Time Warner Cable

The Federal Communications Commission has approved the spinoff of Time Warner Cable, the nation's second largest cable operator, from parent Time Warner Inc. The approval was one of the main regulatory hurdles to the spinoff, which the companies expect to complete by the end of March. Final approval requires a tax letter from the Internal Revenue Service. Time Warner owns 85% of Time Warner Cable shares.

BOSTON - Recognizing that many viewers want to watch key events live, in prime time, rather than tape-delayed, NBCUniversal plans to bolster its coverage of the Summer Olympics in London in August by putting 3,000 hours of programming online. The company, which is paying a record $1.18 billion for the rights to broadcast the London Olympics, is challenged to keep the up with the times. The long time zone difference between Britain and the U.S. means that key events will be broadcast when most Americans are not in front of their TVs. And increasingly, consumers are watching programming online, prompting NBC to make changes to its playbook.

For decades, the only theft the cable industry worried about was people trying to get MTV and HBO without paying for them. Now some of the biggest cable companies - including Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc. - are looking to do more than just safeguard their signals from piracy. They want to use their broadband service to protect your big-screen television, the couch in front of it and even the family jewels with their own home-security systems. They're not just feeling altruistic.

Already the largest cable television provider in Los Angeles, Time Warner Cable Inc. now wants to become the dominant sports programmer in the region. On Oct. 1, the New York company will launch two regional sports networks: Time Warner Cable SportsNet and Spanish-language network Time Warner Cable Deportes. The cable operator has shelled out billions of dollars to snag the Los Angeles Lakers away from Fox Sports West and now has its eye on the Dodgers too. The company is tired of being held hostage by high-priced sports channels and has decided to stop fighting the competition and begin imitating it. The cable operator, which has about 2 million subscribers in Southern California, is taking steps to cut out the middle man. That middleman is News Corp., parent of local cable channels Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket and a formidable opponent.

Happy holidays. Your cable rates are going up. Again. In its most Grinch-like fashion, Time Warner Cable, the dominant cable company in Southern California, is alerting customers that rates for nearly all its services will increase as of the next bill. Some rates will be significantly higher, such as a 27.4% increase to $17 from $13.34 just to receive local broadcast channels. Others will be modestly higher, such as a 9.5% increase to $69 from $63 for broadcast plus basic cable channels, or a 7.3% increase to $58.99 from $54.99 for the digital video package.

The most archetypal American small town in Los Angeles County may be El Segundo, with its neighborly mid-century vibe. Visitors arriving on Main Street pass stately brick-and-stone El Segundo High School, a popular filming location, before encountering a large wooden directory erected by the Kiwanis Club that lists the city's 11 churches. Around the corner at Wendy's Place Cafe, there are framed jigsaw puzzles of Saturday Evening Post covers drawn by Norman Rockwell hanging on the paneled wall above the milkshake machine.

The Rev. Tom Batsis sat in the dining room of the priests' residence at a Roman Catholic church in North Hollywood, religious images gracing the wall behind him. He hadn't invited me to visit because he wanted to discuss spiritual matters. Batsis wanted to talk about the trouble he and the two other priests in the rectory were having with Time Warner Cable. They believed they were victims of identity theft, he said, but the cable giant didn't seem interested in discussing the matter.

David Rone, a former agent at Creative Artists Agency and senior executive at Fox Sports and Walt Disney Co., is joining Time Warner Cable as president of sports. The move further signifies Time Warner Cable's desire to become a force in sports programming. This year, Time Warner Cable snagged the television rights to the Los Angeles Lakers away from Fox Sports and is using the team as the foundation to launch a regional sports network in Southern California. But Rone's background and stature in the media industry is too big for one channel.

Facing a backlash from TV viewers furious at the prospect of losing "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "Dora the Explorer," two media giants reached a new programming agreement that keeps those popular cartoon characters on the channels of the country's second-largest cable operator. Viacom Inc. had threatened to pull 19 of its cable channels, including Nickelodeon, MTV, VH-1 and Comedy Central, from the Time Warner Cable Inc. systems at midnight Wednesday when their previous two-year contract expired.

There are things you can count on every year ? the changing of the seasons, the happy faces of kids during the holidays ? higher cable rates. Time Warner Cable is notifying Southern California customers that their cable bills are about to go up yet again, with higher charges for pretty much everything the company offers, from TV to Internet access. The $3 monthly rate hike for basic service follows an identical increase in April for about 500,000 local subscribers and higher bills for the remainder of Time Warner's nearly 2 million SoCal customers a few months earlier.

AT&T Inc. is moving beyond cellphone and Internet service and getting into home automation and security. The wireless giant Monday announced plans for an all-digital, Internet-connected system that it said would give users "unparalleled control and security" of their homes using Web-enabled devices such as PCs, tablets and smartphones. The company said it was planning a nationwide launch, with trials of the service to begin in Atlanta and Dallas this summer. AT&T joins several other companies that are seeing revenue opportunities in home security.

WASHINGTON - Verizon Wireless plans to sell billions of dollars' worth of prime airwaves if regulators approve its planned purchases of new chunks of spectrum primarily from large cable companies. Verizon, which paid about $4.4 billion in 2008 in a government auction of coveted airwaves in the 700-megahertz band, said it no longer would need that spectrum to deploy its fourth-generation LTE network if the cable deals are approved. Among the spectrum Verizon plans to sell are swaths covering Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and other major metropolitan areas.

WILMINGTON, Del. -- The sale of the Dodgers is expected to be approved at a U.S. Bankruptcy Court hearing starting at 1 p.m. PDT. The court held a morning session to hear several matters related to the case, most significantly an agreement by Fox Sports to withdraw its objection to sale. In a filing Thursday, the Dodgers said that the new owners would state for the court record that the ownership group does not involve Time Warner Cable and that the group has no formal or informal agreement with Time Warner Cable for a new Dodgers television contract.

The sale of the Dodgers to a group fronted by Lakers icon Magic Johnson is expected to receive approval at a U.S. Bankruptcy Court hearing Friday afternoon. In a morning session, the most significant action was an agreement by Fox Sports to withdraw its objection to the sale. Fox had asked for proof that the team's would-be new owners, Guggenheim Baseball Management, did not include Time Warner Cable and had no agreement with TWC for a new Dodgers television contract. Fox, which has the team's TV rights through the 2013 season, received assurances that no deal, formal or informal, was in place.

On the eve of the anticipated approval of the Dodgers' sale, the team appeared to resolve a potentially significant hurdle. In a court filing Thursday, the Dodgers said Fox Sports would get confirmation from the new owners that Time Warner Cable would not be directly or indirectly involved in the purchase of the team. The court is expected to approve the sale in a hearing Friday. Under its settlement with the Dodgers, Fox had the right to challenge any sale in which rival Time Warner Cable was involved.

On the eve of the anticipated approval of the Dodgers' sale, the team appeared to resolve a potentially significant hurdle. In a court filing Thursday, the Dodgers said Fox Sports would get confirmation from the new owners that Time Warner Cable would not be directly or indirectly involved in the purchase of the team. The court is expected to approve the sale in a hearing Friday. A Fox spokesman declined to comment. Under its settlement with the Dodgers, Fox had the right to challenge any sale in which rival Time Warner Cable was involved.

The first big media showdown of 2010, which threatened to break out in war, ended with a peace treaty. After weeks of posturing and mudslinging media campaigns, an agreement was reached Friday afternoon that will keep News Corp.'s Fox television stations and several of its cable channels on Time Warner Cable systems in Los Angeles and nationwide. The deal was struck less than a day after the previous contract expired, averting a potential public relations disaster for both companies.

Neither Major League Baseball nor Fox Sports plans to try to stop the sale of the Dodgers, virtually assuring that the deal will receive court approval on Friday. MLB and Fox, the Dodgers' two most formidable combatants in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, expressed relatively minor concerns on Tuesday, the deadline for parties to object to the sale. Frank McCourt, the Dodgers' outgoing owner, agreed last month to sell the team to Guggenheim Baseball Management for $2 billion. MLB has been frustrated by what it considers a lack of information about that transaction -- and a separate one in which McCourt and Guggenheim will jointly own the Dodger Stadium parking lots.

SAN DIEGO — Frank McCourt and Magic Johnson sat next to each other Thursday, the outgoing owner and the most famous of the incoming owners watching the Dodgers play on opening day. For McCourt and for Johnson, the work in the Dodgers sale is done. For the attorneys responsible for turning a winning bid into contractual agreements that satisfy the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the race is on. The terms of the sale are scheduled to be filed in court Friday, the first of several steps required before April 30, when the deal is set to close.