From a digital Scrabble game that checks the words to a hovering UFO to miniature radio-control cars, toy makers are amping up the tech quotient but not prices.
Zhu Zhu Pets, the furry mechanical hamsters that zoom around, were the runaway hit of the holiday season. One key to their success: a price tag under $10.
The American International Toy Fair begins Sunday. This is the annual event where toy makers show off new offerings that will make their way into next years stockings. Previews from toymakers and interviews with analysts make clear that the focus is on innovation and price. Few - - - - >

The business model is unraveling at ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox and the local stations that carry the networks programming. Cable TV and the Web have fractured the audience for free TV and siphoned its ad dollars. The recession has squeezed advertising further, forcing broadcasters to accelerate their push for new revenue to pay for programming.
That will play out in living rooms across the country. The changes could mean higher cable or satellite TV bills, as the networks and local stations squeeze more fees from pay-TV providers such as Comcast and DirecTV for the right to show broadcast TV channels - - - - >

Cable TV operator Comcast Corp. is expected to buy a controlling stake in NBC Universal, perhaps as early as next week, bringing the network of Johnny Carson, Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Hope, Milton Berle and Tom Brokaw under the corporate control of the company that owns the Golf Channel and E! Entertainment Television.
“This is highly symbolic,” said Tim Brooks, who had worked at NBC for 20 years and now writes books on television history.
Starting Sunday, Vivendi SA has an option to sell its 20 percent stake in NBC Universal. Majority owner General Electric Co. is expected to buy it and then - - - - >

But in six separate opinions that used none of the offending words over 69 pages, the justices suggested they could yet find the Federal Communications Commissions “fleeting expletives” policy unconstitutional. The court said a federal appeals court should weigh whether it violates First Amendment guarantees of free speech.
The precipitating events were live broadcasts of awards shows in which Bono, Cher and Nicole Richie - Justice Anton Scalia referred to the latter two as “foul-mouthed glitteratae from Hollywood” - let slip or perhaps purposely said variations of what Scalia called “the F- and S-words.”
By a 5-4 vote, the court threw out - - - - >

If so, the U.S. might be in good shape when it turns off the last analog TV broadcasts in June, because the lead-up to the smaller-scale turnoff Tuesday has been confusing to both viewers and TV stations.
For years, the government and industry has said Feb. 17 would be the day when analog TV signals go away, and viewers who lack cable or satellite would have to tune in to digital signals. But when funding ran out for coupons to subsidize TV converter boxes, Congress became concerned that viewers wouldnt be ready, and hurriedly passed a bill to delay the deadline - - - - >

Congress last week gave TV stations until June 12 to shut down analog broadcasts, hoping to give viewers more time to prepare. Money has run out for the federal fund that subsidizes converter boxes, and theres a wait list for the coupons.
The delay sent TV stations scrambling to figure out when to shut down analog Most had planned for years to do it on Feb. 17, and many had scheduled engineering work.
The Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday that 491 of the 1,796 full-power TV stations in the country had registered their intention to keep the Feb. 17 date. The FCC - - - - >

“We are currently in the process of finalizing with ESPN a television rights agreement for the BCS games that will be played January 2011 through January 2014,” BCS coordinator John Swofford said. “ESPN has been a great supporter of college football and we are excited to be completing a future deal that will give them an even larger presence in the postseason.”
Fox has broadcast the games since 2007, but a spokesman for the network said it was not going to match ESPNs offer. Fox is owned by News Corp., and ABC is owned by Walt Disney Co.
“Even with todays vast - - - - >