Media Industry

Few cities have been as ridiculed, but these days Burbank can afford to laugh. The butt of jokes dating back to the '60s comedy show "Laugh-In" and perpetuated by Johnny Carson, Burbank was until recently a fitting target. It was hot, smoggy and, in some areas, downright ugly. Adding injury to insult, Burbank lost nearly 14,000 jobs after its biggest employer, Lockheed Corp., packed up and moved in 1990.

BOSTON — A new generation of consumers who have little regard for historical distribution systems will be what drives media companies to rethink their role as gatekeepers to content. "It always seems to be about the kids," said filmmaker Ed Burns who has taken to releasing his movies on non-theatrical platforms, including Apple's iTunes, and on video-on-demand. Speaking at the National Cable Telecommunications Assn.

After more than 120 years, the Chandlers are getting out of the newspaper business. The much-celebrated and maligned family that once dominated the civic, cultural and political life of Southern California through its control of the Los Angeles Times agreed Monday to sell its entire stake in Tribune Co., the newspaper's parent.

Robert Johnson, the nation's first African American billionaire, has invested in professional basketball teams, real estate, mortgage-backed securities and mid-size hotels. Now he is returning to his old stamping grounds: media. The founder of BET, the first cable television network specifically targeted to African Americans, is rolling up a pair of small video firms to form a new publicly traded venture, RLJ Entertainment. The 66-year-old entrepreneur plans to create an online distribution company that syndicates programming, including titles made by producers and directors who have been unable to penetrate the barriers of Hollywood.

Federal approval Tuesday of the $12.3-billion sale of Univision Communications Inc. to a group of private investors was just the first hurdle for the new owners of the country's largest Spanish-language media company.

When Sumner Redstone, the billionaire chairman of Viacom Inc., visits China this year, one of the first people he expects to meet is Li Ruigang. Li, 38, is the president of Shanghai Media Group, a state-owned conglomerate that has emerged as a powerful force in China's fledgling media market. Though he wants to emulate media moguls such as Redstone and News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, Li is blazing a trail that Redstone and Murdoch might have to follow.

Cable giant Comcast Corp., in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission seeking regulatory approval of its $30-billion deal to take control of General Electric's NBC Universal, said it didn't expect the transaction to significantly change the media landscape. The 145-page document accompanying a joint request by the companies to transfer control of NBC's TV station licenses, argued that there was "no plausible basis for claims that the proposed venture will have anti-competitive effects."

Robert Johnson, the nation's first African American billionaire, has invested in professional basketball teams, real estate, mortgage-backed securities and mid-size hotels. Now he is returning to his old stamping grounds: media. The founder of BET, the first cable television network specifically targeted to African Americans, is rolling up a pair of small video firms to form a new publicly traded venture, RLJ Entertainment. The 66-year-old entrepreneur plans to create an online distribution company that syndicates programming, including titles made by producers and directors who have been unable to penetrate the barriers of Hollywood.

As a Burbank resident, I was delighted to read "Bustling Burbank" Oct 25. It was encouraging to read that the city is shedding its negative image of so many years of targeting by Johnny Carson and others. But when The Times wrote of the area's phenomenal growth, I wondered why you neglected to mention that Burbank now has a flourishing university to add to its attractiveness. One of the oldest institutions in California, Woodbury University relocated from Downtown Los Angeles to Glenoaks Boulevard in 1987.

In a sign that Tribune Co. may be preparing to exit the broadcast TV business, the company's investment bankers have begun offering its premier TV stations -- KTLA Channel 5, WPIX in New York and WGN in Chicago -- to selected potential buyers. One reason it is shopping the stations is the pending expiration of broadcast licenses. KTLA's eight-year license expires Dec.

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.

Sidney Harman, the stereo industry magnate who announced Monday that he was buying Newsweek magazine, has made a lot of money in his life. Harman, who turns 92 this week, told the staff at the ailing newsweekly that he was not all that interested in making more, at least from his new acquisition. "I'm not here to make money," he told them, according to a Newsweek published account. "I'm here to make joy." They could use some. Newsweek, which has about 325 employees, hasn't made a profit since 2007 and lost about $30 million last year.

A cable television commercial for the Redondo Beach restaurant Eat at Joe's features high-definition video, a cast of 40 and a catchy jingle that will leave you humming. Particularly enthusiastic about the slick new ad was Alex Jordan, the restaurateur who decided to take the plunge into television advertising after meeting an Altadena couple who were starting their own ad agency. They wrote and produced the 30-second spot for $5,000, and they helped him broker a deal to deliver it to 300,000 homes for $1 every time it ran. In a still tough economy in Southern California, hard times in advertising and media have led to a surprising bonanza for small businesses seeking to market themselves.

Cable giant Comcast Corp., in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission seeking regulatory approval of its $30-billion deal to take control of General Electric's NBC Universal, said it didn't expect the transaction to significantly change the media landscape. The 145-page document accompanying a joint request by the companies to transfer control of NBC's TV station licenses, argued that there was "no plausible basis for claims that the proposed venture will have anti-competitive effects."

The proposed marriage of Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable and broadband provider, with NBC Universal, a Hollywood powerhouse, presents the Obama administration with its first big chance to weigh in on the controversial issue of media consolidation. The deal, announced with fanfare Thursday at NBC Universal's Rockefeller Center headquarters in midtown Manhattan, had politicians and consumer activists calling for an intense review in light of the perceived market domination the new entity would enjoy when it comes to ownership and distribution of movies, TV shows and cable networks that get piped into the home.

Barry Diller, who warned last week at a media industry conference that the transition from old media to new media would be "bloody," is turning to Ben Silverman for help with triage.

Barry Diller, who warned last week at a media industry conference that the transition from old media to new media would be "bloody," is turning to Ben Silverman for help with triage.

As Congress winds down for the year, time is running short for efforts to roll back media ownership rules that were relaxed this summer by the Federal Communications Commission. Opponents of increased media consolidation, including some influential Republican lawmakers, are vowing to repeal one of the most controversial new FCC rules as part of a massive appropriations bill expected to be passed later this week.

In 2006, Shane Felux was on a makeshift set near his home in northern Virginia producing a Web video when he received an out-of-the-blue phone call from Barry Jossen, who was then executive vice president of production for Disney's ABC Studios.

The California Supreme Court appeared divided Wednesday over how to handle a $15.6-million jury verdict won by a model who discovered his face on a jar of Taster's Choice coffee. The case is being closely watched by the entertainment and media industries. The Motion Picture Assn. of America and the Los Angeles Times have sided with Nestle USA Inc.