the speed of SneakerNet... sorry for the delay; we've had some technical
difficulties. KT)
BROADCASTING
Broadcasters Hate Digital-TV Proposal
FCC Commissioner's Mission: Cleaning Up Radio, Television
MEDIA & POLITICS
Marketers Pitch to Young Voters
QUICK HITS
U.S. Net Access -- Three Out of Four Ain't Bad
What's On?
AOL Says It Sees Sharp Decline in Spam
Web Users Thwart Sites' Efforts To Collect Personal Information
Publication: What Every Citizen Should Know About Digital Rights Management
E-Commerce Report: Web Radio Said to Be Ready for Ads
Conf Recap: Can Media Artists Survive Media Concentration?
Mobile Industry Focuses on Fixing Basics
Communications-related Headlines is a free online news summary service
provided by the Benton Foundation (www.benton.org). Posted Monday through
Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments,
policy issues, and other related news events. Headlines are compiled by
Kevin Taglang (ktaglang( at )etpost.net) -- we welcome your comments.
BROADCASTING
BROADCASTERS HATE DIGITAL-TV PROPOSAL
FCC Chairman Michael Powell and Media Bureau Chief Kenneth Ferree have
developed a new approach to the transition to digital television that aims
for an early return of valuable spectrum now used for analog TV broadcasts.
The plan would require cable operators to downconvert off-air digital
signals to analog. Those cable households, combined with satellite
subscribers with a local-TV signal package, would be included when counting
how many TV households in a market are digital-ready. By law broadcasters
in any market with 85% of households digital-ready must return their analog
spectrum at the end of 2006. The Powell-Ferree proposal is a new way of
measuring digital-ready and will greatly accelerate the return of spectrum.
But some think that 2007 may be too early for digital-only broadcasting as
many analog sets in homes not wired for pay-TV will need digital TV
convertor boxes. Some think that's a political time bomb.
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA404809?display=Policy
(requires subscription)
Public Television also has a plan to accelerate the return of analog TV
spectrum.
Press release: http://www.apts.org/html/pressroom/DOB_3_18_04.htm
Briefing paper: http://www.apts.org/html/pressroom/DOB_Media_Breifing.pdf
FCC COMMISSIONER'S MISSION: CLEANING UP RADIO, TELEVISION
A look at FCC Commissioner Michael Copps' efforts, both before and after
the Super Bowl, to reign in indecent broadcast content. Commissioner Copps
is glad to see Washington "talking the talk" of indecency regulation, but
wants to see the FCC "walk the walk," too. "I'm not trying to establish a
national nanny here, but we only have to send one case to [license]
hearings and the message would go forth to broadcasters all over the U.S.
that this is a new era. . . . Right now, [broadcasters] not only don't fear
us, they don't respect us, either." In this "people piece," Andrew Jay
Schwartzman, a veteran communications lawyer and FCC observer, calls Copps
"a real thinker, a true intellectual." Mr. Schwartzman also praises
Commissioner Copps's political acumen, saying he "ran circles around
Michael Powell" on the media ownership issue by linking it with the
indecency issue. In doing so, he says, Commissioner Copps forged a broad
coalition of liberals and moderates opposed to greater media concentration
and conservatives upset by growing media indecency. Says Mr. Schwartzman,
"He's been the most effective minority commissioner in the 30 years I've
been doing this."
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Paul Farhi]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13491-2004Mar21.html
(requires registration)
MEDIA & POLITICS
MARKETERS PITCH TO YOUNG VOTERS
Is Ben & Jerry's the official ice cream of the 2004 election? Marketers are
searching for ways to capitalize on one of the last uncommercialized
events: election season. Motorola, Ben & Jerry's and 7-Up have signed up to
support Rock the Vote this year; 40-50% of this year's Rock the Vote budget
is expected to come from marketing partners. But the strategy poses risks
for the marketers and the nonprofit groups, said Kathryn Montgomery, a
professor of communication at American University in Washington. "Genuine
political impulses or political activities can get trivialized or get
translated into a marketing opportunity. You need to be careful about
drawing the line."
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nat Ives]
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/22/business/media/22adco.html
(requires registration)
QUICK HITS
U.S. NET ACCESS -- THREE OUT OF FOUR AIN'T BAD
Nielsen/NetRatings now estimates that 204.3 million Americans, or 74.9% of
the population above the age of two and living in households equipped with
a fixed-line phone, have Internet access, up from 66% in February 2003. "In
just a handful of years, online access has managed to gain the type of
traction that took other mediums decades to achieve," said Kenneth Cassar,
director of strategic analysis at Nielsen/NetRatings. [Editor's note:
measuring "households equipped with a fixed-line phone" misses at least 6%
of US households.]
[SOURCE: Reuters]
http://news.com.com/2100-1025-5175747.html?tag=cd_top
WHAT'S ON?
Price and speed may be old hat in the battle to gain broadband
subscribers... the new battleground is content. Broadband providers are
moving to add features like music, games, news and movies to their
broadband offerings. The trend is also towards personalization including
personal portals that allow users to track stocks, check the weather and
get updates on local high school sports. A Yankee Group survey last year
found that only 10% of broadband users said they would switch providers for
better content. "But as content services evolve, that percentage is going
to grow," says Patrick Mahoney, a Yankee Group analyst.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Peter Grant at peter.grant( at )wsj.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107938781235155887,00.html?mod=e%2Dco...
(requires subscription)
AOL SAYS IT SEES SHARP DECLINE IN SPAM
Since February 20, America Online has seen a 27% decrease in the amount of
spam entering its network. Spammers attempted to send 2.6 billion messages
to AOL members on Feb. 20. That figure declined steadily and reached 1.9
billion on March 17, the company announced Friday.
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Andy Sullivan]
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=APJAV0CJKGASMCRBAEKS...
WEB USERS THWART SITES' EFFORTS TO COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION
More and more web sites are asking visitors to register their personal
information like location, age, gender and occupation so the sites can sell
their audience to advertisers who want to target segments of society. But
web surfers are fighting back by registering false information. People are
worried about their personal information being sold to potential spammers
or stolen from a site's databank.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Carl Bialik at carl.bialik( at )wsj.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107901688126152593,00.html?mod=mm%5Fm...
(requires subscription)
PUBLICATION: WHAT EVERY CITIZEN SHOULD KNOW ABOUT DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT
Public Knowledge has published a comprehensive resource that makes
understandable for everyone the increasingly complex and highly technical
issue of digital rights management. Digital Rights Management (DRM) is the
term applied to technologies that prevent you from using a copyrighted
digital work beyond the degree to which the copyright owner wishes to allow
you to use it. The technologies can be applied to digital movies,
television programs, books or music. The 40-page primer, "What Every
Citizen Should Know About DRM, a.k.a. Digital Rights Management," was
written by Mike Godwin, senior technology counsel at Public
Knowledge. Godwin is a veteran of Internet law, and the author of "Cyber
Rights: Defending Free Speech in the Digital Age" (MIT Press, 2003). "You
should care [about DRM] because you have something personal at stake in
both the balances built into our copyright law, and in the technologies,
such as personal computers and the Internet, that might be restricted or
controlled in order to protect copyright interests," Godwin writes in the
publication. The primer, produced in cooperation with the New America
Foundation, has chapters on DRM and its relationship to copyright law; a
technical explanation of how DRM works; a discussion whether DRM should be
imposed by government; and the potential threats posed by DRM not only to
copyrighted content, but to the technical design of the Internet. In a
concluding essay, Godwin argues for minimal government regulation of DRM,
and for a DRM policy that includes a strong commitment to promoting and
preserving the public domain.
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge]
http://www.publicknowledge.org/content/overviews/citizens-guide-to-drm/view
E-COMMERCE REPORT: WEB RADIO SAID TO BE READY FOR ADS
The Internet radio industry believes it is about to turn a corner; it knows
this because it is starting to get the attention of advertisers. During the
course of a week, some 20 million Americans will tune into a webcast; 39
million Americans will do so a month. The United States Copyright Office
has also settled on royalty fees webcasters pay to the recording industry.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Bob Tedeschi]
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/22/technology/22ecom.html
(requires registration)
CONF RECAP: CAN MEDIA ARTISTS SURVIVE MEDIA CONCENTRATION?
At CCVM's conference on March 13, prominent public interest advocates,
regulators, legislators, and media artists debated the future of not only
media artists in a world dominated by a few giant media conglomerates, but
our nation's democracy and culture. See URL below for more on the conference.
[SOURCE: Center for Creative Voices in Media]
http://www.creativevoices.us/php-bin/news/showArticle.php?id=77&PHPSESSI...
MOBILE INDUSTRY FOCUSES ON FIXING BASICS
The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) trade show
begins today in Hotlanta, Georgia. The industry is attempting to fix common
problems like dropped calls and fuzzy connections, but is eyeing a future
of high-speed Internet connections. The industry is halfway into a
five-year, multibillion dollar upgrade to video and Internet networks.
Speakers at the show will include Cisco's John Chambers and Sun's Scott
McNealy.
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Eric Auchard]
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=1QMMI5XVWA1VACRBAEOC...)
Also see:
IN THE HALL AS A LOBBYIST AFTER TIME IN THE HOUSE
Hall of Fame wide receiver, former Congressman and now chief executive of
the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, met Steve Largent
in this "people piece."
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Matt Richtel]
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/22/business/22largent.html
(requires registration)
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