A spokesman for FCC Chairman Kevin Martin confirmed that there is an agreement in principle to approve the XM Satellite Radio-Sirius Satellite Radio merger after Martin and swing vote Deborah Taylor Tate came to an agreement on terms essentially the same, with a few changes, as ones proposed by XM and Sirius in a letter to the FCC last month.

Wall Street abruptly ended an earnings-driven rally and closed sharply lower Thursday.

In its first conference call with analysts to discuss quarterly results since separating from former parent E.W. Scripps, Scripps Networks Interactive chairman and CEO Ken Lowe tried to squelch sale rumors while another executive vowed that affiliate fees for its popular Food Network channel would rise.

All but one network was down last night compared to the previous week, but one thing didn't change: The nightly winner. Fox maintained its big Wednesday night lead courtesy of a two-hour episode of So You Think You Can Dance that averaged a 2.9 adults 18-49 rating and 9 share, down slightly from last week's 3.0/10 but still well ahead of second-place CBS's 1.8/6.

You might expect syndicated newsmagazines to attract viewers of a similar age to the troubled twentysomethings they report on. Not so. All but one of the shows have median ages of 50 or over. And they're getting older. The shows have aged an average 3.2 years since the 2003-04 season.

The station group attributes its increased Web traffic to an emphasis on "local, relevant content" for both viewers and advertisers.

The net's newest affil is Ross Communications' WRCX.