BROADCASTING
Update: FCC Digital TV Transition Plan
NPR Stations Had Pushed for Change
MERGERS
The Magic Kingdom as Content
QUICK HITS
Pager Firms Will Merge
Update: Wireless Portability Complaints
Bill Gates: Hardware to Be Nearly Free in 10 Years
Music Sharing Doesn't Kill CD Sales, Study Says
Network Neutrality: The Future of the Internet in the Broadband Age
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
UPDATE: FCC DIGITAL TV TRANSITION PLAN
As we've reported earlier, the FCC is considering counting broadcast
digital channels that have been converted by cable systems to analog
signals toward the DTV penetration test, allowing the FCC to reclaim old
analog channels years earlier than expected. Broadcasters have resisted the
proposal so far, but FCC Chairman says there will be benefits to TV station
owners. Chairman Powell said that broadcasters would have "options" for
ensuring that high definition (HD) and other digital services get wide
consumer distribution and they will benefit by having to supply electricity
for just one channel sooner and, in general, knowing there's a date certain
for turning off analog signals. He speculated that the complaints may be
coming from a few station owners "who enjoy sitting on two sets of
spectrum." Meanwhile, House Telecom Subcommittee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI)
has decided to reserve judgement on the FCC plan until the General
Accounting Office releases a report, expected in June, on Berlin's switch
to digital broadcasting.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Bill McConnell]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA406773?display=Breaking+News
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA406589?display=Breaking+News
(requires subscription)
See Also
CABLE HDTV NOW AVAILABLE IN 99 OF TOP 100 U.S. MARKETS
Of the 108 million U.S. TV households, 84 million are passed by a cable
system that offers a package of high-definition programming, according to
the National Cable & Telecommunications Association. At least one cable
system in 99 of the top 100 Designated Market Areas (DMAs) is offering a
package of HD programming to consumers and 56 markets beyond the top-100
also are being served by a cable system offering HDTV, bringing the total
number of DMAs in which at least one cable system is offering HDTV to 155
of the 210 DMAs nationwide.
[SOURCE: NCTA Press Release]
http://www.ncta.com/press/press.cfm?PRid=465&showArticles=ok
Multichannel: HDTV Hits 99 of Top 100 Markets
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA406597?display=Breaking+News
(requires subscription)
NPR STATIONS HAD PUSHED FOR CHANGE
I shouted out "Who killed Bob Edwards?" When after all it was you and me.
National Public Radio has received 17,000 complaints about the move to end
Mr. Edwards tenure as host of Morning Edition. The move is part of a bigger
effort, urged by local stations, to remain competitive in an increasingly
demanding and crowded news marketplace. Some critics of the move argue that
public radio should be immune to the ratings-driven pressures that often
prompt such personnel shifts in commercial broadcasting. Station managers
complained that Mr. Edwards, of late, seemed less engaged on the air, and
they belive Morning Edition's format does not allow the news show to
respond to breaking news.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Lynette Clemetson]
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/30/arts/30PUBL.html
(requires registration)
MERGERS
THE MAGIC KINGDOM AS CONTENT
Could even Comcast know that its proposed merger with Disney is bad for
media? Tapscott writes, "The danger is that if the cable and satellite
companies start producing more and more content, the media industry will
balkanize into warring distribution/content camps. This wouldn't be good
for anyone, especially consumers, who want carriers to compete on quality
of service and price, not by offering different channels. If a consumer
wants access to all the channels that exist, he should be able to get this
without being forced to sign up with every carrier in the market." Vertical
integration is an often foolish way to achieve convergence and could be
perhaps more so when considering television. The rule of thumb is that
content wants all the distribution it can get. And distribution wants all
the content it can get.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Don Tapscott]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108060480726768469,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
QUICK HITS
PAGER FIRMS WILL MERGE
More than 75 percent of pagers' user base has evaporated since 1998. The
nation's two largest pager firms, Metrocall and Arch Wireless, say they
must merge in order to survive. "I compare this to two drowning people
clinging to each other," said Roger Entner, a wireless analyst with the
Yankee Group. The companies' combined resources won't help them survive in
the long run, he said. The deal must pass antitrust muster and obtain other
regulatory approvals.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Yuki Noguchi]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34512-2004Mar29.html
(requires registration)
UPDATE: WIRELESS PORTABILITY COMPLAINTS
Since wireless phone number porting began on November 24, 2003, the FCC has
received 5852 informal complaints about wireless local number portability
as of March 25, 2004 Most of the complaints concern alleged delays in
porting numbers from one wireless carrier to another. A much smaller
number of complaints, just under ten percent of the total, involve alleged
delays in porting numbers from wireline carriers to wireless carriers. The
carriers most often mentioned in the complaints are: AT&T Wireless
(2923); Sprint PCS (1585); Verizon Wireless (990); T-Mobile
(914); Cingular Wireless (900); and Nextel (452). Many of the complaints
concern more than one carrier so the total number of complaints received is
smaller than the number of times a carrier is mentioned in a complaint.
This is the fourth monthly report on LNP complaints and reflects the
continuing downward trend in these complaints. The four reports indicate
monthly totals, chronologically, of 2,400, 4,734, 5,852 and now 6,637.
[SOURCE: FCC]
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-245392A1.pdf
BILL GATES: HARDWARE TO BE NEARLY FREE IN TEN YEARS
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates told an audience at the Gartner Symposium
ITxpo he believes that many of the technological "holy grails" computing
has been working on for three decades will be solved in the next ten years.
He predicts that speech technology will be built into every device and that
there will be a device "like a tablet that you just carry around" and can
recognize handwriting. "Ten years out, in terms of actual hardware costs
you can almost think of hardware as being free -- I'm not saying it will be
absolutely free -- but in terms of the power of the servers, the power of
the network will not be a limiting factor," Gates said, referring to
networked computers and advances in the speed of the Internet.
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Reed Stevenson]
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=XROJMIF5WYICOCRBAE0C...
MUSIC SHARING DOESN'T KILL CD SALES, STUDY SAYS
"We find that file-sharing has only had a limited effect on record sales,"
wrote Harvard Business School Associate Professor Felix Oberholzer and
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Associate Professor Koleman
Strumpf. "While downloads occur on a vast scale, most users are likely
individuals who would not have bought the album even in the absence of
file-sharing." The study disputes claims from record executives that online
music trading has led to a decline in CD sales.
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: John Borland]
http://news.com.com/2100-1027-5181562.html?tag=cd_top/)
See the report:
The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales
http://www.unc.edu/~cigar/papers/FileSharing_March2004.pdf
Yesterday we reported on "Network Neutrality: The Future of the Internet in
the Broadband Age," a forum co-sponsored by the Consumer Federation of
America and the Stanford Law Center for Internet and Society. For anyone
interested in hearing Vinton Cerf, Stanford Law School's Lawrence Lessig &
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps speak, see the Science/Technology section of
C-Span's Video Library.
http://www.c-span.org
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