Sept 30, 2009 (National Broadband Plan -- A Midterm Report)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 30, 2009
Busy day ranges from the National Broadband Plan to Freedom of Information, from New Orleans to New York http://bit.ly/z8gKI
NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
National Broadband Plan -- A Midterm Report
Form 477 Data Inadequate for Broadband Planning, Commissioners Told
FCC Broadband Discussion moves to Charleston
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
Wireless Lobbyists Step Up Defensive Against Net Neutrality
Net neutrality not so neutral
Rep Boucher praises FCC, begins work on net neutrality bill
Neutrality rules
Will Net Neutrality Go Wireless?
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Verizon CTO sees eventual move to metered broadband
Incumbents Invited to the Broadband Stimulus Table
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
CTIA Wants More Spectrum -- 800 MHz in the Next 6 Years
USA! We're Number 1!
Government to consider limits on distracted driving
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Senators seek end to telecom's immunity for spying program
US relationship with ICANN may not end upon agreement expiration
Defense to allow troops, family members to use social network sites
DHS fails to justify funding for emergency network, stalling program
BROADCASTING
FCC to Begin Review of Media Ownership Rules
Stations Cut Costs by Using News -- More or Less
Mother Births New Model for 'Mass Roots' Marketing
Digital Video Recorder changes the ratings equation
PRIVACY
Two-Thirds of Americans Object to Online Tracking
Facebook's online poll crosses a line
FTC to Host Forum on Food Marketing to Children
FUNDING
$27.8 Million to Expand the Use of Health Information Technology
$40 Million in Grants to Improve 911 Services
MORE ONLINE ...
President Obama Continues Federal Advisory Committees
AppBank Wants to Help You Cash In on Facebook Apps
Just The Facts, But Get 'em Right
International Flavor to Last Week's News
Dan Rather loses $70 million lawsuit against CBS
UK Internet ad spend overtakes TV for first time
China Adds a Feature to Phones: Patriotism
NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN -- A MIDTERM REPORT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
With 141 days remaining before the Federal Communications Commission must deliver a National Broadband Plan to Congress, the task force developing the plan provided a status report to the Commission during its monthly meeting Tuesday. Congress required the Commission to craft a strategy for delivery of universal, affordable, widely adopted broadband to serve vital national purposes. Capturing all the external benefits of broadband to society and the economy is key to the analysis of the costs and benefits of universality. Benefits include consumer savings, health care improvements, educational and employment opportunities, and more. Subsidy mechanisms must also be considered as a means to universal adoption, but current mechanisms, such as Universal Service and stimulus grants, are insufficient to achieve national purposes. On the other side of the ledger, reducing the cost of key inputs, such as spectrum, rights of way, backhaul, and fiber, can extend the reach and performance of broadband. Preliminary analysis indicates that approximately three to six million people are unserved by basic broadband (speeds of 768 Kbps or less). The number of unserved increases as the definition of minimum broadband speed increases. The incremental cost to universal availability varies significantly depending on the speed of service, with preliminary estimates showing that the total investment required ranging from $20 billion for 768 Mbps-3 Mbps service to $350 billion for 100 Mbps or faster. The cost of providing consumers with a choice of infrastructure providers, and/or ensuring that all consumers have access to both fixed and mobile broadband would be significantly higher than these initial estimates. Nearly 2/3 of Americans have adopted broadband at home, while 33% have access but have not adopted it, and another 4% say they have no access where they live. But large segments of the population have much lower penetration rates, and adoption levels vary across demographic groups. The cost of digital exclusion is large and growing for non-adopters, as resources for employment, education, news, healthcare and shopping for goods and services
increasingly move on line. The task force has commissioned its own survey to learn how three key factors affect adoption: attitudes toward broadband and technology, affordability and personal context (home environment, access to libraries, disabilities, etc.). Results are expected in November.
benton.org/node/28317 | Federal Communications Commission | FCC National Broadband Plan Team | FCC press release | FCC's George Krebs | B&C | Reuters | GigaOM | Broadcasting&Cable
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FORM 477 DATA IN ADEQUATE FOR BROADBAND PLANNING, FCC TOLD
[SOURCE: BroadbandCensus.com, AUTHOR: Andrew Feinberg]
Current broadband mapping data is not specific enough in detail to help the Federal Communications Commission produce a national broadband plan, despite recent revisions to agency data-collection practices, staff members said Tuesday. Data must be collected at a more granular level to properly assess broadband availability, staffers said. While the revised Form 477 collects data by Census tract, a proper analysis can only be conducted at the Census block level, they said. Availability data must also be collected separate from demand. Data collected on households that subscribe to service by speed is inadequate for the purposes of a national plan when the commission needs to know service availability regardless of "take rate," they said. Further complicating matters is that there is no single data set of "all relevant broadband infrastructure" in existence. An appropriate data set would gather information both on pricing and provide the commission with a baseline from which the cost of building new infrastructure could be calculated. And infrastructure capability is inadequately represented in current data, the staff reported. While carriers report on their advertised speed, the commission must collect information on actual throughput delivered to consumers independently from advertised rates.
benton.org/node/28328 | BroadbandCensus.com
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FCC BROADBAND DISCUSSION MOVES TO CHARLESTON
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
The Federal Communications Commission's 2nd National Broadband Plan field hearing will be held on October 6th in Charleston, South Carolina. The event will focus upon broadband adoption issues. The Commission will be represented by South Carolina native Commissioner Mignon Clyburn as well as by Commissioner Michael Copps.
benton.org/node/28306 | Federal Communications Commission
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NETWORK NEUTRALITY
WIRELESS LOBBYISTS STEP UP DEFENSE AGAINST NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
The wireless industry has been on a charm offensive, working overtime to lobby regulators, journalists and lawmakers to ease off one of the most vibrant sectors of the US economy. After last week's proposal for new Network Neutrality rules that would include mobile broadband operators, that offensive has turned into a full-tilt defensive. CTIA-The Wireless Association, the main trade group for carriers like AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel and hundreds of handset makers and mobile software firms, is toting around a 35-page slide deck that outlines their case. They say the wireless industry has been among the most vibrant sectors of the economy and that it's moving too quickly to be regulated. Even with a stubborn recession, CTIA's vice president of regulatory affairs, Christopher Guttman-McCabe, told me over lunch last Thursday, the wireless industry directly employs 268,000 people with jobs that pay 50 percent higher the national average of wages in similar categories and that carriers are on track to continue to invest this year and next, their average capital investments of $22.8 billion a year. So why pick on us? That's the message by carriers by CTIA's six-member team assigned to lobby the FCC (and the 5-8 outside law firms hire to work on net neutrality and other wireless issues).
benton.org/node/28313 | Washington Post | CTIA
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NET NEUTRALITY NOT SO NEUTRAL
[SOURCE: Orange County Register, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] The phrase "net neutrality" has an ingratiating appeal. Net neutrality rules proposed by the Federal Communications Commission would "prohibit Internet service providers from interfering with the free flow of information" over their networks, the Associated Press reports. Proposed rules also would "bar Internet service providers such as Verizon Communications Inc. ... from slowing or blocking certain services or content flowing through their vast networks." What's wrong with that? If we take the government at its word always problematic at best all Web traffic will be treated equally, and Internet users will have more freedom to download music, video and other services. But to bring about a utopian desire for virtually unlimited access over a limited resource, government would require broadband providers to operate in ways not necessarily in the best interest of the companies or their paying customers. More government control of the Internet isn't neutral. It's the nose under the tent everyone will come to regret, save perhaps those politically connected interests who manage to "game" the system.
benton.org/node/28312 | Orange County Register
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REP BOUCHER PRAISES FCC, BEGINS WORK ON NET NEUTRALITY BILL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kim Hart]
A Q&A with House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet Chairman Rick Boucher (D-VA). He has an ambitious agenda: legislation that would limit the amount of information companies like Facebook and Google could collect from consumers; reforming the Universal Service Fund, the pool of money to which telecom companies contribute in order to provide services to libraries, schools and underserved areas; and he says public safety agencies need to be able to communicate across a national network, rather than the current patchwork of networks that do not work together.
benton.org/node/28311 | Hill, The
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NEUTRALITY RULES
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Should Internet users have unfettered access to any service and any application on any device? Or do network operators have the right to place limits on what their customers can do? The current spat between Google and AT&T has thrown that question into sharp relief and served to dramatize a simmering disagreement that has finally found its way to the top of the regulatory agenda. Regulatory restraint has so far wisely let this competitive market evolve. But heavy-handed moves such as the barring of Google Voice, which echoes a wider block on Internet calling services on mobile phones, could encourage more restrictions as the Federal Communications Commission develops its formal rules. If that is the result, the network operators will have only themselves to blame.
benton.org/node/28327 | Financial Times
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WILL NET NEUTRALITY GO WIRELESS?
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Olga Kharif]
Google is gearing up for what's likely to be the biggest telecom regulatory fight in more than a decade: prying open the nation's $200 billion wireless networks to a broader range of handsets and software-based tools, games, and entertainment. On one side are such tech companies as Google which want to ensure that their services are as widely available as possible on the gamut of wireless devices. Lining up against them are communications providers, including AT&T which oppose regulations that might constrain how they set prices, run expensive networks, and help design devices. "Virtually everyone has a stake in this," says Darrell West, a vice-president at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "This will be the mother of all political battles."
benton.org/node/28326 | BusinessWeek
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
VERIZON CTO SEES EVENTUAL MOVE TO METERED BROADBAND
[SOURCE: TelephonyOnline, AUTHOR: Carol Wilson]
Verizon Communications Chief Technology Officer Richard Lynch told a 2009 FTTH Conference & Expo press conference that the broadband industry "will see a pricing paradigm shift" because Internet service providers (ISPs) "cannot continue to grow the Internet without passing the cost on to someone." His comments are believed to mark the first time a Verizon executive had publicly supported metered billing at some point in the future. Lynch said that it is Verizon's hope that the Federal Communications Commission's current consideration of Network Neutrality rules as part of a national broadband policy doesn't result in rules that limit ISPs' ability to offer premium bandwidth offerings, while maintaining open access to the public Internet. When asked how Verizon would meet the burgeoning demand for bandwidth for Internet video and other services, Lynch admitted "the concept of a flat-rated infinitely expanding service for everyone just won't work." "We are going to reach a point where we will sell packages of bites," Lynch said. "Now I'm not announcing a new pricing plan. But we have already gone this way in wireless because that is where the resource is most constrained."
benton.org/node/28310 | TelephonyOnline | GigaOm
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INCUMBENTS INVITED TO THE TABLE
[SOURCE: BroadbandCensus.com, AUTHOR: ]
The National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA) and Rural Utilities Service (RUS) have embarked upon a 30-day period of accepting responses from existing service providers in their reviews of service area classifications, which will includes defining the unserved and the underserved areas for the BIP/BTOP infrastructure applications. Existing broadband service providers who respond to Public Notices with multiple proposals will need to file separate responses for each individual service area. This is in order for their existing services to be considered when determining eligibility for funding in the BIP and BTOP Infrastructure applications.
benton.org/node/28309 | BroadbandCensus.com | Broadband USA -- Mapping Tool | Broadband USA -- Public notice Filings
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
CTIA WANTS MORE SPECTRUM
[SOURCE: CTIA-The Wireless Association, AUTHOR: Steve Largent]
"As the Chairman and other FCC Commissioners understand, spectrum is our industry's backbone and is what encourages innovation and competition. In order to facilitate the 'virtuous cycle' of the industry, more spectrum must be made available. As spectrum is brought to market, the virtuous cycle begins, as networks are upgraded to add capacity and greater capabilities, handsets are then developed to take advantage of next generation networks, application and content developers then create new content to take advantage of new handset capabilities, and ultimately, consumers demand more. It's a cycle that never ends as long as spectrum is available. The U.S. is the most efficient users of commercial spectrum in the world. But as the Chairman has recognized, the industry needs access to more spectrum so we can continue to meet the growing consumer demand whether it's for personal reasons such as mHealth or for environmental reasons such as smart grids. Other countries around the world have recognized the need to facilitate this virtuous cycle and have identified hundreds of megahertz of spectrum to reallocate for licensed commercial use. In this filing, we are asking the FCC to work with the Federal government to immediately begin to identify and allocate up to 800 MHz of additional spectrum over the next six years. We also have requested policymakers to meet short-term spectrum needs by pairing and allocating readily-available spectrum. We are proud that the mobile wireless industry is providing broadband access where you want it, when you want it, but we are facing a perfect storm where demand may outpace supply. By allocating and assigning more spectrum, the federal government will encourage continued innovation and competition within the industry and ensure our continued economic investment and impact."
benton.org/node/28308 | CTIA-The Wireless Association
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USA! WE'RE NUMBER 1!
[SOURCE: TelephonyOnline, AUTHOR: Kevin Fitchard]
[Commentary] Rah! Rah! Rah! That's right: We Americans rock. Why? Because — unlike in previous Gs — we've got 4G first, and we're using it to kick butt and take names, at least as far as the wireless vendors are concerned. For the first time in more than a decade, the U.S. is leading the way in the implementation of a new generation of wireless technology. And that has made the U.S. the focus of every vendor's 4G efforts globally. The U.S., and North America in general, has always been important to global wireless vendors, but its split technology loyalties and general tardiness in deploying new networks have served to keep vendors occupied in other regions of the world when a new standard emerges. Now the tables have turned. The number of long-term evolution (LTE) commitments in North America is staggering, as are the aggressive deployment schedules of carriers. Consequently, instead of focusing their initial sales efforts on Europe and East Asia, wireless vendors are making North America their first point of attack. If the number of LTE innovation labs the vendors keep opening on American soil isn't enough to convince you of their Yankee fever, then their words should.
benton.org/node/28307 | TelephonyOnline
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GOVERNMENT TO CONSIDER LIMITS ON DISTRACTED DRIVING
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Ken Thomas]
With more drivers yakking on their cellphones or texting from behind the wheel, the Obama administration is taking its first hard look at highway hazards with an eye toward potential new restrictions on using mobile devices while driving. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood kicked off a two-day summit on Wednesday involving researchers, automakers, safety advocates and lawmakers to find ways of preventing distracted driving from leading to widespread deaths and injuries. Sec LaHood said he plans to make recommendations Thursday on ways federal and state governments, as well as safety groups can address the distractions, pointing to previous approaches for drunken driving and seat belts. Ultimately, LaHood said, he wants the summit to set "the stage for finding ways to eliminate texting while driving." "You see people texting and driving and using cell phones and driving everywhere you go, even in places where it's outlawed like Washington (DC). We feel a very strong obligation to point to incidents where people have been killed or where serious injury has occurred," Sec LaHood said. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have passed laws making texting while driving illegal and seven states and the district have banned driving while talking on a handheld cell phone, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Many safety groups have urged a nationwide ban on texting and on using handheld mobile devices while behind the wheel.
benton.org/node/28303 | Associated Press | Department of Transportation
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
SENATORS SEEK END TO TELECOM'S IMMUNITY FOR SPYING PROGRAM
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Grant Gross]
Sens Christopher Dodd (D-CT, Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) will introduce a bill to repeal a provision protecting telecommunications carriers from lawsuits due to their assistance to a controversial US National Security Agency surveillance program. The Retroactive Immunity Repeal Act would repeal telecom immunity provisions in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act, passed by Congress in July 2008. "I believe we best defend America when we also defend its founding principles," Sen Dodd said. "We make our nation safer when we eliminate the false choice between liberty and security. But by granting retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies who may have participated in warrantless wiretapping of American citizens, the Congress violated the protection of our citizen's privacy and due process right and we must not allow that to stand." Sen Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he was pleased to sponsor the bill. "Last year, I opposed legislation that stripped Americans of their right to seek accountability for the Bush administration's decision to illegally wiretap American citizens without a warrant," he said in a statement. "We can strengthen national security while protecting Americans' privacy and civil liberties. Restoring Americans' access to the courts is the first step toward bringing some measure of accountability for the Bush-Cheney administration's decision to conduct warrantless surveillance in violation of our laws."
benton.org/node/28316 | IDG News Service
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US RELATIONSHIP WITH ICANN MAY NOT END UPON AGREEMENT EXPIRATION
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Grant Gross]
A longtime agreement in which the Department of Commerce has oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is due to expire Wednesday, but that may not be the end of the relationship. While ICANN isn't talking, some observers expect a new type of agreement to be announced as soon as Wednesday, with the US government sharing oversight of the nonprofit organization that controls the Internet's domain name system with other countries. This new type of agreement would allow ICANN to become more independent, while addressing concerns from several other countries that the United States has too much control over ICANN, said Michael Palage, a former ICANN board member. The new agreement would create several oversight boards, with international representation, Palage said. The Economist reported last week that a new agreement, called an affirmation of commitments, will replace the existing pact between the U.S. government and ICANN. The Department of Commerce and ICANN have operated under a series of agreements laying out expectations for the nonprofit since November 1998. The new agreement "will tell them what it should do, but it can't legally bind them," much like past agreements, said Palage, now a senior fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank. "It gives the appearance in the global community that the U.S. government has recognized that ICANN has done what is was supposed to do. What it's also doing is ... it's putting in some accountability mechanisms."
benton.org/node/28315 | IDG News Service
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DEFENSE TO ALLOW TROOPS, FAMILY MEMBERS TO USE SOCIAL NETWORK SITES
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Bob Brewin]
The Defense Department, which had seen some services ban the use of social networking sites, will allow troops and their families to use the popular online communication tools such as Facebook and Twitter on its unclassified networks, according to a draft memo written by Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn III. The memo, due out in days, solidly backs the use of social network sites, which Lynn calls "Internet capabilities," for both official and unofficial purposes and envisions these tools as providing an information advantage for Defense. The new policy "addresses important changes in the way the Department of Defense communicates and shares information on the Internet," Lynn wrote. "This policy recognizes that emerging Internet-based capabilities offer both opportunities and risks that need to be balanced in ways that provide an information advantage for our people and mission partners." The directive defines Internet capabilities as "the full range of publicly accessible information services resident on the Internet [and] external to the DoD, [for example] outside of the .mil domains, including Web 2.0 tools such as social networking services, social media, user-generated content sites, social software, as well as e-mail, instant messaging and discussion forums."
benton.org/node/28314 | nextgov
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DHS FAILS TO JUSTIFY FUNDING FOR EMERGENCY NETWORK
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Jill Aitoro]
The Homeland Security Department lost much of its funding for a communications network for national security and emergency response workers after it failed to detail why it needed the system, according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office on Monday. DHS' National Communications System is developing the National Security/Emergency Preparedness Next-Generation Network that will allow workers to continue to communicate when traditional telecommunication networks become congested or damaged. But Congress has provided far less than DHS has requested for the system because the department has not justified why it needs the system and the technology, according to an August GAO report, which the agency released this week. "NCS is working to provide priority voice and data communications [for national security and emergency response] as part of the evolving telecommunications networks, but it has not finalized an acquisition approach based on available technologies, costs, or plans to mitigate technological and other challenges to deliver such capabilities," said William Jenkins, director of homeland security and justice issues at GAO and author of the report. Investment in the next-generation network would prioritize voice communications and data communications, including e-mail, streaming video, text messaging and Internet access, among other things.
benton.org/node/28320 | nextgov | GAO report
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BROADCASTING
FCC TO BEGIN REVIEW OF MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
The Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau will hold a series of workshops to jumpstart the Commission's quadrennial review of its media ownership rules. The purpose of the workshops initially will be to receive public input on the appropriate scope and methodology of the proceeding and later to help build an analytical and empirical foundation for a Commission decision. The forums will cover a wide variety of topics that the Commission expects to consider in its review, including the state of the current media marketplace and the role of the media ownership rules in that marketplace. The Commission will seek viewpoints and information from a broad range of experts; consumers; public interest and trade associations; labor unions; media industry representatives, both traditional and new; and other interested persons. The Bureau will hold its first workshop in the series in early November 2009. This initial forum will provide an opportunity for academics, industry stakeholders, and the public interest community to present their views on the framework the Commission should use for conducting its ownership review. Their insights will help determine the questions the Commission should address and how best to gather the data needed to answer those questions.
benton.org/node/28305 | Federal Communications Commission | TVNewsCheck | B&C
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STATIONS CUT COSTS BY USING NEWS -- MORE OR LESS
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Elizabeth Jensen]
As ad dollars continue to decline, television stations are looking at new options with news: In some cases, cutting back, but in others, actually expanding the amount of local news they offer. By stretching their existing news resources into longer or additional news programming they open up more revenue opportunity without adding too much to costs. Television news directors in Los Angeles came under attack last month for their initial lack of coverage of the arson-caused Station fire, which killed two firefighters, destroyed about 80 homes and became the largest wildfire in Los Angeles County history. The fire was already spreading out of control on Saturday, Aug. 29, the day of Sen. Edward Kennedy's funeral, an event that received widespread coverage. Viewers in the fire-affected areas as well as local politicians and television critics complained that LA stations had dropped the ball that weekend by not providing extensive fire coverage Los Angeles Times critic Mary McNamara went so far as to call it "a virtual, and inexplicable, news blackout." Was it because of the economy? It's common knowledge that news departments operate on the weekends with only a fraction of their Monday-through-Friday staff, but that additional personnel is called in — or simply shows up — when a big story breaks. Not a single news executive would admit that any budgetary cutbacks affected the initial fire coverage, saying their stations provided comprehensive reporting before the fire turned deadly and threatened residents. All the same, media watchers have been warning recently that layoffs and cuts are having an enormous impact on the quality of television news.
benton.org/node/28304 | TVWeek | TVWeek -- news directors
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MOTHER BIRTHS NEW MODEL FOR 'MASS ROOTS' MARKETING
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Teressa Iezzi]
Mother, New York -- the creative shop that has added fast-food entrepreneur, music-festival organizer and product designer/consultant to the job description of ad agency -- is spinning off a new unit that aims to reshape the local-media space. The founding client for Mother Productions is NBC Local Media, an organization of 10 owned-and-operated media properties in major markets including New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington and Los Angeles. The division adds a structural layer to Mother's broadening creative efforts, and the partnership with NBC will see the agency playing at the intersection of advertising, marketing and programming, potentially creating new kinds of content in the burgeoning local arena. The establishment of Mother Productions will take the NBC creative partnership further. The new arm will have a staff of 12-15, including writers, motion designers, editors, producers and others, and will also draw from the agency's existing talent pool. It will orchestrate everything from station brand ID and promos to digital efforts and ads, while also creating locally-based content and relationships.
benton.org/node/28325 | AdAge
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DVR CHANGES THE RATINGS EQUATION
[SOURCE: Variety, AUTHOR: Michael Schneider]
TV's fastest growing network isn't a network at all -- it's the DVR. Viewers significantly upped their DVR use during premiere week, helping to bolster sampling for several new series. "This time of the year, the DVR is definitely a positive for the networks," said CBS chief research officer David Poltrack. "In a world where it's difficult to get your product sampled, the DVR is an enabler." According to premiere-week numbers, DVRs are actually extending primetime both earlier and later, which is good news for the nets. At least in week one, that means some viewers were consuming four or five hours of primetime fare a night instead of the usual three. Over all, that may have contributed to the strong launches of several new shows.
benton.org/node/28324 | Variety
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PRIVACY
TWO-THIRDS OF AMERICANS OBJECT TO ONLINE TRACKING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Stephanie Clifford]
About two-thirds of Americans object to online tracking by advertisers — and that number rises once they learn the different ways marketers are following their online movements, according to a new survey from professors at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley. The professors say they believe the study, scheduled for release on Wednesday, is the first independent, nationally representative telephone survey on behavioral advertising. Tailored ads in general did not appeal to 66 percent of respondents. Then the respondents were told about different ways companies tailor ads: by following what someone does on the company's site, on other sites and in offline places like stores. The respondents' aversion to tailored ads increased once they learned about targeting methods. In addition to the original 66 percent that said tailored ads were "not O.K.," an additional 7 percent said such ads were not O.K. when they were tracked on the site. An additional 18 percent said it was not O.K. when they were tracked via other Web sites, and an additional 20 percent said it was not O.K. when they were tracked offline.
benton.org/node/28323 | New York Times
See also: The Looming Battle Over Targeted Ads
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FACEBOOK'S ONLINE POLL CROSSES THE LINE
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Not content with more conventional ways of expressing disapproval, an unidentified Facebook user recently posted a poll asking whether President Obama should be assassinated. The poll was outrageous, and Facebook forced its removal even before the Secret Service called. The larger questions raised by the incident, however, are how much control companies should exert over the use of the megaphones they provide online, and how much information social networks expose about the people who use them. Facebook gives developers the ability to collect a stunning amount of information about the people who use their applications. Unless they're savvy enough to change their privacy settings, users not only automatically reveal the personal data they've entered into their Facebook profiles, they also disclose similar information from their friends' profiles. Those disclosures and connections could prove a gold mine to investigators, exposing people to scrutiny simply because a friend gave the wrong answer on the wrong Facebook poll. Before that happens, Facebook should do a better job of teaching users how to guard their privacy against the risks posed even by seemingly innocuous applications.
benton.org/node/28322 | Los Angeles Times
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FTC TO HOST FORUM ON FOOD MARKETING TO CHILDREN
[SOURCE: Federal Trade Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Federal Trade Commission will host a public forum on December 15, 2009, titled "Sizing Up Food Marketing and Childhood Obesity." The forum will assemble industry representatives, federal regulators, consumer groups, scientific researchers, and legal scholars to discuss issues related to food marketing to children. The forum will address the food and entertainment industries' progress toward self-regulation and implementation of the recommendations in the FTC's 2008 report, "Marketing Foods to Children and Adolescents: A Review of Industry Expenditures, Activities, and Self-Regulation." Panelists also will discuss current research on the impact of food advertising on children, and the statutory and constitutional issues surrounding governmental regulation of food marketing. In addition, the Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children comprised of representatives from the FTC, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and U.S. Department of Agriculture will report on the status of recommended nutritional standards for foods marketed to children.
benton.org/node/28321 | Federal Trade Commission
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