Word: tci
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...that the too-good-to-be-true future of our youth is suddenly arriving, however, not everyone is thrilled. A month ago, TCI, the ubiquitous cable-TV company, announced a deal with Carolco, the foundering little movie studio, to show big-deal movies on pay-per-view television before they are released to theaters -- a heretical idea that was instantly condemned by the show-business establishment, including Blockbuster Entertainment. But within days, < Blockbuster announced its own deal, with IBM, to develop a system of in-store CD manufacture under which CDs would be recorded as customers asked for them...
...Bell acquired two cable systems in the metro Washington area -- far outside its operating region. Similarly, Pacific Telesis took an option to buy a cable system in Chicago, although it will need special permission to send cable programming to the system by satellite. Cox Enterprises and Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), the world's largest cable-TV operator, joined forces last year to buy Teleport, a company that provides a telephone service not covered by the Cable Act: private branch exchanges to business customers...
...officials in the Clinton Administration were briefed on the Time Warner- U S West deal before it was announced, and most observers expect the government to ease restrictions against cross-ownership, not tighten them. "If the law were changed tomorrow," says TCI CEO John Malone,"I believe there would be a wholesale merger of the telephone and cable companies." Some think it has already begun. "The train is leaving the station," says Professor Neuman. "And everybody is scurrying to get on board before it departs...
...TCI's Denver setup reveals the weakness behind a lot of the information- superhighway hype: for all their posturing, neither the phone companies nor the cable-TV operators are quite ready to build a fully interactive and automated data highway that stretches from coast to coast. But thanks to a number of technical innovations, they are getting awfully close...
...play. It won't be long before someone begins using video phones for the multimedia equivalent of "dial-a-porn" telephone-sex lines. All these services can be delivered easily and efficiently by the information highway, and they can be backed up by a threat with real teeth. As TCI chairman John Malone puts it, "If you don't pay your bill, we'll turn off your television...