This week's cable news roundup leads off with word that Charlie Ergen's Dish Network LLC (Nasdaq: DISH) has joined the bidding for troubled Blockbuster Inc.
Insight Communications Co. Inc. hasn't launched an iPad app yet, but it's keeping tabs on the spat between Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) and some major programmers. In this blog post, Insight CEO Michael Willner unsurprisingly sides with TWC's positioning, wondering if using the iPad as a viewing device is any different from an additional TV outlet. "It seems that the programming networks simply are trying to define another revenue opportunity to get consumers to pay for rights they already appear to have," he wrote. (See Fox to TW Cable: Stop Streaming Our Stuff .)
Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) said it'll launch 10 independent networks in the next eight years, beginning in July with American Latino, which will be programmed in English. The MSO, which promised to expand independent programming to win approval for merger with NBCUniversal LLC , said it'll also launch two networks owned by African Americans by the end of January 2013. (See Comcast, NBCU Seal the Deal .)