1.   Any gain in the value of those shares will eventually be passed along to bondholders as they redeem their notes.

2.   Shop at Home, whose chairman is J.D. Clinton, will have the right to redeem the notes after a certain date.

3.   Step-up notes are being redeemed in droves this year, resulting in bigger returns than the Treasury securities against which they are compared.

4.   Universal plans to use the funds raised in both offerings to refinance debt, redeem existing notes and pay for pending asset acquisitions from four advertising companies.