May 11, 2012 (Verizon Spectrum Deal; Senate Cybersecurity Bill))

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, MAY 11, 2012

A look at next week’s agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2012-05-13--P1W/

OWNERSHIP
   Public Knowledge wants details of Verizon-cable research project
   Facebook Instagram deal delay threat
   Why Would the Feds Investigate the Facebook-Instagram Deal?
   Committee to look at Microsoft competition allegations
   Verizon shareholders vote down network neutrality proposal
   Google Preps for Possible FTC Fight
   MetroPCS and T-Mobile: Oh My, What an Ugly Baby
   Simple purchase shores up Slim’s US presence
   AT&T Drunk Dials the FCC - editorial

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Government asks: when can we shut down wireless service?
   Sen Franken presses Justice Department to explain phone-tracking practices
   Hill Staffers Get a Primer on Cloud Technology [links to web]

PRIVACY
FTC Chair Open to Giving Kids Eraser Option
California Assembly votes to keep Facebook passwords private from employers [links to web]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
Civil liberties groups urge rejection of White House-supported cyber bill
Hill Staffers Get a Primer on Cloud Technology [links to web]

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   Public Knowledge wants details of Verizon-cable research project
   US phone subscribers hang up on contracts
   AT&T CEO Complains That Regulatory Logjam Stymies Deals
   What’s Costliest Part of Smartphone? Hint: It’s Not the Display [links to web]
   Sprint has big plans for small cells [links to web]
   MetroPCS and T-Mobile: Oh My, What an Ugly Baby
   Simple purchase shores up Slim’s US presence

CONTENT
   Google, Alert: Bing Wants "To Model Every Object On The Planet," Reinvent Search
   Bloggers Discuss Barack Obama’s dating Life [links to web]
   Internet Radio On The Rise [links to web]

TELEVISION
New DVR Wipes Out Ads
TV Broadcasters Warn of Huge Industry Shakeup If Barry Diller's Aereo Isn't Stopped

POLICYMAKERS
   New FCC Commissioners Still Waiting on White House Paperwork
   Two New FCC Commissioners Approved by the Senate - What Does It Mean for Broadcasters? - analysis
   Tech activists target Lamar Smith for sponsoring SOPA

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Apple, supplier Foxconn to share costs on improving factories
   New deal to cut EU mobile roaming prices, including data services - press release
   Murdoch Press Takes Its Revenge On David Cameron
   News Corp.’s hacking tab so far this year: $167 Million
   Former Tabloid Editor Says There Was 'No Quid Pro Quo' With Government
   Brooks says Blair was ‘constant presence’
   Egyptian Candidates Clash in TV Debate, an Arab First [links to web]

COMPANY NEWS
Facebook launches an app center [links to web]
Facebook and Yahoo: A Tale of Two Internet Pioneers [links to web]

MORE ONLINE
Technology Industry Seen Growing Fastest in New York [links to web]
Retired Justice’s Online Game Teaches Civics [links to web]

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OWNERSHIP

PK WANTS VERIZON-CABLE DETAILS MADE PUBLIC
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
Consumer group Public Knowledge asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to publicly reveal details about Verizon's plan to launch a joint research operation with a group of cable companies. The research project is part of a $3.6 billion deal between Verizon and cable companies Comcast, Time Warner, Bright House and Cox, who agreed to pool their resources to research new technologies. The deal would also allow Verizon to buy wireless airwave licenses from the cable companies, and the companies agreed to cross-sell each other's services. Public Knowledge argues that the planned joint research project could be the first step toward a cartel of the major video, Internet and wireless providers. The public interest group already has access to confidential information that Verizon and the cable companies submitted to the FCC for its investigation. But in the new filing, Public Knowledge argued that the companies should publicly reveal some of those documents. The group said the public should have access to the "basic governance structure" of the joint research project. "The governance structure of the [Joint Operating Entity] is neither highly confidential nor confidential, but is critical to assessing the public interest impacts of the proposed transactions; understanding the connections between the Applicants’ spectrum, marketing, resale, and JOE agreements; and determining whether the JOE will establish the basis for a future cartel between its members," Public Knowledge wrote.
benton.org/node/122880 | Hill, The | see the filing
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FTC INVESTIGATING FACEBOOK-INSTAGRAM?
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: April Dembosky]
A competition probe into Facebook’s $1 billion acquisition of photo-sharing service Instagram threatens to postpone the closure of the deal beyond the second quarter, the target set by the company in its initial public offering documents. The Federal Trade Commission has launched the investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter, and has already begun collecting information from at least two of the social network’s largest competitors. The process could also further slow Facebook’s already lagging mobile strategy.
benton.org/node/122916 | Financial Times
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WHY INVESTIGATE FACEBOOK-INSTAGRAM?
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Somini Sengupta]
If the Federal Trade Commission is investigating Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram, what does it mean? It could add a new wrinkle to Silicon Valley’s biggest and most anticipated public offering. The Federal Trade Commission always investigates acquisitions of over $66 million. The agency has 30 days to conduct an initial review to make sure the deal does not break anti-competition laws. Some deals are picked for closer scrutiny. It isn’t yet clear whether this deal was. More to the point, how can it be anti-competitive? Instagram, after all, is one of several photo-sharing applications, even for mobile devices. By buying Instagram, at face value, Facebook does not seem to hurt the consumer’s ability to choose to use any of the others. But there is another theory on which antitrust matters can be based. The government could also be interested in whether a company is killing off a potential rival by swallowing it up. Facebook today is the dominant social network, and it commands the lion’s share of advertising in the social network market. Instagram had no advertisements, but it could have one day started to attract advertisements. That would have meant real competition for Facebook, especially on mobile devices, where the social network has been unable to, by its own admission, generate “meaningful revenue.”
benton.org/node/122940 | New York Times | Reuters
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MICROSOFT UNCOMPETITIVE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Andrew Feinberg, Brendan Sasso]
Senate Judiciary Committee staffers plan to take a look at allegations that Microsoft has made it difficult for competing Web browsers to run on a certain version of Windows, an aide to Antitrust subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl (D-WI) said. The Mozilla Foundation, which makes the Firefox browser, and Google have accused Microsoft of hindering their browsers' ability to run on Windows devices with ARM processors, which are popular in mobile phones. They say that only Microsoft's Explorer browser is able to run on the devices.
benton.org/node/122915 | Hill, The
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VERIZON SHAREHOLDERS VOTE DOWN NETWORK NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Andrew Feinberg]
Verizon shareholders voted overwhelmingly against a proxy question that would have required the company to apply network neutrality principles to its growing wireless network. The proposal, which was pushed by the Open Media and Information Companies Initiative (Open MIC), was only supported by 7.9 percent of the votes from shareholders who either voted at the company's annual meeting or via mail by proxy. But Open MIC executive director Michael Connor told The Hill that the vote was just the first step in educating shareholders about net neutrality. "These are multi-year efforts. It doesn't happen overnight," he said. He noted that the vote cleared the 3 percent threshold necessary to ensure the issue can appear on the ballot again next year. Verizon's board had publicly opposed the proposal, telling the Securities and Exchange Commission "[t]his proposal would substantially interfere with the technical operation of Verizon's wireless broadband network and have a wide-ranging and significant impact on Verizon's business and operations" by preventing the company from engaging in "reasonable network management."
benton.org/node/122913 | Hill, The
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GOOGLE PREPS FOR FIGHT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Brent Kendall]
Amid signs the Federal Trade Commission is ratcheting up its investigation of Google, the search giant is returning fire by stepping up a public relations campaign to make the case that its activities don't violate antitrust law. The company provided financial backing for two papers released this week in which third-party lawyers and economists laid out a legal defense of Google's business practices and blasted possible action by the FTC. The essays—one published on a popular legal blog, the other posted on a social-science research site—provide a likely preview of the company's legal strategy should the agency choose to bring an antitrust lawsuit. "These issues are being publicly debated and we thought these scholars' thoughts were a worthwhile contribution to the discussion," said company spokesman Adam Kovacevich. Also this week, the National Taxpayers Union, a conservative advocacy group, sent the FTC a letter signed by 101 economists that criticized the agency's antitrust enforcement policies and its Google investigation as a threat to the economy.
benton.org/node/122938 | Wall Street Journal
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METROPCS-T/MOBILE?
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: John Paczkowski]
Consolidation among the smaller U.S. wireless carriers might be inevitable as larger telecoms look to bolster their spectrum amid insatiable demand for wireless data services, but some mergers just don’t make sense. And according to a number of analysts a merger of Metro PCS and Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Mobile is one of them. While the rumored marriage of the two carriers would certainly result in a larger subscriber base, a more robust infrastructure and a nice combined swath of spectrum, there are other considerations that make the combination a bit dubious. And though chatter about a potential deal may have cheered some investors, it’s turning the stomachs of others. To wit, Bernstein Research’s Craig Moffett’s take on a T-Mobile/Metro PCS merger, which begins with an exclamation that pretty much says it all: “Oh my, what an ugly baby.” Moffet’s opinion is that combing two wireless weaklings just leaves you with a bigger weakling, particularly if they rely on different network technologies, as T-Mobile and Metro PC do. T-Mobile’s network is GSM. MetroPCS’s is CDMA. In other words, a combination of the two is not a solution to either company’s problems, at least until they meet on LTE.
benton.org/node/122935 | Wall Street Journal
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SLIM BUYS SIMPLE
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Adam Thomson]
América Móvil, Latin America’s largest telecoms operator by subscribers, plans to broaden its presence in the US market by purchasing a California-based mobile operator, marking its second acquisition announcement this week. The purchase of Simple Mobile, which is owned by Deutsche Telekom’s American subsidiary T-Mobile USA, should deepen América Móvil’s already solid growth in the US. In a filing to Mexico’s stock market, América Móvil, controlled by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, said that Tracfone Wireless, its US subsidiary, had agreed to buy 100 percent of Simple Mobile. The company did not say how much it would pay, but analysts said the price was unlikely to exceed US$350 million. América Móvil now has 246 million mobile subscribers and operates in 18 countries throughout the Americas. Analysts say that its buying spree resulted from the combination of the increasing difficulty of finding new acquisitions in Latin America and a very low debt levels. The Simple Mobile deal would hand Slim more than 1 million additional customers in the world’s largest economy, boosting Tracfone’s existing 20 million subscribers.
benton.org/node/122927 | Financial Times
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DRUNK DIALING THE FCC
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Brendan Greeley]
[Commentary] Look, we know you’re there, commission, and we know you’re screening, and whatever, but just … just listen, O.K.? O.K.? This is important. We, you, it was so good. It was so good, commission. Remember when you came to Orlando last year, and you were all talking about spectrum crunch, and we were all “Omigod, we’ve been talking about spectrum crunch, too,” and you were all “I know,” and we were all “I know.” Do you remember that? Well, clearly you don’t. Because we were having an O.K. time in New Orleans, even though things have not been great with us since, you know, since that GERMAN THING, we thought O.K. O.K. If the commission wants to talk, it can talk. That’s totally fair. And then you get up there, you. … I’m sorry. I’m sorry. This is hard. You just get up there, and YOU DIDN’T MENTION SPECTRUM CRUNCH ONCE.
benton.org/node/122907 | Bloomberg
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

CAN GOVERNMENTS SHUT DOWN WIRELESS NETWORKS?
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
Nine months ago, a tremendous controversy began with a simple e-mail: "Gentlemen, The BART Police require the M-Line wireless from the Trans Bay Tube Portal to the Balboa Park Station, to be shut down today between 4 pm & 8," wrote Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) construction supervisor Dirk Peter on August 11, 2011. (The Transbay Tube runs beneath the Bay, moving people to and from San Francisco; Balboa Park is a residential city neighborhood.) "Steve," the note continued, "please help to notify all carriers."
The message was addressed to Steve Dutto of Forzatelecom, a wireless project management company situated across the Bay in Oakland. BART requested the wireless network shutdown in response to an expected station demonstration that day to protest the killings of Oscar Grant and Charles Hill by BART officers a few days earlier. Two hours and fifteen minutes after sending the e-mail, BART had its answer. "We have been told that we must shut down the DAS system from the Oakland portal to the Balboa St. Station [in San Francisco] from 4-8 pm," Dutto wrote back, referring to BART's radio system for amplifying mobile signals through tunnels. "We do not believe that any of the carriers need to do anything, the nodes will be turned down from the Civic Center Headend [near San Francisco City Hall] and then turned back up when given the ok from the BART police."
benton.org/node/122893 | Ars Technica
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FRANKEN ASKS JUSTICE ABOUT PHONE-TRACKING
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) asked the Justice Department on Thursday to explain its practices for gathering data on people's cellphone locations. In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Sen Franken asked how often the Justice Department requests that wireless carriers turn over the location data of their customers and what legal standard the department believes should apply. Sen Franken said that police who obtain location records from wireless carriers might be "working around" a recent Supreme Court's decision. "I was further concerned to learn that in many cases, these agencies appear to be obtaining precise records of individuals’ past and current movements from carriers without first obtaining a warrant for this information," Franken wrote. "I think that these actions may violate the spirit if not the letter of the Jones decision." Sen Franken asked AG Holder to explain how the Supreme Court's decision affects the gathering of cellphone data and whether the Justice Department's practices have changed since the ruling. He requested that the Justice Department respond within one month.
benton.org/node/122911 | Hill, The
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PRIVACY

FTC AND KIDS’ PRIVACY
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz said he was open to a proposal to give children a way to delete personal information that they post on Facebook or other online sites. Reps. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Joe Barton (R-TX) have introduced legislation that would require online firms to give children and their parents a way, when technologically feasible, to erase publicly available information online and would limit companies from collecting personal information about kids 15 and younger. The bill also requires parental consent before companies can collect data from teens and bars firms from using personal data about children and teens for marketing purposes. The FTC hasn't taken a stand on the legislation. But Leibowitz said it wasn't a bad idea. "As we all know, teens are tech savvy and judgment poor," he said during a discussion on social media and kids privacy sponsored by Common Sense Media. The forum examined the impact of the explosive use of new forms of media on children's health and their well-being. At the event, some experts voiced concern not only about the amount of time children spend in front of computers, mobile phones and other kinds of screens but also with the personal information they share while on those devices.
benton.org/node/122910 | National Journal
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

OPPOSITION TO SENATE CYBERSECURITY BILL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
A coalition of civil liberties groups urged the Senate to reject the White House's preferred cybersecurity bill, which is sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Susan Collins (R-Maine). The American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and others warned that the Lieberman-Collins Cybersecurity Act would allow military spy agencies to gain access to people's personal information. The coalition also included free-market groups such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the American Conservative Union and Americans for Limited Government. The Lieberman-Collins bill gives the Homeland Security Department a central role in overseeing the flow of information, but the bill would still allow the Homeland Security Department to authorize spy agencies to collect civilian data. The groups criticized the bill for allowing the government to use the information for criminal investigations unrelated to cybersecurity. They also said the bill's immunity provisions are overly broad. "Therefore, we urge you to oppose S. 2105 in its current form and to support amendments to address each of these fundamental civil liberties issues," the groups wrote.
benton.org/node/122896 | Hill, The
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

CELL PHONE CONTRACTS
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Peter Svensson]
US consumers have had their fill of expensive, contract-based phone plans. Figures from T-Mobile USA, added to earlier reports from other companies, indicate that the U.S. wireless industry lost subscribers from contract-based plans for the first time in the first quarter. Contract-based plans are the most lucrative ones for phone companies. The industry default over the past several decades, they account for the vast majority of revenue at the big phone companies. The seven largest U.S. phone companies, representing more than 95 percent of the market, lost a combined 52,000 subscribers from contract-based plans in the January to March period, according to a tally by the Associated Press. Since nearly every adult, and many children and teenagers, already have phones, there's little room for growth anymore. But subscribers are also flowing to cheaper, no-contract plans, which showed an increase of at least 2 million. That figure, however, is down from more than 5 million in the same quarter a year ago.
benton.org/node/122878 | Associated Press
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AT&T COMPLAINS
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Scott Moritz, Alex Sherman]
AT&T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson said Washington needs to figure out how to clear a regulatory logjam that’s hampering wireless growth and forcing companies to raise prices. The industry is waiting for the Federal Communications Commission to decide on Verizon Wireless’s proposed $3.6 billion partnership with cable companies, including Comcast. The review of that agreement, announced in December, is holding up related deals for spectrum by AT&T and others, Stephenson said. “The industry is just kind of stuck and we’re all sitting here watching Verizon-Comcast waiting to see what happens,” Stephenson said. “You have got to make sure we put spectrum in the market. They need to become liquid spectrum markets.” Stephenson said that distributing spectrum among competitors who can’t use it efficiently doesn’t help. The government either has to let companies pool their spectrum or risk pushing underperforming companies out of business, he said. “The industry is going to consolidate whether you like it or not,” he said. “If you don’t allow consolidation, some companies will go away.”
benton.org/node/122934 | Bloomberg
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CONTENT

BING REVAMP
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: EB Boyd]
Bing announced a revamp of its front end, to make its search results more useful for users. But what's much more interesting is what's happening on the back end, underneath the hood, as Microsoft re-architects how the data used for search results is collected, stored, and repurposed. "We decided we needed to reinvent search,” Bing director Stefan Weitz tells Fast Company. Is that all? When Google was created over a decade ago, the Internet was basically a set of pages. Google's innovation was to develop a system that would locate what pages existed on the Internet and then determine how relevant each was to specific keywords. For that, it created an architecture of "indexing” and "ranking” pages. Thus was Google's famous search algorithm born. Bing, however, believes the approach of indexing and ranking pages is no longer sufficient. Helping people find answers shouldn't just be about pointing you to documents elsewhere and making you do the work of clicking over and figuring out if they have the information you need. Instead, Bing thinks search should be more about helping you get things done right in the search results themselves. In cases where they can reasonably predict what you're trying to accomplish, search should provide widgets in the results that let you get the job done. For example, if you enter the keywords "The Avengers Chicago,” it's reasonable to assume you're looking for movie show times. Why not post a list of show times right in the results, instead of making you click over to a page of moving listings?
benton.org/node/122884 | Fast Company | CNNMoney
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TELEVISION

TV WITHOUT ADS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Shalini Ramachandran]
Commercial-free prime-time shows—the Holy Grail of TV watchers—has come to Dish Network. And it's likely to wreak holy havoc. On May 10, the satellite-TV operator began offering its customers a DVR feature that allows viewers to completely avoid commercials—rather than just fast-forward through ads, as the old model digital-video recorders do. The new "Auto Hop" feature comes on a DVR dubbed the "Hopper," a device that has been available to subscribers since March. With Auto Hop, viewers see a black screen momentarily where the ads were broadcast, or a glimpse of the first frame of the first commercial. Then the show resumes. Consumers merely have to click an on-screen Auto Hop button before a show to enable the feature. The "Hopper" DVR costs Dish subscribers $10 a month in addition to a $99 upfront fee. Dish also offers a less-expensive traditional DVR with no upfront charge and a $6 monthly fee. The "Hopper" is made by Echostar, which like Dish is controlled by satellite-TV pioneer Charlie Ergen. The feature is available on recordings of nationally broadcast prime-time programs aired on Walt Disney's ABC, CBS Corp's CBS, News Corp.'s Fox and Comcast Corp's NBC but watched after 1 a.m. the day after they air. Dish is the third biggest pay-TV distributor, with more than 14 million subscribers, trailing Comcast and DirecTV.
benton.org/node/122930 | Wall Street Journal
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REACTION TO AEREO
[SOURCE: Hollywood Reporter, AUTHOR: Eriq Gardner]
All of the major TV broadcasters are fighting a legal battle against Aereo, an upstart company backed by Barry Diller that seeks to distribute stations online to paying customers. If Aereo is successful in fending off the lawsuit, will cable and satellite distributors shake up their own approach to delivering TV to consumers? Matt Bond, executive vp content distribution at NBCUniversal, told a New York federal court that the answer is an unequivocal yes. "It makes little economic sense for cable systems and satellite broadcasters to continue to pay for NBCU content on a per-subscriber basis when, with a relatively modest investment, they can simply modify their operations to mirror Aereo's 'individual antenna' scheme and retransmit, for free, over-the-air local broadcast programming," Bond says in a declaration. "I know for a fact that cable companies have already considered such a model."
benton.org/node/122928 | Hollywood Reporter
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POLICYMAKERS

FCC COMMISSIONERS WAIT
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
When will the two new Federal Communications Commission commissioners be sworn in? Apparently, they are still waiting on the White House to finish the paperwork. After that, they can be sworn in and get to work. Frequently the chairman does the swearing in at the FCC, but not necessarily. In the case of Genachowski as chairman, it was at the Supreme Court by Justice David Souter, for whom Genachowski had clerked.
benton.org/node/122894 | Broadcasting&Cable
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WHAT NEW FCC COMMISSIONERS MEAN TO BROADCASTING
[SOURCE: Broadcast Law Blog, AUTHOR: David Oxenford]
The Senate approved, after months of delay, the nominations as new FCC Commissioners of Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel and Republican Ajit Pai. So what do these nominations mean for broadcasters? Probably, not much in the immediate term. With the two new Commissioners being added to the FCC, the balance of power remains in favor of the Democrats. But, as we have seen over the years, most Commission decisions aren't decided on a partisan basis - in fact most are unanimous. In the recent past, there are a few decisions where the Commission has been somewhat divided, with Republican Robert McDowell tending to take a somewhat more deregulatory position, as in connection with the recent ruling on online public inspection files for TV stations. But party affiliation is not necessarily a guide to a Commissioner's positions, as many of the proposals for broadcast re-regulation first arose during the Republican administration of FCC Chairman Kevin Martin (see, for instance, the proposals for localism regulation and the original proposal for an online public file adopted in 2007). Having a full Commission does, however, sometimes lead to a more thorough vetting of controversial issues.
benton.org/node/122860 | Broadcast Law Blog
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SOPA BACKLASH
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Michelle Quinn]
In the Lone Star State, the Stop Online Piracy Act is a pesky fly that Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) can’t swat dead. Rep Smith faces a new alliance of political action committee opposition from tech-sector activists who want to get back at him for sponsoring the anti-piracy bill by derailing his reelection. In the next 20 days, the group intends to pool resources, as much as $500,000, and campaign against Rep Smith in his congressional district, which includes parts of San Antonio and Austin. The Texas Republican Party primary is May 29. The Alliance for Internet Freedom includes eight technology-related PACs, an organizer for the group said. And there are other PACs joining the group that are attacking Rep Smith for his positions on other issues. Some have not endorsed a Smith opponent. “This is a coordinated effort,” said Michael Hendrix, chairman of Americans for Internet Freedom, one of the PACs involved. “Once you see the resources we have and take it as a whole, we have a really good shot.”
benton.org/node/122932 | Politico
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

APPLE-FOXCONN IMPROVING FACTORIES
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: John Ruwitch]
Apple and its key supplier Foxconn Technology Group will share the initial costs of improving labor conditions at the Chinese factories that assemble iPhones and iPads, Foxconn's top executive said. Foxconn chief Terry Gou did not give a figure for the costs, but the group has been spending heavily to fight a perception its vast plants in China are sweatshops with poor conditions for its million-strong labor force. It regards the criticism as unfair.
benton.org/node/122875 | Reuters
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EU ROAMING PRICES
[SOURCE: European Parliament, AUTHOR: Press release]
The cost of using mobile phones, smartphones and tablets when travelling abroad within the European Union will fall sharply from 1 July this year, under an agreement with the Council endorsed by Parliament. The new rules will also enable clients to buy roaming services from suppliers other than their home service suppliers and open up the market to new entrants, so as to boost competition and thus reduce prices. The proposal will enter into force on 1 July 2012, replacing the 2007 regulation, which expires on 30 June 2012.
benton.org/node/122862 | European Parliament
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MURDOCH REVENGE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Estelle Shirbon]
Embarrassed by revelations of how he cozied up to Rupert Murdoch's scandal-hit British newspaper group, Prime Minister David Cameron has now lost what the relationship was supposed to deliver: support from the Murdoch press. Recent hostility towards Cameron in the Sun, Britain's most-read newspaper, and its upmarket stablemate the Times, is widely seen as linked to Murdoch's anger over Cameron's handling of the phone-hacking debacle at his now-defunct News of the World. Politicians from both of Britain's main parties, Cameron's Conservatives and the opposition Labour Party, have long believed Murdoch's 40 percent share of national newspaper readership meant that they needed his backing to get elected. Cameron enjoyed that support for several years, but his past closeness with top people in the Murdoch empire has not saved him from a mauling now that the hacking scandal has forced the prime minister to distance himself from his former friends.
benton.org/node/122877 | Reuters
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HACKING TAB
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Staci Kramer]
It may be years before anyone can figure out the real cost to News Corp. and its shareholders of the UK hacking scandal that has dominated the headlines for months. For now, whatever the reputation cost for Rupert and James Murdoch or the financial impact of losing the chance to own all of BSkyB, News Corp.’s hacking losses are barely a blip. News Corp. spent $63 million on hacking-related costs in the quarter ending March 31; overall in the first nine months of fiscal 2012, costs related to the ongoing investigations dating back to the closure of The News of the World last summer have run to $167 million. In addition, the NotW closure plus some currency changes in Australia contributed to a $31 million drop in publishing revenue last quarter. Compared with $8.4 billion in revenues for the quarter, up 2 percent over last year, and total operating income of $1.31 billion, up 23 percent over the same quarter in 2011, $200 million or so is enough to take earnings per share down a couple of cents but it’s not the kind of hit you might expect on a company being bombarded with negative publicity in a very public way.
benton.org/node/122863 | paidContent.org
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COULSON TESTIMONY
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Paul Sonne]
Amid intense scrutiny of News Corp.'s relationship with the British government, Andy Coulson -- the onetime News of the World editor who later became a top aide to U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron -- said there was no inappropriate relationship between his two former employers. Coulson, 44 years old, appeared before a judge-led public inquiry scrutinizing British press practices, including the relationship between politicians and powerful newspaper owners such as News Corp. and its chief executive, Rupert Murdoch. Coulson's appearance came against a backdrop of recent criticism that the company was too close to a government minister overseeing regulatory approval of a major takeover deal. The former editor is of particular interest to the inquiry because of his career path, moving from journalism to government aide. He served as editor of News of the World from 2003 to 2007, when he resigned because a court jailed one of his reporters and a private investigator for illegal voice-mail interception—the beginning of the phone-hacking scandal.
benton.org/node/122924 | Wall Street Journal
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BROOKS TESTIMONY
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Ben Fenton]
Rebekah Brooks told the Leveson inquiry she had only incomplete information about her contacts with politicians such as Tony Blair and David Cameron because News International, her previous employer, had retained them. The former chief executive of NI was under scrutiny by the inquiry over how she cultivated contacts with top politicians and what this gained for her and her business in exchange. She said that “Tony Blair and his circle were a constant presence in my life” during her period as an editor first at the News of the World and more so at The Sun. But she demurred when Robert Jay QC, counsel for the inquiry, suggested that she had been fed titbits of information by Blair’s government in return for political support from The Sun.
benton.org/node/122923 | Financial Times
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