BRIEFS

Cable World, March 10, 2003

SCHLEYER AND COOPER FINALLY SETTLE IN

Now they can really get to work. A New York bankruptcy court judge OK'd Adelphia's motion to hire Bill Schleyer and Ron Cooper as CEO and COO, respectively, rejecting most of the objections from major shareholders. A $7.6 million severance provision was eliminated from Schleyer's contract. One of the first orders of business will be getting a senior management team in place. The court also approved a request to move company headquarters to Denver from Coudersport, Pa.; about 150 current and new staffers will be based there. Schleyer and Cooper are seeking employees' input and views on key issues via an internal survey.

HALL OF FAME'S CLASS OF 2003

The Cable Center announced the inductees for the 2003 Cable Television Hall of Fame: Julian Brodsky of Comcast Corp.; Gustave Hauser of Hauser Communications; John Hendricks, president and CEO of Discovery Communications Inc.; Robert Johnson, founder of BET; Walter Kaitz, founder of California Cable Television Association; John Sie, founder, president and CEO of Starz Encore Group; and Robert Tarlton, founder of one of the first cable systems in the United States. The group will be inducted on Oct. 14.

CULTURE SWITCH ON NOGGIN'S THE N

Noggin's nighttime tween block, the N, is airing a timely episode of A Walk in Your Shoes on Tuesday at 9 p.m. The special features two teenage boys - one from Greensboro, N.C., and the other from Amman, Jordan - who switched lives for a few days in January to experience cultural differences and ethnic tensions between Arabs and Americans. Noggin's daytime block launches three series on April 7: Oobi, Tweenies and Miffy and Friends.

BUSTED IN SO. CAL.

Charter Communications and the Glendale Police Department in Southern California seized 3,309 illegal set-top boxes and rejiggered VCRs in a cable descrambler sting operation last week. Two brothers - Arthur Karanfilian and Vardkis Karanfilian - were arrested for selling their boxes on the Internet via a company called Vortexnology and will be prosecuted by the U.S. Secret Service, says Andrew Alarcon, audit security manager for Charter's Glendale-Burbank-Whittier system. "Cable theft hurts our customers on many levels, and we are committed to reducing cable theft," Alarcon says of Charter's ongoing security measures.

XXXX BRAVO

NBC will be running Olympics coverage on recently acquired Bravo as part of its 24-hour coverage of the 2004 games from Athens. As in past years, coverage will also appear on MSNBC, CNBC and Telemundo. Bravo will have Olympics programming from 9 a.m. till noon and 4 p.m. till 8 p.m. A spokesperson said NBC does not plan to ask operators for an increase in Bravo's license fee to cover the Olympics programming, but said there will be local ad sales opportunities for affiliates.