August 2, 2011 (Cable Carriage Order)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2011

** Planning a communications-related course for 2011? See http://benton.org/headlines_in_the_classroom to learn how Headlines might help. **

TELEVISION
   FCC Releases Cable Carriage Order - press release
   Rep. Eshoo: Rule to stop loud TV ads should apply to every provider
   WWOR License Challengers Take Renewed Aim
   Big media rings up sales as advertisers keep coming
   Dish Network spending spree part of plan to revamp its business [links to web]
   Fox Sports Protests L.A. Dodgers' Media-Rights Sale Plan [links to web]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   NCTA Wants To Cap USF/Intercarrier Comp Reform Fund At $4.5 Billion
   Public Computer Centers Helping Los Angeles Job Seekers

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   What we'd really lose in an AT&T-T-Mobile merger - editorial
   Private Sector Investment and Employment Impacts of Reassigning Spectrum to Mobile Broadband in the United States - research
   Don't sell public airwaves to the highest corporate bidder
   Can We Avoid the Mobile Bandwidth Drought?
   AT&T Data Throttling Is Just a Political Stunt - analysis

JOURNALISM
   Gauging Impact of a Scandal
   Some Lee Papers Adopt Metered Model, Even For Print Subscribers [links to web]

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Government IT may fare well under debt ceiling deal [links to web]
   Case Study: Cybersecurity best practices at Defense [links to web]

POLICYMAKERS
   Commerce Secretary Gary Locke resigns to become ambassador to China [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
These headlines presented in partnership with:

   Spectrum-Sharing Agreements With Canada And Mexico Enabling 4G Wireless Broadband and Public Safety Communications In The Border Areas - press release
   News International Ordered Mass Deletion Of E-Mails Nine Times [links to web]
   British to Expand Inquiry Into Murdoch Media
   Slim Seeks to Reassemble Telecom Empire With $6.5 Billion Telmex Proposal
   National Archives refreshes government data licensing [links to web]
   Move to back private digital copying

MORE ONLINE
   Startup America: The First 180 Days [links to web]
   Call for Questions & Input: The President’s Council on Jobs Session in Palo Alto, CA [links to web]
   Google's PAC posts big uptick [links to web]

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TELEVISION

CABLE CARRIAGE ORDER
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Communications Commission released a revision of its cable program carriage rules adopted on July 29. The order provides for standstills during program carriage disputes or price and "true ups" for winners of complaints over price or discrimination It also seeks comments on other proposed changes, including being able to collect damages in program carriage cases, defining retaliation as a form of discrimination, and codifying who bears the burden of proof. FCC commissioners found that "the record reflects that, absent a standstill, an MVPD will have the ability to retaliate against a programming vendor that files a legitimate complaint by ceasing carriage of the programming vendor's video programming, thereby harming the programming vendor as well as viewers who have come to expect to be able to view that video programming." To remedy that, the FCC says programmers can file a request for standstill that needs to demonstrate that "the complainant is likely to prevail on the merits of its complaint; (ii) the complainant will suffer irreparable harm absent a stay; (iii) grant of a stay will not substantially harm other interested parties; and (iv) the public interest favors grant of a stay."
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell dissented in part from the provisions requiring standstills during program carriage complaints, agreeing with cable operators that the FCC did not provide sufficient opportunity for comment per the Administrative Procedures Act. The FCC defended the constitutionality and procedural soundness of its order, specifically dismissing in its order cable arguments that the program carriage rules are constitutionally suspect and that the FCC's mode of changing them violated proper administrative procedures.
Public Knowledge Legal Director Harold Feld said, "Consumers could be stuck in the middle when the cable and satellite operators reach an impasse with program providers over carriage issues. Under the rules the FCC issued, programming will continue to be available while disputes are resolved."
benton.org/node/84966 | Broadcasting&Cable | read the order | B&C - McDowell | B&C - FCC defends order | Public Knowledge
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CALM ACT IMPLEMENTATION
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Gautham Nagesh]
Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), sponsor of the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, wrote to the Federal Communications Commission saying the new law should apply to all pay-TV providers. The law limits the volume of advertisements to the same levels as the programs they interrupt. "The law's intent is simple — to make the volume of commercials and programming uniform so that spikes in volume do not affect the consumer's ability to control sound," Rep Eshoo said. "I recognize that implementation takes time, which is why the legislation includes a grace period that is fair to stakeholders and allows programming distributors ample time to install the engineering fix necessary to ensure that sound is modulated."
The American Cable Association, which represents small and medium-size cable providers, has argued the law's penalties shouldn't apply to programming they simply retransmit from broadcasters — only to commercials the firms insert themselves.
benton.org/node/84965 | Hill, The | National Journal
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WWOR LICENSE CHALLENGE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
A group challenging the Federal Communications Commission license of News Corp.'s WWOR-TV (Secaucus, NJ) have sent a letter to FCC Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake continuing to challenge staff estimates for the station and News Corp's veracity in claims to the FCC responding to their challenge. The FCC's Media Bureau said in February it was looking into allegations that Fox Television Stations misrepresented the station and lacked candor in its responses. Fox has said that the FCC will ultimately conclude the challenge is unwarranted and without merit. Various groups challenging Fox's license for the station had complained back in December 2010, following up on complaints earlier in the year. Those groups argue that Fox did not inform the FCC of various material changes to the stations, as required, including that after "most" of WWOR-TV's operations were relocated to New York City in 2008 and 2009, its staff, news and public affairs programming were all cut, including one of those public affairs shows and the move of its 10 p.m. news to 11 p.m. and cutting it to a half-hour. In the letter dated Aug. 1, Voice for New Jersey (VNJ) responded to representations to the committee April 4 by a Fox lawyer. The group said the letter was not only "lacking in candor" itself, but also essentially made VNJ's case for it about past misrepresentations. VNJ points to the April 4 letter, which contains figures for staff and hours of news at WWOR that are different and lower than ones provided in an Aug. 26, 2009 letter, it says.
benton.org/node/84964 | Broadcasting&Cable
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ADVERTISING STRONG
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Lisa Richwine]
US media giants are set to report quarterly revenue gains on the back of a booming advertising market that shows little sign of retreating. Thanks largely to the strongest advertising spending in years, investors have flocked to media stocks, which have far outperformed the Standard & Poor's 500 this year. Among the big gainers, CBS Corp is up 44 percent, Viacom Inc is up 22 percent and Time Warner Inc has climbed 9 percent. Industry analysts and investors see more healthy quarters ahead despite questions surrounding the overall U.S. economy. Advertising typically accounts for 30 to 70 percent of sales for major players such as Walt Disney Co, CBS and Time Warner -- companies that report quarterly results over the next two weeks. Projected revenue increases vary by company, with CBS set to gain 7 percent, Time Warner 7 percent and Disney 4.5 percent, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
benton.org/node/84962 | Reuters
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

USF/ICC REFORM
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Mike Reynolds]
In the wake of the telecom industry's compromise proposal, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association has filed some additional cable industry thoughts on Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation reform, pointing out what it likes about that plan and what additional issues the Federal Communications Commission should keep in mind given that cable operators provide broadband "to the vast majority of the nation."
That includes not letting telcos hang on to legacy payments any longer than is necessary.
NCTA says three elements of the telco's proposals are "critical" to effective reform and delivering broadband to areas that do not currently get it:
capping the current fund at $4.5 billion;
subsidizing service only where there is no unsubsidized provider offering service and
there should be a specific and "symmetrical" transition for reforming intercarrier compensation rates--the rates networks charge each other for exchanging traffic.
But NCTA has additional reform thoughts:
Any subsidies to mobile should be included in the $4.5 billion cap, not in addition to it.
Carriers should have an opportunity to show where National Broadband Map has gotten it wrong.
Support from the fund should be technology-neutral, going to the most efficient provider and no right of first refusal for incumbent telcos.
Legacy telco support should be phased out as quickly as possible after the migration to broadband funding mechanism is established.
benton.org/node/84954 | Multichannel News
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COMPUTER ACCESS NETWORK
[SOURCE: Department of Commerce, AUTHOR: Anthony Wilhelm]
Last week I visited a new WorkSource Center Satellite in South Los Angeles, where a Recovery Act investment by NTIA has funded 25 new computer stations that community members seeking jobs can use. Coupled with hands-on assistance and career counseling from trained personnel, this investment is creating economic opportunities in a neighborhood where poverty and unemployment rates are unacceptably high. All told, NTIA’s $7.5 million grant to the City of Los Angeles for its Computer Access Network (LA CAN) project–part of a $4 billion Recovery Act investment to expand broadband access and adoption in communities nationwide–will upgrade more than 180 public computer centers in some of the city’s neediest neighborhoods.
The WorkSource Center Satellite is located with the Chicana Service Action Center, whose CEO, Sophia Esparza, told me how the project is preparing job seekers, not for yesterday’s jobs, but for the “green jobs” of the future. Customers, including returning veterans and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients, are benefiting from strong partnerships between the city and local employers to place solar installers, energy auditors, lead green technicians and electrical auto technicians into well-paying jobs. The center expects to serve about 150,000 jobseekers annually.
The project team illustrated for me how the Center is helping unemployed residents transition to the workplace. In recent months, for instance, a 51-year-old man who was receiving food stamps came to the Center in desperate need of a job. After attending workshops on basic computer literacy, resume writing and interview skills, he is now working as a sales representative and looking forward to his first pay raise. Another example: a 25-year-old single mother of two, who never held a permanent job and relied solely on government assistance, attended workshops and received one-on-one support from the Center. She is now employed as a data entry clerk. For many adults, free computer training can be a life-changing experience.
benton.org/node/84960 | Department of Commerce
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

WHAT WE'D LOSE IN THE MERGER
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Kent German]
[Commentary] If the AT&T/T-Mobile merger goes through, I fear that T-Mobile's gutsy approach to expanding its smartphone lineup will be killed by AT&T's stodgier culture. Indeed, over the last year, T-Mobile has greatly outshone its potential partner in both the range and quality of such handsets. AT&T produced slightly more smartphones during that period (21 versus 19), but T-Mobile has taken more risks and its lineup has earned a higher average score from CNET editors (7.7 versus 7.2). I don't really know where the carrier gets its aggressive spirit, but customers will lose if it disappears.
benton.org/node/84952 | C-Net|News.com
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SPECTRUM RESEARCH
[SOURCE: Analysis Group, AUTHOR: David Sosa, Marc Van Audenrode]
Mobile broadband is critical to the U.S. communications infrastructure and our future economy. Private sector investment, with substantial job creation benefits, can be facilitated by the reassignment of spectrum to mobile broadband. Building on previous studies, we estimate that the reassignment of 300 MHz of spectrum to mobile broadband within five years will spur $75 billion in new capital spending, creating more than 300,000 jobs and $230 billion in additional Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The release of an additional 200 MHz of new spectrum after five years will create an additional 200,000 jobs and increase GDP by an additional $155 billion. These estimates represent the tip of the iceberg in terms of economic benefits. Reassigning additional spectrum to mobile broadband also would generate substantial spillover effects as companies such as Apple, Google and Qualcomm, small application developers and other innovative start-up companies rush to create new mobile broadband products and services. Given published estimates of the spillover effects from communications and broadband investment, it seems likely that the spillover effects from the reassignment of spectrum to mobile broadband will exceed, by a considerable margin, the multiplier effects that we present here. A delay in the reassignment of spectrum will necessarily delay the consequent job and economic output benefits that we identify.
benton.org/node/84950 | Analysis Group
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SELLING AIRWAVES
[SOURCE: Charlotte Observer, AUTHOR: Wally Bowen]
[Commentary] House Republicans are pushing a proposal to sell off some of the nation's most valuable real estate as part of a debt-ceiling deal, apparently unaware of the harm it will do our economy. The GOP-backed plan would gut the huge market potential of this high-octane spectrum by selling it to the highest bidders: incumbent carriers more interested in shutting-out competition than in igniting the next great high-tech boom. Once auctioned, the spectrum would be licensed, creating enormous barriers-to-entry and disincentives for innovators, entrepreneurs and investors. Oddly, House members pushing this auction plan - inappropriately called the "Spectrum Innovation Act" - acknowledge unlicensed spectrum's market advantage. But their mechanism for providing unlicensed spectrum is bizarre. The bill would allow companies - and presumably the public - to place bids for this spectrum either as licensed or unlicensed. This never-before-tried auction would then pit the highest bid for licensed spectrum against the sum of all bids for unlicensed use. If the latter exceeds the former, the U.S. Treasury would reap the proceeds and the nation's economy would reap the rewards of the next unlicensed Wi-Fi boom. But common sense should red-flag this auction scheme as unworkable.
benton.org/node/84942 | Charlotte Observer
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MOBILE BROADBAND DROUGHT?
[SOURCE: PCWorld, AUTHOR: Eric Mack]
We've all experienced it on our smartphones: long waits for buffering videos, apps that hiccup when your Net connection cuts out, and webpages that take forever to load. According to experts, what we are experiencing are hints of an impending wireless broadband drought. As smartphones and tablets become ubiquitous and hungry apps greedily gobble bandwidth, the days of cheap and reliable wireless broadband become as rare as a white rhino. For now, carriers are fighting the future by doing a little of everything. The process of acquiring spectrum and building out networks has been moving forward, but clearly not fast enough to avoid the move to data caps, which some carriers will admit are coming. All of them will tell you that only a very small percentage of users are affected by caps, and it appears that's true -- for now. The question is whether or not that will hold true when the day comes that streaming HD video to a 4G tablet is the most popular after-dinner pastime. If mobile video demand is underestimated, as was the case with mobile signaling, video buffering may replace dropped calls as the bane of wireless life.
benton.org/node/84941 | PCWorld
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AT&T DATA THROTTLING
[SOURCE: PCWorld, AUTHOR: Tony Bradley]
AT&T has confirmed that it will start throttling download speeds for unlimited data accounts. The move impacts relatively few users, and may be more political than technical, but it also begs the question "who is going to keep any eye on AT&T to make sure they measure usage accurately and don't abuse the throttling?" AT&T plans to throttle the data speed for the top five percent of data consumers--with a few significant caveats. The throttling only impacts users still grandfathered on the extinct unlimited mobile data plan, and it doesn't count or throttle data over Wi-Fi, just the data consumed over AT&T's wireless data network. Something doesn't seem to add up, though. Either AT&T is exaggerating the impact of this five percent and making a spectacle out of the policy change as a political move to justify the case for why it "needs" the T-Mobile acquisition approved, or AT&T is not being completely honest with regard to how many users will be affected or what the impact will be.
benton.org/node/84939 | PCWorld
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JOURNALISM

GAUGING IMPACT OF SCANDAL
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jeremy Peters]
How worried is The Wall Street Journal that it could be tainted by the scandal roiling Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers? Worried enough that it is asking its readers point-blank: What impact, if any, do the illegal acts by News of the World journalists have on their impression of The Wall Street Journal? Subscribers to The Journal are being given that and other questions in a survey that tries to gauge whether News Corporation’s problems in Britain have become a serious issue in the United States.
benton.org/node/84935 | New York Times
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
These headlines presented in partnership with:


SPECTRUM SHARING DEAL
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has reached arrangements with Industry Canada and Mexico's Secretariat of Communications and Transportation (SCT) for sharing commercial wireless broadband spectrum in the 700 MHz band along the U.S.-Canadian and U.S.-Mexican border areas. The FCC also reached an arrangement with Industry Canada for sharing spectrum in the 800 MHz band. These actions will help support commercial broadband services and public safety mission-critical voice communications.
The technical sharing principles reached on the 700 MHz band will facilitate the deployment of mobile wireless broadband systems near the U.S.-Canadian and U.S.-Mexican borders and will provide consumers in these areas with advanced opportunities for 4G high-speed mobile broadband access. Under the arrangements, licensees on both sides of the borders will have greater access to the 698-758 MHz and 776-788 MHz bands.
The technical sharing principles reached on 800 MHz will pave the way for completion of 800 MHz rebanding by U.S. public safety and commercial licensees operating along the U.S.-Canadian border. The FCC ordered rebanding to alleviate interference to public safety licensees in the band caused by commercial cellular licensees.
The arrangement specifies (1) how primary channels will be allotted between the United States and Canada, (2) the technical parameters for operation on these channels
within 140 kilometers (87 miles) of the common border, and (3) a schedule for transitioning facilities from the channels needed by the U.S. to complete rebanding along the U.S.-Canadian border.
benton.org/node/84931 | Federal Communications Commission | MultichannelNews
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BRITISH EXPAND INQUIRY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Ravi Somaiya]
Scotland Yard will expand its investigation of The News of the World and its parent company, police officials said, adding a new inquiry into possible instances of computer intrusion to the current accusations of phone hacking and payments to police officers. The new investigation was opened after an examination of “a number of allegations regarding breach of privacy” received since the Metropolitan Police, also known as Scotland Yard, reopened inquiries in January into possible crimes by newspaper employees, a statement said. A police spokesman declined to answer further questions. But a former British Army intelligence officer, Ian Hurst, said in a statement that he had been contacted by investigators over allegations that he had made “in regards to my family’s computer being illegally accessed over a sustained period during 2006.” Hurst had worked in Northern Ireland, running undercover operations. The BBC reported this year that his computer had been hacked and sensitive e-mail had been provided to The News of the World. A spokeswoman for News International refused to comment on the new inquiry.
benton.org/node/84932 | New York Times
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SLIM PROPOSAL
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Crayton Harrison]
Carlos Slim, who split his Mexican telephone empire in 2001, is putting it back together. Slim’s America Movil SAB, Latin America’s largest wireless carrier, offered about $6.5 billion to buy the 40.4 percent of Telefonos de Mexico SAB it doesn't already own, giving it full control of its former parent. America Movil will pay 10.50 pesos (90 cents) a share for Telmex, the nation’s largest fixed-line phone carrier. Taking control of Telmex would allow America Movil to more fully integrate its telecommunications infrastructure in Mexico -- offering mobile, fixed-line and Internet service. That would help it compete against Grupo Televisa SA , the cable carrier that’s offering phone, Internet and TV service and is entering the mobile-phone market. Slim, 71, bought control of Telmex from Mexico’s government in a 1990 privatization sale. The phone company spun off its wireless unit to form America Movil in 2001. America Movil acquired its 59.6 percent stake in Telmex last year in a $23 billion transaction that also gave it full ownership of Slim’s fixed-line networks in South America. That transaction was approved by Mexico’s antitrust agency, which suggests America Movil is likely to get approval for the new Telmex offer.
benton.org/node/84929 | Bloomberg
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UK DIGITAL COPYING PLAN
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Tim Bradshaw]
Vince Cable, the UK business secretary, will move to legitimize the “ripping” of digital copies of music and movies from discs for personal use and other copyright exceptions, following recommendations in the Hargreaves review of intellectual property. Another proposed copyright exception backed by the government will make it easier for scientists to mine existing electronic journals to make discoveries. But film companies are concerned that Mr Cable is also expected to shelve plans to streamline the process of forcing broadband providers to block piracy websites.
benton.org/node/84978 | Financial Times
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