N.Y. Attorney Gen. Eliot Spitzer praised the FCC for stepping up a payola probe, and a separate attempt by more than 100 independent music labels to get broadcasters to agree on standards to avoid further regulatory skirmishes and bolster credibility. An FCC official said it sent letters of inquiry to broadcasters as part of a months-long investigation (CD Aug 9 p8). Adelstein joined Spitzer in lauding the FCC’s move.

Cebridge, buying Cox and Charter assets, may sell some N.C. systems it’s getting from Cox, said a source. The firm has set aside former Cox systems with about 150,000 customers for sale, said the person. At the $2,800 average per- subscriber price S&P said Cebridge is paying for Cox systems overall, it could get $420 million in N.C. It agreed to buy Cox systems with about 940,000 subscribers (CD Nov 2 p8). “They basically had to buy the full package, and now they are stripping out the pieces they don’t want,” said Jefferies & Co. analyst Robert Routh: “When that sale takes place, how is that going to impact the value of other rural cable operators?” Cebridge is paying $3,200 for each of 240,000 cable customers in Charter systems it agreed to buy (CD March 1 p6), said S&P analyst Susan Madison in a report. That deal is expected to be completed in July, she wrote, declining to elaborate. A Cebridge spokesman declined to comment on the valuations or a possible asset sale.

An FCC report on cable pricing may be released later than expected because Chmn. Martin is trying to use it to push his agenda of encouraging cable competition from Bells to reduce customer bills (CD Feb 13 p2), industry sources said. There’s industry speculation the report has been delayed as Martin and colleagues debate whether and how the study will treat a la carte, franchising and other hot-button themes. FCC staff said it’s not delayed.

Challenges to FCC indecency rulings will get a friendly reception at U.S. Appeals Court, N.Y., where petitions for review by major networks (CD April 17 p1) are expected to be heard, said industry officials and lawyers not involved in the case. Sources said they expect a petition for review by ABC and Hearst-Argyle filed Fri. in U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., to be consolidated with a Thurs. filing by CBS and Fox in N.Y. Consolidation would boost chances of a favorable outcome, since that court is known for giving the govt. less leeway while broadly interpreting First Amendment rights, we're told.

ATLANTA - Cable executives see explosive growth in sales to businesses in a largely new area whose challenges included increased complexity, higher customer expectations and more spending. Cable officials told a Cable Telecom Assn. for Mktg. conference here cable firms are at a variety of stages in selling products, especially voice and broadband, to other companies. Based on their comments, Cox seems to have had the most experience, followed by Time Warner, Cablevision and Cable One.

ATLANTA -- U.S. cable operators will add customers at a fast clip this year, even as firms ranging from programmers to wireless providers benefit from an expanding online content market, industry executives said at NCTA’s National Show here. “We will actively take a bigger slice of the growing pie,” Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons told a Mon. panel. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts agreed: “While there has been a lot of sand kicked up… I bet there’s not a cable operator” that won’t show double-digit growth in coming quarters.

CableLabs unveiled standards for IP services -- a move analysts said could bolster the industry’s arguments that its video services shouldn’t be regulated differently from Bell products, including AT&T’s IPTV. The new specifications will let cable operators deliver IP products including VoIP, broadband, wireless services and multimedia transmissions, the cable organization said late Thurs. CableLabs issued 3 statements -- in advance of NCTA’s National Show -- saying products from companies including Cisco and TiVo are compatible with cable gear.

Documentation of “widespread” use of video news releases (VNRs) upset Comrs. Copps and Adelstein. Adelstein called for 77 TV stations alleged to have aired VNRs without disclosing their origin to apologize to viewers. Comr. Copps called for a crackdown on unattributed use of VNR material, a frequent Adelstein target (CD April 3 p4). In a study, the Center for Media & Democracy found the stations in question used 36 VNRs almost 100 times without revealing their sources. Diane Farsetta, who helped write the study, called it evidence of “the biggest plagiarism scandal in the history of American broadcasting.” The group and Free Press, another media activist organization, asked the FCC to investigate.

Full-time digital AM radio raises interference concerns, said FCC Comr. Copps, asked late Thurs. about the potential for permitting such broadcasts at night. The FCC failed to act on lifting a ban, confounding expectations (CD Sept 2 p1). “Experimenting” with such broadcasts is a good thing, said Copps, but “I am concerned about possibilities of interference -- I think we always have to be very, very mindful of that.” Broadcasters believe interference in an AM station’s market would be limited, and that the best way to understand the technology is to use or test it more widely, said a source. Copps again urged clarifying industry obligations to the public: “We also have to finally tee up the questions of the public interest obligations of the broadcasters in the digital age… Too many proceedings still lie fallow at the FCC.”

The FCC is holding settlement talks with broadcasters on payola as it continues to investigate (CD Aug 9 p8), a source said. Free Press attacked a rumored $3 million fine against Clear Channel as “peanuts.” The N.Y. Times reported that that firm, CBS Radio, Citadel and Entercom were trying to settle FCC probes, but the firms didn’t comment. “If Clear Channel is indeed guilty of payola abuses, the FCC should not let them off with a slap on the wrist,” said a Free Press statement. N.Y. Attorney Gen. Eliot Spitzer again lashed out at the FCC (CD March 9 p3). He said settlement talks could undermine his work, according to the Associated Press, though his office wouldn’t comment to us. “Eliot Spitzer’s reaction makes me fear that the Commission is planning to go easy on them,” Media Access Project Pres. Andrew Schwartzman said: “We've been hoping that the Commission would take payola seriously -- we would expect very substantial sanctions.” The FCC looks “forward to working with the New York Attorney General in the future,” a Commission spokesman said.