NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg presented an updated budget proposal for the coming fiscal year on Thursday with largely cosmetic changes before the budget goes to the city's legislature for debate.

Bloomberg presented the adjusted figures for fiscal year 2013-14 as a last update to his $70 billion budget presented in January. The city's current fiscal year ends on June 30.

Bloomberg said better-than-expected tax revenue in the current fiscal year would pull some tax revenue forward from next year. The city collected an additional $800 million in the current fiscal year after taxpayers sold assets at the end of the 2012 calendar year to avoid higher federal taxes.

In total, the city expects $1.1 billion in extra revenues this year when $222 million netted in corporate tax audits is included.

"It sounds good but it really is more bookkeeping," Bloomberg told a press conference at City Hall. "We lowered tax revenues for fiscal '14 because of that."

The city now expects $462 million less revenue in fiscal 2014, $194 million of which is due to a lower tax revenue forecast.

"Despite the one-time increase in tax revenues this year, this does not substantially change the city's forecasted revenue base," the city council speaker, Christine Quinn, and Domenic Recchia, chairman of the Finance Committee, said in a joint statement.

"The city's overall fiscal outlook continues to reflect the solid and steady improvements in the city economy that we anticipated in the winter," they said.

Quinn is planning to run to succeed Bloomberg as mayor later this year. Bloomberg is now in the last year of his third term as mayor and cannot seek re-election due to term limits.

The city-funded portion of the $69.8 billion budget is $50.2 billion. Controllable agency expenses are flat at about $22.8 billion in the next fiscal year, while "uncontrollable expenses," which include mandated pensions and other benefits, will rise 7.6 percent, or $1.7 billion, to $23.4 billion.

New York has also cut by half its estimate for revenue from the sale of taxi medallions to $300 million in the coming fiscal year.

The city is awaiting a decision by the New York Court of Appeals concerning a lawsuit over whether the sale can proceed.

The city's comptroller, John Liu, criticized the Bloomberg administration for including any revenue from the sale of the medallions while the dispute is ongoing.

"The mayor's executive budget for FY 2014 contains some major unwarranted assumptions that risk opening yawning gaps," Liu said in a statement.

"It assumes that the city will reap $1.5 billion over four years from a taxi medallion sale that for the foreseeable future is tied up in court," said Liu, who is also a candidate for mayor.

Other changes from the January projection include a $327 million increase in projected agency expenses. Total expenses increased by $472 million compared to January's projection.

(Reporting by Edward Krudy; Editing by Alden Bentley, Leslie Adler and Phil Berlowitz)

As unofficial returns continued to roll in Sunday, state TV estimates put Sharif close to the majority needed to govern outright. Even if he falls short of that threshold, independent candidates almost certain to swing to his favor would give Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N a ruling majority.

The margin of victory over the closest competitors a party headed by former cricket star Imran Khan and the outgoing Pakistan People's Party gave Sharif's party a clear mandate to guide the country of 180 million over the next five years.

"It's clear that Nawaz Sharif will form the federal government," said political analyst Mehdi Hasan.

Supporters danced in the streets overnight in his hometown of Lahore, Pakistan's second largest city and the provincial capital of Punjab province.

Violence marred the vote in the southern port city of Karachi, the northwest and in the southwestern province of Baluchistan. At least 29 people died in election-related attacks, but people still came out in droves. Election officials said the turnout was close to 60 percent, easily eclipsing the 44 percent of voters who came to the polls in 2008.

Sharif fended off a strong challenge from Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. Khan, who led the country to victory in the 1992 cricket World Cup, had tapped into the frustrations of many Pakistani youths fed up with the country's traditional politicians.

But in the end, it was Sharif and the PML-N who emerged as the clear winners. The seat projections indicated that his party would have a much stronger grip on power than its predecessor.

Supporters in Lahore said they hoped that would bring progress after the outgoing Pakistan People's Party government, which much of the country saw as only focused on its survival.

"It will bring stability in our country," said Fayaz Ranjha. "We have voted for them, now it is their turn to take steps to end our miseries."

The 63-year-old Sharif served as prime minister twice during the nineties and oversaw Pakistan's first nuclear weapons test, but was ousted in a coup in 1999 by former chief of the army, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Sharif went into exile in Saudi Arabia and only returned to Pakistan in 2007. Even then, he was forced to sit on the sidelines as his party contested parliamentary elections after a court disqualified him from running. He had a prior criminal conviction for terrorism and hijacking stemming from Musharraf's coup Sharif was accused at the time of denying the general's plane permission to land.

The Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 2009.

Over the last five years, Sharif put steady pressure on the PPP-led government, but, wary of army interference, never enough to threaten its hold on power. This attitude helped enable parliament to complete its term and transfer power in democratic elections for the first time since the country was founded in 1947.

Sharif now faces the monumental task of governing a country with rising inflation, rolling blackouts, and a powerful Taliban insurgency.

The PML-N will also inherit a rocky relationship with neighboring Afghanistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday praised Pakistan for having carried out general elections despite the violence.

While promising "full cooperation" with Pakistan's new government, Karzai alluded to the often hostile relationship between the two countries and his suspicions that Islamabad has in the past aided insurgents and contributed to Afghanistan's instability.

"We hope that the new elected government provides the ground for peace and brotherhood with Afghanistan, and to sincerely cooperate in rooting out terrorist sanctuaries," he said.

Analysts say Sharif is likely to want to assert a stronger influence over the Pakistani military than President Asif Ali Zardari or his PPP government have, which could cause tension. Sharif's relationship with the army will be watched closely for any sign of a rift similar to the one in 1999.

He'll also be observed to see what moves if any he takes to reign in militants and deal with religious extremists who have threatened the country's stability for years. Critics say the PML-N has tolerated extremist groups in the party's stronghold of Punjab province.

"They think they cannot afford to stoke unnecessary trouble for them by cracking down on people or groups who are extremists or terrorists," said Imtiaz Gul, director of the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies. "I don't think that these guys have enough understanding of the risk."

In relations with the United States, Sharif is expected to be more nationalistic and protective of state sovereignty than the outgoing government. He defied U.S. opposition to Pakistan's nuclear test in 1998 and has criticized the Afghan conflict as "America's War."

But the often testy ties between Washington and Islamabad are not expected to change radically since Pakistan's powerful army still plays a dominant role on foreign policy issues and is eager not to lose the hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military aid.

Washington will also play a deciding role in any bailout package that Pakistan will almost certainly need from the International Monetary Fund to prop up its ailing economy.

Sharif will face a host of economic problems. Pakistanis suffer through power outages that can last 18 hours a day and extensive gas outages in the winter. Inflation has risen sharply, and foreign investment dropped.

The new government will need to address how to increase the country's tax revenue, reduce fuel subsidies and restructure ailing state-run industries, said Ashfaq Ahmed, dean of the business school of the Islamabad-based National University of Sciences and Technology.

Sharif has a track record of trying to improve ties with Pakistan's arch rival, neighboring India, and is expected to continue to work toward that while in power. A thaw in relations could improve Pakistan's economy by opening up trade with India and in the long-term by reducing the need for defense spending.

The election in many ways highlighted ethnic divisions that have plagued Pakistan since its inception in 1947.

The PML-N drew most of its strength from Punjab province. The Punjabis are the country's largest ethnic group, and the province has sometimes alienated the rest of Pakistan by its dominance in government and the military.

The PPP, a party that used to draw on nationwide support, was relegated to Sindhi-speaking areas in southern Pakistan. Khan, an ethnic Pashtun, dominated in the mostly Pashtun areas of northwestern Pakistan.

Sharif will have to work hard to show that he represents all of Pakistan, not just Punjab province.

"If there is a heavy mandate from Punjab particularly the smaller provinces will complain that Punjab is exploiting him," said the political analyst Hasan.

Khan's party was in close competition with the PPP over who would form the second-largest bloc in parliament. That's a significant gain for a party that had only ever won one national assembly seat previously.

__

Santana reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Kathy Gannon in Kabul contributed to this report.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Ohio motorists are paying more for gas this week.

A gallon of regular gas in Ohio was listed at an average of about $3.68 in Monday's survey from auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. That's 12 cents higher than last Monday's average of $3.56.

Experts say a better-than-expected jobs report last week and other factors pointed to growth, which pushed oil prices higher.

The Ohio price this week is 16 cents higher than the national average.

The state average is a dime higher than this time last month but a dime lower than at the same time in 2012.

The lowest average price in the state Monday was about $3.63 in the Akron and Canton areas.

Online:

AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report: http://fuelgaugereport.aaa.com

* According to the poll, 63 percent of Americans think that having North America free from importing oil from outside the continent is more important than reducing greenhouse gases. Thirty percent of respondents felt that reducing greenhouse gases was the priority of the two issues.

* In Canada, 55 percent selected freeing North America for imported oil as more important, while 38 percent chose addressing greenhouse gases.

* Seventy percent of Americans and 60 percent of Canadians are favorable to the idea of the Keystone pipeline, Nanos' poll revealed, with 74 and 68 percent respectively stating that they support or somewhat support proceeding with the project.

* Seventy-six percent of Americans and 66 percent of Canadians feel that a continental energy strategy should be pursued, and most of those polled from each country felt that there should be common environmental standards.

* When asked about the importance of reducing greenhouse gases separately from the issue of the Keystone XL pipeline, a majority of both Americans and Canadians felt that the issue was important.

* Eighty-eight percent of Americans feel that ensuring a stable energy supply is important, but that number drops to 60 percent in Canada.

* Eleven percent of Americans and 14 percent of Canadians expressed that reducing greenhouse gases is unimportant.

* The survey, which was conducted randomly on 1,007 Americans and 1,013 Canadians in late March and early April, is in sharp contrast to reports of thousands of Americansagainst the Keystone pipeline.

* According to the Houston Chronicle, 60,000 people have stated that they will risk arrest to fight the pipeline.

* Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agencyto the U.S. State Department, urging the department to do a more thorough analysis of the risks of oil spills and alternative pipeline routes, in addition to a study of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the pipeline.

* A State Department draft report of the $7 billion pipeline project in March indicated that it will not create environmental impacts, the Associated Press reported.

Washington (Reuters) - Tanning beds and sunlamps will be required to carry stronger warning labels under new regulations proposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is also recommending the machines not be used by people under the age of 18.

The FDA said on Monday that it plans to reclassify sunbeds from low-risk to moderate-risk products, meaning they will need to be cleared by the agency before being allowed onto the market.

Faulty equipment has led to patients being burned or exposed to too much radiation, Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA's center for devices and radiological health, said in an interview.

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Basal cell and squamous cell cancer, the two most common forms, are generally curable; but melanoma, the third most common type, is deadly.

In 2009, the most recent year numbers are available, 61,646 people in the United States were diagnosed with melanoma and 9,199 people died, according to the CDC.

The FDA's proposed regulations stop short of recommendations made by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, which in 2009 concluded that commercial tanning devices were more dangerous than previously thought and recommended people under 18 be banned from using them.

The FDA's regulations also stop short of new rules being developed by some U.S. states.

More than 30 states regulate the use of tanning facilities to differing degrees. Delaware, New Hampshire and North Dakota, for example, ban the use of indoor tanning by anyone under age 14 unless medically necessary and they require parental consent for those between the ages of 14 and 18.

Some states, including Georgia, Illinois and Maine, ban tanning beds for children under the age of 14, and eighteen states require tanning bed operators to limit exposure time to a manufacturers' recommendations and provide eye protection.

In January 2012, California became the first state to ban tanning beds for all people under 18.

The Indoor Tanning Association argues vigorously that the decision on whether a teen is allowed to suntan is one for parents, not government, and it supports parental consent. But it is fighting the growing number of states issuing bans.

"Is the next step to ban teens from sun bathing at public beaches and pools?" the association asked in a statement last year in opposition to New Jersey's proposal to ban tanning bed use for those under 17.

"You also have to consider the health risks associated with banning teenagers from using tanning salons," it said. "They will just go outside with no adult supervision and no trained staff where they are much more likely to get sunburned."

The FDA's actions follow a 2010 meeting of a federal advisory panel which unanimously recommended that the agency reclassify tanning devices. Panelists had mixed views on whether to implement a ban on minors.

An estimated 5.6 percent of U.S. adults reported indoor tanning at least once in 2010, with the highest rates among white, female 18 to 25-year-olds, according to the CDC, which notes that frequent exposure to UV rays for people under the age of 35 increases the risk of developing melanoma by 75 percent.

"For right now our proposal tries to focus on providing better information for consumers," Shuren said, "including a warning on the tanning beds themselves that they shouldn't be used in people under 18," he said.

Depending on the feedback the agency receives to its proposal, it may make changes to the final order, he said.

(Reporting By Toni Clarke in Washington; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

"In my opinion," the former Dolphins quarterback said, "every Super Bowl should be here."

Instead, the NFL championship game might not return to Miami for a long time. Last week the Dolphins were denied public money for a stadium upgrade by the state Legislature, which removes South Florida from serious contention for the 50th Super Bowl and perhaps subsequent NFL and college title games as well.

The defeat in Tallahassee also raises questions about the future of the Dolphins under multibillionaire owner Stephen Ross. He contends $350 million in stadium improvements are badly needed, but he's unwilling to foot the entire bill himself, and ruled out a less expensive, scaled-down renovation.

The Dolphins say they're already heavily in debt and one of the NFL's most leveraged teams, making upgrades impossible without taxpayer help.

"I don't think there is a clear alternative at this point," chief executive officer Mike Dee said. "I don't think there is a road to a Plan B without legislative action in Tallahassee."

Ross, 72, hasn't indicated any desire to bring aboard a co-owner to help finance a stadium project. He hasn't threatened to move the Dolphins, and it's unlikely the league would abandon South Florida, with several NFL franchises in smaller markets more logical candidates for relocation to Los Angeles or elsewhere.

The Dolphins could try again next year for legislative approval, but they may have burned that bridge with their criticism of House Speaker Will Weatherford, who killed the plan by not putting it up for a vote.

"He'll still be the speaker of the House next year," Dee said, "and I don't see him changing his opinion."

The stadium owned by Ross opened in 1987, and the Dolphins have argued upgrades are essential to keep Miami competitive in Super Bowl bidding. The city has hosted the game 10 times, and Miami and San Francisco are finalists for the 50th Super Bowl in 2016.

"The House leadership has made our efforts to bring the Super Bowl back to Miami and South Florida much more difficult," said Rodney Barreto, chairman of the South Florida Super Bowl Host Committee.

Without legislative approval, the Dolphins were unable to go forward with a planned May 14 referendum on the issue in Miami-Dade County. The team had sought up to $289 million from an increase in the county hotel tax, and up to $90 million in state sales tax rebates. The bill would have also allowed other professional sports teams in Florida to compete for a share of state tax dollars.

The referendum outcome was uncertain, with opponents complaining the plan constituted corporate welfare. The Dolphins had already spent millions in campaign money, with such former players as Marino, Bob Griese and Jason Taylor lobbying on their behalf, arguing voter approval would significantly strengthen Miami's Super Bowl bid.

Now San Francisco's the heavy favorite when NFL owners choose the host city May 21. The site of the 2017 Super Bowl will also be chosen, with owners selecting either the runner-up city for the 2016 game or Houston.

"This is not the stadium we had hoped we could include in the bid," Dee said. "But we will be there when the NFL owners vote, and we'll put our best foot forward."

Houston Texans owner Bob McNair said his city won't become complacent about its chances of hosting the 2017 game.

"Certainly what happened doesn't help Miami's bid. There's no doubt about that," McNair said. "But that doesn't say that the owners couldn't decide to still go to Miami."

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said stadium upgrades would help keep Miami competitive in Super Bowl bidding. He visited Tallahassee last week and lobbied legislators to pass the Dolphins' bill.

The league declined to comment Monday on the stadium situation.

Miami has hosted the Super Bowl 10 times, most recently in 2010, and league owners love the destination. But the multipurpose stadium can't compete with more modern NFL counterparts.

Joe Robbie built the stadium with his own money for $115 million, and former owner Wayne Huizenga spent $250 million on renovations in 2007. The latest improvements envisioned included adding about 3,600 seats close to the field, along with a partial canopy roof to shield fans from sun and rain.

Now those plans are in limbo. Might Ross seek to move the franchise?

"He has said he will not, and he stands by that," Dee said. "Long-term for a subsequent owner, without a solution to this, the prospects are challenging in Miami-Dade County."

Does Ross want to sell the team?

"I don't think that's where he is today," Dee said. "But this is still raw. He loves this team. He loves the community. But long-term, the prospects are uncertain."

In a statement released after last week's legislative defeat, Ross said nothing about selling or moving.

"I will continue to do all I can," he said, "to build a winning team for the people of Miami-Dade."

___

AP Sports Writer Kristie Rieken in Houston contributed to this report.

___

Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

DONIPHAN, Mo. (AP) -- Officials with Exxon Mobil Corp. have repaired an oil pipeline in southeast Missouri, where a leak was discovered earlier this week.

A resident near Doniphan, Mo., found oil leaking in his yard Tuesday. All told, about one barrel roughly 42 gallons of crude oil leaked from the Pegasus pipeline. The cause remains under investigation.

The repair was completed Friday.

The pipeline running from Illinois to Texas already was out of service after a much larger breach in Arkansas in March, but that doesn't mean there wasn't oil inside.

About 5,000 barrels of oil spilled in March. The cause of that leak also is being investigated.

Kirstine Stewart, the CBC's executive vice-president of English services, will leave immediately and a recruitment process for her replacement has been launched.

Stewart, an avid Twitter user herself, said she was named managing director of Twitter Canada and will remain in Toronto to open Twitter's first offices in the country.

"It is a fact of life in a competitive, creative business that when you have great people, others will try to entice them away with big opportunities," CBC Chief Executive Hubert Lacroix said in a statement announcing the departure.

CBC has struggled to maintain its programming, particularly in television, since the federal government slashed its funding by 10 percent last year.

While the CBC does get some revenue from commercial advertising, it relies heavily on government funding to produce its English- and French-language television, radio and online content.

Twitter has hired Stewart, one of the most influential executives in Canadian media, at a time when it is aggressively courting the traditional media industry as part of its growth strategy.

The San Francisco-based social media company, which makes money by selling advertising, has sought deals with television producers and marketers to encourage TV viewers to discuss programming and ads on Twitter. That, in turn, could help drive up ratings for broadcasters.

Many popular TV programs, for instance, display "hashtags" that tell users how to chat with other viewers on Twitter while they simultaneously watch the show.

"It's a very symbiotic partnership that Twitter can have with broadcasters," Stewart said by telephone on Monday. "I'm looking forward to starting our office and looking for those partnerships, those opportunities. Twitter's unique position is in that conversation around content."

The company, which is widely expected to hold a public stock offering within the next two years, will make just shy of $600 million in revenue this year, according an estimate by research firm eMarketer.

(Reporting by Alastair Sharp in Toronto and Gerry Shih in San Francisco; Editing by Peter Galloway and Carol Bishopric)

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Brussels and Washington are the two great lobbying capitals of the world, where campaigners talk themselves hoarse trying to shift the political dial.

Some of them have had the fortune to recruit British director and screenwriter Richard Curtis, whose powers of persuasion move hearts as well as minds.

Known for his romantic comedies, such as "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Notting Hill", Curtis has turned his hand to a didactic tragedy - "Mary and Martha" - being screened across the globe to coincide with world malaria day on April 25.

"You could take a simple story and take it straight into the heart of politics," he told a Brussels audience of lobbyists, politicians and representatives of the European Commission.

"Mary and Martha" tells the story of two mothers, one American (played by Hilary Swank), one British (played by Brenda Blethyn), who lose their sons to malaria then lobby Washington politicians to try to prevent other mothers losing their children too.

For the developed world, theirs is an exceptional tragedy. In Africa, death from malaria is a daily occurrence. The continent accounts for the vast majority of the well over half a million annual deaths from a preventable and treatable disease.

Curtis, who wrote the screenplay, is appalled that a quirk of geography can be so unjust.

"If 650,000 children in Europe were going to die this year of one disease - if it were only 6,000 - everything would be stopped to do something," he said. "I can't understand why this tiny bit of geography should make it not matter."

Brussels says it is listening.

European Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs met Curtis and said the European Commission would honor a pledge of 330 million euros ($430 million) for the Global Fund, set up by world leaders to tackle malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis.

But after the current funding period, 2011-2013, there might be "a lower budget than expected", Piebalgs said in a speech.

Over the coming weeks, EU member states and parliament are likely to freeze development spending - meaning a real-term cut - when they sign off on a seven-year financing plan for 2014-20 agreed after lengthy and difficult talks.

Curtis has a long track record in combining worthy causes with making people laugh. He helped to found British charity Comic Relief, set up in response to famine in Ethiopia in 1985.

Comic Relief, uses humor to raise funds to tackle poverty and social injustice and Curtis told his Brussels audience his foray into tragic script-writing did not mean he had given up on comedy.

"I have been getting more reflective as I get older, but I hope I have a couple of jokes in me too," he said.

($1 = 0.7674 euros)

(Additional reporting by Charlie Dunmore, editing by Paul Casciato)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Every dog has its day, and for Afghan pooch Aiden, today is for dancing lessons while cats Lucky and Missy are legally guaranteed their nightly shrimp dinners according to their owner's last testament.

These are just a few of the "Spoiled Rotten Pets," a new television series that dives into the world of fawning pet owners who outfit rats in formal wear and pamper Burmese pythons like princes.

The series, which will debut on U.S. cable network Nat Geo Wild on Saturday, follows host Beth Stern as she meets devoted pet owners who go above and beyond spoiling their pets - a venture the network's chief, Geoff Daniels, said was not so hard to find.

"This is about saying that this is more pervasive that anybody thinks," Daniels, executive vice president for Nat Geo Wild, a sister network of the Natural Geographic Channel, told Reuters.

"The show is about colorful and relatable people," he added. "Everybody knows someone like this or does something for their pets to this degree."

Indeed, as the series seeks out the over-the-top pet owner, it also shows they are not alone. After all, there is a thriving market for their spoils of clothing and comfort.

New York resident Cynthia takes time to iron the countless dresses and sweaters that her Yorkie, Toto, wears every day.

"Toto is spoiled," Cynthia says. "I want to do everything possible that I can to make sure that Toto is happy and healthy."

But Toto also has her own psychic, who cautions that the toy-sized dog feels trapped in her fashionable threads.

"She wants to run naked on the beach," pyschic Madrette says while reading Toto's paw print.

"Just once in a while, make sure that she feels that she's being put first ... I think she would really like a mommy-and-me day," Madrette says in her final analysis.

'PIG-TICIANS' AND 'BARK MITZVAHS'

"It's really interesting to see how these people put their pet care above their own," Daniels said. "You consistently get the sense that there's nothing too great for these animals if you see them as family and friends."

Enter Dave and Jennifer, who drop off pet pigs Wilma and Pebbles at a nearby "pig spa" for the night, which will be the couple's first night without them in eight years.

Wilma and Pebbles get the five-star treatment, like Chinese massage from a "pig-tician," while Dave and Jennifer have a quiet but uneasy night as empty-nesters.

Not to be outdone, Diane from upstate New York keeps her 10 rats on a strict vegan diet while spoiling newcomer Vinnie with a special first birthday party where he gets his own tuxedo.

"It's one thing about spoiling dogs and cats, but we're talking pigs and donkeys and rats and tortoises," Daniels said.

Religion also gets its due when New Jersey couple David and Donna give their Pomeranian dog, Sophia, a "bark mitzvah," a canine take on the Jewish coming-of-age bar mitzvah ceremony.

"She's my daughter so I feel like I'm going to do whatever it takes to make her happy," says Donna.

More than 70 guests, including dogs, attend the ceremony under a tent in the couple's yard. But it is not the first bark mitzvah for the rabbi, who says she has done the same for the dogs of comedians Joan Rivers and Roseanne Barr.

Daniels said Nat Geo Wild sees "Spoiled Rotten Pets" as adding a lighter touch to its wildlife-heavy programming, which attracts many more male viewers.

"We are really trying to transform our offerings and bring in more women, especially," Daniels said. "We're looking for differentiation in the marketplace and a more balanced demographic."

Nat Geo Wild is owned by the National Geographic Society and News Corp.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Sandra Maler)