Los Angeles Times

Faced with dropping e-reader sales, Barnes & Noble is spinning off its Nook business as a separate public company in an effort to boost shareholder value.

The split will be completed by the first quarter of 2015, the company said. The company also reported its fourth-quarter results, showing a drop in comparable sales at Barnes & Noble stores, in addition to continuing losses with the Nook. Revenue in the Nook unit fell 22% to $87 million.

Digital content sales fell 19% to $62 million.

Barnes & Noble posted a fourth-quarter net loss of $36.7 million, or 72 cents a share, compared with a loss of $114.8 million, or $2.04, a year earlier. Revenue rose 3.5% to $1.32 billion, helped by the company's college business.

“We believe we are now in a better position to begin in earnest those steps necessary to accomplish a separation of Nook Media and Barnes & Noble Retail,” Michael P. Huseby, the company’s chief executive, said. “We have determined that these businesses will have the best chance of optimizing shareholder value if they are capitalized and operated separately.”

Nielsen has widened its investigation into a ratings scandal in Los Angeles and uncovered evidence that a Univision Communications radio executive allegedly has been manipulating the ratings.

The measurement giant confirmed that the Los Angeles ratings scandal was larger than the company first thought.

Nielsen has sought to downplay the incident by saying there was only one problematic household in Nielsen's audience pool in Los Angeles. However, acting on a tip from a radio station insider, Nielsen widened its probe.

Nielsen determined that there were problems with a second house that participated in the sample audience. Nielsen discovered that an executive with Spanish-language media giant Univision Communications had access to Nielsen measurement devices called portable people meters.

“Subsequent to last week’s announcement about the delay in Los Angeles PPM Radio data, Nielsen has learned that a media affiliated household participated in the Los Angeles sample," Nielsen said, calling the breach "a serious violation of data integrity standards."

The quickest way to keep up on the World Cup may be Google. People in the US searching for countries playing in the World Cup will see, at the top of the results, links to highlight videos from the country’s most recent match.

Clicking takes users to the website of ESPN, the exclusive domestic English-language broadcaster of the world’s premier soccer tournament. The first-of-its-kind partnership between ESPN and Google gives Google an edge among competitors Yahoo and Bing on World Cup searches. All three search engines are trying to make it easy to get the latest scores and scheduling details by typing in a country’s name or even just “World Cup.”

The Federal Communications Commission was attacked by Republicans and Democrats during a congressional hearing on the regulatory agency's media-ownership rules.

Among the issues debated were the FCC's long-standing rule prohibiting one company from owning a newspaper and television station in the same market; the role current regulations play in hindering traditional media's ability to compete against emerging digital platforms, and the lack of diversity among broadcasters.

The FCC, represented at the hearing by the chief of the commission's media bureau, William Lake, was also taken to task for failing to complete its 2010 quadrennial review of ownership rules, as mandated by Congress. New FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler plans to roll the 2010 review into the 2014 report and is aiming for a 2016 completion.

The hearing of the House Commerce Committee's subcommittee on communications and technology was split along party lines when it came to how the media industry should be regulated. Republicans, led by subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), challenged the FCC for keeping some rules, including the so-called newspaper-TV cross-ownership ban, on the books for almost 40 years.

[Commentary] Federal regulators say companies that buy and sell consumer data operate largely in the shadows and should be reined in with new privacy laws. The marketing trade group that speaks for so-called data brokers says that no such laws are necessary and that these companies do a fine job of policing themselves.

As the Joker said in Tim Burton's "Batman," "Who do you trust? Hubba, hubba, hubba! Money, money, money! Who do you trust?" Left to their own device over the years, data brokers have consistently striven to keep consumers in the dark about the information they collect and what they do with it.

The Federal Trade Commission isn't trying to shut the industry down. It simply wants to give people more say over how their personal info is used.

Among the agency's recommendations is creation of a website that would allow consumers to see what various data brokers know about them and opt out of having their info used in the future. It also wants retailers and other businesses to notify consumers before sharing information with data brokers and, again, to allow people to opt out of such activities. If information is especially sensitive, such as medical info, people would have to be asked for their permission before it could be placed in the hands of data brokers.

These are excellent proposals. Will Congress act on them? I wouldn't hold my breath, considering Washington's lousy track record for privacy safeguards since the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

At a small community park in Santa Monica, a group of Los Angeles-area musicians wearing dark blue and orange T-shirts with the slogan "Listen Up!" gathered around a flatbed truck as union leaders, a minister and a local city councilman fired up the crowd.

"Make no mistake, music that we produce is a critical component in the artistic and financial success of any film that's produced here," said Neil Samples, a violinist. "We say to Lionsgate: Abandon the low road, stop offshoring jobs, do the right thing and bring the music home."

After his speech, a zydeco band took the stage, and Samples and his colleagues huddled into a van and drove a few blocks to the headquarters of Lionsgate, the independent studio behind the hit "Hunger Games" movies. They parked outside the studio and used a dolly to deliver four boxes containing a petition signed by 12,000 supporters urging Lionsgate to "stop sending musicians' jobs overseas."

The labor unrest is the latest sign of disharmony between local musicians and their employers. The American Federation of Musicians has previously organized rallies against Marvel Studios for hiring London musicians to work on such movies as "The Avengers" and "Iron Man 3" even though those films were shot in the United States. Now, with the backing of the AFL-CIO, the union has singled out Lionsgate. It says the studio is hiring foreign musicians to play music on movies that filmed in the US with the support of taxpayer subsidies.

NBCUniversal Chief Executive Steve Burke, who acknowledges being a bit of a taskmaster, is in unfamiliar territory. He took over the top job at a time when NBC Entertainment was hemorrhaging $600 million a year. Now the network is poised to end the current prime-time season on top among coveted 18- to 49-year-olds -- the first time in 10 years that it will finish in first place in the ratings war.

The television networks are beginning to sell their commercial time for the upcoming season in the annual advertising auction known as the upfront market. Advertisers are expected to commit as much as $11 billion for network TV time, with about $8.5 billion of that earmarked for prime-time shows. NBC hopes to strengthen its lineup even more this fall with the addition of new shows including the political thriller “State of Affairs” and the romantic comedy “Marry Me.”

The ad market in 2014 has been weaker than expected, so NBC's dramatic improvement strengthens its hand in negotiations. NBC hopes that its newfound edge will help it grab ad dollars away from ABC, CBS, Fox and other competitors.

NBC's prime-time spots had been selling at a discount to the rates at CBS, Fox and ABC, which enabled the other networks to collect $500 million to nearly $1 billion more a year in revenue. Burke is determined that NBC will make strides in closing the revenue gap during this ad market.

[Commentary] Some bills that ordinarily might generate some controversy fly through the Legislature with nary a vote against them. Consider AB 2365 by Assembly Speaker Emeritus John A. Pérez (D-Los Angeles).

Introduced in February, it has encountered almost no opposition. The bill seeks to provide some new legal protection for consumers who offer online opinions or comments. It would make it illegal for retailers to require customers to agree not to complain publicly, such as in online reviews, about their purchases.

If merchants think that our 1st Amendment free speech rights need to be curtailed, they should say so upfront and in plain language. Such legalese often is found in small type in pop-up windows that prompt online buyers to agree to the terms before completing a purchase. Merchants, before threatening to or taking legal action, would have to prove that a customer knowingly and voluntarily agreed to not post negative comments.

Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox and private equity giant Apollo Global Management are in preliminary talks to create a global television production house that would manage big hits like "American Idol" and "Deal or No Deal."

The deal would combine Fox's Shine Group as well as the Apollo-controlled Endemol and Core Media Group. The joint venture would be one of the largest reality TV producers in the world, controlling franchises like "Master Chef," "The Biggest Loser" and "Big Brother."

Joining forces would buttress both companies during a period of intense consolidation in the production industry, particularly among firms that specialize in unscripted shows. A number of deals were announced among broadcasters seeking to expand content and increase audience share.

"This gives them access to newer programming ideas and exposes them to the possibility of other concepts," said veteran media analyst Hal Vogel, "and may save them some money too."

Internet providers have sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission urging the agency not to reclassify broadband as a utility, following reports that Chairman Tom Wheeler had revised his proposal for net neutrality.

The letter maintains that although reclassifying broadband as a utility would give the FCC more regulatory power over Internet providers, it would also stifle innovation and lead to less money invested into broadband networks, ultimately hurting consumers' Internet experience.

A total of 28 Internet providers from across the US backed the letter, dated May 13, with signatures from their chief executives. Among the companies were AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon. "Such an action would greatly distort the future development of, and investment in, tomorrow’s broadband networks and services," the companies said.

The Internet providers said they want to work toward rules that would secure an open Internet but that reclassification is not the way.