Google moves closer to resolving EU investigation

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Google has offered to take specific steps to allay competition regulators’ concerns about its business practices, in a major move towards ending a two-year investigation and avoiding billions of dollars in fines.

The European Commission said on Friday it had received detailed proposals from the world’s most popular search engine, which has been under investigation following complaints from more than a dozen companies, including Microsoft, that Google has used its market power to block rivals.

If the commission accepts the proposals under its settlement procedure, it would mean no fine and no finding of wrongdoing against Google.

Companies found to be in breach of EU rules can be fined as much as 10 percent of global turnover, which could mean up to $ 4 billion if there is no satisfactory resolution in Google’s case.

EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia told Reuters he had received Google’s submission, but declined to give details of the proposal.

“We are analyzing it,” he said.

Google spokesman Al Verney said the group continues to work cooperatively with the commission.

The company ranks first in Internet searching in Europe, with an 82 percent market share, versus 67 percent in the United States, according to research firm comScore.

Lobbying group ICOMP, whose members include complainants Microsoft, Foundem, Hot-map, Streetmap and Nextag, said any solution should include measures ensuring that rivals could compete on a level playing field with Google.

The FairSearch coalition, whose members include online travel agencies and complainants Expedia and TripAdvisor, said a third-party monitor should be appointed to ensure that Google lives up to any promises.

The commission, which acts as competition regulator in the 27-member European Union, is now expected to seek feedback from Google’s rivals and other interested parties, before launching an official market test.

Last month, Google won a major victory when U.S. antitrust regulators ended their investigation, saying the company had not manipulated its web search results to block rivals.

The commission has said Google may have favored its own search services over those of rivals, and copied travel and restaurant reviews from competing sites without permission.

The EU executive is also concerned the company may have put restrictions on advertisers and advertising to prevent them from moving their online campaigns to competing search engines.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Rex Merrifield and Hans-Juergen Peters)

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Macklemore & Ryan Lewis score unlikely hit

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The rapper Macklemore thinks there's a simple reason the hit "Thrift Shop" appears to be going viral: It dares to be different.

"There's a certain sound that has kind of flooded the mainstream airwaves as far as hip-hop music," he said a few hours after taping a performance on "Late Show with David Letterman" on Thursday night with producing partner Ryan Lewis. "The beat doesn't sound anything like that, the lyrics are kind of completely polar opposite from what you hear from most commercial rap records and it's got a hook that's very catchy. So I think that you combine those three things and it equates to an original sounding song that's refreshing to the audience that hears it."

Listeners have responded with rare enthusiasm to the song about "poppin' tags" to develop your own unique sense of swag. "Thrift Shop" sits atop the Billboard Hot 100 radio airplay chart, the Nielsen SoundScan Digital Songs chart and is the No. 1 song on Spotify for two consecutive weeks. Only one other song, Bruno Mars' "Locked Out of Heaven," has reached the top of those lists simultaneously.

The Seattle-based duo has sold 2.3 million copies so far — a million in the last month alone — and sales continue to grow week to week. Macklemore, whose real name is Ben Haggerty, said he and Lewis thought the song might appeal to a "niche demographic" and didn't envision it becoming a single. The song's sense of humor is key, but Haggerty says there's also a deeper message about individuality and modern culture's obsession with expensive fashion.

"The more expensive the better is kind of the American way and if you spent $600 for a sweatshirt, then that makes it better," Haggerty said. "And I don't necessarily think that's the case. If it's a $600 sweatshirt that's fresh, that's fantastic if it looks great. But to me to just pay a ridiculous amount of money for something just because of the logo isn't creative and it's just unfortunate that people equate spending money to style."

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Online:

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SciTimes Update: Recent Developments in Science and Health News

Michael Probst/Associated Press

Baby hedgehogs in Germany.

Friday in science, clues to owls’ backwardness, fresh dangers to the seas and the launch of a giant kite. Check out these and other headlines from around the Web.

Phil Marino for The New York Times

Physicists monitored data from heavy ion collisions in the control room at Brookhaven National Laboratory particle collider in 2007.

Felix Ordonez/Reuters

A snowy owl.

Hedgehog Bacteria: Sonic the Hedgehog may have a dark side. The Associated Press reports that in the last year, 20 people in the United States were infected, and 1 person died, from “a rare but dangerous” type of salmonella bacteria. All the cases, health officials said, were linked to hedgehogs that were kept as pets.

More Bad News for the Seas: National Geographic reports that buried beneath the waves are rich deposits of “gold, copper, zinc, and other valuable minerals,” and that is attracting the attention of the humans on the land above. Mining the minerals is not easy, but one company has already obtained an extraction contract for the waters off Papua, New Guinea, the magazine says.

Less Money for Science: Lean days are ahead for recipients of federal government contracts, and that knowledge is having an impact on physics research. Scientific American reports that a federal advisory panel has recommended closing a particle collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y.

Spinning Heads: Owls are able to do something that parents only dream about: swivel their heads completely around to see what is going on behind them. An illustrator and a physician at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine discovered that they can do so without severing their arteries or preventing blood from reaching their brains because of holes in their neck bones, which may hold air sacks that cushion the movement of the head, and because the vertebral artery is able to expand and hold reservoirs of blood for the brain, a LiveScience video explains.

Setting Sail in Space: A new solar sail, the largest yet, will be launched by NASA in 2014. Looking very much like a gigantic kite, it will eventually reach 2 million miles from Earth (that’s a lot of string!), Popular Science reports. And besides blazing the way for further research of this type, the mission has another purpose: “Sunjammer will be carrying the cremated remains of various individuals, including the creator of Star Trek,Gene Roddenberry, and his wife Majel Barrett Roddenberry. It is not exactly the Enterprise, but Sunjammer will be boldly going where no solar sailing spacecraft has gone before,” Popular Science says.

Video by NASAMarshallTV

Solar Sail Readies for Early Warning Mission

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Off the Charts: For Markets, a Strong January Is a Good Sign

AS January goes, so goes the year.

That maxim of the American stock market would seem to bode well for the market this year. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index’s gain of 5 percent made the month the 12th best January since 1950, and the 19th opening month in that period when the index rose more than 4 percent.

“If history repeats, we would expect a double-digit percentage increase in the upcoming 11 months,” said Richard Peterson, an analyst at S&P Capital IQ.

Only once since 1950 has the market fallen in the last 11 months of a year when it rose 4 percent or more in January. That was in 1987, which began with the best January in the history of the index — up 13.2 percent — and ended including the worst single day ever for the index, a 20 percent plunge on Oct. 19.

On average since 1950, January gains of at least 4 percent have been followed by rises of 15.1 percent in the remainder of the year. Gains were lower when January gains were smaller, and on average the market has made no headway in years after prices fell in January.

There is, of course, no guarantee that history will repeat. In fact, during the Great Depression the opposite pattern existed. The market rose sharply during the first month of 1929, 1930, 1931 and 1934, only to plunge the rest of each year. Prices fell in the first month of 1935, which turned out to be an excellent year.

The January gains this year reflected generally strong markets around the world. As can be seen in the accompanying charts, all but two of the 20 largest stock markets in the world rose in January, and six of them — Japan, China, Britain, Switzerland, Sweden and Italy — rose more rapidly than the American market did. The two that showed losses were Brazil and South Korea.

The ranking of markets is based on World Bank calculations of total market capitalization of each market in 2011. More than half the capitalization of those 20 markets is in just the top three, the United States, Japan and China. The top five — Britain and Canada in addition to the other three — have two-thirds of the value.

The United States market is one of 10 that have more than doubled from their credit crisis lows set in 2008 or 2009, the others being Brazil, Germany, India, South Korea, Hong Kong, South Africa, Russia, Sweden and Mexico.

The only three countries in the group that are not at least 50 percent higher than their lows are all in the euro zone, where economies have been stumbling. They are France, Spain and Italy.

Floyd Norris comments on finance and the economy at nytimes.com/economix.

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Snowmobile Rider Dies From X Games Injuries

Eric Lars Bakke/ESPN Images, via Associated Press

Caleb Moore in a photograph taken last January.

Caleb Moore, a 25-year-old snowmobiler injured last week during the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colo., died Thursday.

Christian Murdock/The Gazette, via Associated Press

Moore crashing during the snowmobile freestyle finals during the first day of the Winter X Games last Thursday.

Moore, from Krum, Tex., sustained a concussion and a heart contusion last Thursday after he landed short while attempting a backflip during the freestyle event, where competitors have 75 seconds to complete as high-flying aerial stunts on their snowmobiles. The skis on the front of his snowmobile pierced the top of the snow-covered landing ramp, and Moore fell face first into the snow. His bouncing snowmobile, weighing nearly 500 pounds, landed on top of him, knocking him unconscious.

Moore regained consciousness after a couple of minutes, surrounded by paramedics, his father, and his brother, Colten, also a competitor and the X Games gold medalist in the event in 2012. He stood and gingerly walked away, but was taken to a local hospital with a preliminary diagnosis of a concussion.

Early Friday, doctors found bleeding near his heart, and Moore was airlifted to a hospital in Grand Junction, Colo., where he underwent surgery and was listed in critical condition.

On Sunday, a family spokeswoman said that the “cardiac injury has led to a secondary complication involving his brain,” but no further details were provided. On Monday, Moore’s grandfather, Charles Moore, told The Denver Post, “It’s almost certain he’s not going to make it.”

The Moore family released a statement confirming the death, saying, “The family wishes to express their deep gratitude for all the prayers and support they have received from all the fans, friends and family around the world that Caleb has inspired.”

Moore was an accomplished trick artist on four-wheel all-terrain vehicles who, along with his brother, learned how to do similar tricks on snowmobiles in the weeks before the 2010 Winter X Games. Caleb, despite only weeks of practice on the snow, won a bronze medal that year.

ESPN, the organizer of the X Games, also released a statement.

“We are deeply saddened by Caleb Moore’s passing and our thoughts and prayers go out to his parents, Wade and Michelle, his brother, Colten, and the entire Moore family. He will be remembered for his natural passion for life and his deep love for his family and friends, and he will always be an inspiration to everyone he touched in the action sports community.

“As a result of this accident we will conduct a thorough review of this discipline and adopt any appropriate changes to future X Games.For 18 years we have worked closely on safety issues with athletes, course designers and other experts. Still, when the world’s best compete at the highest level in any sport, risks remain. Caleb was a four-time X Games medalist attempting a move he has landed several times previously.”

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The 7 most dedicated employees

You probably don’t want to forward this roster of tireless go-getters to your boss

Some people probably feel they deserve a medal for merely getting up and going to work every day, but only a few actually merit one. Take Deborah Ford, for example. This 64-year-old Detroit postal worker, who recently retired, didn’t use a single sick day in all of her 44 years on the job. Not a single one! For doctor’s appointments, she would take vacation days, and when she was feeling lousy she says she would just “shake it off.” At the end of her dedicated career, Ford had amassed a sick-leave balance of 4,508 hours. But before you give her the award for most dedicated employee, check out this lot:

1. Going the distance
Unless you work from home, chances are you endure a less-than-pleasant commute. But none is likely as arduous as that of Dave Givens. In 2006 the Mariposa, Calif., resident earned the unenviable award for “America’s Longest Commute” when tire company Midas set out to find the employee who trekked the most miles to work. From his ranch home in Mariposa, Givens drives 186 miles to his job at Cisco Systems, Inc., in San Jose. The electrical engineer has been making this 372-mile round trip, which equals a total of seven hours of driving, for 17 years. “I have a great job and my family loves the ranch where we live,” Givens said. “So this is the only solution.” His dedication to the horrendous commute earned Givens the grand prize of $ 10,000 and some much-needed gas money as well as an array of Midas maintenance services and products.

SEE ALSO: Today in business: 5 things you need to know

2. A life’s work
Rose Syracuse Richardone “just loves to work,” says Macy’s senior vice president Robin Hall of the 92-year-old employee. Richardone retired from Macy’s in September 2012 after working in a range of positions from her first job at the age of 17 in the accounts department — back when there weren’t credit cards and customers would set aside money in the in-store bank to pay for items — to her final position within the parade and entertainment group. To honor her 70th year with the company a few years ago, Macy’s management arranged for Richardone to cut the red ribbon that launched the iconic Thanksgiving parade. Had it not been for a broken hip, the diminutive employee might still be working today. “Life is good,” she said of her longevity. “You go on each day, you’re happy where you’re at. And people — bosses, supervisors, they appreciate you. And you stay.”

3. Hardest working unemployed man
You may not know Justin Knapp, but you’re likely familiar with his work. Knapp is a voluntary editor of the Wikipedia, and last April the 30-year-old became the first person to complete 1 million edits on the massive online, open-source encyclopedia. After coming across Wikipedia in 2003, Knapp registered as an editor in 2005 and now spends several hours per day combing, editing, and adding to Wikipedia articles. His edits can be as small as ensuring em dashes and en dashes are used properly or as substantial as building the most comprehensive George Orwell entry, which reportedly took about 100 hours. But Knapp relishes the work. “Editing these projects is relaxing and rewarding,” Knapp told Gizmodo. Knapp doesn’t get paid for his work, however plentiful, but he manages to get by financially with odd jobs while he pursues his nursing degree at Indiana University. Ultimately he feels his diligence is for the greater good. “Far be it for me to say that it’s an act of love to edit Wikipedia,” he said. “But I really do feel like that it helps other human beings. That makes me feel good — knowing that somehow I can be a small part of helping someone who I’ll never know.”

SEE ALSO: Today in business: 5 things you need to know

4. Dedicated volunteer
Don Moss is the “Energizer Bunny of volunteers.” As of 2010, the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center volunteer has clocked in more than 47,000 hours, setting a Guinness World Record for his time. For the last 28 years, Moss has worked at Wake Forest Monday through Thursday, 48 hours per week. The 63-year-old’s dedication is a personal one. In 1980, Moss was in a freak accident that landed him at Wake Forest Baptist where he spent three months in a coma with a major head injury. Doctors didn’t think he would make it and, after he woke up, specialists said he would never walk again. But Moss defied all expectations and now, after being encouraged to volunteer during his rehabilitation stint, he’s rarely idle. While working, Moss delivers letters to patients, helps out at the gift shop, and guides lost visitors to their destinations. And those free Fridays? Those are for his wife, he says: “That’s my honey-do list day.”

5. Hardest working mom
Dr. Helen Wright felt like she had it all — she loved her job as a headmistress at an exclusive British all-girls school, and she had time to enjoy her beautiful growing family. On February morning in 2010, when Wright was pregnant with her third child, she went into labor. Within an hour she had given birth to the baby, a girl named Jessica, and by lunchtime, Wright was back at work, her newborn in tow. This was nothing new for her. She had never taken maternity leave with any of her children. Her second child was born on a Friday; Wright was back at work by Monday. Given the ongoing can-women-have-it-all debate, Wright says she wants to be a role model for her students to show them that they too can have a career and a family, quite literally, in the same space. The rarely trodden path of bringing your baby to work is, Wright says, the option more women should consider. “Most women have a choice of taking maternity leave or going back to work and having their babies looked after. Why can’t there be a third way?”

SEE ALSO: Today in business: 5 things you need to know

6. Hardest working country
Do you feel like you work long hours? Well, here’s some food for thought: Employees in Asian countries have the highest proportion of employees who work more than 48 hours per week, which is considered “excessive.” Of those Asian countries, South Korea is the most overworked: According to data compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, South Koreans work a whopping 2,193 hours per year. Chile comes in second with 2,068 hours, which far exceeds the average for most developing countries, which is 1,718 hours annually. The United States is just below the average with 1,695 hours. Germany and the Netherlands remain on the low end of the scale with 1,408 hours and 1,377 hours per year, respectively. Tighter labor laws in developed countries, particularly Europe, have contributed to reduced working hours, so, you know, don’t feel too bad about it, you’re just playing by the rules.

7. Hardest working American town
Columbia, Mo., managed to keep its unemployment rate of 6.0 percent throughout the worst economic downturn since the Depression with the help of its robust health-care and education sectors. The town has six hospitals and the second highest number of hospital beds per capita in the country. It’s also home to the University of Missouri-Columbia, which employs some 8,000 people, as well as six other institutions of higher education. More than 80 percent of households are dual-income, and the city ranked second on likelihood to work on the weekends, according to data compiled by Parade magazine in 2012. 

SEE ALSO: Today in business: 5 things you need to know

Sources: BBC, Daily Mail, Gizmodo, Parade, The Stir, Yahoo

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Beyonce to finally face media in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Beyonce is expected to face the media Thursday as she previews her halftime performance at the Super Bowl. But the focus will likely be on her performance at that other big event earlier this month.

The superstar hasn't spoken publicly since it was alleged that she lip-synched her rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at President Barack Obama's inauguration last week. Her critically praised performance came under scrutiny less than a day later when a representative from the U.S. Marine Band said she wasn't singing live and the band's accompanying performance was taped. Shortly after, the group backed off its initial statement and said no one could tell if she was singing live or not.

It's expected that the halftime performance will be a main focus of her afternoon press conference, even though she'd likely rather concentrate on questions about her set list for Sunday and her upcoming HBO documentary, "Life Is but a Dream." The documentary is being shown for the media just before Beyonce speaks and takes questions, as expected.

There has been plenty of speculation about Beyonce's Super Bowl performance, including reports there would be a Destiny's Child reunion with Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland (Williams has shot down such speculation). Some are also curious about whether her husband, Jay-Z, will join her onstage, as they often do for each other's shows.

Beyonce has teased photos and video of herself preparing for the show, which will perhaps be the biggest audience of her career. Last year, Madonna's halftime performance was the most-watched Super Bowl halftime performance ever, with an average of 114 million viewers. It garnered more viewers than the game itself, which was the most-watched U.S. TV event in history.

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During Trial, New Details Emerge on DuPuy Hip

When Johnson & Johnson announced the appointment in 2011 of an executive to head the troubled orthopedics division whose badly flawed artificial hip had been recalled, the company billed the move as a fresh start.

But that same executive, it turns out, had supervised the implant’s introduction in the United States and had been told by a top company consultant three years before the device was recalled that it was faulty.

In addition, the executive also held a senior marketing position at a time when Johnson & Johnson decided not to tell officials outside the United States that American regulators had refused to allow sale of a version of the artificial hip in this country.

The details about the involvement of the executive, Andrew Ekdahl, with the all-metal hip implant emerged Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court during the trial of a patient lawsuit against the DePuy Orthopaedics division of Johnson & Johnson. More than 10,000 lawsuits have been filed against DePuy in connection with the device — the Articular Surface Replacement, or A.S.R. — and the Los Angeles case is the first to go to trial.

The information about the depth of Mr. Ekdahl’s involvement with the implant may raise questions about DePuy’s ability to put the A.S.R. episode behind it.

Asked in an e-mail why the company had promoted Mr. Ekdahl, a DePuy spokeswoman, Lorie Gawreluk, said the company “seeks the most accomplished and competent people for the job.”

On Wednesday, portions of Mr. Ekdahl’s videotaped testimony were shown to jurors in the Los Angeles case. Other top DePuy marketing executives who played roles in the A.S.R. development are expected to testify in coming days. Mr. Ekdahl, when pressed in the taped questioning on whether DePuy had recalled the A.S.R. because it was unsafe, repeatedly responded that the company had recalled it “because it did not meet the clinical standards we wanted in the marketplace.”

Before the device’s recall in mid-2010, Mr. Ekdahl and those executives all publicly asserted that the device was performing extremely well. But internal documents that have become public as a result of litigation conflict with such statements.

In late 2008, for example, a surgeon who served as one of DePuy’s top consultants told Mr. Ekdahl and two other DePuy marketing officials that he was concerned about the cup component of the A.S.R. and believed it should be “redesigned.” At the time, DePuy was aggressively promoting the device in the United States as a breakthrough and it was being implanted into thousands of patients.

“My thoughts would be that DePuy should at least de-emphasize the A.S.R. cup while the clinical results are studied,” that consultant, Dr. William Griffin, wrote.

A spokesman for Dr. Griffin said he was not available for comment.

The A.S.R., whose cup and ball components were both made of metal, was first sold by DePuy in 2003 outside the United States for use in an alternative hip replacement procedure called resurfacing. Two years later, DePuy started selling another version of the A.S.R. for use here in standard hip replacement that used the same cup component as the resurfacing device. Only the standard A.S.R. was sold in the United States; both versions were sold outside the country.

Before the device recall in mid-2010, about 93,000 patients worldwide received an A.S.R., about a third of them in this country. Internal DePuy projections estimate that it will fail in 40 percent of those patients within five years; a rate eight times higher than for many other hip devices.

Mr. Ekdahl testified via tape Wednesday that he had been placed in charge of the 2005 introduction of the standard version of the A.S.R. in this country. Within three years, he and other DePuy executives were receiving reports that the device was failing prematurely at higher than expected rates, apparently because of problems related to the cup’s design, documents disclosed during the trial indicate.

Along with other DePuy executives, he also participated in a meeting that resulted in a proposal to redesign the A.S.R. cup. But that plan was dropped, apparently because sales of the implant had not justified the expense, DePuy documents indicate.

In the face of growing complaints from surgeons about the A.S.R., DePuy officials maintained that the problems were related to how surgeons were implanting the cup, not from any design flaw. But in early 2009, a DePuy executive wrote to Mr. Ekdahl and other marketing officials that the early failures of the A.S.R. resurfacing device and the A.S.R. traditional implant, known as the XL, were most likely design-related.

“The issue seen with A.S.R. and XL today, over five years post-launch, are most likely linked to the inherent design of the product and that is something we should recognize,” that executive, Raphael Pascaud wrote in March 2009.

Last year, The New York Times reported that DePuy executives decided in 2009 to phase out the A.S.R. and sell existing inventories weeks after the Food and Drug Administration asked the company for more safety data about the implant.

The F.D.A. also told the company at that time that it was rejecting its efforts to sell the resurfacing version of the device in the United States because of concerns about “high concentration of metal ions” in the blood of patients who received it.

DePuy never disclosed the F.D.A. ruling to regulators in other countries where it was still marketing the resurfacing version of the implant.

During a part of that period, Mr. Ekdahl was overseeing sales in Europe and other regions for DePuy. When The Times article appeared last year, he issued a statement, saying that any implication that the F.D.A. had determined there were safety issues with the A.S.R. was “simply untrue.” “This was purely a business decision,” Mr. Ekdahl stated at that time.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 30, 2013

A capsule summary of an earlier version of this article described the start of the DePuy trial incorrectly. It began last week, not this week.

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Media Decoder Blog: Ratings Shortfall at Nickelodeon Hurts Viacom Revenue

1:34 p.m. | Updated Hampered by ratings shortfalls at Nickelodeon and an unfavorable film release schedule, Viacom on Thursday reported a 16 percent decrease in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2012, a somewhat steeper drop than analysts anticipated.

But the company’s profits came in slightly ahead of expectations, and the chief executive, Philippe Dauman, pleased Wall Street with positive news about progress at Nickelodeon and Viacom’s other cable networks.

Mr. Dauman said the company was making an “unprecedented investment in content” that was paying off for Nickelodeon. The dramatic ratings declines that began to be visible in late 2011 are moderating, and new shows are premiering. Mr. Dauman said the ratings momentum “confirms our view that our significant and sustained investment in fresh, original content is working, and will continue to drive future ratings growth and revenue improvement.”

Viacom reported revenue in the fourth quarter of 2012, its fiscal first quarter, of $3.3 billion, down from $3.95 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Analysts had forecast $3.48 billion in revenue.

Profits rose to $470 million, or 92 cents a share, compared with $212 million, or 38 cents a share, in the same quarter a year ago. But the year-ago quarter was hurt by a settlement with the original shareholders of Harmonix Music Systems, the makers of the “Rock Band” video game series. After adjustments, Viacom earned 91 cents a share in the quarter, a penny higher than analysts had predicted, from $1.06 in the same quarter a year ago.

The damage done by Nickelodeon’s ratings drop was evident in the total revenues for Viacom’s cable networks, by far the biggest part of its business. Revenue dipped 2 percent at the networks overall, largely because advertising revenue decreased 6 percent, even as affiliate fees paid by cable and satellite distributors grew.

Mr. Dauman said on a conference call with analysts that the “lingering effects of the ratings softness” at Nickelodeon masked growth elsewhere at the cable networks. Excluding its children’s channels, Viacom’s networks group “returned to positive ad growth in the quarter,” he said.

David Bank, a media analyst for RBC Capital Markets, said Nickelodeon’s ratings for the last few months were showing recovery after a rocky 2012. “All they need to do is continue to deliver the audience they are already delivering — without growth — and the year-over-year comparisons virtually assure growth,” he said.

Nickelodeon will pitch a slate of new animated and live-action series to advertisers at a presentation in late February. One of the areas of focus is preschool programming — the idea being that very young viewers will stick with Nickelodeon throughout their childhood.

Mr. Dauman says Viacom has found that its viewers of all ages want more new shows, and they want more episodes of those shows on “faster cycles,” so it has sped up the development and production processes at Nickelodeon and elsewhere.

Mr. Dauman spent some time on Thursday’s earnings call praising MTV, another one of its flagship networks, which he said had started to answer the question “What comes after ‘Jersey Shore?’” That infamous reality show had its series finale earlier this winter.

“‘Jersey Shore’ was a game-changing hit,” he said, “but it also precipitated an overemphasis on one night,” which was Thursday. MTV is trying to spread its new shows — “Catfish,” “Washington Heights,” “Buckwild” — across the weekly schedule.

Viacom’s film studio, Paramount, saw revenue drop 37 percent in the quarter, to $975 million. The company attributed this to the fact that its films in the quarter weren’t as successful as year-ago hits like “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” and “Puss in Boots.” The company also had one fewer release in the home video marketplace this time around.

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The Lede Blog: Updates From the Senate Hearing on Gun Violence

The Lede followed the testimony on Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing titled “What Should America Do About Gun Violence?” Former Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, her husband, Mark E. Kelly, and Wayne LaPierre, chief executive of the National Rifle Association, are among the witnesses expected to testify. As our colleague Jennifer Steinhauer reports, this is the first hearing since the Dec. 14 mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., that killed 20 schoolchildren and 6 staff members.

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