Summary: News: Comcast and Time Warner Cable lost 1.1 million video customers in 2013 Comcast, Time Warner Cable (TWC), and all other top cable companies lost pay-TV subscribers in 2013, but the companies were able to boost their total broadband Internet subscribers, according to research by Leichtman Research Group. Comcast and TWC, the two biggest cable companies in the US, combined for 1.1 million lost video subscribers. Comcast finished 2013 with 21.7 million multi-channel video subscribers, down 305,000 according to Leichtman's research. TWC lost "The top nine cable companies lost about 1,735,000 video subscribers in 2013—compared to a loss of about 1,410,000 subscribers in 2012," the research said. At the same time, Comcast added 1.3 million broadband Internet subscribers, to hit a total of 20.7 million. TWC gained 211,000 broadband subscribers, to bring its total to 11.6 million. Comcast's 1.3 million broadband subscriber gain accounted for "49 percent of the total net additions for the top providers in the year," the research said. A Comcast spokesperson noted that the video subscriber loss of 305,000 in 2013 was an improvement over the loss of 336,000 in 2012. Comcast turned things around in Q4 2013 with a net gain of 43,000 video subscribers, which came after 26 consecutive quarters of subscriber losses. http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/03/comcast-and-time-warner-cable-lost-1-1-million-video-customers-in-2013/ Star Wars Episode VII: Mystery Trio to Start Filming in May Lucasfilm has been releasing details about the upcoming (and still untitled) Star Wars Episode VII on the slowest of drip feeds — and the latest news is practically a tidal wave by comparison. The Disney-owned company announced Tuesday that Episode VII will feature a "trio of new young leads along with some very familiar faces." The movie will commence principal photography at Pinewood Studios outside London in May. Lucasfilm also confirmed that the new movie will be set "about 30 years" after Return of the Jedi — which was released 31 years ago this May. The "trio of new young leads" suggests that director J.J. Abrams has concluded his year-long hunt for talent to represent the next generation of heroes. It seems, then, that the movie is consciously trying to echo the Han, Luke and Leia triumvirate. Open casting for the rolestook place in November in both the U.S. and the UK. More recently, casting rumors have included almost every hot young actor in Hollywood — from Girls actor Adam Driver, said to play the villain, to Breaking Bad antagonist Jesse Plemons and 12 Years a Slave Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o. The "familiar faces" line in Lucasfilm's announcement hints at the movie's worst-kept secret — the return of Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford in their original roles. George Lucas himself pretty much let that out of the bag talking to Bloomberg Businessweek in early 2013. "We had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison — or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation," Lucas said of Episode VII preparation before the Disney sale. "Maybe I’m not supposed to say that. I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them." Then Lucas walked his statement back: "I won't say if the negotiations were successful or not." The question of how central a role Han, Luke and Leia would take in the film appears to be at the center of script disputes. Original Episode VII writer Michael Arndt was said to want a quick passing of the torch, and had written a screenplay that focused on the next generation of actors. But Abrams allegedly wanted the original trio to play a larger role in the movie, and brought veteran Star Wars writer Lawrence Kasdan on board to help him redraft the script along those lines. The "familiar faces" will also include R2-D2, whose presence in the movie was confirmed back in November. Pinewood, in Buckinghamshire,
