Liberty Media today reported  record first quarter results led by an 11 percent revenue increase at its Entertainment Group and a 10 percent jump by its Interactive Group. Revenues at Starz Entertainment increased three percent to $273 million, primarily due to rate increases, the company said, while Liberty-owned QVC reported a five percent boost in revenue in the first quarter to reach $1.77 billion. The newly reclassified Liberty Capital Group -- which includes the company's interests in Time Warner, Sprint Nextel and the Atlanta Braves baseball club, among others -- reported a $19 million increase in revenue.

• Cablevision announced plans to invest $350 million to build a new wireless broadband network to serve the New York area. The Wi-fi service, which company execs said should be completed by 2010, will be available free of charge to existing Cablevision customers and will offer network speeds up to 1.5 Mbps.
• Viacom was upgraded from "market perform" to "outperform" by BMO Capital Markets.
• Despite its renewed partnership with Sprint, Clearwire was downgraded by Citigroup from "hold" to "sell." Sprint Nextel, for its part, was downgraded from "overweight" to "equal weight" by Soleil.
• DISH Network expanded its local high-def coverage to include channels in Hartford and New Haven, Conn. and Portland, Maine.
• Intel paid $26 million in Sweden's wireless auction for spectrum that it said it intends to use for a new nationwide WiMax network in the Nordic country.
• Best Buy announced plans to extend into Europe as part of a new 50-50 partnership agreement with U.K.-based retailer Carphone Warehouse.

From high-definition, to the internet to mobile video, this has been a busy year for programmers. So busy, in fact, that it took DIRECTV adding 275,000 net new customers in the fourth quarter of 2007 before the industry noticed what was going on.

"When a 'turd bird' catches an updraft, morphs into an eagle and sets its competition to squawking, you gotta pay attention," wrote Evie Haskell in this week's edition of The BRIDGE Annual Report. "Cable companies, telcos and even, we suspect, he of the 'turd bird' appellation (former DIRECTV boss Rupert Murdoch) caught an eye-opening splatter of just how fast things can change in today’s multiplatform mix: DIRECTV had gone from has-been to hero faster than you can say 'It’s John Malone’s baby now.'"

How did the DBS No. 1 do it?

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