Business Notes CABLE TV

Have you heard the one about the two comedy networks that decided to merge? It goes like this: for nine months now, two competing cable channels have been offering rival menus of round-the-clock comedy. On one side of the TV dial is the Comedy Channel, run by Time Warner subsidiary HBO. On the other side is HA! the TV Comedy Network, owned by Viacom International, which also operates MTV. The problem: both channels are losing money. Hoping that two can laugh as cheaply as one, the jousting jokesters disclosed last week that they would merge to form Comedy TV. The new channel, which will draw on programming from both of its parents, should be up and chuckling by early next year.