Los Angeles Times

The broadcasting industry's top lobbyist said the Federal Communications Commission needs to work closer with the industry rather than trying to undermine it through regulatory measures that favor would-be competitors.

"Over the past five years, there has been an increasingly singular focus by the federal government on broadband," said National Assn. of Broadcasters President and Chief Executive Gordon Smith in a speech at the association's annual convention in Las Vegas. Smith added that meanwhile the agency continues to "regulate broadcasters as if the world is stuck in the 1970s."

While broadcasters would get a piece of the proceeds from such auctions, many in the industry are reluctant to participate. Said Smith: "On the one hand, government can treat us as if we are dinosaurs and does what it can to encourage TV stations to go out of business. On the other hand, the FCC says we are so important and powerful that two TV stations can't share advertising in the same market, while it's OK for multiple cable, satellite and telecommunications operators to do so."

That new FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is a former head of both the cable and wireless industry lobbying groups also has many broadcasters concerned that they are second-class citizens in his eyes. Univision Chairman Haim Saban cracked that the FCC stands for "Friendly Cable Commission," during an interview at the convention. The FCC, Smith said, needs a "national broadcast plan" along with its National Broadband Plan.

Prime-time television dramas are less smoke friendly than they were in the 1950s. According to a study published online in the journal Tobacco Control, there has been a dramatic decline in visibility of tobacco products on prime-time US broadcast television.

Researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania determined this drop in portrayals of smoking and tobacco use in prime-time dramas mirrored the national decline in consumption. The study examined 1,838 hours of popular US prime-time dramas -- everything from “Gunsmoke” (in the 1950s) to “House M.D.” (in the 2000s) -- shown on television over 56 years. Research suggested that from 1955 to 2010, tobacco use on television declined from a high of 4.96 instances per hour of programming in 1961 to 0.29 instances per hour in 2010.

The research also noted a decline in consumption and suggested that less prime-time smoking may have led to less smoking by the general population. “TV characters who smoke are likely to trigger the urge to smoke in cigarette users, making it harder for them to quit,” said Patrick Jamieson, the study’s lead author, in a release. “We now have further evidence that screen-based media are an important factor to consider in continued efforts to reduce the burden of smoking related illness in the US and around the world,” said Dan Romer, the study co-author and APPC associate director.

Two years ago, California's two giant telecom companies and their Silicon Valley allies won passage of a law freeing phone-over-the-Internet calls from government regulation.

The 2012 law was essential to the creation of high-tech products and services, the industry argued. Its proposal bowled over opposition from consumer advocates. But this deregulation was never supposed to affect phone customers who didn't want to give up their traditional copper-wire land lines, the bill's author, Sen Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), insisted during the debate. Now, complaints are mounting that at least one telecom, Verizon Communications , is doing just that. The company is accused of forcing sometimes unwitting Southern California customers to switch from copper lines to voice-over-Internet connections.

An investigation by the Utility Reform Network, known as TURN, culled the files at the PUC's consumer bureau and found 32 complaints from ratepayers that Verizon doesn't maintain its copper network and is pushing households to reportedly less-reliable Internet phones.

Los Angeles Dodgers fans are caught in a rundown. On one side are the Dodgers and Time Warner Cable, which is handling distribution of SportsNet LA. On the other side are area pay-TV distributors, which are balking at the price for carrying the channel.

"I'm angry with the Dodgers management," said Magnuson, a customer of Verizon FiOS. "There are so many fans that won't get to see them anymore."

This disagreement amounts to a virtual shutout. Besides FiOS, other area pay-TV providers that are not carrying SportsNet LA include satellite broadcasters DirecTV and Dish Network, cable companies Cox and Charter and AT&T's U-Verse. The only operators carrying SportsNet Los Angeles are Time Warner Cable and Bakersfield's Bright House Networks, which has ties to Time Warner Cable.

On March 15, more than 600 other businesses, industry groups, politicians and community members rallied to support legislation that would extend and expand California's film and TV tax credit, which is due to expire in 2017.

The rally was organized by the California Film & Television Production Alliance at Independent Studio Services, a prop house in Sunland.

"We have the best weather and the best locations and it doesn't matter," Steve Michelson, owner of Los Angeles-based film production catering company Limelight Catering, said. "Even if a show or movie is supposed to be based in Los Angeles, they go to other states because they are getting offered bigger incentives."

Catering companies, like dry cleaners, prop houses and many other businesses that rely on production companies for the bulk of their revenue have been forced to relocate to other states, slash payrolls, file for bankruptcy or close because of the lack of jobs in California. The film industry tax incentive bill was written by Assemblymen Raul Bocanegra (D-Pacoima) and Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles), who were among the local politicians who spoke at the rally.

California's two giant automobile clubs unveiled legislation that they said would give car owners control over a wide range data streaming from their vehicles.

The bill, SB 994, was immediately attacked by auto manufacturers as a bid to generate more insurance revenue for the Automobile Club of Southern California and its AAA counterpart in Northern California. Information covered by the legislation could include a car's mechanical performance and location as well as a driver's cellphone or entertainment system usage.

"Our cars are quickly becoming mobile computers," said bill author Sen. Bill Monning (D-Carmel). "While this technology provides several important benefits to consumers, it is imperative that there are basic safeguards in place to ensure consumers can decide who has access to their data."

The proposal, which should get its first committee hearing in mid-April, would ensure consumers know and understand what information is being collected and transmitted to the automaker, guarantee that car owners and their designates have access to all the data and give owners control over who can see the information to service the vehicle.

Seeking to end the long-running battle over the collection of sales taxes for online purchases, the House Judiciary Committee debated possible compromises that included two ideas to tax Internet sales based on the retailer's home state, rather than the buyer's.

Proponents said that such a system would be easier for Web-based retailers to implement because they would need to consult only a single tax rule rather than comply with more than 9,600 local and state tax jurisdictions nationwide.

“The way to level the playing field is to make sure that every business -- brick-and-mortar or online -- is required to do things the same way and follow the same rules," said Chris Cox, a former Republican congressman and counsel to NetChoice, an advocacy group that represents EBay, Overstock.com and other online sellers.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy are urging the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of mobile messaging service WhatsApp.

The privacy groups are asking government regulators to block the proposed acquisition until any privacy issues are resolved. At issue: Whether Facebook will exploit reams of personal information of WhatsApp’s more than 450 million users to target advertising.

Jacob Kohnstamm, who leads a group of EU privacy officials known as the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party as well as the Dutch agency that was already investigating WhatsApp, told Bloomberg the main concern is the collection of data from users’ address books on their phones when they download the application.

“It is tempting to use this data” for other purposes, he said. he company’s “collection of data of people that aren’t using WhatsApp is extreme and is not compliant with Dutch and European law.”

Walt Disney and satellite TV provider Dish Network's sweeping new agreement could lead to changes in the way consumers watch television.

The comprehensive distribution deal is expected to become a blueprint on how the television industry treats the increasingly important digital rights for valuable programming. Wireless television service would create a new business opportunity for Dish, which provides service to 14 million customers. The planned service would be designed to appeal to the so-called never-connected generation of young people, who consume much of their entertainment via computers and tablets, and thus have been difficult recruits for traditional cable and satellite TV providers.

"It would hit a market that they want to reach -- single people, young couples -- those who don't otherwise subscribe to pay TV," said Michael Nathanson of the Moffett-Nathanson research firm. If and when it arrives, Dish's Internet service might look a lot like what Dish offers now — a set package of channels -- and not the "a la carte" service that some consumer activists have been demanding from the industry.

Two of the nation's preeminent legal experts on copyright law are siding with broadcasters in their legal fight against Aereo, a start-up service that transmits local television signals via the Internet.

In a brief filed at the Supreme Court, UCLA School of Law professor David Nimmer and Peter Menell, a professor at the UC Berkeley School of Law, warned that if Aereo were found to be legal it could "decimate multiple industries." The broadcasters are hoping that the high court will overturn the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruling that found Aereo's transmissions and recordings are not "public performances" of copyrighted material.