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BROADCAST/CABLE by Marauder

BROADCAST/CABLE

HBO has acquired the rights to a documentary on President-elect Barack Obama, which it plans to premiere sometime next year. The film comes from actor Edward Norton’s production company, which has followed the Obama team for more than two years and was granted extensive access to the Illinois senator, along with his top staff, family and friends. The Hollywood Reporter (11/6)

Fans of SCI FI Channel’s Battlestar Galactica series can buy a piece of the show as NBC Universal Television, DVD, Music and Consumer Products Group is working with Propworx to provide thousands of unique props, set pieces, costumes and more for a three-day auction event. The auction begins with a preview on January 16 and convenes January 17-18 at the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, CA. (Cynopsis 11/7)

Walt Disney Co.’s cable networks, led by ESPN, posted operating income of $1.2 billion during the company’s fiscal fourth quarter, $116 million higher than the same period a year earlier. The entertainment behemoth said overall revenue rose 6%, to $9.4 billion, but earnings were off 13%, to $760 million. Los Angeles Times (11/7) , The Wall Street Journal (11/7) , OneTRAK (11/6)

MTV Networks has said it will begin working with Web-widget developer Clearspring Technologies to export the highly portable micro Web sites related to its assets, which can carry advertising as well as content, to blogs and social-networking sites. Clearspring already works with media companies such as Time Warner, NBC Universal and Fox Broadcasting. Mediaweek (11/6)

Bethpage, N.Y.-based Cablevision added 58,000 digital-phone subscribers, 31,600 broadband customers and 25,000 digital-video homes during the third quarter, all of which helped the company report earnings of $27.1 million on revenue of $1.74 billion, a 15% increase. With the solid financial news, Cablevision Chief Executive Officer James Dolan said the company was shelving plans to spin off certain assets, such as its Rainbow Media cable networks. The Wall Street Journal (11/7) , Reuters (11/6) , Light Reading (11/6)

Charter Communications added 98,800 telephony customers in the third quarter, a 60% increase compared with the same period a year earlier. The St. Louis company also reported a 7.3% increase in overall revenue during the period, to $1.64 billion, and trimmed its net loss to $322 million. American City Business Journals/St. Louis (11/6)

The Comcast Media Center, which launched its MPEG-2 video-on-demand platform in 2003, said the offering now was available to more than 30 million VOD-ready homes. The Comcast unit said the platform now had about 9,000 titles from more than 275 content providers. CED Magazine (11/2008)

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