UPI NewsTrack Business

Major carriers boost air ticket prices

SAN FRANCISCO, May 24 (UPI) -- U.S. air travelers Saturday were paying up to $60 more for roundtrip domestic flights on United, Delta and American airlines thanks to rising fuel costs.

The skyrocketing cost of oil has forced the three major carriers to institute the price hikes, which work out to $60 for trips of more than 1,500 miles and $10 for journeys of less than 800 miles, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday.

With crude oil prices reaching $130 per barrel even the newest round of ticket price hikes isn't enough to offset the financial hit the airlines are taking on fuel costs, company officials said.

"Today's revenue sources for airlines, both in fares and fees, are still not covering the cost of providing the product, and it is all driven by insane fuel prices," Tim Smith, a spokesman for American Airlines told the Chronicle.

United Airlines plans to spend $2 billion more on fuel this year than it did in 2007.

Report: Cable TV prices up 77 percent

NEW YORK, May 24 (UPI) -- The cable television industry is defending itself against a report showing prices consumers pay for cable TV have risen 77 percent since 1996.

That price spike is double the rate of inflation and came as the same U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed that cable viewers watch only 13 percent of average 118 channels of programming available to them, the New York Times reported.

The report also noted cable customers pay an average of $60 per month for the programming and that predicted competition from forms of new media, such as the Internet, music players and cell phones, has largely failed to materialize because of agreements between cable companies and Hollywood entertainment producers to sell channels only in bundles.

Cable industry leaders say they must distribute the programming that way because of demands for high licensing fee from the Hollywood studios.

"If each channel depended on individual consumers electing to pay individually for it, this would slash potential viewership and seriously hurt the ability of most channels to attract their current level of advertising dollars," Jenni Moyer, a spokeswoman for Comcast, told the Times. "Lost ad revenue would have to be replaced by higher license fees."

Bharti Airtel says merger talks are off

MUMBAI, May 24 (UPI) -- Indian telecommunications company Bharti Airtel said its merger with MTN Group of South Africa has run into an unexpected roadblock and the talks are off.

Bharti issued a statement saying that after an agreement in principle was reached between the two companies on May 16, MTN Group's board of directors met and came up with new terms that would substantially change the agreement's original terms, in which the Indian company would have a controlling interest.

"MTN has now presented a completely different structure from what was agreed," Bharti Airtel said in release Saturday. "This new structure envisages Bharti Airtel becoming a subsidiary of MTN and exchange of majority shares of Bharti Airtel held by the Bharti family and Singtel in exchange for a controlling stake in MTN."

The company said it believes the new proposal is merely a "convoluted way of getting an indirect control of the combined entity" and would frustrate Bharti's goal of "transforming itself from a homegrown Indian company to a true Indian multinational telecom giant, symbolizing the pride of India."

MTN Group did not issue a comment, the New York Times reported.

More than 100 accept Post buyouts

WASHINGTON, May 24 (UPI) -- Some familiar names were among the more than 100 Washington Post reporters and editors heading out the door Saturday after accepting buyouts from the paper.

The early retirements, or buyouts, came as the newspaper looked to reduce its newsroom costs by 10 percent, the Post reported Saturday. Political columnist David Broder took a buyout but his column will continue to appear on a contractual basis, the report said, adding that other well-known reporters leaving the newsroom include military affairs reporter Thomas Ricks and feature writers Linton Weeks and Peter Carlson.

Ricks, Broder and critic Stephen Hunter, also leaving, had won Pulitzer Prices with the Washington Post.

Key editors departing, the Post said, include Style section editor Deborah Heard, news art leader Michael Keegan, business editors Maralee Schwartz and Tony Reid, as well as the paper's home, travel and book section editors. Also leaving is longtime night editor and legendary headline writer Rose Jacobius.