BRIEFS

CABLEWORLD STAFF Comcast launched its first national Hispanic ad campaign, created in partnership with Los Angeles-based agency Castells & Asociados. The campaign, which promotes Comcast’s new CableLatino programming packages, targets Hispanic consumers 18-to-49-years-old. The TV and radio spots, plus related direct mail and marketing collateral, are slated for San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Sacramento and Fresno, Calif., and Albuquerque, N.M., with a later run in Miami. The Senate Commerce Committee is holding a hearing tomorrow (May 13) on media ownership regulations, slated to be voted on at the FCC on June 2; Viacom president Mel Karmazin, Bear Stearns analyst Victor Miller and Consumers Union director Gene Kimmelman are among the confirmed speakers. Cable in the Classroom this week hosts its first Cable Industry Education Summit. The May 13 meeting in Washington, D.C., will update a cross-section of public affairs, marketing and business development execs from MSOs on education trends. Insight Communications is assuming ad sales duties for three major Mediacom head-ends covering 80,000 cable subscribers in Illinois. Insight now serves the “vast majority” of the state’s DMAs, including Peoria, Champaign/Springfield and Quincy. A scaled-down version of TiVo, TiVo Basic, was announced last week. The service offers DVR functionality but no TiVo search or Season Pass features, and will be integrated into consumer electronics devices. Toshiba is releasing the first imbedded device, a TiVo Basic DVD player, in August; it can be upgraded to full TiVo service for $12.95 a month or $299 for the lifetime of the device. Sony has also licensed TiVo technology for a product to be released by year-end. WideOpenWest promoted Colleen Abdoulah to president and CEO. Mark Haverkate left the company’s top position last month to run Champion Broadband, a spin-off of the overbuilder’s Denver system.