Cable Television

Cable TV providers cannot have exclusive rights to provide service in apartment buildings that they wire, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The decision by the Court of Appeals in Washington upholds a Federal Communications Commission ruling that banned the exclusive agreements as anti-competitive. The National Cable & Telecommunications Assn. and a pair of affiliated real estate groups sued, saying the FCC did not justify the change in policy or have the authority to regulate the deals.

Oprah Winfrey's cable network is in trouble, entertainment business reporter Joe Flint says in this video. Created 15 months ago in partnership with cable television giant Discovery Communications, the Oprah Winfrey Network was expected to get off to a good start by tapping the 6 million fans who were watching Winfrey's talk show in syndication.  Instead, OWN is averaging just 259,000 viewers in prime time, according to Nielsen. Winfrey said on "CBS This Morning" that the channel has been much harder to get off the ground than she expected, reporter Meg James writes today on our sister blog, Company Town.

When will our elected politicians stop neglecting the Constitution of the United States? Any politician in the city of Long Beach who authors censorship laws on scrambled, adult programming (on cable television) should be arrested for disobeying the First Amendment. Do Mayor Ernie Kell and the City Council actually believe that they are representing their constituents, or do they believe that they sit on top of "Higher Moral Ground" than "the rest of us"? JOE NICASSIO Long Beach

The gig: Cesar Millan, 42, the famed "Dog Whisperer," almost immediately captivated viewers with the launch of his cable TV show in 2004. The show, now filming its ninth season, is just one part of his dog-training empire that includes five bestselling books, a magazine, a line of pet products and a Burbank philanthropy that advocates for adoption, no-kill shelters and spaying/neutering efforts. Humble beginnings: Long before he was the Dog Whisperer, he was called El Perrero — the dog boy — when growing up in rural Mexico because he was often seen on his grandfather's ranch, trailed by a pack of dogs.

Naked men, monsters and reality shows are the focus of three new cable-TV networks. Playgirl TV, a spinoff of Playgirl magazine, bills itself as the first network to offer adult content geared toward women. A press release promised "innovative programming featuring the hottest guys [and] the most erotic sex." Meanwhile, Dark Castle Entertainment, founded by directors Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis, said it would launch the Scream Channel in January.

The city has formed a Cable Television Access Foundation and will appoint a separate 13-member advisory board to promote development of programs for broadcast on the public access cable television channel serving the Palos Verdes Peninsula. There are about 5,500 subscribers in the city and a few in Rolling Hills and Rolling Hills Estates, city officials said. "We want much more community-based programming," said Tom Bandy, community services director.

A few years ago, it looked like Court TV was all about courtrooms, FX Network was for tough guys, and AMC ran only movies. In the coming months, however, cable TV viewers will start to see things change. Court TV will become TruTV. FX ads will explain "There is no box" its shows fit into. And AMC will launch its third original scripted program.

Strong performances from the film studio and cable television business helped propel a 65% jump in News Corp.'s net income for its second quarter. The media conglomerate on Wednesday reported revenue of $8.98 billion for the quarter that ended Dec. 31, up 2% from the same time a year earlier. Net income rose to $1.06 billion, compared with $642 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose to 42 cents. "We believe the explosion of consumer demand for digital content, driven by the upsurge in emerging platforms and international opportunities, makes this a great time to be a content leader," President and Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey told investors.

Cable television prices increased at more than twice the rate of inflation in the 12 months ended last July 1, according to a Federal Communications Commission report. The average monthly rate for basic and expanded cable programming and related equipment rose 7.5% to $36.99 from $34.42, the FCC said. The consumer price index, a measure of inflation, rose 3.2% over the same period. The 7.5% increase in cable television costs follows a 5.

Actors who work on such cable television shows as "The Shield" and "Monk" will receive a 21% pay raise when episodes rerun, according to a new union contract announced Friday. In March, the Screen Actors Guild announced a similar increase in residuals -- the system in which actors are paid for subsequent airings of their work -- for performers working on animated shows for basic cable television. Residuals are paid on a sliding scale that decreases with each repeated airing.

Strong performances from the film studio and cable television business helped propel a 65% jump in News Corp.'s net income for its second quarter. The media conglomerate on Wednesday reported revenue of $8.98 billion for the quarter that ended Dec. 31, up 2% from the same time a year earlier. Net income rose to $1.06 billion, compared with $642 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose to 42 cents. "We believe the explosion of consumer demand for digital content, driven by the upsurge in emerging platforms and international opportunities, makes this a great time to be a content leader," President and Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey told investors.

There is a new kind of ignorance afoot in the world, one that results from overconsumption of information rather than from a lack of access to it. It's fashionable to blame cable television and the Internet for this new ignorance. And it's true that if you spend much time watching cable news and surfing the Internet, you'll come away thinking that many information providers are more interested in fanning fear and feeding people's preconceived notions than they are at communicating truth.

After a marathon meeting, Hollywood's two main actors unions took a historic step toward creating the largest and potentially most powerful entertainment union in the industry. Leaders of the 125,000-member Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which has about 70,000 members, reached a merger agreement Monday after nine days of intensive talks at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel. If approved as expected by the union boards and memberships, the merger would end a decades-long competition between the two groups to organize actors.

When it came to honoring television, the Golden Globes went small. Really small. Some of the biggest winners at Sunday's Golden Globes were critically acclaimed cable shows that draw relatively tiny audiences — in some cases, far fewer than 1 million viewers per week. These included HBO's comedy "Enlightened," Starz's political drama "Boss," BBC America's crime thriller "Luther," and Showtime's show-biz comedy "Episodes. " Showtime's counterterrorism thriller "Homeland" — which won as drama series and for Claire Danes' turn as a troubled CIA agent — has set ratings records for the premium cable network.

News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey hinted that the programming giant would oppose any push from pay-television providers to put sports channels on a specialty tier. The topic of moving big sports channels such as ESPN and regional sports networks - of which News Corp.'s Fox owns 19 - has heated up in recent weeks. With sports rights costs rising, cable and satellite operators are fearing a backlash from consumers - particularly non-sports fans - when bills go up. However, programmers are against specialty tiers devoted to sports channels because it would mean reaching fewer potential viewers and hurt advertising.

Call it a cable squeeze play. Cable television networks may be the most lucrative divisions of many large media companies, but the networks are beginning to feel the pinch of dramatically higher programming costs. In 2006, TV sports giant ESPN spent $3.5 billion on programming for its flagship channel. This year, the channel's content costs have mushroomed to $5.2 billion — a nearly 50% jump from five years ago, according to consulting firm SNL Kagan. Programming expenses for Time Warner Inc.'s TNT channel have soared 55% since 2006 to $1.1 billion this year, propelled by sports rights fees for NBA and NCAA basketball as well as a lineup of original dramas including "The Closer" and "Falling Skies.

Cable television may finally be coming to Rolling Hills. Dimension Cable Services, which serves about 20,000 subscribers on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, has announced that its budget next year includes the costs of wiring the three-square-mile community. However, construction of the system depends on whether Dimension and the city reach agreement on a franchise. City Manager Terrence Belanger said negotiations will probably begin early next year.

A video of "Alex Then and Now," the September, 1990, musical of the Alex Theatre Revitalization Project, will be broadcast on cable television Wednesday. The musical, in which a cast of 50 recreates highlights of the 1925 downtown Glendale theater, will be shown at 9 p.m. on Sammons Channel 34. Copies of the video are also available at the Glendale Central Library and the Brand Library.

Former Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead, a Republican who represented Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena and surrounding communities for 24 years in Congress, died Nov. 23, his family announced. He was 89. A Glendale resident, Moorhead died at an assisted-living facility in La Cañada Flintridge after battling Alzheimer's disease. Moorhead worked as an attorney in Glendale before entering politics in 1966, when he was elected to the California Assembly. In 1972, he was elected to Congress.

A panic-stricken middle-aged man, wearing little more than a gas mask and tighty-whities, is driving a dilapidated RV across the desert. Two unconscious bodies and a dead one slide around in the back — near his portable methamphetamine lab. He wants to make money before he dies of cancer. A slightly younger man, dressed in snug leather pants and a glittery top with a plunging neckline, is gyrating his hips for an arcade dance contest. He's doing the robot to a mix of "Sometimes When We Touch.