LATEST ADDITIONS

The weather forecast for the cable industry is cloudy, to judge by attendance at this year's Western Cable Show. Typically one of the biggest annual events for the cable television industry, this year's convention was attended by only 17,056 people, approximately half the number that attended the year before. Attendance disappointed the <A HREF="http://www.ccta.org">California Cable Telecommunications Association</A>, which hosted the event in Anaheim the last week of November.

It's the week before Christmas. You've taken a good look at your extended family, gotten all of the naughty and nice stuff out of the way, and finally arrived at a list of who's deserving of a little holiday cheer. But you're drawing a big blank when it comes to little Susie, big brother Ned, and jolly Uncle Phil.

Cable companies may be the accidental beneficiaries of the recently announced EchoStar-DirecTV deal, in which smaller direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service <A HREF="http://www.echostar.com">EchoStar</A> won approval from General Motors to buy its subsidiary Hughes Electronics Corporation, operator of <A HREF="http://www.directv.com">DirecTV</A>.

One fact of life is that when people stay home, they tend to watch more TV. That generally gloomy reality hasn't put a dent in TiVo, Inc.'s bottom line. In fact, it's helped immensely. The San Jose, CA&ndash;based maker of personal video recorders (PVRs) has reported a 29% jump in revenue for its fiscal third quarter, ended October 31.