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Time Warner is in many ways a self-sustaining media ecosystem: Their intermittently functioning cable networks and motion pictures wing create celebrities and cultural trends, which then wind up on the covers of their top-tier glossies, migrate online via their internet porthole AOL, and eventually float amidst the other sewage runoff filtered by bad-seed web-holding, TMZ, at which point the entire cycle begins anew. The only pie Time Warner has yet to stick a chubby little finger into is the business of network TV, and recent rumors have indeed suggested that they were hungrily circling NBC Universal. Addressing a media conference yesterday, CEO Jeff Bewkes issued a standard non-denial denial:

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said Monday the media giant has "no agenda" regarding the acquisition of a television network, despite renewed speculation over a possible hook-up with NBC Universal.

"All of us are wondering what will happen to the networks," Bewkes said at a media conference in Gotham. As for NBC, "We'd have a look at that if and when it came up."

"If and when" Universal would be willing to part with their attractive NBC media-holdings portfolio—encompassing a wide array of gladiatorial and celebrity-trapeze entertainments, plus the talent-show-judging services of David Hasselhoff—we're all but certain a merger-hungry Time Warner will be there to swoop in with an extremely generous number, plus some sketched-out logo ideas for the newly rechristened NBC Time Warner Telemundo Television iVillage Bravo Studios. © Time Warner 2008. All Rights Reserved.