Wielding a black Magic Marker, he charted the big bang of channel expansion and audience fragmentation that has propelled television history so far, from the age of the three networks, each with a mass audience, to the hundreds of cable channels, each serving a niche audience twenty-four-hour news, food, sports, weather, music and on to the dawning age of Internet video, bringing channels by the tens of thousands.

NEWYORKER: Streaming Dreams

And by Aug. 21 the Internet access firms serving the 20 sick PCs, including those of Time Warner Cable and Sprint, shut off their Internet links.

FORBES: Criminal Outbreak

As of June 30, 2010, Videotron was serving 1, 781, 500 cable television customers, including 1, 142, 000 subscribers to its digital service.

ENGADGET: Videotron's 120Mbps broadband is Canada's fastest, now available in Quebec City

Evan Shapiro, who joined Participant in May after serving as president of IFC and the Sundance Channel, will head up the new cable TV network, Berk said.

FORBES: Billionaire Jeff Skoll's Participant Media Details Plans To Launch Its Own Cable Channel

Cable is also a relatively new entrant in the telephony business serving about 24m of the roughly 100m American households.

FORBES: A Problem in Search of a Problem