Oct 14, 2008 (The Economy)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY OCTOBER 14, 2008
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Palin ordered to save e-mails
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
Only 5 Newspapers Have reporters on Campaign Trail
THE ECONOMY
Analyst: Downturn Could be Argument Against Net Neutrality Legislation
Ad Pullback Doesn't Spare National TV
Market Turmoil Pressures Redstone
Economic Woes Hit HDTV Sales
LEGISLATION
President signs broadband data collection bill
Bush signs RIAA-backed intellectual-property law
NEWS FROM THE FCC
FCC Clears Free Wireless Web
FCC's Martin plan for low-power TV up in air
NFL Network Gets a Lift From Ruling
WIRELESS
25 Years of the Cell Phone
Verizon Wireless considers extra text fee
BROADCASTING
What's Going To Happen To The 'Local' In Local Television?
PTC Uses Kids as Human Shields
QUICKLY -- Google, Yahoo Seek to Avoid Antitrust Suit Over Ad Deal; A Case Study in Independent Media; Co-op for converter coupons; The Cut And Paste Candidate
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
PALIN ORDERED TO SAVE E-MAILS
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Stephanie Condon]
Gov Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) must save any e-mails she sent from private accounts regarding state business, an Anchorage judge ordered Friday. The e-mails must be preserved until a lawsuit requesting that the e-mails be made public is resolved, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Craig Stowers said. The judge also said e-mails from private accounts belonging to Palin's staff must be preserved. Gov Palin and her staff used about a dozen private e-mail accounts for state business, and a Yahoo account belonging to Palin was hacked earlier this year. State officials should work with Yahoo and other e-mail service providers to preserve the e-mails, including those from accounts that have already been deleted, the judge ordered.
http://benton.org/node/17806
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ELECTIONS & MEDIA
ON THE BUS, BUT WITH NO REASON TO GO?
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz]
With a single correspondent's campaign travel costing as much as $10,000 a week, the number of cash-strapped news organizations willing to pony up has been dwindling in recent years. Only five newspapers -- the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune -- are traveling regularly with Obama and John McCain. The big regional papers, USA Today and Time magazine are there only intermittently, and Newsweek, which had been a constant presence on the trail, pulled back last week for financial reasons. (The networks, which used young off-air "embeds" during much of the primary season, now have front-line correspondents on board to do daily live shots.)
http://benton.org/node/17805
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THE ECONOMY
ANALYST: DOWNTURN COULD WORK AGAINST NET NEUTRALITY LEGISLATION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Appearing on C-SPAN's The Communicators, Paul Glenchur, a telecom analyst for the Stanford Group Co., says the economic meltdown could wind up working against passing Network Neutrality legislation in the next Congress. "I could see investment in cable networks as being one of the potential drivers of economic growth. I think they [cable, telephone networks] will play that card in making the case against heavy net neutrality legislation." If so, that would simply be an exclamation point on an economic argument cable has made all along--that network neutrality legislation, or even the threat of it, can discourage the kind of investment in infrastructure necessary to roll out broadband to underserved communities and expand the pipes for all those band-width heavy applications, like video, that are becoming the currency of online entertainment and community (YouTube, Hulu). But Glenchur also said he saw a chance for "the stars to begin to align" for legislation if network neutrality legislation supporter Barack Obama wins.
http://benton.org/node/17804
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AD PULLBACK DOESN'T SPARE NATIONAL TV
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sam Schechner, Suzanne Vranica]
Economic anxiety may be seeping into some of the more insulated parts of the media world, including national advertising on US cable- and broadcast-television networks. In a bad sign for the media sector's third-quarter earnings, both Viacom and CBS cut their 2008 profit forecasts Friday, citing weakness in ad sales and the slowing economy. The disclosures come as ad executives are seeing more cuts in already-soft ad spending, as a result of the upheaval in global financial markets. As the economy has sputtered, local-television advertising has taken a big hit, falling 4.4% in the first half of 2008, according to TNS Media Intelligence. But few media companies have publicly disclosed much impact on national advertising for broadcast or cable TV.
http://benton.org/node/17803
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MARKET TURMOIL PRESSURES REDSTONE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Merissa Marr]
After spending decades building a huge and diverse media empire, Sumner Redstone was shocked to find himself in an unusually vulnerable position late last week, forced to sell off a big chunk of his holdings in Viacom and CBS. Redstone had used his prized stakes in those two publicly held media giants, which he controls, to help back a $1.6 billion loan to expand his family's movie-theater chain, among other things. On Monday, Redstone's family holding company, National Amusements, announced it had completed the sale of $233 million of Viacom and CBS shares in the market to avoid breaching its loan covenants. He was caught off guard by the turn of events, and National Amusements spent much of the weekend negotiating with its banks and assessing its funding options. After indicating Friday it would sell shares worth $400 million, it ultimately succeeded in curbing the amount of stock it had to sell.
http://benton.org/node/17808
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ECONOMIC WOES HIT HDTV SALES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Vishesh Kumar]
Reeling from a stock-market crash and a looming recession, consumers may finally be putting the brakes on the purchase of pricey luxury items like high-definition televisions. Spending in the electronics category fell by 14% year-over-year in September, following modest declines of 3% and 6% in the previous months. A slowdown of HDTV sales would hurt DirecTV's ability to add customers as fast as it could have. A slowdown in HD sales may have a silver lining for incumbent cable operators like Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cablevision Systems, however. HD picture quality and programming choices have been key marketing themes that companies like Verizon Communications Inc. and DirecTV have used to lure customers away from cable companies.
http://benton.org/node/17807
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LEGISLATION
PRESIDENT SIGNS BROADBAND DATA COLLECTION BILL
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Stephanie Condon]
President George Bush (R) on Friday signed into law a bill that would facilitate the collection of data regarding broadband access in the United States, though most of the actions required by the law have already been accomplished by federal regulators. The Broadband Data Act directs the Federal Communications Commission to redefine broadband, which was largely achieved earlier this year. The FCC in March voted to consider 768Kbps, which is the entry-level speed offered by major DSL providers like Verizon, the low end of "basic broadband," a range that extends to under 1.5Mbps. For years, the commission had considered 200Kbps service to be "high speed." The new law, introduced by Sen Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) in 2007, requires Internet service providers to give the FCC more detailed reports so the FCC can identify the actual numbers of broadband connections by customer type and geographic area. The FCC adopted this measure in March as well, though the act requires the commission to use the reports to collect demographic data for geographical areas without advanced telecommunications capabilities.
http://benton.org/node/17802
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More on the new law
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BUSH SIGNS RIAA-BACKED INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Stephanie Condon]
President George Bush (R) on Monday signed into law an intellectual-property enforcement bill that would consolidate federal efforts to combat copyright infringement under a new White House cabinet position. The Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act establishes within the executive branch the position of intellectual property enforcement coordinator, who will be appointed by the president. The law also steepens penalties for intellectual-property infringement, and increases resources for the Department of Justice to coordinate for federal and state efforts against counterfeiting and piracy. The so-called Pro-IP Act passed unanimously in the Senate last month and received strong bipartisan support in the House. The Bush administration initially expressed its opposition to the legislation, but one of its more contentious provisions, which would have allowed the Justice Department to pursue civil litigation against copyright infringers, was removed.
http://benton.org/node/17801
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NEWS FROM THE FCC
FCC CLEARS FREE WIRELESS WEB
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz]
A proposal to create a free, national wireless Internet service got a boost as Federal Communications Commission engineers concluded that concerns are overblown about such service interfering with other carriers. The report clears the way for the FCC to move forward with a plan to auction off airwaves to a bidder who agrees to offer free, national wireless Internet service. The FCC is expected to finalize rules this year and could begin auctioning off airwaves in early-to-mid 2009. Wireless companies and some lawmakers have raised concerns about the plan, because the proposed auction rules appear to favor M2Z Networks, a Kleiner Perkins-backed start-up that originally floated the free-Internet plan two years ago. M2Z originally asked the FCC to give it a national 25 megahertz block of airwaves to build a national wireless Internet network. The start-up said it could pay for the build-out via advertising and a subscription-based plan for consumers willing to pay more for faster service. The idea of handing out airwaves potentially worth billions didn't go over very well at the agency. But in May, Mr. Martin proposed auctioning off the airwaves to a company willing to set aside some of its airwaves for free use. The network would have to reach 50% of the US population in four years and 95% within a decade.
http://benton.org/node/17800
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FCC CHIEF'S PLAN FOR LOW-POWER TV UP IN AIR
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Kim Dixon]
The fate of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin's proposal to require cable companies to carry more TV stations that focus on minority programing is in doubt days before a commission vote. Chairman Martin wants to let small, low-power television stations convert to full-power status, and with that get mandated pick-up by cable stations, such as Time Warner Cable and Comcast. The policy change is aimed at boosting the reach of stations serving minority communities, according to Martin, who says 22 percent of the stations that would be affected carry Spanish programing. Cable operators say such a change would illegally impose new burdens on them, violating their First Amendment right to free speech. The five-member FCC is scheduled to vote on the proposed rulemaking at a meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, on Wednesday. A similar plan was pulled earlier this year for lack of consensus among the commissioners. Some skeptics, including the cable industry, say there are no guarantees that the low power stations in question are minority-owned or even serving their local communities because the FCC lacks data. Even the Community Broadcasters Association acknowledges that the FCC lacks good statistics on media ownership diversity.
http://benton.org/node/17799
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NFL NETWORK GETS A LIFT FROM RULING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Richard Sandomir]
A Federal Communications Commission ruling Friday night gave the NFL Network hope that it might receive a major influx of Comcast subscribers. In its preliminary ruling, the FCC said that the league had established initial grounds for its two leading claims against Comcast, and sent the sides for a decision by an administrative law judge within 60 days. The FCC refused to dismiss the case, as Comcast requested. One claim is whether Comcast violated a commission rule by giving preferential treatment on its cable systems to Versus and the Golf Channel, sports networks that it owns, to the detriment of the National Football League's channel. The second claim is whether Comcast, the nation's largest cable operator, with nearly 25 million subscribers, improperly demanded a financial interest in the NFL Network as a condition for carrying it. If the judge orders Comcast to carry the NFL Network on a broadly distributed digital tier, the cable operator's customers may be able to see some of this season's schedule of eight games. The first of those games is Nov 6.
http://benton.org/node/17798
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WIRELESS
AN EVOLUTION FROM TALK TO TEXT
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Alana Semuels]
Twenty-five years ago, during a media event at Chicago's Soldier Field, the president of Ameritech Mobile Communications made the nation's first commercial cellphone connection. He rang up Alexander Graham Bell's grandson on a Motorola DynaTAC handset that weighed 2 1/2 pounds and retailed for $3,995. The industry has changed dramatically in the quarter-century since. Through a series of mergers, Ameritech was absorbed into what are now the nation's largest carriers, AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless. Cellphones today are mainstream devices, owned by more than 80% of Americans, that can fit in a back pocket. And their primary use isn't talking anymore. In the second quarter of this year, Americans sent more text messages on cellphones than they made calls. That ubiquity is creating a new challenge for the industry: how to keep growing when nearly everyone who wants a cellphone has one and the price of service plans is steadily declining. Carriers are pushing more e-mail and Internet services, giving handset makers more leeway to create multiuse devices such as the iPhone and upgrading their networks to handle all the traffic.
http://benton.org/node/17797
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VERIZON WIRELESS CONSIDERS EXTRA TEXT FEE
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Marguerite Reardon]
Verizon Wireless is considering increasing the per-message fee it charges companies that send text alerts. But Jeffrey Nelson, a Verizon Wireless spokesman, said the price hike has not been finalized. Still, he acknowledged that Verizon Wireless has been discussing ways to offset increased costs associated with heavy volumes of SMS text messaging on its network. Even the mere thought that Verizon is considering upping rates on text messaging is enough to get people worked up, especially since Verizon and the other three major wireless operators in the U.S. have increased the price of sending and receiving texts for consumers by 100 percent over the past two years. Rates have gone from 10 cents a message to 20 cents per message.
http://benton.org/node/17796
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BROADCASTING
WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO THE 'LOCAL' IN LOCAL TELEVISION?
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Frank Foster]
[Commentary] In this age of personal Web sites, MySpace and Facebook, is local television dead? When you can take a $100 digital camera and create a Web-worthy video for your friends to see on their own schedule, are we raising a generation that will bypass local television entirely? If content is king, where will the next generation of local television content originate? In February many local stations will have the ability to broadcast one, two or three sub-channel signals with the hope that local audiences will tune in. Will the stations try to lure viewers with higher quality local news? Will there be four simultaneous newscasts from each station, geared toward various demographic groups? Or will the content come from the broadcast network holding companies?
http://benton.org/node/17795
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PTC USES KIDS AS HUMAN SHIELDS
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Josef Adalian]
[Commentary] The Parents Television Council's actions and words too often have indicated that its real mission includes pushing for government-sanctioned censorship of the media and the elimination of any and all programming that conflicts with its far-right social and political philosophies. What's more, rather than working with networks to figure out ways to increase family-friendly programming and offer true protection to children, the PTC is obsessed with denouncing shows clearly aimed at adult audiences. The PTC doesn't want to make TV safe for kids. It wants to make it safe only for those shows that fit into its narrowly constructed worldview of what constitutes acceptable TV. And when it identifies programming that doesn't mesh with its agenda, the PTC goes into overdrive whipping up its base to take action.
http://benton.org/node/17794
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QUICKLY -- Google, Yahoo Seek to Avoid Antitrust Suit Over Ad Deal; A Case Study in Independent Media; Co-op for converter coupons; The Cut And Paste Candidate
GOOGLE, YAHOO SEEK TO AVOID ANTITRUST SUIT OVER AD DEAL
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: John Wilke]
Apparently, Google and Yahoo are in talks with the Justice Department in an effort to head off an antitrust challenge to their proposed advertising agreement. The settlement negotiations are at an early stage and it isn't clear whether they will resolve US objections or be acceptable to the two companies. In the settlement talks with the government, both companies have discussed concessions. These include capping the volume of Google ads Yahoo would use, assurances that Yahoo would continue to compete in search ads, and a reporting mechanism to ensure compliance. US officials hope to impose measures that will ensure that prices advertisers must pay don't rise significantly after the deal. Reworking the deal to include a reporting mechanism, could require the companies to disclose more about the mechanics of their closely-guarded search-advertising technology than they want to. And caps on how many Google-sold ads Yahoo can display could limit Yahoo's financial gains from the agreement.
http://benton.org/node/17809
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THE GROWTH OF TALKING POINTS MEMO: A CASE STUDY IN INDEPENDENT MEDIA
[SOURCE: AlterNet, AUTHOR: Josh Marshall]
[Commentary] The editor and founder of TPM tells the story of how he went from running a personal blog to a small independent media empire.
http://benton.org/node/17793
CO-OP FOR CONVERTER COUPONS
[SOURCE: Chicago Tribune, AUTHOR: Jon Yates]
Problems with the digital-to-analog converter box coupon program.
http://benton.org/node/17792
THE CUT AND PASTE CANDIDATE
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Mike Bloxham]
[Commentary] At Cornell University, researchers are using a Wiki to study online civic participation. The basic idea is to use a Wiki as the web site for a fictitious candidate in the Presidential election and for anyone to chime in and shape the policies, background and news behind the campaign.
http://benton.org/node/17791
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