News Briefing for Wednesday, May 21, 2008 Following through on its announcement during its first-quarter earnings call late last month that it would spin off its cable unit in its entirety, Time Warner Inc. released a statement today saying it has determined the financial terms of the complete separation of Time Warner Cable from the parent company. As part of the separation, Time Warner Cable shareholders will get a $10.9 billion dividend; Time Warner Cable will pay $9.25 billion of that dividend to Time Warner Inc. Payment of this special dividend will saddle the newly independent Time Warner Cable with “significant debt,” the Wall Street Journal reports. Time Warner Inc. investors, meanwhile, hope that with the spin-off, a more focused company will impress Wall Street analysts. [Bloomberg | Reuters | Wall Street Journal]

Microsoft is definitively no longer interested in buying all of Yahoo, according to company CEO Steve Ballmer, Reuters reports. Other types of deals between the two companies may in the offing. [Reuters]

CBS increased its volume of free TV episodes on the Web. [Wall Street Journal]

Live TV commercials are making a comeback as a response to ad-skipping digital video recorder technology, the New York Times reports. [New York Times]

Money manager David Tice tells Bloomberg that unless the Federal Reserve and Wall Street break their addiction to easy credit, an economic depression is inevitable. [Bloomberg] Tuesday’s Top Stories

Visit Cable360 to respond to the current poll question: Which political party are cable operators, satellite distributors and telcos more likely to contribute to in the general election for the presidency?

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Grand Slam: Solomon Talks Tennis Channel’s 20th, DTC Plans

We chatted with Ken Solomon about where the Tennis Channel has been and where it’s going as a division of Sinclair.

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