Business Week Online's Diane Murphy explains the durable popularity of TiVo--how consumers have warm feelings about the brand, how they say they cannot live without its beloved services, how it has changed the way people watch TV. Then she asks why, in the company's entire history, it has never earned a profit. Good question. To which no answer is given, except the proposition that TiVo, like so many companies before it, established a toehold in a new market and cleared a path for an army of well-heeled competitors. Today, a number of other outfits, including the big cable companies, offer …

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts says his company, which has been slow to enter the telephony market, is now ready to move aggressively into the field, offering customers a bundle that includes video, Net access, and calling services. In doing so, Comcast will be joining its big cable competitors, including Time Warner, in a trend consumers seem to find appealing. Packaging TV, Internet, and phone into a $90-$100-a-month bill is clearly the wave of the future. Comcast's bundle in Boston costs customers $90 a month, and it has been quite successful, Roberts told a group of industry analysts in Phoenix. Roberts …

Form & Style, a magazine aimed at curvaceous women, is set to launch in the U.S. at month's end, according to its publisher, Water Lilly Publishing. Editor Jeannette Porrazzo says, "It's time for a change in the way women preserve [sic] themselves and how the world preserves [sic] them. We at Form & Style would like to remind all the women out there that they are not fat, chubby, or obese... they are curvaceous!" The book, described by industry Web site Magazine World as a high-fashion title, will cater to women who wear sizes 10-24.

The Mississippi-based American Family Association, which espouses a conservative, Christian-values philosophy and often leverages its membership's presumed buying power against media outlets, says five TV stations refused to air the two-hour premiere episode of "The Book of Daniel," a new series on NBC. Four of the stations that joined in the boycott are in the South; the fifth is in Indiana. It's not known if those stations will air future episodes of the show. According to AFA, Daniel mocks Christianity and, in doing so, is offensive to its members. In particular, the group opposes some of the plotlines in the …

Although industry sources believe ABC had been off to a slower than normal start for Super Bowl ad sales--owing, perhaps, to the upcoming Olympics, which appeals to a similar advertiser base--the network said yesterday it has sold out virtually all of the game's first half. Super Bowl XL, to be played in Detroit February 5, will be heavy on automotive advertising (GM and Ford are both committed, while Chrysler has not yet made its final decision). Also strong will be the financial/insurance category. Burger King, Gillette, and ESPN Mobile have also purchased spots in the first half, according to ABC. …

According to a report in WWD.com's Memo Pad column, Time Inc. is not yet done with its current round of layoffs. Next up: Employees in London who work on Time magazine's international edition. About 20 employees there have been asked to accept voluntary buyouts. A company spokesperson says it's premature to know how many who refuse the package will be asked to leave. Just a month ago, says WWD.com, Time bureau chiefs in Moscow, Beijing, and Seoul were relieved of their responsibilities. All of this comes at a time when Time Inc. is feeling the pressure from parent company …

The details remain sketchy, but ABC News says it has struck a deal with BBC News to distribute about 40 video clips a day to users who access ABC via the Internet and mobile phones. BBC's clips, chosen by its news-division producers, will focus on a diversity of topics: United Kingdom and world news, as well as technology, entertainment, and business. The cost of the deal was not disclosed, nor did ABC News say if the video clips would be available free or at a monthly charge to subscribers of its premium off-Net services.

On the heels of earlier success selling episodes of current-era NBC and ABC television shows, Apple has announced it will soon offer a limited collection of classic "Saturday Night Live" skits for viewing on its video iPods and home computers equipped with iTunes software. The downloads will cost $1.99 each. Without offering specifics, an Apple spokesperson is quoted in The New York Times as saying the company had sold more than three million video downloads in the months of October and November, 2005.

Writer and industry observer Simon Dumenco, who pens the wickedly penetrating Media Guy column for Advertising Age, says this week that he has simply had it:  Don't make him any more promises about convergence, no matter how convenient the downloads, how inexpensive the new service, how entertaining the clips. He's on overload.  Until the industry understands simplification, Dumenco wants no more TV shows on iPods or news clips on mobile-phone screens--nor does he care to read about how magnificent these are.  Says he:  "I’d pay to make all the shiny, happy coverage media about 'innovative' new digital media delivery …

Larry Kramer, the CBS News vet who recently took command of CBS Digital Media, says in an interview with the San Jose Mercury News that the network's online assets, collectively, are essentially the equivalent of a "cable outlet." Noting that the audience coming to CBS.com and CBSNews.com is 15 years younger than the audience for the "CBS Evening News," Kramer says these demos suggest a need for a markedly different approach online. Excerpts:  "I think people definitely want judgment ... in the newsgathering....  I don't think anyone, honestly, will watch an hour-long show on a cell phone....  Yahoo! is …