On a night when every major broadcast network declined to cover even one minute of the Democratic National Convention, millions of viewers clearly went looking for alternatives - and found them in the cable news networks and one other broadcast network, PBS.

First there was the battle of the network TV tycoons. Then came rival shows with migratory moms and dueling plans for prime-time prize fighters. Now the reality TV wars are moving into the nursery.

About 200 readers have complained to the Los Angeles Times for running a full-page ad on July 23 from Exodus, an antigay group that claims to "cure" its members of being gay or lesbian, as reported by Times columnist Steve Lopez on Wednesday.

Shares of Comcast Corp., the biggest cable operator, fell more than 4 percent Wednesday after the company posted its second-quarter earnings report. The company's stock fell $1.18, or 4.1 percent, to $27.56. Comcast said it had second quarter net income of $262 million, or 12 cents a share, on revenue of $5.07 billion.

Domestic diva Martha Stewart isn't letting a little thing like being convicted get in the way of her influencing the company she founded.

If Commercial Avoidance Destroys TV, Mass Marketing May Go With It.

The impending demise of the 30-second commercial has been a theme of numerous reports, articles, speeches and surveys ever since TiVo and other digital video recorders came to town and made it possible to easily fast-forward through the spots.

Newsday slashed expectations even further yesterday for its daily and Sunday circulation. In a letter to advertisers designed to make amends for its growing circulation scandal, Newsday's new publisher Tim Knight guaranteed a daily circulation of 525,000 and a Sunday circulation of 575,000.

Want to get to the Empire State Building on the subway? Why don't you ride the Verizon Local to Enron Place, switch to the Citigroup Shuttle and hop over to Halliburton Junction? The city that will sell anything that isn't nailed down -- and much that is -- has fixed an eye on its subway stations. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has an $800 million budget hole, and officials this week said they might sell naming rights to their choicest stations.

Television fans who like to choose when and where they watch their favorite programs are in for a rude awakening next year when new copy controls encoded in digital television streams will limit such freedoms.