISH Network, have settled their dispute and returned CBS and MTV to viewers in major U.S. cities. But the rancor of the negotiations became obvious after EchoStar Chief Executive Officer Charles Ergen said that early in the talks, Viacom threatened to withhold the Super Bowl. "We got off on the wrong foot," Ergen said in a conference call with analysts and media. "There were some strong-arm tactics that were used."

In the latest case of brinkmanship between the providers and deliverers of television, EchoStar Communications Corp. blocked Viacom Inc. channels, including the CBS-TV affiliate in Baltimore, from its subscribers in a dispute over programming costs yesterday. EchoStar yanked MTV, BET and Nickelodeon from subscribers nationwide. It also blocked CBS affiliates on its satellite network yesterday in 16 cities, prompting thousands of angry calls from subscribers to both media giants. The skirmish - which affects as many as 9 million customers, including 1.6 million who watch CBS programming in the affected cities - could jeopardize their ability to watch this month's NCAA men's college basketball tournament.

Talk of social responsibility and TV's quest for the right demographics may not grab the public consciousness like a suddenly R-rated Janet Jackson-Justin Timberlake Super Bowl duet. But as the dust settles on CBS' Sunday halftime show fiasco, media and pop culture experts say, these very topics, not the breast-baring, are what we as a society should be discussing. "Underlying the whole mythic rape scenario that was played out for millions to see is a really base economic imperative on the part of CBS and Viacom that I don't think should be ignored," said Dr. Shirley Peroutka, who teaches popular culture at Goucher College.

The Federal Communications Commission approved yesterday the most sweeping move toward media concentration ever. And Chicago-based Tribune Co., owner of The Baltimore Sun Co. and a leader in an industrywide crush of pressure for the change, now needs a strategy to match its ambitions. People have argued until they are red, white and blue in the face over whether the changes are good or bad for democracy. The arguing is done. Newspapers have been cleared to own television stations. One outfit can own broadcast stations reaching 45 percent of the country, not yesterday's 35 percent cap. A single owner can hold three television stations in big markets and two in smaller ones.