Oct 21, 2009 (Network Neutrality Day at the FCC)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for
Two big items on today's agenda: Video Competition in a Digital Age and the FCC Launches a proceeding on Network Neutrality (see news below). See http://bit.ly/30xD5
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
FCC set to take on aggressive role as Internet traffic cop
Support Network Neutrality
Tech venture capitalists lend support to Network Neutrality rules
FCC Briefing Hill on Network Neutrality
AT&T lobbyist asks employees, their families and friends to protest net neutrality rules
Sharing the Risks of Wireless Innovation
Carriers Eye Pay-As-You-Go Internet
Broadband Users Consume 11.4 Gbytes Per Month
BROADBAND AND THE STIMULUS
Wireline Duopoly Losing its Bite As Comcast and Verizon Carve Up Broadband Terrain, Say Workshop Panelists
Clear Correlation Between Education and Adoption
Broadband Stimulus Plan to Fall Short by Nearly $17 Billion, Warns Yankee Group
Governments Offer Picks for Broadband Dollars
Blumenthal: Savings From Health IT To Exceed CBO's Estimates
Smart Grid Stimulus: The Pause That Distresses
CYBERSECURITY
NSA Director Tapped For Cyber Command
US Spies Buy Stake in Firm That Monitors Blogs, Tweets
TELEVISION
NBC Universal's Graboff says TV windows collapsing
TV Writers Want FCC To Expand Definition of Kids Programming
Fox Looks To Join CBS' Retrans Fee Act: Will Cable Look To Upstage?
JOURNALISM
State of the Blogosphere 2009
CONTENT
E-Book Fans Keep Format in Spotlight
Disney Touts a Way to Ditch the DVD
How Users Took Over Twitter
TELECOM
Mexico lawmakers to vote on telecom tax
POLICYMAKERS
Search starts for MPAA chief Dan Glickman's replacement
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
FCC SET TO TAKE ON AGGRESSIVE ROLE AS INTERNET TRAFFIC COP
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Mike Zapler]
The Federal Communications Commission this week is stepping squarely into a high-stakes technology battle with this seemingly straightforward question at its core: Should Internet providers such as Comcast and AT&T be allowed to control what you do online once you buy access to their networks? If the answer seems obvious — of course they shouldn't — the debate hardly ends there. What if your activity online hogs so much bandwidth, like watching TV or downloading movies, that it slows your neighbor's Internet speed to a crawl? Or what if the application you're using undercuts the Internet provider's business model? One example: Should AT&T be allowed to stop you from making free calls over the iPhone data network, bypassing the company's lucrative cell phone network? Those are the kinds of vexing issues at play as the FCC assumes an enhanced role as Internet traffic cop. The goal, according to the commission's new chairman, Julius Genachowski, is to keep the Internet as open and accessible as possible for consumers and innovators. "It's about fair rules of the road for companies that control access to the Internet," Chairman Genachowski said in a recent speech. "This is about preserving and maintaining something profoundly successful and ensuring that it's not distorted or undermined." But in pursuing that aim, the FCC is thrusting itself into a real-world business clash between some of the nation's fastest-evolving industries, raising questions about the appropriate level of government regulation.
benton.org/node/28977 | San Jose Mercury News
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SUPPORT NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Rep Jared Polis (D-CO)]
[Commentary] As an entrepreneur and creator of several successful Internet start-ups, I have long been an ardent supporter of open access to the Internet and continue to support net neutrality in Congress today. Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is holding an important meeting to consider a net neutrality framework for the Internet. The decisions that the FCC makes impact the future of the Internet itself. By enshrining open access into regulation, the FCC can ensure that the Internet remains a level playing field for innovative content, services, and applications and does not break apart into various pay-to-play private networks. Please ask your Representative to join me in calling for rules that allow consumers to access the lawful Internet content of their choice, run applications and services of their choice, connect to their choice of legal devices, ensure transparency and competition among network providers and content/service/application providers, and prevent Internet service providers from discriminating against any legal content or applications.
benton.org/node/28968 | Huffington Post, The
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TECH VENTURE CAPITALISTS LEND SUPPORT TO NETWORK NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
The people who invested the money that eventually brought us the Mac,Tweets and Internet search are now weighing in on Washington's biggest tech policy issue Investors in companies such as Apple, Facebook, and Google threw their support behind a push for proposed Network Neutrality rules, saying clear regulations that prevent Internet services providers from blocking the applications they help fund would spur growth in one of the brightest sectors of the economy. The 30 investors and executives who signed a letter to the Federal Communications Commission to be delivered Wednesday come from some of the most successful firms along Sand Hill Road, Silicon Valley's cluster of venture capital firms. They include: John Doerr, a partner of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Beyers, an early investor in Amazon, Sun Microsystems and Google. Timothy Draper, founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, who funded Skype and Hotmail. Peter Fenton, a partner at Benchmark, who invested in Twitter and Yelp.
benton.org/node/28976 | Washington Post
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FCC BRIEFING HILL ON NETWORK NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Apparently, federal Communications Commission staff have briefed Senate and House Commerce Committee staffers on the proposal to expand and codify Internet openness guidelines and apply them to the wireless industry.
benton.org/node/28958 | Broadcasting&Cable
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AT&T ASKS EMPLOYEES TO LOBBY AGAINST NETWORK NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
AT&T's top lobbyist, Jim Cicconi, sent a letter to all of the telecom giant's 300,000 employees on Sunday, urging them to express their concerns over a Network Neutrality proposal under consideration by the Federal Communications Commission. The letter was the latest move in a lobbying frenzy days before the FCC votes on a proposal to create new net neutrality regulations. High-tech giants wrote to the agency to support the rules, while dozens of lawmakers from both parties have protested the rules as potentially dangerous to economic growth. "We encourage you, your family and friends to join the voices telling the FCC not to regulate the Internet," Cicconi wrote in his letter. In the letter, he offered these talking points: 1) America's wireless consumers enjoy the broadest range of innovative services and devices, lowest prices, highest usage levels, and most choices in the world. Why disrupt a market that's working so well? 2) There is fierce competition for wireless and broadband customers. Competition drives innovation and encourages companies to develop products, services and applications that consumers want. There's been more innovation in this market than in any since the World Wide Web was introduced. The market is working for consumers. Don't burden it with unnecessarily harmful regulations. 3) Network companies have to be able to manage their networks to ensure the most economical and efficient use of bandwidth, and provide affordable broadband services for all users. Network management is essential for consumers to enjoy the benefits of new quality-sensitive applications and services. The FCC rules should not stop the promise of life-changing, cost-saving services such as telemedicine that depend on a managed network. 4) The "net neutrality" rules as reported will jeopardize the very goals supported by the Obama administration that every American have access to high-speed Internet services no matter where they live or their economic circumstance. That goal can't be met with rules that halt private investment in broadband infrastructure. And the jobs associated with that investment will be lost at a time when the country can least afford it. 5) The FCC shouldn't burden an industry that is bringing jobs and investment to the country, but if it is going to regulate the Internet it should do so fairly. The goal of the FCC should be to maintain a level playing field by treating all competitors the same. Any new rules should apply equally to network providers, search engines and other information services providers.
benton.org/node/28957 | Washington Post | AT&T letter | savetheinternet.com
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SHARING THE RISKS OF WIRELESS INNOVATION
[SOURCE: Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, AUTHOR: Richard Bennett]
Advocates of Network Neutrality took the battle for control of the Internet into the wireless space in 2007 with the publication of Tim Wu's "Wireless Carterfone" paper on barriers to wireless application development. 100,000 applications later, the FCC and Congress are once again besieged with demands for free access to wireless data networks by all kinds of devices. Is the battle to put all devices on all networks beneficial (not to mention practical)? The use of diverse cellular technologies in the United States suggests that it's not, and the large trend in the wireless space from simple phones to smart, software-intensive platforms like the iPhone and the Palm Pre suggests that it's yesterday's war. Bennett analyzes trends in mobile technology and finds current regulations more than sufficient to promote continued innovation.
benton.org/node/28955 | Information Technology & Innovation Foundation
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CARRIERS EYE PAY-AS-YOU-GO INTERNET
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Christopher Rhoads, Niraj Sheth]
In the early years of the Internet, the more time people spent online, the more they paid a provider like AOL for their connection. But as customers have shifted to always-on broadband services, many Web surfers have enjoyed all-you-can-eat Internet for a flat rate. Some cable and telecommunications providers are trying to turn back the clock and return to usage-based pricing for Internet connections. Carriers including AT&T Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc. say they may have to switch amid a surge in Internet traffic as more people go online to watch videos and download movies. Recent efforts to introduce usage-based, or metered, broadband services have met stiff resistance from consumers. But a new push by the federal government to adopt rules that would force Internet providers to treat all Web traffic equally, no matter how much bandwidth they take up, could give ammunition to the broadband providers that want to change how they charge for Web access, Internet experts and consumer advocates say.
benton.org/node/28975 | Wall Street Journal
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BROADBAND USERS CONSUME 11.4 GBYTES PER MONTH
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Todd Spangler]
A survey by Cisco finds that about 10% of the world's broadband subscribers generate more than 60% of all Internet traffic, with the average connection chewing up about 11.4 Gigabytes of Internet traffic per month. Meanwhile, the top 1% heaviest global subscribers account more than 20% of all traffic, Cisco found. The networking company's Visual Networking Index (VNI) Usage report represents activity during the third quarter of 2009 aggregated from cable, wireline telco, and mobile providers in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and various emerging markets. Globally, the average broadband connection consumes about 4.3 Gbytes of video and other "visual networking applications" (such as social networking) per month. That's the equivalent of approximately 1.1 hours of Internet video, according to Cisco. Peer-to-peer traffic represented about 38% of all Internet traffic, which was a significant decrease from Cisco's earlier pilot studies that showed P2P accounting for more than half of all bandwidth used.
benton.org/node/28974 | Multichannel News
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BROADBAND AND THE STIMULUS
BROADBAND WIRELINE DUOPOLY DISCUSSED AT FCC
[SOURCE: BroadbandCensus.com, AUTHOR: Rahul Gaitonde]
The Federal Communications Commission workshop on economic issues in broadband competition on October 9 brought together regulators and academics, who agreed that regulation of the broadband market would be difficult and different compared to old-style telecommunications. In answer to the question of whether "there a duopoly in the broadband market," almost everyone said "Yes." Judith Chevalier of Yale University, explained that while economic models do exist and can be useful they are not perfect. "There are big gaps between these models and the world we see." She said that there are too many variables for a truly perfect model to be created. Hence one must look at the market to predict the outcome of any regulation and not just rely on a result from an econometric model. Echoing a refrain of almost every workshop, Chevalier said that in order to create a better model, "we need more and better data."
benton.org/node/28956 | BroadbandCensus.com
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CLEAR CORRELATION BETWEEN EDUCATION AND ADOPTION
[SOURCE: BroadbandCensus.com, AUTHOR: Rahul Gaitonde]
The Federal Communications Commission says that it wants to ensure that the pending national broadband plan addresses the needs of minorities, and the October 2, 2009, workshop heard multiple perspectives on the subject, with a focus on "Diversity and Civil Rights." FCC Consumer Research Director John Horrigan said that there is a clear correlation between education level and adoption: those with less than a high school degree only have a broadband penetration rate of about 30 percent. Minorities are much more likely to access the Internet via mobile devices, he said, although the national average for all Americans is around 32 percent, while it is 47 percent for Hispanics. Although more Hispanics may access the Internet via mobile phones, such phones are generally prepaid and have limited Internet capabilities. The biggest barrier to adoption is the issue of relevance, with 50 percent of those using dial-up to access the Internet saying that they saw no reason to upgrade to a high-speed connection. The lack of available cited by a mere 17 percent. Another major barrier to access is simply not having a computer, or knowing how to properly use a computer.
benton.org/node/28954 | BroadbandCensus.com
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BROADBAND STIMULUS INADEQUATE FOR THE ENTIRE JOB
[SOURCE: Yankee Group, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Yankee group, a technology research firm, estimates that the $7.2 billion in broadband stimulus funds is woefully inadequate for extending broadband's reach to all Americans. Currently, about 12 percent of U.S. households, including those in some major metropolitan areas, have no access to broadband service. Yankee Group examines four possible approaches to addressing the problem: an ultra-cost-conscious "Discount" option, a leverage-what's-in-place "Duct Tape" method, a "Pragmatic"
middle-of-the-road approach and an all-fiber-to-the-home "Gold-Plated" scenario. While all reach the Anywhere goal of at least one broadband connection per home,
none are perfect. And at a minimum, they all require unprecedented vendor cooperation and regulatory foresight. "Achieving ubiquitous broadband in the U.S. will hasten economic recovery and put the nation back where it belongs in terms of technology leadership, but it will take a concerted effort on the part of all stakeholders," says Vince
Vittore, principal analyst at Yankee Group and author of the report. "A minimum of $24 billion is required, and that`s only if networks are deployed in the most efficient manner and much of the middle-mile infrastructure already is in place. While the stimulus is a good start, it's just that: a start."
benton.org/node/28967 | Yankee Group
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GOVERNMENTS OFFER PICKS FOR BROADBAND DOLLARS
[SOURCE: BroadbandCensus.com, AUTHOR: Drew Clark]
Alabama, Arizona, Missouri, Illinois and Kansas have made recommendations to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration for broadband stimulus grants. The Alabama Broadband Initiative urged that the federal government fund 41 projects noting that "infrastructure projects within the State are our number one priority." The the State of Arizona Government Information Technology Agency recommended 21 projects without any commentary. Gov. Jeremiah W. Nixon (D-Missouri) offered 16 recommendations while articulating a detailed framework for bringing more comprehensive broadband to the state. Illinois winnowed 140 applicants for broadband projects to a list of 31 recommended projects, and Kansas narrowed its pool of 85 applicants to 22.
benton.org/node/28973 | BroadbandCensus.com | BroadbandCensus
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HIT SAVINGS COULD EXCEED CBO ESTIMATES
[SOURCE: iHealthBeat, AUTHOR: ]
National Coordinator for Health IT David Blumenthal said he expects the actual savings from health IT to "far exceed" the Congressional Budget Office's projection of about $12 billion over 10 years. Dr. Blumenthal said, "Electronic health records and other forms of health IT can certainly be improved, and there are examples of bad implementation and other problems." He added, "I still think that on the whole, across the country we'd be better off with universal availability of electronic health records. We'd have fewer errors, fewer missed diagnoses, less duplication of tests and fewer adverse drug events."
benton.org/node/28966 | iHealthBeat | Technology Review
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SMART GRID STIMULUS PAUSE
[SOURCE: SmartGridNews.com, AUTHOR: Jesse Berst]
[Commentary] Remember how we all cheered at the start of the year when the feds announced that the Smart Grid would be part of the stimulus package? What a tremendous boost to the sector, we all said. Then reality set in. Far from accelerating 2009 Smart Grid spending, the stimulus bill slowed it down. Projects may have been delayed 9 to 12 months as utilities wait to hear whether the government will pay part of the price tag. Some are blaming stimulus-related delays for missing sales forecasts. And all of that leads to important questions: What's going to happen with utilities that do get money? Will it prime the pump and lead to more projects by those same utilities? Or will it be a one-time bubble, with those utilities waiting a few years before they tackle something big again? Will the utilities and their PUCs get addicted to the 50% government match and reject future initiatives as too expensive? What's going to happen with utilities that get their applications rejected? Will they regroup and push ahead with their projects on a smaller scale, since they'd already committed to a 50% share of the cost? Or will it be an excuse to throw up their hands, say oh well, we tried and go back to business as usual? What about the effects on Smart Grid technology companies? Many of them have spent the last six months frantically assisting with stimulus applications. Clearly, they are hoping utilities will do the right thing and move forward with or without a check from Uncle Sam. But what about the vendors who don't win any awards? Will they continue to have the confidence of their customers and their investors? What effect will all this have on regulators?
benton.org/node/28965 | SmartGridNews.com
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CYBERSECURITY
NSA DIRECTOR TAPPED FOR CYBER COMMAND
[SOURCE: InformationWeek, AUTHOR: J. Nicholas Hoover]
President Obama has, as expected, nominated National Security Agency director Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander to be promoted to the rank of general and assigned as commander of the new United States Cyber Command. The Cyber Command, announced this summer, will be in charge of cyberwarfare and the security of military networks. It will be based in Ft. Meade, Md., where the National Security Agency is also headquartered, and will be part of the U.S. Strategic Command. Defense secretary Robert Gates urged Alexander's appointment in a June memo, when he formally created Cyber Command. A month earlier, Alexander said in testimony before the House Armed Services committee that it was vital for the military to combine some of its existing cybersecurity efforts. "The way we're approaching [cybersecurity] today does not work," he said. "We can put the defense and the offense together for the good of the department. The rapid expansion and global dependence upon cyberspace require[s] the Defense Department to evolve its warfighting doctrine to include cyberspace as a viable domain on par with the domains of the land, sea, air and space." In anticipation of the possible creation of a broad military cybersecurity effort, Alexander this spring became acting director of the Joint Task Force -- Global Network Operations (JTF-GNO), which heads up the operation and cybersecurity of Department of Defense networks. JTF-GNO will dissolve next year, and its operations roles will revert to the Defense Information Systems Agency.
benton.org/node/28950 | InformationWeek
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US SPIES BUY STAKE IN FIRM THAT MONITORS BLOGS, TWEETS
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Noah Shachtman]
America's spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter updates — even check out your book reviews on Amazon. In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is putting cash into Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. It's part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using "open source intelligence" — information that's publicly available, but often hidden in the flood of TV shows, newspaper articles, blog posts, online videos and radio reports generated every day.
benton.org/node/28951 | Wired
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TELEVISION
TV WINDOWS COLLAPSING
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Sue Zeidler]
Traditional television viewing patterns are collapsing and the industry needs to quickly figure out how to profit in a world where people can watch TV shows anytime, anywhere, NBC Universal's TV chief said. The challenge now was drawing viewers to network shows at designated times when people can either record those shows or turn to online outlets to watch at their convenience, said Marc Graboff, Chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios. Networks need to figure out how to make their content more immediately available in a lucrative way, such as by charging viewers to stream episodes shortly after airing -- narrowing viewing "windows" -- or providing them to multiple outlets, he told an industry conference. Meanwhile, Comcast, the largest US cable operator, will look at all opportunities in the content business Chief Executive Brian Roberts said. Roberts said if there was an opportunity to acquire more content his company's philosophy was that is "prudent" to think about it and look at it.
benton.org/node/28963 | Reuters | Reuters -- Comcast
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TV WRITERS WANT FCC TO EXPAND DEFINITION OF KIDS PROGRAMMING
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Writers Guild of America West wants the Federal Communications Commission expand its definition of children's programming as it prepares to rethink its kids TV rules, and embedded advertising guidelines, in the digital age. In meetings with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and staff, the writers offered examples of the growing use of embedded advertising techniques, including on-screen scrolls like the Captain Morgan Rum crawl on TBS during MLB playoff coverage. They cautioned that the rise of DVR's, with their ad-skipping capabilities, will only make advertisers and networks "more aggressive" in their ad embedding strategies.
benton.org/node/28962 | Broadcasting&Cable
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FOX LOOKS TO JOIN CBS' RETRANS FEE ACT
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Wayne Friedman]
[Commentary] For some time CBS has been the lone performer when it comes to garnering outright retransmission fees from cable systems to carry its local TV station signals. CBS' long-term goal is to bring in $300 million a year, about 50 cents a month for each cable subscriber. Currently, it has a long way to go. One analyst estimates CBS pulled in $26 million from retrans deals in 2008. Other media companies -- News Corp.'s Fox network; Walt Disney's ABC and General Electric's NBC -- have been on the sidelines of this issue. Up until now.
benton.org/node/28961 | MediaPost
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JOURNALISM
STATE OF THE BLOGOSPHERE 2009
[SOURCE: Technorati, AUTHOR: Jen McLean]
The growth of the blogosphere's influence on subjects ranging from business to politics to the way information travels through communities continues to flourish. In a year when revolutions and elections were organized by blogs, bloggers are blogging more than ever, and the State of the Blogosphere is strong. Indeed, it's so strong that the attitudes held by bloggers don't differ very much by age or gender, or even across geographies — which is why we've decided to display the results of the survey according to four different types of bloggers: 1) Hobbyists. 2) Part-Timers. 3) Self-Employeds. 4) Pros. [more at the URLs below]
benton.org/node/28952 | Technorati
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CONTENT
E-BOOK FANS KEEP FORMAT IN SPOTLIGHT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brad Stone]
Some book sellers and owners of electronic reading devices are making the case that people are reading more because of e-books. Amazon for example, says that people with Kindles now buy 3.1 times as many books as they did before owning the device. That factor is up from 2.7 in December 2008. So a reader who had previously bought eight books from Amazon would now purchase, on average, 24.8 books, a rise from 21.6 books. "You are going to see very significant industry growth rates as a result of the convenience of this kind of reading," said Jeffrey P. Bezos, chief executive of Amazon. Fans of the reading devices suggest that the convenience of using these products, which offer a sense of control and customization that consumers have come to expect from all their media gadgets, has created a greater interest in books.
benton.org/node/28972 | New York Times
See also: Amazon, discounters in book-pricing war
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DISNEY TOUTS A WAY TO DITCH THE DVD
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Ethan Smith]
Walt Disney is close to unveiling technology that it says will enable entertainment companies to adapt their business models to a new reality in which consumers increasingly rely on computers and cell phones in place of DVD players and TVs. The technology, code-named Keychest, could contribute to a shift in what it means for a consumer to own a movie or a TV show, by redefining ownership as access rights, not physical possession. The technology would allow consumers to pay a single price for permanent access to a movie or TV show across multiple digital platforms and devices—from the Web, to mobile gadgets like iPhones and cable services that allow on-demand viewing. It could also facilitate other services such as online movie subscriptions. The company has been quietly demonstrating Keychest for other movie studios and technology companies in a bid to get them to sign on. It plans to unveil the technology next month. Keychest aims to address two of the biggest hurdles blocking widespread consumer adoption of movie downloads: the difficulty of playing a movie back on devices other than a PC or laptop, and limited storage space on those computers' hard drives. As such, Keychest could put Disney on a collision course with an initiative, known as the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, or DECE, that has similar goals.
benton.org/node/28970 | Wall Street Journal
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HOW USERS TOOK OVER TWITTER
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Steven Levy]
In an amazingly short time, Twitter -- the messaging service which does little more than circulate bursts of text limited to 140 characters to a list of people who have chosen to receive them -- has established itself as a staple of social networking, commerce, electioneering, celebrity culture, public relations, media, and political protest. According to internal documents leaked earlier this year, the company expects to have 25 million active users by the end of 2009 and 100 million by the end of 2010. In 2013, it hopes to become the first Internet service to sign up 1 billion users. Can something as elementary as Twitter become an enduring pillar of the Internet? Perhaps. Twitter rocketed into the mainstream without really knowing what its service was. Its users defined it. It was those users who made Twitter into a throbbing global sensing organism that delivers instant opinion and eyewitness reporting on everything from presidential debates to football injuries. Though the company held a discussion earlier this year called "What Do We Want to Be When We Grow Up?" the mission statement is still a work in progress. "If there are three sentences I'd use to describe Twitter, one of them would be 'I don't know.'"
benton.org/node/28953 | Wired
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TELECOM
MEXICO LAWMAKERS TO VOTE ON TELECOM TAX
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Noel Randewich, Tomas Sarmiento]
Mexican legislators looking to shore up depleted public finances were expected to approve on Tuesday a tax on telecommunications services, a blow to billionaire Carlos Slim, who dominates the industry. The lower house's finance panel has signed off on the creation of a 3 percent excise tax on telephone and Internet services, markets where Slim's fixed-line operator Telmex leads. If it is approved by the lower house and then the Senate, the tax could translate into higher prices -- possibly leading to lower sales -- as telephone companies pass the levy on to customers. Critics warn the tax would retard the growth of telephone and Internet use among low-income Mexicans but defenders say it will only have a small effect. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development says Internet service in Mexico is already expensive and extremely slow compared to other member countries. Around a quarter of Mexicans use the Internet, many of them only at work or at Internet cafes, according to Mexico's telecommunications regulator.
benton.org/node/28964 | Reuters
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POLICYMAKERS
Search starts for MPAA chief Dan Glickman's replacement
SEARCH STARTS FOR MPAA CHIEF GLICKMAN'S REPLACEMENT
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jim Puzzanghera, Claudia Eller]
For all the rumblings in Hollywood that Dan Glickman was miscast as the industry's top Washington lobbyist, the next head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America could well be closer to his technocrat mold than to the suave celebrity of the man who made the job famous: Jack Valenti. That's because, with Glickman disclosing Monday that he'll step down next September, the movie industry knows it has evolved since he took over in 2004 as MPAA's chairman and chief executive. Preventing piracy of movies and TV shows dominates the trade association's lobbying agenda, and the desire for a glitzy face in the nation's capital has lessened as the major movie studios have become divisions in larger media conglomerates with sometimes competing agendas. Glickman's departure was expected at some point, given Hollywood's behind-the-scenes discontent with him as a politician who struggled to understand the industry's insular world. It opens up one of Washington's most high-profile and coveted lobbying posts. His salary was $1.2 million in 2007. The MPAA represents the six major movie studios -- Paramount, Sony, 20th Century Fox, Universal, Disney and Warner Bros. Its board is expected to meet in the next few weeks to officially begin looking for a replacement. The ideal candidate will understand the political climate and have access to key leaders in Washington, according to several top industry executives, who declined to be named. The person also must understand Hollywood's changing business models and the evolving digital technologies, as well as have relationships with media company heads. According to insiders, candidates include Bob Pisano, a former head of the Screen Actors Guild who has been the MPAA's Los Angeles president and chief operating officer since 2005, and Harold Ford Jr., a former Tennessee congressman who chairs the moderate Democratic Leadership Council.
benton.org/node/28969 | Los Angeles Times
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