"The people who watch it today, they don't refer to MTV as music television. They don't have the same emotional connection that, say, the people who are writing about [the logo change] do," MTV's head of marketing Tina Exarhos said. Indeed, The Wrap called it "a minor change with major symbolism," while The Hollywood Reporter wrote having "music television" in the old logo was "a constant reminder that MTV was branding itself one way, programming itself another."

Here's the thing. The glasses. You must have them. And they are fragile. And they cost a lot. Like, more than the TV itself, if you've got a big family. Gartner analyst Van Baker explained on a conference call:

"If you are talking about a family of four, that's $400-$800 you are going to be spending on the micro-shutter glasses. Not to mention that the glasses can be lost and can be broken."

Cablevision's agreement to carry the Scripps channels expired at midnight Thursday, and Scripps warned subscribers Thursday that its Food Network and HGTV channels may be "dropped from your TV lineup," as another contentious negotiation over programming fees spilled into public view.

Scripps said in a statement that Cablevision is not properly compensating it for the networks, and it's launching a publicity campaign aimed at getting consumers to complain to Cablevision for not carrying them. "The distribution rates Cablevision pays for Food and HGTV are among the lowest in the industry," said Scripps Chief Executive Kenneth Lowe.

"We are sorry that Scripps' current financial difficulties are making it impossible for them to continue our relationship on terms that are reasonable for Cablevision and our customers," said Cablevision in a statement. "We wish Scripps well and have no expectation of carrying their programming again, given the dramatic changes in their approach to working with distributors to reach television viewers." Cablevision provides TV service to approximately 3.1 million people largely in the New York area.

At 22, Zac Efron is meticulous when it comes to his clothes. Consider his raw denim jeans by G-Star, which he wore continuously over eight weeks to weather the stiff dungarees for the too-cool-for-school look, complete with dusty yellow whiskers on the front pockets. "They're my favorite jeans," the actor said Wednesday at the dinner G-Star threw for him at XIV to celebrate his turn as cover boy of Nylon Guys' November issue. "I wore them all throughout High School Musical 3. I even wore them hiking. You have to wear them everywhere to get them right."

Joined by High School Musical co-star Ashley Tisdale, actress Brittany Snow, local "It" girl Cory Kennedy and DJ Steve Aoki, Efron paired his dirty denim with a striped sweater by Marc Jacobs. It's too bad he didn't have much to say about the jeans he wore on the cover of the magazine. Instead of G-Star, they were crisp, clean Levi's.

On Tuesday, executives and consultants for the Arlington, Va., trade group asked members of the California Energy Commission to instead let consumers use their wallets to decide whether they want to buy the most energy-saving new models of liquid-crystal display and plasma high-definition TVs. "Voluntary efforts are succeeding without regulations," said Doug Johnson, the association's senior director for technology policy. Too much government interference could hamstring industry innovation and prove expensive to manufacturers and consumers, he warned.

But those pleas didn't appear to elicit much support from commissioners at a public hearing on the proposed rules that would set maximum energy-consumption standards for televisions to be phased in over two years beginning in January 2011. A vote could come as early as Nov. 4.

*****

California's estimated 35 million TVs and related electronic devices account for about 10% of all household electricity consumption, the Energy Commission staff reported. But manufacturers quickly are coming up with new technologies that are making even 50-inch-screen models much more economical to operate. New features, such as light-emitting diodes that consume tiny amounts of power, special reflective films and sensors that automatically adjust TV brightness to a room's viewing conditions, are driving down electricity consumption, experts said.

"TV finally becomes real" in three dimensions, said Robert Perry, an executive vice president at Panasonic. "You're in it. It's the next frontier."

Perry compared the 3-D transition to the switch from black-and-white to color television and the shift from standard- to high-definition images.

ESPN is test-recording some sporting events in 3D, using cameras with two sets of lenses, which would make football players appear to jump out of home television screens during live 3-D broadcasts.

Friday represents the deadline for the country's transition to fully digital television broadcasting. Throughout the day, TV stations are switching off analog and in many cases moving to new positions on the channel dial.

Some stations are making the switch early on Friday, timed to their morning newscasts, so that they can field phone calls from confused viewers during normal work hours. Other stations are waiting until the end of the day, sometimes at 11:59 p.m. The staggered timing will amount to a rolling transition across the country.

On Friday morning, some stations were already indicating that some viewers had been caught off-guard. WAFB, the CBS affiliate in Baton Rouge, switched at 7 a.m. Central time, and an hour later the station reported on Twitter that its call center was "going crazy."

"Believe it or not, a lot of people saying they didn’t know anything about the switch," the station said.

The San Francisco-based denim giant saw earnings fall 50.5 percent to $48.1 million for the three months ended March 1, compared with earnings of $97.1 million during the same period a year ago. Overall revenues fell 12.1 percent to $951.5 million from $1.08 billion, including sales that slid 12.2 percent to $931.3 million from $1.06 billion and licensing revenue that fell 7.9 percent to $20.2 million from $21.9 million. Levi's-branded products accounted for 78 percent of sales during the quarter, or $726.4 million, compared with 76 percent of sales a year ago.

"We knew that 2009 would be tough and our first-quarter results reflect those expectations," said John Anderson, president and chief executive officer, during a conference call with analysts. The bulk of losses was concentrated in the European and Americas markets, where global economic turmoil has spurred retail bankruptcies and a drastic pullback in consumer spending. Results were also heavily impacted by the strength of the U.S. dollar. Revenues for the Americas market, which includes the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Latin America, fell 13.1 percent to $503.9 million from $579.8 million.

The transition date would move to June 12 from February 17 under the bill that was fueled by worries that viewers are not technically ready for the congressionally-mandated switch-over.

It also would allow consumers with expired coupons, available from the government to offset the cost of a $40 converter box, to request new coupons. The government ran out of coupons earlier this month, and about 2.5 million Americans are on a waiting list for them.

Senate Commerce Chairman John Rockefeller said delaying the TV switch is the right thing to do because the United States is not yet ready to make the transition.

"The Senate acted responsibly to give the Obama administration time to attempt to bring order to a mismanaged process," the West Virginia Democrat said in a statement.

The Project Runway winner you've seen on TV. We challenged designers to create a new look using Levi's 501 jeans and Trucker jacket, capturing the originality and spirit of the originals. This strapless dress has curvy, jean-style seaming, a seven-button placket, and stretches to fit. Invisible back zipper. Proceeds benefit YouthAIDS. Due to limited inventory, item may not be available for exchange.

Were you surprised when the judges had all positive feedback for you?

I was so shocked to hear them say something good about what I had done ... surprised ....

You say at one point that you don't think the judges will like your garment, but you don't care -- was that true?

I was at the point in the game that I started to not care what the judges had to say about my work, so I truly didn't think I cared what they had to say. I guess I was wrong.

You won! What was your confidence level like after this challenge?

To those who can understand: Remember the feeling of never doing anything quite right ... in front of all your peers ... are told it's not good enough? Then on the day you least expect it you do something so right and it takes you by complete surprise. I was on a high and was ready for whatever challenge came!