ESPN2’s Cold Pizza is going to sit out on the coffee table for another few weeks. The network’s launch of its new morning show, originally scheduled for Oct. 1, has been pushed back to Oct. 20, said Jim Cohen, ESPN VP for programming and production and Pizza‘s executive producer. The delay will have a negligible effect on ESPN2’s plans to celebrate its tenth anniversary; in that span the net has gone from a Letterman punch line (suggested slogan: “There might be nudity”) to the 16th largest cabler overall. Adoption of DSL is outstripping worldwide demand for cable modem service, according to research from Point Topic. Of the 77 million broadband lines worldwide, 60% are DSL, the study concluded. However, North America still has substantially more cable modems in use than DSL lines, and the sector continues to grow. Cable broadband in the U.S. and Canada has expanded at a rate of 18.2%, as compared to 15.5% for DSL. Charter Communications this week is buying back almost $2 billion in convertible notes and debt to reduce the amount of maturities due in the next few years. The cable operator, along with its indirect subsidiary CCH II, will buy back $609 million in convertible senior notes and $1.3 billion in senior notes and senior discount notes issued by Charter Communication Holdings to a small number of institutional investors in private negotiations. The exchanges are expected to close this week. “These exchanges are an important component in our continuing efforts to improve the company’s capital structure,” CEO and president Carl Vogel said in a statement. Shares of Charter rose 22 cents, or 4.7 percent, to close Friday at $4.93. A committee to save the Women’s United Soccer Association league meets today, following interest from financial institutions, apparel and shoe companies and furniture retailers and other potential WUSA sponsors after last week’s pullout by its MSO founders…. The History Channel and the U.S. Department of Education are announcing today a partnership on national civic holiday programming and educational tools…. Lisa Kudrow is co-executive producing the movie Picking Up and Dropping Off for ABC Family; the romantic comedy premieres in December…. Yellowstone County officials are trying to lure Bresnan Communications with a just-approved $1.62 million package to locate its proposed networks operations center in Billings, Mont…. Time Warner Cable‘s North Carolina systems are offering the Sept. 27 N.C. State vs. UNC game, which won’t be televised, on pay-per-view as a service to college football fans in the region…. Viacom, David Gest and Liza Minnelli dropped their respective lawsuits concerning the cancellation of VH1‘s proposed reality show on the now-split couple’s home life.

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Let’s Not Make a Deal

S&P ’s TMT deal tracker reports that media and telecom M&A plunged to a 13-month low in February, with North American media and telecom companies striking 96 transactions worth nearly $160 million in

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