Viacom ( VIA - news - people ) in December 2005, when Chief Sumner Redstone (still its controlling shareholder) yanked the broadcast division from its cable siblings MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central, among others, as well as movie studio Paramount Pictures.

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Other smart touches include the circumaural ear cups that insulate the listener from noisy urban environments, and an optional cable with a smart remote and microphone for taking and receiving calls and controlling the music on Apple devices.

ENGADGET: Sennheiser's Momentum headphones are back in black at CES

So if cable wins the fight, there will, in effect, be a single gatekeeper controlling most people's access to the Internet.

ECONOMIST: Beware the gatekeeper | The

Scientific-Atlanta and Motorola locked up the box market by controlling--in the name of antipiracy--the encoding software that scrambles a video signal at the cable company's hub and descrambles it at the home.

FORBES: Sony busts up the powerful cable-box duopoly.