News Corp.'s launch of a Sunday edition of The Sun this weeked will make it the first seven-day version  of major U.K. newspapers, though the revenue it is expected to bring will be "insignificant," analysts told the Financial Times. Still, the new edition should quell the concern of Sun staffers who, facing the arrests of colleagues and watching the company close The News Of The World, "were beginning to question whether News Corp was still committed to owning UK newspapers." Read the whole story...

Rabbit ears could start breeding again as part of the cord-cutting trend against cable TV, reports Christopher S. Stewart. "With an increased array of online-video programming now drawing viewers' attention, companies are starting to pitch consumers on complementing online video streamed from the Web with broadcast-TV signals as a way to save money on cable subscriptions," he writes. Consumers are responding to this pitch to return to over-the-airwaves broadcast TV -- but "there are a lot of moving parts," to keep straight, as one source notes in the piece. Stewart analyzes the challenges to such a move -- including the fact that "the big media companies that own the major broadcast networks are generally eager to preserve the current cable-centric model." Read the whole story...

In the wake of a "diss from the boss" -- NBCU CEO Steve Burke, who was caught characterizing "Smash" as "problematic" in a moment he thought was off-camera -- and decreasing ratings, NBC's most-hyped, great-white-hope of a show still "holds promise," writes Anthony Crupi. One favorable factor is its audience, which tends to skew younger and more female than that of its competition, . Crupi also gets some positive quotes from a TV buyer and a research guy. Meanwhile, the critics weigh in on the latest episode, which they call the weakest of those they've screened. In fact, one one even suggests that viewers ignore it -- or "at least DVR it and put it on in the background when you're not paying attention, or when you leave the house and your pets need a TV-sitter. Ratings won't drop, and you'll be spared an hour of melodrama that NBC should be ashamed to call a 'Smash,'" Maggie Furlong writes. Read the whole story...

Later this week Comcast will roll out Xfinity Streampix, a streaming on-demand service available free to high-end subscribers, and for a lower-than-Netflix rate of $4.99 to users with more basic packages. Adding to the catalog of its previous Web and iPad streaming service, XfinityTV, the new offering will include "older, back-catalog content" through deals with Disney, NBC Universal, Sony Pictures and Warner Bros., writes Ryan Lawler. "Importantly, Comcast has no plans to make Streampix available as a standalone service: To get it, you must subscribe to both Comcast’s TV and broadband services," writes  Lawler. "That means so-called cord-cutters, or Internet-only subscribers, need not apply." Read the whole story...