In a bar with a number of cable executives, he was, as usual, the only black person in the group.

A big issue for pay television, cable executives agree, is marketing.

Some cable executives said that the commercial data was not yet reliable.

The technology, cable executives say, will be ready by the middle of the decade.

Indeed, a somewhat startling role reversal seems to be taking place, several cable executives said.

One cable executive thinks the problem is much simpler.

Time Warner is expected to finish the upgrade in the spring, five years after it started, cable executives say.

The problem of escalating prices for sports rights really cuts both ways, a cable executive said.

Nervous cable executives called the new service the "Death Star."

None of the cable executives would disclose how much money they have invested in their international operations.