Word: narrows
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...almost every local system - the "last mile" that goes from the local-service provider to the house - you run into the electronic equivalent of a bumpy country road. In the phone system, the bottleneck is that last bit of copper wiring, which seems far too narrow to admit the profusion of TV signals poised to flow through it. In cable TV, the roadblocks are the long cascades of amplifiers that run from the company's transmission headquarters to the home, boosting the signal every quarter-mile or so. These amplifiers are notoriously unreliable and generate so much electronic noise that...
...dazzling scenario, to be sure. Maybe a little scary. And definitely fraught with uncertainties. No one involved in the TV industry has a precise idea of what the new world will look like, or how the audience will react to it. When TV offers custom selections to suit every narrow interest, will mass- audience programming disappear? Or will the interactive offerings appeal mainly to an audience of techno-freaks, while the rest of us, at least for the foreseeable future, stick with our favorite channels? Will the traditional networks survive? What about commercials, local affiliates, video stores? Will we wind...
...PROSPECT: CABLE SYSTEMS could switch to an a la carte system of billing, in which subscribers build customized cable menus channel by channel, rather than paying a lump sum for an entire "tier." Such a system would probably be ; a boon for narrow-gauge networks (golf enthusiasts would presumably be willing to fork over a buck or two a month for a channel aimed at them). But many general-interest services, from the Weather Channel to USA Network, would surely see their circulation -- and thus their ad revenue -- drop if viewers were forced to choose and pay for them individually...
...defendants notwithstanding, FBI and police investigators felt they had apprehended the core members of the terrorist conspiracy. Wider conspiracy theories about sponsors and trainers in Iran or Iraq began to fade away. Said James Esposito, head of the FBI's Newark, New Jersey, office: "The circle is now very narrow...
...pseudo-liberal tone of the staff's position. The staff insists that it is a firm believer in affirmative action in theory. But affirmative action is not a theoretical doctrine; it is a complex public policy that tries to redress historical inequities. The staff, in recognizing only an artificially narrow interpretation of affirmative action, undermines the very policy it claims to support...