Communications-related Headlines for 8/25/97

Note: Between August 20 and September 2, the CPP
News-Clipping Service may be a little rough around
the edges. Kevin is on vacation and has assigned his minions
the responsibility to get the news out to youse. We'll do
our best.

****ATTENTION LOYAL HEADLINES READERS****
Even minions need a break sometimes. Due to unavoidable staff
shortages, the communication-related headlines will have to take a
short vacation. On Tuesday the 26th and Wednesday the 27th your
e-mail inboxes will be noticeably devoid of the communications
news summaries which you have come to depend on. We hope that
there are no hard feelings, and that we will still be invited into
your computers come Thursday. Thanks for your patience.

In today's headlines:

BT-MCI Merger
WSJ: BT Cuts Purchase Price for MCI by $5 Billion
NYT: Rescuing a Big Phone Deal From Oblivion

Internet Regulation
NYT: Courts Beginning to Make Order on Frontiers of Cyberspace
WashPost: Cyberspace Gambling

Journalism
WSJ: Color-Coded News

Media Ownership
WSJ: Disney Hopes to Cash In on Miramax Unit's Cachet

Digital/HDTV
NYT: U.S. and Europe in Battle Over Digital Television
B&C: Tauzin warns against abandoning HDTV
FCC ponders preemptions for towers

Education & Technology
NYT: For Lifelong Learning: Click Here

Internet Business
NYT: Digital Commerce: Netscape goes back to the Trenches as it
Revives the Browser War

Multi Media
NYT: Entertainment: Life Stories, both in "Biography," the cable
program,and Biography, the magazine.

Industry Trends
NYT: Survey Finds More Internet Users Sign on When Away From Home

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* BT-MCI Merger *
*****************
Title: BT Cuts Purchase Price for MCI by $5 Billion
Source: Wall Street Journal (A4)
http://www.wsj.com/
Author: Gautam Naik and John J. Keller
Issue: Media Mergers
Description: British Telecommunications cut $5 billion from its
aquisition price of the 80% of MCI stock it does not currently own. The
cut represents a reduction of 22% from BT's original offer. The
renegotiation came in the wake of MCI's struggle to enter the local
phone market as well as a loss of revenues in the long distance market.
BT officials insist that the new deal is better for everyone involved.
In the words of BT's chairman, "The benefits of Concert [the name that
BT and MCI will take when they officially merge] remain as compelling
today as they did in November."

Title: Rescuing a Big Phone Deal From Oblivion
Source: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/bt-mci.html
Author: Mark Landler
Issue: Mergers
Description: Chairman of British Communications, Iain Vallace, promised
to resign if shareholders did not accept the final term of the company's
acquisition of MCI. After pledge to resign, MCI accepted the revised
deal worth $19 billion, a 22 percent reduction from the original deal.

***********************
* Internet Regulation *
***********************
Title: Courts Beginning to Make Order on Frontiers of Cyberspace
Source: New York Times (D5)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/082597email.html
Author: Matt Richtel
Issue: Internet
Description: Earlier this month a California appellate court ordered
that a state court could hold jurisdiction over a party that only does
transactions in the state through email and telephone interaction. The
widespread use of telecommunications, "has increased the number of
transactions that are consummated without either party leaving the office,"
stated Judge Arthur Gilbert of the California Court of Appeals. There are
still many jurisdictional issues in telecommunications that are not yet clear,
such as World Wide Web sites and Telnet sites. Answers to these issues will
not only dictate jurisdiction, but also what governments have the right to
tax and regulate in the Internet business.

Title: Cyberspace Gambling
Source: Washington Post (A18)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-08/25/021l-082597-idx.html
Author: Post Editorial
Issue: Internet Regulation
Description: With a bill proposed to ban Internet gambling coming
before the Senate Judiciary Committee in September, the Post calls for "brisk
debate ... to sort out what people really object to about online
gambling and what -- short of a highly unlikely general prohibition -- are the
proper places to focus those objections." The editorial notes that many
of the reasons people oppose gambling, such as its effects on the
surrounding area or the government's role in enticing people to games of
chance, don't apply in cyberspace. As a result, the proposed ban "raises the
question of how far Americans think government should go in regulating
people's conduct in the privacy of their homes."

**************
* Journalism *
**************
Title: Color-Coded News
Source: Wall Street Journal (A16)
http://www.wsj.com/
Author: Steve Salerno (Op-Ed)
Issue: Journalism/Minorities
Description: This op-ed focuses on how minorities in TV journalism are
used in a stereotypical way by their employers. For example, TV's black
journalists customarily cover "civil rights, government largess, urban
blight and impoverishment-or at the other extreme, they give us warm
fuzzy stories of minority success." The author, who is the
publisher/editor-in-chief of The American Legion Magazine, points out
that while this phenomenon might be traced back to the "interests
the reporters themselves bring to the table...this is not the way we're
supposed to think anymore in 1997, as we watch the ill-constructed
parapets of affirmative action crumble about us."

*******************
* Media Ownership *
*******************
Title: Disney Hopes to Cash In on Miramax Unit's Cachet
Source: Wall Street Journal (B4)
http://www.wsj.com/
Author: Bruce Orwall
Issue: Media Ownership/Multi Media
Description: Disney plans to use the success of its Miramax Films
division to push things like straight-to-video movies, satellite
channels, a chain of Miramax stores, and even TV miniseries for Disney's
ABC network. With competitors champing at the bit to follow the Miramax
formula all the way to the top, Michael "don't call me Mickey" Eisner is
anxious to cash in on what he's got. The Weinstein brothers, who
founded and continue to run Miramax, insist that none of this will push
them from their "commitment to independent and foreign-language films,"
towards the world of producing cheesy $100 million blockbusters.

****************
* Digital/HDTV *
****************
Title: U.S. and Europe in Battle Over Digital Television
Source: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/082597hdtv.html
Author: Joel Brinkley
Issue: Digital Television
Description: The United States and the European Union have devised
different sets of technical standards for digital broadcasts. As a result,
broadcasters and government officials have been traveling to various
countries on trade mission trying to push their version, but so far no
one is winning. All countries are still influx on deciding between the two
standards. Dolby and Zenith have the most to gain from the acceptance
of the American standards. Some American companies, most notably IBM and
Hewlett-Packard, are using the European DVB standard.

Title: Tauzin warns against abandoning HDTV
Source: Broadcasting & Cable (p. 11) http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: Paige Albiniak
Issue: HDTV
Description: As some leaders in the broadcasting industry seem to be
backing away from offering high definition television over their new
advanced TV spectrum, House Telecommunications Subcommittee Chairman
Billy Tauzin (R-LA) sent a warning shot: "If broadcasters don't use those
channels [to offer some] HDTV, they can expect serious new obligations
-- both financial and public interest." Tauzin explained that while he
expects broadcasters to use the spectrum for a variety of services, he
is concerned that some broadcasters might not provide any HDTV at all.
That concern arose in part when Sinclair Broadcasting suggested that HDTV is
not an economically attractive business. A Sinclair VP says that converting
their stations to transmit HDTV-only signals would cost $300 million for
"a doubtful return." ABC has also said it was considering using the new
spectrum to offer multiple channels in standard definition format.

Title: FCC ponders preemptions for towers
Source: Broadcasting & Cable (p. 14) http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: Chris McConnell
Issue: HDTV
Description: The FCC has invited comments on whether it might be
necessary for the federal government to override local zoning and land
use rules that could interfere with broadcast industry efforts to install
the new transmission towers needed for advanced television. Both
broadcasters and regulators expressed concern that broadcasters might not
be able to meet the FCC's timetables for beginning digital broadcasts if
local zoning restrictions delay construction. Broadcast industry groups
expect that 2/3 of current broadcasters will need to build new towers or
modify ones in place in order to provide the new service.

**************************
* Education & Technology *
**************************
Title: For Lifelong Learning: Click Here
Source: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Author: Shelly Freierman
Issue: Education & Technology
Description: Adults who are looking for educational opportunities,
should start their search on the Web. Most universities and colleges
that have continuing ed programs post them on the Web. This article
lists good sites that link to university and college sites, as well as
to educational sites by interest areas.

*********************
* Internet Business *
*********************
Title: Digital Commerce: Netscape goes back to the Trenches as it
Revives
the Browser War
Source: New York Times (D7)
http://www.nytimes.com/
Author: Steve Lohr
Issue: Internet Business
Description: The browser war is back with a vengeance. Netscape has
displayed the principles of marketing in the Internet era: Rule 1 - a
company's most valuable asset is its market share, and Rule 2 - You make
your name in the consumer market, but you make most of your money
selling products to companies. Netscape is unbundling its browser from
Communicator, a bundle of email and workgroup software, and is starting
a new marketing campaign to the home market entitled "Netscape
Everywhere."

***************
* Multi Media *
***************
Title: Entertainment: Life Stories, both in "Biography," the cable
program,
and Biography, the magazine.
Source: New York Times (D9)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/tv-biography-media.html
Author: Geraldine Fabrikant
Issue: Multi Media
Description: Arts and Entertainment cable has taken its monthly guide
"Arts and Entertainment," and has turned it into a mass-market monthly
consumer magazine name "Biography," its most popular television program.
This project is unusual because cable companies don't normally put this much
effort behind a single show.

*******************
* Industry Trends *
*******************
Title: Survey Finds More Internet Users Sign on When Away From Home
Source: New York Times (D9)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/internet-survey.html
Author: Shelly Freierman
Issue: Trends
Description: A study released by MCI Librarylink, a collaborative
project between MCI and the American Library Association to connect public
libraries to the Internet, states that more people are signing on to the
Internet from outside their homes, offices or schools. Internet usage from
alternative points of access, such as libraries, community centers, churches,
cafes, shops and other sites has increased from 7 to 12 percent between the
Spring 1996 and Spring 1997.

*******