Connecticut's attorney general said Friday that he has subpoenaed the nation's three largest debt-rating agencies as part of an investigation into possible anticompetitive practices.
Standard & Poor's said Wednesday it cut the ratings on 1,713 classes of securities, worth some $23.35 billion, backed by mortgages issued in the first six months of this year.
Sometimes a radical change to the formula still delivers the same result. That's what happened Tuesday when Nielsen Media Research released highly anticipated commercial ratings for the first week of the fall prime-time TV season.
Radio advertisers who for years complained about the low-tech way of tracking listeners are getting what they asked for and more: Electronic ratings are delivering more accurate counts, but are also upending basic assumptions about the industry.
Nearly 1.5 million people tuned in to a televised debate among Democratic presidential candidates Wednesday night in New Hampshire.
PBS estimates 18.7 million viewers saw Sunday's airings of "The War," the first chapter of Ken Burns' seven-part documentary about World War II.
Smoking will be a bigger factor in determining film ratings, the Motion Picture Association of America said Thursday, but critics said the move does not go far enough to discourage teens from taking up the habit.
"Lost" crashed in the ratings this week, hitting an all-time low for a new episode. ABC's drama about plane crash survivors stranded on a mysterious island drew an estimated 12.8 million viewers Wednesday, according to preliminary figures from Nielsen Media Research. That's well off the peak of more than 20 million for the drama that became an instant sensation when it debuted in September 2004.
"American Idol" is back and bigger than ever. The Fox TV talent contest's season premiere was the most-watched in its six-year history, drawing an estimated 37.3 million viewers Tuesday, according to preliminary ratings from Nielsen Media Research.
With the holiday shopping season underway, an industry group for video games is trying to encourage parents to use its voluntary ratings to protect children from graphic images of sex and violence.
ESPN's Monday night NFL game was watched by more viewers than any show in cable TV history except a 1993 debate between Al Gore and Ross Perot.
ESPN's first regular-season Monday night NFL game under the new contract drew the cable network's biggest audience ever.
North Carolina's win over then-No. 1 Duke on Saturday was watched by an average of 3.78 million households — the largest audience for a men's college basketball game in ESPN's history.
An estimated 38.8 million people watched the Academy Awards on ABC, down 8 percent from last year and the second-worst showing in nearly two decades, according to Nielsen Media Research.
"American Idol" did a number again on the Olympics in terms of viewers Thursday, but the big winner from one of television's most competitive nights in memory may be the viewers themselves.
Some humbling news for the pros: By a wide margin, TV viewers prefer the amateurs.
The Pittsburgh Steelers' victory over the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl was watched in an average of 45.85 million homes, the second-highest total in television history behind the final episode of 'M-A-S-H' in 1983.