I suppose that if my core business was stagnant, I'd look around for new sources of revenue, too. Now put yourself in the shoes of today's cable network owners and would you develop more channels of distribution thru the Internet or on mobile devices?

If you are the Discovery Network, you build a site that offers homework help for kids is part of a trend among cable networks.

Other diversifiers include E.W. Scripps Co., which owns cable channels such as the food network and HGTV. Scripps paid $366 million in March for uSwitch, a London-based company that allows European consumers to compare rates for electricity, credit cards and personal loans. Viacom Inc.'s Comedy Central started a record label, while BET and MTV Networks, also owned by Viacom, are hawking ring tones for mobile phones and song downloads for portable music players.

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