The ABC television network dipped a toe into the hyped world of video-on-demand by offering some of its news programs in a subscription service from No. 9 U.S. cable company Insight Communications, the companies said.

Top U.S. cable television companies on Tuesday pledged they would not charge cable customers to have some channels blocked so they can avoid programming they find offensive.

How long can the Comcast Corporation keep its offer for the Walt Disney Company on the table? Several people involved in the transaction said that Comcast, the giant cable operator, was likely to leave its bid, which was made in February, open for three to six months, but not longer. Even with a six-month horizon, though, there are costs to Comcast in leaving its offer on the table, media executives say.

Sumner Redstone says he has no patience for patience, but when it comes to China, the rosy-cheeked chief of U.S. media giant Viacom may be ignoring his own advice. A full year after Viacom was granted permission to beam its MTV 24-hour music channel to a sliver of southern China, Redstone said Viacom would set up a joint venture to produce television shows in Shanghai.

Arriving now, the next generation won't need a set-top box for advanced cable features. You'll just slide a card key for service.

Marketers will be judges for the first time at this year's Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. Three marketers -- from Procter & Gamble Co., Hewlett-Packard and Ikea -- are joining the Media Lions jury.

The early days of satellite radio could hardly have been less auspicious. Once the service got up and running, subscribers slowly trickled in. Wall Street turned up its nose at XM and its late-to-the-party competitor Sirius Satellite Radio, and both began drowning in heaps of debt. Now, two and a half years later, the bust has turned to boom. Skeptical subscribers and investors have come around.

What is it about electrical engineers? These guys just can't get along. A group of them brings a wonderful new technology to market, and another equally brilliant band creates another way of doing the same thing. It's the customers who end up sorting things out by voting with their dollars. And heaven help the consumer who backs the loser.

Along with a growing number of major corporations, Murdoch's News Corp. empire is quietly employing the 4,000-year-old Eastern practice as a way to improve its business success. Other corporate believers reportedly include Coca-Cola Co., which called on a feng shui expert at the suggestion of one of its Asian bottlers, as well as Procter & Gamble, Hewlett-Packard and Ford Motor Co.

After detailing the "sweeping and substantial" misdeeds of one of its star reporters, USA Today is examining whether the reporter's actions were an aberration or stemmed from larger problems within the newspaper's culture.