With the National Basketball Association poised to ink a new TV deal with AOL Time Warner's Turner Sports and Disney's ESPN/ABC, testy cable operators sound a lot like fans in the stands: The ticket costs too much.

Most Americans today surf the Internet on computers connected to a cable or a telephone line, but many of them will access the Internet wirelessly in airports, shopping malls and hotels by 2007, according to a study released on Thursday.

It's called a Time Machine, and the television industry only wishes it was as benign as the device that sent Michael J. Fox back to the future. Instead, the new box that can warp TV time is making many people grumble, while others see only dollar signs.

Fox was hoping to give its comedy, "Malcolm in the Middle," a big boost by starting it after football's premier event, but the show couldn't even make it onto Nielsen's 10 highest-rated shows for the week.

The cigarette industry's dominant player has not bought a single magazine ad in 2002. And Philip Morris says it's cutting back significantly for the rest of the year in what could be the last call for its paid media advertising.

As the issue of spam seems to creep higher on regulators' and the industry's priority lists, the Direct Marketing Association issues guidelines for its members.

A nail-biting finish to Super Bowl XXXVI gave advertisers their money's worth on Sunday night as the onfield action -- which has often taken a back seat to the commercials -- kept viewers watching right to the final seconds.

After offering up an all-you-can-eyeball information buffet to consumers, online publishers are now attempting to rein in the Internet free lunch.

If they were allowed access to only a single medium and had to choose which one that would be, a majority of children would rather have the Internet than TV, radio or magazines.

The Association of Local Television Stations' (ALTV) board of directors voted Thursday to pull the plug on the organization