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days of FCC inaction on DTV PIOs

Day of the National Broadband Plan

Jan 13, 2009 (Julius Genachowski to Chair FCC)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY JANUARY 13, 2009

POLICYMAKERS
   Genachowski to Chair FCC
   Julius Genachowski to Chair FCC: Prospects for Media and Internet
   DTV, Broadband Access Top Agenda for Boucher
   NTIA's Baker Taps Nebbia as Successor
   An Agenda for Obama's CTO
   What FCC's Martin Is Sorry For

THE ECONOMY
   Obama: broadband in every community in America
   Adelstein: We Can't Build Digital Highways That Are Too Small
   Internet Service Speed Is Fast-Track Issue for New Administration
   Let's Spend on Broadband and the Power Grid
   We Shouldn't Base Broadband Subsidies on Speed
   If We Have To Subsidize Broadband Based On Speed Here's How To Do It
   Nurture connectivity beyond DSL technology
   Beware Of Bogus National Broadband Plans
   Alabama Broadband plan faces obstacles
   Obama: we need EMRs; NAS report: be careful what you ask for

DIGITAL TV TRANSITION
   Boucher Weighing DTV-Fix Options
   Digital-TV Transition More Likely Than Not to Be Postponed
   Hill Works On DTV Bills
   CEA Says Changing DTV Transition Date Won't Help
   Obama DTV Plan Splits AT&T, Verizon

TELECOM/INTERNET
   Intercarrier compensation reform: Now what?
   Verizon to route all calls over Web within 7 years
   Is broadband success a partner-or-perish proposition?
   Internet-ready TV

BROADCASTING/CABLE
   Supreme Court asks for government view on Cablevision DVR case
   Religious Broadcasters Fear Fairness Doctrine Return
   Television is starting to look beyond the 18- to 49-year-old demographic
   CBS signs deal with Verizon FiOS, Wireless
   PEG Has Blurry Future In Golden State

PUBLIC BROADCASTING
'Stimulus investment in public media' proposed to Obama
Public Broadcasting and Public Affairs

QUICKLY -- Online Privacy Decisions Confront Obama; Journalism's battle for relevance in an age of too much information; Tech firms brace for painful '09; The taxman cometh? IRS urged to tax virtual worlds, economies; Facebook's breastfeeding ban

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POLICYMAKERS

GENACHOWSKI TO CHAIR FCC
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
Everyone is saying it, so it must be true: President-elect Barack Obama will name Julius Genachowski, a high-tech policy veteran and venture capitalist, to head the Federal Communications Commission. An official announcement could come in the next few days. Genachowski, 46, served as chief counsel for Reed Hundt, then FCC chairman, during the Clinton administration. He also has business experience as an executive at the Internet firm IAC/InterActive and currently as a venture capitalist at Rock Creek Ventures in the District. Obama's pick for the nation's head telecommunications regulator has served as the president-elect's top technology adviser and was a classmate of Obama's at Harvard Law School. Genachowski is credited for spearheading Obama's online campaign strategy, which used social networking and other tools to spread the candidate's campaign message and raise record contributions. Genachowski would take over the FCC at time when decisions made at the agency have greatly expanded its original role as a regulator of broadcast licenses. Today, the FCC oversees areas including Internet policy, the transition from analog to digital television scheduled for next month, and radio and TV indecency complaints.
Obama's Tech Adviser To Be Tapped for FCC (WP)
http://benton.org/node/20646
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JULIUS GENACHOWSKI TO CHAIR FCC: PROSPECTS FOR MEDIA AND INTERNET
[SOURCE: Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Josh Silver]
[Commentary] Media reports have President-elect Obama picking Julius Genachowski to serve as Federal Communications Commission Chairman. His high-tech background, progressive platform and experience as senior legal council at the FCC under President Clinton make him one of the best possible candidates for the crucial job. And crucial it is. The FCC is poised to decide on a host of media policies that will have a profound impact on our media experience. Will Internet service providers be allowed to eliminate Net Neutrality and censor content? Will the airwaves be opened up to new wireless service providers that make high-speed Internet more ubiquitous and affordable? Will the largest media companies be allowed to further consolidate ownership, homogenize content and crowd out diversity? If you've ever been disappointed or disgusted with corporate, lapdog journalism; if you've ever been angered by your sky-high cable bills or wanted to pull your hair out because of lousy, expensive cell phone service, then these questions couldn't be more important. Bad media policymaking is the reason for bad media, and good media policy is how we're going to fix it. It is the way we will get affordable, neutral Internet into every home that is so fast that every Web site can be a TV network. It is how you will get cable service that doesn't require a second mortgage. That's the kind of media that people want. It's the kind of media that President-elect Obama champions, the kind our struggling nation desperately needs. And by all indications, it's the kind of media that the incoming FCC chairman is committed to delivering. But as they say, the proof is in the pudding, and now all eyes are on a 46-year old named Julius Genachowski.
http://benton.org/node/20645
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DTV, BROADBAND ACCESS TOP AGENDA FOR BOUCHER
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz]
New House Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-VA) will first focus on the impending transition to digital-only television broadcasting. Network Neutrality legislation isn't his top priority, Chairman Boucher says, although he says the committee could focus on Internet openness among wireless providers, who've successfully argued so far that airwaves constraints require them to selectively block some services, like file sharing services. Saying there's "a broad consensus on how to move forward," with reforming the $7 billion a year Universal Service Fund, Chairman Boucher says he'd like to take another crack at USF reform this year. He introduced a bill two years ago that would have capped the fund and opened up the fund to give telecom companies funds to provide broadband services in rural areas (see link below). He'd also like to move legislation that would allow communities to provide broadband services to local residents. He'd also like to see increased funding for the Department of Agriculture's Rural Development programs, which gives grants and loans to communities for building out broadband services.
http://benton.org/node/20627
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NTIA'S BAKER TAPS NEBBIA AS SUCCESSOR
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
National Telecommunications and Information Administration head Meredith Attwell Baker has tapped Karl Nebbia to succeed her as acting NTIA administrator. He is currently the associate administrator for NTIA's office of spectrum management, which oversees federal spectrum use by everybody from the Post Office to the Department of Defense. Bernadette McGuire-Rivera remains the associate administrator, directly overseeing the coupon program. Baker is currently scheduled to exit at noon, Jan. 20, per the traditional request that all political appointees submit their resignations by then. No word yet on who President-elect Obama will pick to head the NTIA or the Department of Commerce.
http://benton.org/node/20611
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AN AGENDA FOR OBAMA'S CTO
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Ayesha Khanna, Parag Khanna]
[Commentary] The US may be the first country to have a Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Goals for the CTO include broadband expansion, boosting science/tech education, health-care computerization, patent reform, and e-government. What is missing is an effective and efficient strategy. The Obama team needs to be careful not to reinvent the wheel, focusing instead on technology lessons from the countries that have overtaken the U.S. already, the practices of companies that have top CTOs, and a flexible strategy for implementing policy across the sprawling federal government. What's needed is continuous public-private collaboration to ensure that innovations are adapted to the government setting. Areas where discussions would be especially useful range from building energy-efficient infrastructures such as green data centers and cloud computing to providing citizens online government services using Web 2.0 technologies.
http://benton.org/node/20641
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WHAT FCC'S MARTIN IS SORRY FOR
[SOURCE: PCMag.com, AUTHOR: Chloe Albanesius]
On Saturday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin said he regrets several things, including the failure of the D-block during the 700-MHz auction, his inability to get cable rates under control, and the delay on universal service reform. "One of the things that I'm certainly proudest of at my time at the Commission is the progress I think we've made on really introducing a wireless broadband service," he said. That progress could continue with devices that utilize the white spaces, or spaces between the TV channels that will be freed up after the DTV transition. It "is going to be very important and it's going to open up a whole new way of communication."
http://benton.org/node/20618
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THE ECONOMY

OBAMA: BROADBAND IN EVERY COMMUNITY IN AMERICA
[SOURCE: RCR Wireless News, AUTHOR: Jeffrey Silva]
The incoming administration may move faster than expected to put a tech team in place, given the unsettled state of the Federal Communications Commission and President-elect Obama's desire to leverage broadband, wireless and other technologies to advance top priorities such as economic revitalization, health care reform, education and public safety. What is clear is that momentum is growing to enact administrative and organization reforms at the five-member FCC, whose operations under current Chairman Kevin Martin have been sharply criticized by the Democratic-controlled Congress, consumer groups and industry.
http://benton.org/node/20636
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ADELSTEIN: WE CAN'T BUILD DIGITAL HIGHWAYS THAT ARE TOO SMALL
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
Federal Communications Commission members Jonathan Adelstein and Robert McDowell were at the Consumer Electronics Show last week and Daily asked, "Do you believe that a Full Fiber Nation is the endgame of the Internet and the ultimate goal we should have for our country? That we built the greatest economy in the 20th century on our copper telephone infrastructure, and to build the greatest economy in the 21st century we now need fiber?" Commissioner Adelstein answered revolved around an analogy to highways, that we can't afford to build them too small lest they can't keep up with the growing amount of traffic, or bandwidth in network terms. Commissioner McDowell specifically cited the need to make these risky investments more attractive to investors. So while neither Commissioner would out right say that a Full Fiber Nation should be our country's ultimate goal, their answers could not have fit any better into the arguments made for the Rural Fiber Fund.
http://benton.org/node/20635
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INTERNET SERVICE SPEED IS FAST-TRACK ISSUE FOR NEW ADMINISTRATION
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
President-elect Barack Obama's plan to give the entire country speedy Internet service while creating thousands of telecom jobs as part of his stimulus package has come up against a seemingly simple but contentious question: How fast is fast enough? The Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance, a trade group representing mid-sized carriers such as Qwest, is pushing for stimulus aid to build networks in rural areas offering download speeds of 1.5 megabits per second. Labor union Communications Workers of America says 3 mbps. Members of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association -- 50 mpbps. But public interest groups such as Public Knowledge and Free Press say that networks should not use stimulus money for expansion they had already planned, but instead should use it to pursue Obama's goal of the "finest and most modern communications infrastructure in the world." To achieve that, the groups say, means a stimulus plan with clear oversight, which would also encourage smaller competitors to giants AT&T, Verizon and Comcast to build new networks at speeds as fast as those offered in better-wired nations. The trade groups argue that they need the incentives -- which may come in the form of tax breaks, grants or bonds -- because carriers otherwise wouldn't have the capital to build out to rural areas or upgrade existing networks to offer speeds comparable with leading broadband nations, where high-definition video teleconferencing and multiplayer online gaming are available to most residents. Through their trade groups, the companies say stimulus aid would be used as a first step toward providing cutting-edge broadband service.
http://benton.org/node/20644
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LET'S SPEND ON BROADBAND AND THE POWER GRID
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Samuel Palmisano]
[Commentary] Addressing the economic crisis, rather than just stimulate, we should transform. Smarter infrastructure is by far our best path to creating new jobs and stimulating growth. We at IBM were asked to map this out by President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, and our research shows that a $30 billion stimulus investment in just three areas -- smart grids, health-care IT and broadband -- could yield almost one million new jobs within one year. That's possible because these kinds of infrastructure have significantly greater economic and societal multiplier effects than traditional infrastructure like bridges and highways. Forward-thinking nations, companies and communities will leverage this opportunity to completely rethink key infrastructure services. Will we? Will the U.S. make investments in our future whose impact is not just additive, but exponential? Let's not fix a flawed past. Let's build a smarter future for our country. (Palmisano is the chairman and CEO of IBM)
http://benton.org/node/20643
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WE SHOULDN'T BASE BROADBAND SUBSIDIES ON SPEED
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
[Commentary] It would be a mistake to provide broadband subsidies based on speed requirements rather than technologies. First, speeds delivered to customers are hard to verify. Second, network management practices of broadband providers are trending towards ever higher over-subscription rates, meaning more and more customers sharing smaller pipes onto the Internet despite being promised higher advertised speeds. So if we're going to subsidize based on speed we need to have a clear and strong set of regulatory guidelines that are enforced on an ongoing basis about what advertised speeds actually mean in terms of the actual throughput realized by consumers. But this can get very messy very quickly, and it will undoubtedly require a lot of administrative overhead. Alongside these issues is how do we make sure these top-end speeds are offered at affordable prices? What good is mandating 50/10 networks if that service costs $500 a month to subscribe to? And yet even if broadband providers want to offer these speeds at lower prices they often can't due to the prohibitively high cost of backhaul access. So how are we going to resolve this issue? Another problem with mandating the speeds broadband providers must offer is what if no one wants to buy those speeds in a given market? Why is government making decisions that are better left up to the marketplace to decide? What's arguably more important than Internet speeds is that any last-mile broadband access infrastructure being put in place has the in-network capacity to scale indefinitely to meet demand and that that in-network capacity is open to all applications developers to deliver high bandwidth applications.
http://benton.org/node/20634
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IF WE HAVE TO SUBSIDIZE BROADBAND BASED ON SPEED HERE'S HOW TO DO IT
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
[Commentary] If we're going to subsidize broadband based on speeds, here are the key things we should be requiring: 1) No less than 100Mbps today scalable to 1Gbps tomorrow. 2) All speeds must be symmetrical. 3) Require some level of guaranteed access and/or reliability.
http://benton.org/node/20632
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NURTURE CONNECTIVITY BEYOND DSL TECHNOLOGY
[SOURCE: Miami Herald, AUTHOR: Mark Ansboury]
[Commentary] Our nation's major communication providers suggest that, as part of an economic-stimulus package, tens of billions of dollars should go toward expanding their DSL and cable-modem services in underserved urban and rural communities. Furthermore, these same providers believe DSL is broadband. Would this be a wise investment? We think not. DSL is approaching obsolescence, providing on average just 1.5 to 10 Mbps, compared to South Korea's almost 100 Mbps average nationwide. Other nations such as Japan are pushing an average of one Gbps. Our broadband investment must be stewarded by communities, working in public-private partnerships, to ensure that we are not squandering limited resources on yesterday's technologies. Our goal should be nothing short of radical advancement in the way we do business, educate our children, care for our sick and in the very way we carry out our daily lives. We hope that President-elect Barack Obama's strategy does not give the incumbent telecommunications providers unadulterated access to funds to extend stale DSL technologies. We hope that our national policy and stimulus strategy will consider a more thoughtful approach that involves widespread participation and demonstrates the same good foresight as the interstate highway system of Eisenhower's time.
http://benton.org/node/20631
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BEWARE OF BOGUS NATIONAL BROADBAND PLANS
[SOURCE: DSLReports.com, AUTHOR: Karl Bode]
President-elect Obama is supposedly considering a $20-billion to $30-billion plan to expand broadband, centered largely around providing tax breaks to companies willing to extend broadband where it currently isn't available. While that might work (assuming there's adequate followup and follow through), it would make sense to remember that many of incumbent telephone and cable companies already spent millions trying to keep under-served areas from wiring themselves. Most of them also spent millions fighting efforts to accurately map broadband in this country. Should they be rewarded? You'll soon see a flurry of different ideas about how to improve the nation's broadband fortunes, most of them sophisticated ruses, designed by incumbent think tanks and lobbyists. Politicians, technology pundits and individuals need to study these proposals carefully, as carriers have been working very had to design national broadband plans that look good on paper, but are little more than taxpayer money pits. Many of these proposals have broad, bi-partisan support, but are designed by incumbent lobbyists to derail real, substantive telecom reform.
http://benton.org/node/20630
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BROADBAND PLAN FACES OBSTACLES
[SOURCE: Montgomery Advertiser, AUTHOR: Markeshia Ricks]
Alabama is racing to get its rural communities wired. Why? Because technology is key if the state wants to extend its economic development into global markets and advancements in education and health care that could mean billions in revenue. President-elect Barack Obama mentioned broadband himself as part of the $800 billion economy stimulus package he proposed last week. In the next two years, the state is expected to put some form of high-speed Internet access in every corner, and Gov. Bob Riley has hired a company that he believes can help make it happen. Ohio-based CostQuest Associates will uncover where the need for access is greatest in the state, and help grow the supply and demand for broadband.
http://benton.org/node/20629
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OBAMA: WE NEED EMR; NAS REPORT: BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: John Timmer]
On the same day that we reported that an IT industry group was calling for stimulus money to go toward modernizing the electronic healthcare infrastructure, President-elect Obama delivered. In a speech in Washington, he called for providing electronic patient records throughout the country within the next five years. It's a lofty goal, and one with the potential to have significant real-world benefits; unfortunately, the following day, a report from the National Academies of Science suggested it's one we may not be ready to pursue, as a continuation of current practices runs the risk of harming our progress toward a modernized health care system. Ars has looked at Electronic Medical Records in detail, describing a host of problems that they are expected to fix. Obama touched on many of the same things in his speech: "To improve the quality of our health care while lowering its cost, we will make the immediate investments necessary to ensure that within five years, all of America's medical records are computerized. This will cut waste, eliminate red tape, and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests. But it just won't save billions of dollars and thousands of jobs—it will save lives by reducing the deadly but preventable medical errors that pervade our health care system." In an ideal world, EMR probably would. But anyone who has dealt with an insurance company's computerized billing system recently will undoubtedly attest to the fact that EMR is no panacea for errors and inefficiencies. And Obama's goal is hardly a new one. President Bush set roughly the same target date in rolling out an EMR initiative based on a series of regional efforts; the IT industry group report described the results as a series of small, incompatible systems run by companies without enough business to remain viable. It's clear that simply determining to go electronic will not necessarily provide all of the benefits outlined in Obama's speech.
http://benton.org/node/20628
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DIGITAL TV TRANSITION

BOUCHER WEIGHING DTV-FIX OPTIONS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The new chairman of the House Telecommunications & Internet Subcommittee -- Rep Rick Boucher (D-VA) -- has not yet endorsed any of the digital television transition fixes being proposed by the Obama administration or his fellow Democrats. Chairman Rick Boucher is looking at a range of options at present and has not endorsed nor taken off the table any of them -- direct appropriations, waiver of the Antideficiency Act or moving the date, according to Press Secretary Courtney Lamie. All those would attempt to unclog the distribution of $40 coupons toward the purchase of DTV-to-analog converter boxes that allow over-the-air analog TV's to continue to receive a signal after TV stations convert to digital Feb. 17. Currently those viewers are on a waiting list because the government has reached a statutory ceiling on spending money to distribute them and must wait for coupons to expire and money to be freed up. Money is being freed up every day, but not enough to meet the daily requests for coupons. Over a million people are now on the waiting list, with no relief in sight unless Congress frees up the money.
http://benton.org/node/20626
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DIGITAL-TV TRANSITION MORE LIKELY THAN NOT TO BE POSTPONED
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
Looks like there'll be no need to mark those calendars for the digital-TV transition on Feb. 17. It now seems more likely than not to get postponed, probably to June, broadcast executives said today. Capitol Hill aides said the Department of Commerce running out of coupons for digital-TV converter boxes, together with a request from President-elect Barack Obama's team for a delay, climaxed already intense concerns that the transition wasn't being adequately run. Legislation to delay the transition is already being drafted in the Senate Commerce Committee. Some Republicans could yet oppose a delay, but as one network executive said, "You don't want to stand up in front of a moving train." A second network executive also said a delay is a near certainty.
http://benton.org/node/20625
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HILL WORKS ON DTV BILLS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Legislators on the House and Senate side continued to work Monday on bills to goose the DTV transition converter-box subsidy program, or extend the transition date, or both. Over on the House side, Rep Ed Markey (D-MA) is working on a bill that would exempt the government's converter box subsidy program from a law that won't let it send out more coupons until money has been freed up from coupons that expire. At the current rate, that would leave a waiting list of almost 2 million people who have applied for the coupons but can't get them. While Barack Obama and some top Democrats have called for moving the date, there are a number of issues, from an 18-month education campaign pushing DTV, to freeing up analog TV spectrum for commercial and emergency communications purposes, to local broadcaster expense, to viewer confusion, that makes the issue a thorny one. On the other side are concerns among Democrats about minorities, rural residents, the poor and senior citizens not getting converter boxes in time, the result being a messy DTV transition dropped in the lap of the new administration just weeks after he takes the oath of office and affecting some of the neediest populations he championed in the general election.
http://benton.org/node/20624
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CEA SAYS CHANGING DTV TRANSITION DATE WON'T HELP
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Consumer Electronics Association has told the incoming Obama administration that it is ready to support "any necessary changes" to the DTV transition implementation plan, including using converter-box subsidy coupons toward cable service or the purchase of a DTV set. But it doesn't think changing the DTV transition date will help things along. CEA says most Americans (over 95%) are already prepared for the transition, that moving the date would be akin to crying wolf, "engendering skepticism, confusion and distrust the next time government asks them to undertake specific actions," and that the change "will simply confuse Americans while doing little to promote a successful transition."
http://benton.org/node/20623
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OBAMA DTV PLAN SPLITS AT&T, VERIZON
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
President-elect Obama's plan to delay the nation's switch to digital broadcasting on Feb. 17 has driven a wedge between AT&T and Verizon Communications. AT&T released a letter Monday night endorsing a three-month delay as a special, one-time event designed to aid consumers who could lose over-the-air TV service when analog signals are shut off at midnight on Feb. 17. While AT&T is willing to accommodate the wishes of the new Obama government, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg is concerned that any delay would do more harm than good and should be rejected. AT&T and Verizon paid about $16 billion combined for spectrum auctioned last year by the Federal Communications Commission. But the two can't use the new airwaves until analog TV stations vacate as part of the complicated movement of TV stations associated with the DTV transition. AT&T and Verizon want to use the spectrum to rollout their most advanced wireless broadband access services, also called 4G service. "Delaying the DTV transition will delay our ability to upgrade those frequencies to 4G broadband for American consumers and have a negative impact on our nation's international competitiveness," Seidenberg said.
http://benton.org/node/20640
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TELECOM/INTERNET

INTERCARRIER COMPENSATION REFORM: NOW WHAT?
[SOURCE: TelephonyOnline, AUTHOR: Ed Gubbins]
Kevin Martin, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, shocked the telecom industry by vowing, in the final months of his term, to ambitiously enact sweeping reforms to the nation's intractable and long-controversial intercarrier compensation rules. Though those plans were dashed before last year ended, the debate that ensued left roadmaps to reform for the incoming administration. "The Martin plan is pretty much dead," said Bill King, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus. "That's not going to be a starting point for any discussions going forward. Whether [the new administration] can reset the shot clock back to 'one,' that's another issue." President-Elect Barack Obama has already signaled clearly that his FCC will have bigger priorities than intercarrier comp when it takes power: namely, broadband availability and Network Neutrality. However, when the new FCC does look at intercarrier comp reform, it will likely look at the existing public comments regarding Martin's plan as a sort of primer on the issues involved. And to that extent, those existing comments have mapped out the fault lines in this debate. Perhaps the largest fault line lies between Bells and large rural carriers, and not surprisingly, since much of the thrust of Martin's original plan was largely beneficial to Bells at the expense of RLECs.
http://benton.org/node/20617
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VERIZON TO ROUTE ALL CALLS OVER WEB WITHIN 7 YEARS
[SOURCE: Bloomberg News, AUTHOR: ]
Verizon, the second-biggest U.S. telephone company, plans to do away with traditional phone lines within seven years as it moves to carry all calls over the Internet. The company will start offering Internet calling to its FiOS Web and TV customers in the coming months, starting in Maryland, Chief Marketing Officer John Stratton said at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. By offering so-called voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, calls, Verizon is mimicking providers such as Vonage Holdings Corp. and cable companies, which have won customers with digital plans. An Internet-based service can be maintained at a fraction of the cost of a phone network and helps Verizon offer a greater range of services, Stratton said.
http://benton.org/node/20616
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IS BROADBAND SUCCESS A PARTNER-OR-PERISH PROPOSITION?
[SOURCE: TelephonyOnline, AUTHOR: Carol Wilson]
Broadband service providers need to get past their current mindset of doing everything themselves and consider the advantages of partnering with innovative service developers and offering broadband services on a wholesale basis, according to Yankee Group senior analyst Benoit Felten. Partnering to develop new services would speed up the relatively slow pace of new revenue-generating options today, while offering wholesale services increases the service penetration rate of high-cost fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks much faster than retailing alone will ever be able to do, said Felten. Many service providers in the US have made what Felten calls "dangerous technology bets that will haunt them for years," and of major service providers, only Verizon is pushing FTTH.
http://benton.org/node/20615
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INTERNET-READY TV
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] For more than a decade, the focal point of the annual International Consumer Electronics Show has been a digital generation of television sets capable of displaying far more detailed pictures than its analog forebears. The most notable development, though, was the growing number of TVs that could bring new sources of entertainment to the screen. Seemingly every major set manufacturer unveiled models that can offer video from the Internet, while the brands already selling Internet-ready sets announced support for a wider range of sites. Granted, the sets typically limit consumers to a "walled garden" of sites chosen by the manufacturer. Their arrival nevertheless portends profound changes in the TV industry. Internet-ready sets weaken the hold that cable and satellite TV operators have over their customers by enabling viewers to receive much of the value of their services for free. The major studios and TV networks have benefited from cable and satellite companies' role as gatekeepers to the living room because they've been able to extract ever-higher fees for their programs. Plugging the Net into TVs and providing open platforms such as Yahoo Widgets, however, means that anyone with a camcorder and a computer will be able to reach the global population of couch potatoes. Their productions probably won't approach the studios' refinement or picture quality, but such shortcomings haven't hurt YouTube and its supply of clips from the grass roots.
http://benton.org/node/20638
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BROADCASTING/CABLE

SUPREME COURT ASKS FOR GOVERNMENT VIEW ON CABLEVISION DVR CASE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: James Vicini, Yinka Adegoke]
The Supreme Court on Monday asked for the federal government's views of an appeal by film studios and television networks of a ruling that would allow a new digital video recorder service by New York cable operator Cablevision. At issue in the case is a ruling by the US Court of Appeals in New York that Cablevision's proposed service would not directly infringe the copyrights of the media companies that produce movies and television programs. The Supreme Court asked the Justice Department's solicitor general to file a brief expressing the views of the federal government. It could take several months for that brief to be filed. After it is filed, the Supreme Court then will decide whether to hear or reject the appeal.
http://benton.org/node/20614
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RELIGIOUS BROADCASTERS FEAR FAIRNESS DOCTRINE RETURN
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Religious broadcasters have major concerns about the new Obama Administration, warning members they see a possible return of the fairness doctrine, hate crimes legislation and other potential game changers. While the National Religious Broadcasters said it supported recently-introduced bills to block reimposition of the doctrine, it also said in an announcement Monday that it was prepared to go to court, lobby Congress, or take its message to the public, which would suggest the electronic pulpit. Sounding a little like David preparing for Goliath, the NRB said that it was "girding itself for a major battle over broadcasting freedoms."
http://benton.org/node/20639
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TELEVISION IS STARTING TO LOOK BEYOND 18- TO 49-YEAR-OLD DEMOGRAPHIC
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Scott Collins]
For the last 20 years, the television industry has been all about young-adult demographic groups, or "demos" in the slang of Madison Avenue, because marketers have believed that young people are most likely to develop lifelong loyalties to certain brands. Thus, whichever network attracts the most adults under 50 has been considered the winner, commanding premium rates for commercial time. As a result, network executives have driven themselves to distraction chasing young people, struggling to find programs with appeal for viewers in their 20s and 30s. Yet there are growing signs that network TV is moving away from its relentless focus on demos -- and that could have a huge influence on future programming. There's a growing sense in the industry that the 18-to-49 category's importance to marketers may be wildly overblown. Moreover, in an age of DVRs, multichannel systems and increasingly tiny ratings, the demo obsession may itself be pushing down ratings, exacerbating the industry's problems and excluding from consideration too many programs that could have broad appeal. Meanwhile, a new research company called TRA Inc. has the potential to revolutionize audience measurement with a system that attempts to analyze how viewers -- including those 50 and over -- spend their money, rather than just tally what they watch. That could enable marketers to target audiences with much more precision than in the past, network executives and media buyers say, and reveal previously unrecognized purchasing habits across all age groups.
http://benton.org/node/20622
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CBS SIGNS DEAL WITH VERIZON FIOS, WIRELESS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Yinka Adegoke, Ritsuko Ando]
Verizon and CBS say that Verizon has broadened and extended the rights for retransmission consent for CBS network stations as well as its affiliates, and local video-on-demand for the FiOS TV platform as well as mobile rights for Verizon Wireless' V CAST Video service. The new agreement includes full episodes of shows such as "60 Minutes" on Verizon Wireless, as well as video-on-demand rights for shows including "NCIS" and "Numb3rs" for FiOS TV's 1.6 million subscribers.
http://benton.org/node/20612
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PEG HAS BLURRY FUTURE IN GOLDEN STATE
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Linda Haugsted]
Communities throughout California will see less public-access programming this year, as cable operators turn support of those channels over to cities and counties under the terms of the 2006 law that put the state in charge of cable franchises. Already, Time Warner Cable in Los Angeles has notified producers that 12 of the city's 13 public, educational and government (PEG) studios will be shut down, leaving only one facility, on the city's East Side, to serve all producers. Charter Communications closed its studio in Long Beach on Jan. 1. San Francisco's access corporation anticipates the loss of a monthly 52-cent per-subscriber fee, collected by Comcast to support access there, when that system opts into state oversight in June 30.
http://benton.org/node/20610
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PUBLIC BROADCASTING

'STIMULUS INVESTMENT IN PUBLIC MEDIA' PROPOSED TO OBAMA
[SOURCE: Current, AUTHOR: Steve Behrens, Dru Sefton]
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, National Public Radio and PBS have asked President-elect Obama to include $550 million for noncommercial public-service media in his far larger package of spending and tax cuts to stimulate the economy and upgrade the nation's infrastructure. The groups' joint letter, sent Jan. 2, suggests federal aid for six projects involving public radio and TV that will create jobs and "produce sustainable improvements to the nation's communications infrastructure."
http://www.current.org/funding/funding0901stimulus.shtml
Read letter to Obama team
http://benton.org/node/20621
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PUBLIC BROADCASTING AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS
[SOURCE: Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, AUTHOR: Pat Aufderheide, Jessica Clark]
US public broadcasting faces profound challenges as a mass media service entering a disintermediated digital era. In an increasingly segmented media marketplace,
public broadcasters still aim to educate and inform the broadest possible swath of Americans. News and public affairs provision is a core function of public broadcasting, and garners enormous trust ratings—a feature that is in short supply in participatory news media. However, future news and public affairs programming will require genuine interactivity and listener/viewer choice and participation to remain relevant. This has been a major obstacle for a service that has been rewarded for its feudalistic stability. Public broadcasting's resources and assets are valuable today and hold great potential value for tomorrow's nonprofit online media sector. The sector will have to transform to fulfill that potential—the question is how. Scenarios include going local, going national, partnering up, or fighting it out, each of which offers opportunities to those who care about preserving the public service media.
http://benton.org/node/20620
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ONLINE PRIVACY DECISIONS CONFRONT OBAMA
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Kim Hart]
President-elect Barack Obama is about to face his first tests on consumer privacy, with questions about how much personal information Internet companies should be able to collect about consumers, how long they should keep that data, and whether they should use it to serve ads to Web surfers. The Future of Privacy Forum, a Washington group supported by AT&T, is pushing the transition team to appoint a chief privacy officer to shape standards about the use of consumer data. Separately, the Center for Digital Democracy and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group said they plan to file a complaint today with the Federal Trade Commission, urging the agency to investigate mobile marketing practices that may threaten consumer privacy. Privacy advocates have long been asking federal regulators to create standards for how personal information can be captured by search engines, social networks and mobile browsers. Internet companies say they should police themselves when it comes to protecting consumer privacy. But as marketers increasingly tailor ads based on consumers' interests, background and whereabouts, Obama is being called upon to develop a framework for the technologies.
http://benton.org/node/20642
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JOURNALISM'S BATTLE FOR RELEVANCE IN AN AGE OF TOO MUCH INFORMATION
[SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Bree Nordenson]
Research by Context found that many young consumers craved more in-depth news but were unable or unwilling to get it. The researchers in their final report. "Participants in this study showed signs of news fatigue; that is, they appeared debilitated by information overload and unsatisfying news experiences.... Ultimately news fatigue brought many of the participants to a learned helplessness response. The more overwhelmed or unsatisfied they were, the less effort they were willing to put in." The tragedy of the news media in the information age is that in their struggle to find a financial foothold, they have neglected to look hard enough at the larger implications of the new information landscape—and more generally, of modern life. How do people process information? How has media saturation affected news consumption? What must the news media do in order to fulfill their critical role of informing the public, as well as survive? If they were to address these questions head on, many news outlets would discover that their actions thus far—to increase the volume and frequency of production, sometimes frantically and mindlessly—have only made things more difficult for the consumer.
http://benton.org/node/20619
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TECH FIRMS BRACE FOR PAINFUL '09
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Kiyoshi Takenaka]
Top technology companies came to Las Vegas to show off their latest innovations in consumer electronics, but despite the plethora of TVs, computers, phones, cameras and other gadgets on display, it was clear the industry is bracing for a very tough year. While there were a few bright spots at this year's subdued Consumer Electronics Show -- such as low-cost mini-laptops known as netbooks -- what emerged was a picture of scaled-back investment plans, more job cuts and stagnant growth with no signs of improvement.
http://benton.org/node/20613
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THE TAXMAN COMETH? IRS URGED TO TAX VIRTUAL WORLDS, ECONOMIES
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jacqui Cheng]
[Commentary] The Internal Revenue Service should start taxing the fledgling virtual economy in Second Life, World of Warcraft, and other virtual worlds according to Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson. In her annual report published on the IRS website, Olsen said that there are still a number of issues that the IRS should "proactively address" before they get out of control. And now that it's on the IRS' radar, it's likely only a matter of time before Uncle Sam tries to figure out some way to get a cut of your gold. A number of virtual worlds involve the trade of real money for various virtual products and services inside of the game(s). And wherever people are spending money, someone is making it. Entrepreneurs are making fat cash off the sale of virtual land, clothing, sex toys, and everything in between in Second Life and other games, and now Olson wants the IRS to go after them.
http://benton.org/node/20609
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FACEBOOK'S BREASTFEEDING BAN
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Facebook, the popular social networking website, provoked a squall of maternal wrath when it yanked photos of breastfeeding babies that women had posted on their personal profiles because it deemed them a little too revealing. In response to the terse notices alerting mothers that they were violating Facebook's decency policy, "lactivists" responded with a virtual nurse-in; 11,000 women posted photos of themselves breastfeeding and/or updated their profiles to read: "Hey, Facebook. Breastfeeding Is Not Obscene!" Within days, 47,000 women had joined the "Hey, Facebook" cause, and by late last week, more than 150,000 had signed on. Why does this policy matter? Because Facebook, with 140 million members around the world, has more denizens than many countries. The Internet is a powerful force in shaping cultural norms, and breastfeeding is a normal -- and very healthy -- part of raising a child.
http://benton.org/node/20637
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