On the record, cable execs can't say enough good things about the duopolists, but privately they grouse that the lack of competition has led to high prices and slow innovation.
As the ailing broadcast networks struggle to retain viewers and relevance, their cable brethren are again touting record viewership--and critical acclaim.
The previous record for basic cable viewing was held by sports network ESPN, which attracted an average of 16 million viewers to an American football game in 2006.
BBC: The made-for-TV movie stars Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens
Comcast (nasdaq: CMCSA - news - people ), the nation's largest cable company, added a record number of new high-speed users in its third quarter, leading to a 38% increase in broadband revenue from the same quarter a year ago.
Namely, the ability to record five shows at once (the spots contrast DirecTV with cable, which frustrates customers that are only allowed to record two shows at a time).
Pairing the n9 with four Niveus Digital Cable Receivers, an external, dual CableCARD tuner device, allows cable subscribers to simultaneously view and record eight standard definition or HD programs.
ENGADGET: Niveus says "never enough," adds support for eight CableCARDs / ten Extenders
Digital video recorders--the cable industry's answer to TiVo (nasdaq: TIVO - news - people )--allow users to record programs on a hard drive inside the cable box, as well as to pause or rewind live TV.
If you want to record The Sopranos, you have to set the cable box to HBO and tell the MX when to start and stop.
Desperate record labels might have been willing to sell themselves over to Apple, but TV executives and cable companies are strong enough that they have no need to cede power to Cupertino.
With 55% of BET's lineup coming from free music videos supplied by the record labels, the channel musters pretax profit margins of 40%, far higher than those of most cable channels.
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