Television
Benton Foundation: President's Advisory Committee Meeting
WSJ: Public TV Toy Stores Target the Cerebral
Digital TV
B&C: Intel plans DTV experiments
B&C: Set-top scramble in Silicon Valley
B&C: Putting a price on digits
Cable
B&C: Cable Ramps Up Rates
B&C: Program access tops Washington agenda
F.C.C. Regulation
B&C: The ban plays on
NYT: Low-Watt 'Pirate' Fights F.C.C. Rules
Internet
NYT: Old Man Bandwidth
NYT: News-Ad Issues Arise in New Media
NYT: 'Browser War' Limits Access To Web Sites
WSJ: What's.Nu: Web Address Shortage Sparks Idea
WSJ: Getting Personal
Telephone
NYT: Coming to Pay Phones: '800' Calls Won't Be Toll-Free
WSJ: Digital Warriors Want Baby Bells' Blood
WSJ: Phone Users Criticize Rise in Local Rates
Corporate
B&C: Sinclair dips into $1 billion purse for Max Media
WSJ: Microsoft, Justice Department Square Off in Court
Free Speech
WP: On the Front Line of Free Speech
Infotech
WSJ: Modem Markers Reach Accord On Standards
Media and Politics
B&C: Nixon vs. the nets
Public Interest
B&C: The Bizarro Universe Gore commission
Arts
NYT: In Los Angeles, a New Generation Discovers Philanthropy
NYT: A Wind of Gratitude Blows Through the Performing Arts
WP: Last Picture Show
** Television **
Title: President's Advisory Committee Meeting
Source: Benton Foundation
http://www.benton.org/Policy/TV/meeting2.html
Issue: Digital Television
Description: A summary of Friday's meeting of the Presidential Advisory
Committee on Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters.
Title: Public TV Toy Stores Target the Cerebral
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (B1)
Author: Paulette Thomas
Issue: Public Television
Description: The Store of Knowledge Inc is a for-profit chain that adopts
the identity of the local nonprofit TV station in each market where it
operates. The chain capitalizes on three trends: the goodwill parents feel
toward public TV, parents desire to buy "good-for-you" toys, and public
television's need for new sources of revenue. Local stations promote the
store in return for 1% of the revenue and a piece of equity. Revenues for
the 50 store chain are expected to reach $90 million.
** Digital TV **
Title: Intel plans DTV experiments
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (pg.11)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: Richard Tedesco
Issue: Digital TV
Description: Intel plans to use an experimental FCC license to send PBS
signals to personal computers. They hope to learn how various data
broadcasting techniques work with actual broadcast signals, according to
Serge Ruthman, Intel senior staff architect. In its application to use
channels 6, 12, 28 and 62 in Santa Clara, CA, the company cites the
possibility of 3-D broadcasts and interactive education. Intel plans to pull
the PBS signals of KQED(TV) and WETA-TV from a satellite and rebroadcast the
signals to computers on the experimental channels. They also plan to explore
new uses for its Infinite CD platform, which permits users to link Website
content through a CD-ROM.
Title: Set-top scramble in Silicon Valley
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (pg.14)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: Price Colman
Issue: Digital TV
Description: Computer companies are scrambling in the final weeks of the
year to lock up their place in cable operators' digital set-top-box plans.
Computer industry rivals Bill Gates and Larry Ellison have been courting
cable industry big guns John Malone and Gerald Levin, but, so far it isn't
clear how their two companies have fared with either operator. Cable execs
say that the key "wrestling match" is over the cost of advanced digital
converters, which PC hardware, software and cable converter manufacturers
are struggling to get down below $300 on average. This hasn't stopped
speculation that there 'll be a Microsoft/Comcast-type deal in which the
computer player somehow finances its cable partner's purchase of set-tops.
Title: Putting a price on digits
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (pg.18)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Issue: Digital TV Rates
Description: FCC officials are hoping to launch a proposal to collect
fees for subscription services that stations offer over their digital TV
channels. The proposal carries three suggestions: base the fees on revenue
that would've been generated in a spectrum auction. Another would base them
on profits that broadcasters reap from subscription services, and the third
would base the fees on gross revenue. The collection of fees is required by
the Telecom Act of 1996.
** Cable **
Title: Cable Ramps Up Rates
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (pg.6)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: John M. Higgins
Issue: Cable Rates
Description: Systems and gov't regulators report that basic rate
increases of 10% or more are common around the country, with US West Media
Inc.'s MediaOne and Time Warner Cable Inc. posting some of the highest
increases. The new rates continue cable's trend of increasing prices far in
excess of the rate of overall inflation. But, big hikes are far from
universal. Comcast Corp.'s Sterling Heights, Mich., operation recently
raised rates just 2.2%. Deborah Reynolds, a Time Warner Cable customer,
plans to drop the service when a 9% increase drives her family's basic rate
up to $29.83. "The service is not worth it as it is," she says, adding
that her system frequently zaps out when it rains. "It's just progressively
gotten higher and higher, and the service has gotten worse and worse."
Title: Program access tops Washington agenda
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (pg.54)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: Chris McConnell and Paige Albiniak
Issue: Cable
Description: Cable rates and cable's control of programming came under
attack in 1997. And while neither Congress or the FCC has shown signs of
revisiting rate regulation, the industry may get a proposed set of tougher
program-access rules for Christmas. The FCC had planned to issue a proposal
to revise program-access rules, but tabled it to give the new commissioners
time to study the issues. Competitors want the access rules changed so that
programmers cannot cut exclusive deals or sell programming to larger
distributors at lower prices.
** FCC Regulation **
Title: The ban plays on
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (pg.22)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: Chris McConnell
Issue: Radio
Description: The FCC's lawyers told a court that the commission has no
immediate plans to repeal its restriction against common ownership of a
newspaper and TV station in the same market. The FCC the rule will stay as
is until March 22, the date by which Tribune Broadcasting is required to
sell either WDZL(TV) Miami or the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel. The Telecom
Act requires the FCC to review all its broadcast and telephone rules every
two years, and they did so last month.
Title: Low-Watt 'Pirate' Fights F.C.C. Rules
Source: New York Times (D12)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/radio-pirate-media.html
Author: Julie Lew
Issue: F.C.C. Regulation
Description: Stephen Dunifer is battling to open the nation's airwaves to
small, low-power stations like his Free Radio Berkeley. His fight, which
has been going on for the past four years, just moved into Federal court
where Mr. Dunifer is challenging regulations established by the Federal
Communications Commission that set a minimum transmission power standard of
100 watts for any radio station with a broadcast license. In a 1993
rebuttal to the FCC's attempt to fine Mr. Dunifer $20,000 for making
unlicensed broadcasts, his lawyers wrote, "the fundamental problem is that
the FCC has not provided procedures by which micro radio broadcasters can
become licensed or authorized." The FCC sees him as a radio "pirate" who is
not abiding by rules that other broadcasters must live with.
** Internet **
Title: Old Man Bandwidth
Source: New York Times (D1,D13)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/120897fiber.html
Author: John Markoff
Issue: Internet Technology
Description: Brian Reid, a computer scientist, who heads a team of network
engineers at the Digital Equipment Corporation, believes that instead of the
rivers, railroad tracks and roads that brought about commerce in earlier
times, today's cities will spring up around pipelines that carry large
amounts of computer data. "Bandwidth in the late 1990's is important for
commerce in the same way that railroads were important in the 1890's and
seaports were in the 1790's. It's the way you sell your product," said Mr.
Reid. "Bandwidth is the delivery vehicle by which these companies sell their
goods in the information age." Today his vision is being realized in Palo
Alto, CA, where a combination of public and private investment allowed the
city to complete construction of a $2 million, 15 mile fiber optic ring.
This high-capacity switching point on the Internet is bringing many
companies to the area as they rush to grab a chunk of bandwidth. "Silicon
Valley's initial regional advantage is being reinforced through early and
massive leading edge investments in technological infrastructure," said
Annalee Saxenian, a Univ. of CA at Berkeley professor in the department of
city and regional planning. "Through this process, Silicon Valley will
compound its advantage relative to competing regions, just as the
manufacturing belt did in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Title: News-Ad Issues Arise in New Media
Source: New York Times (D12)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/120897blurring.html
Author: Saul Hansell
Issue: Internet Use
Description: In an effort to make their huge investments in the Internet pay
off, some of the largest news organizations are beginning to link
advertisements to news on their Web sites. "The pressure for ad dollars is
so great that some Web sites would do anything to bring in the money," said
David J. Moore, chairman of Petry Interactive, a company that sells Internet
advertising. "I'm a guy who likes to make money, but to the extent that
publishers start to mix advertising and editorial, they risk losing the
confidence of the consumer." The publishers and advertisers are saying that
they are trying to use the interactive nature of the medium to offer readers
a new angle in easy and relevant shopping. But others, even those in the
advertising business, worry that the interest of the publishers and
advertisers are becoming more intertwined and the independence of news
reporting could be compromised.
Title: 'Browser War' Limits Access To Web Sites
Source: New York Times (D1,D13)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/120897browsers.html
Author: Steve Lohr
Issue: Internet Access
Description: A browsing program, sometimes called "the Internet software
equivalent of a dial tone," may be losing its edge as an intended
technological passport. Due to ongoing competition between Netscape and
Microsoft, a single browser will no longer offer access onto the entire Web.
In a few cases, sites are blacked out completely to one browser. Other
sites state that they can only be accessed if another type of browser is
downloaded. Yet, an even more common problem can be thought of as brownout
where anywhere from 10 to 30 percent of a site will not work properly with
certain browsers. "It will be an increasing problem for Internet users over
the next year or 18 months," said David M. Smith, and analyst for the
Gartner Group, a research firm. To see all of the Web, some experts advise
using both Netscape's Navigator and Microsoft's Explorer on your PC.
Internet analysts and experts predict that the problem will worsen over the
next year or so.
Title: What's.Nu: Web Address Shortage Sparks Idea
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (B23E)
Author: Jason Fry
Issue: Internet
Description: In 1993 there were 7,000 domain names on the Internet. There
are now more than a million and the supply of names is running thin. Network
Solutions Inc's monopoly on domain names ends next year and seven new
designations -- .arts, .firm, .nom, .rec, .sho, & .web -- are expected to
added next year to help create new name possibilities. But rollout of new
names has been slowed by disagreement within the Internet community and by
the Government's continued examination of the issue. For now, some countries
-- like Tonga and Niue -- are selling off names with their country codes
(.to and .nu) which are scarcely used.
Title: Getting Personal
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (Section R)
Issue: Internet
Description: A joint report with the Wall Street Journal Interactive
Edition. "A look at the people of the Net -- those who use it, those who
make it happen, those who hope to profit from it." Includes stories on
Internet use by kids, online activists, advertising, investing, running
websites, and free speech. See it online with free two week subscription to
WSJ Interactive.
** Telephone **
Title: Digital Warriors Want Baby Bells' Blood
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (A24)
Author: Rich Karlgaard, editor of Forbes ASAP
Issue: Infrastructure/Old vs New Media
Description: A look at the basic differences between the "digital crowd" and
the local phone monopolies, the "Baby Bells." The digital crowd -- like
Microsoft and Intel -- are in an industry that has seen a million-fold
technical improvement in the past 25 years. From Morse's telegraph to
today's phone line to the home (153 years), there has only been a 7,000-fold
increase. The digital crowd believes that the only thing that can stop their
rapid growth is lack of bandwidth to the home. They want to see an end to
the Bells and are attacking on two fronts: planning a class-action suit to
break up the Bells and financing the Bells competition. "Our industry is
driven by Moore's Law," says a Silicon Valley investor. "Theirs is driven by
Moron's Law -- the morons who run and regulate America's telecos."
Title: Phone Users Criticize Rise in Local Rates
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (A19)
Author: Gautam Naik
Issue: International/Telephone Rates
Description: Barriers to phone competition will fall on January 1, but many
consumers -- especially low-income consumers -- are concerned these days
with the rising prices of local phone service. Many national telephone
monopolies have lowered long distance rates -- which is good for business
and "well-heeled users," but offers little to no savings for local dialers.
From "Bangor, Maine to Budapest to the most remote town in the Philippines"
emotions are rising with increases in local phone rates.
Title: Coming to Pay Phones: '800' Calls Won't Be Toll-Free
Source: New York Times (A1, A17)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/phones-deregulation.html
Author: Seth Schiesel
Issue: Telephone Regulation
Description: As a result of the deregulation of the telecommunications
industry, consumers may find that they will be unable to make toll-free
calls from some of the nation's approximately two million public pay phones.
The FCC ruled in October of this year that owners of toll-free numbers must
pay a 28.4 cent per-call fee to owners of pay phones whenever customers dial
their 1-800 line from a public phone. What is more, the move adds that same
charge to each calling-card or collect call made from a public phone. The
ruling could cost American businesses and consumers almost $1 billion a year.
These and other results of this ruling highlight the difficulty of
deregulating the United State's $200 billion telecommunications industry.
The intent of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was to open all areas of
the communications industry to new competition. But this breaking of
monopolies also includes shifting the complex structure of costs that have
allowed for services like toll-free calls to remain free to consumers.
** Corporate **
Title: Sinclair dips into $1 billion purse for Max Media
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (pg.16)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: Steve McClellan
Issue: Merger
Description: Sinclair Broadcast Group's agreement to buy Max Media may be
the start of another buying spree. Sinclair's president, Barry Baker, says
he intends to be a long-term player in the radio business. The properties
added via the Max Media deal will give Sinclair 43 TV stations covering
19.4% of the U.S., and 75 radio outlets. This deal will make Sinclair the
eighth-largest TV station operator, and the eighth-largest radio group.
Title: Microsoft, Justice Department Square Off in Court
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (B6)
Author: John Wilke
Issue: Antitrust
Description: Federal Judge Thomas Penfield heard arguments from the Justice
Department and Microsoft on how the software giant may have used Windows 95
to muscle its way into the Internet browser market. Microsoft contents that
the browser software is part of the operating system.
** Free Speech **
Title: On the Front Line of Free Speech
Source: Washington Post (Op-eds, A19)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-12/08/032l-120897-idx.html
Author: Fred Hiatt
Issue: International/Free Speech
Description: Belarus is a small country, known to most Americans as the
chief victim of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster back when it was still part
of the Soviet Union. The country's dictator, President Lukashenko, has
recently shut down one of his country's most popular newspapers, the Svaboda
(translated: Freedom) because it was "impugning the morality, honor and
dignity of its citizens." Ihar Hermianchuk, the paper's owner and editor,
said, "We knew sooner or later that they'd close us down, they hope to teach
us a lesson. But we're already planning our next newspaper." The Svaboda was
one the most popular and delightfully irreverent of the independent
newspapers in the country. Hermianchuk and 10 journalists managed to produce
an eight-page newspaper three times a week---these 10 are on the front lines
of a struggle that matters very much to the U.S. and its future in the
world. It's a struggle against totalitarianism that many Americans assumed
was over. The Svaboda reported on corruption in the president's inner
circle, and even broke a story on Lukashenko's plans for a union with Russia
to expand his ambitions to Boris Yeltsin's chair in Moscow. Hermianchuk and
his colleagues aren't giving up, though, he's already registered a new name,
"News", and plans to start printing in Lithuania.
** InfoTech **
Title: Modem Markers Reach Accord On Standards
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (B6)
Author: Frederick Rose
Issue: InfoTech
Description: The dispute over a standard for 56k modems was tentatively
resolved by the International Telecommunications Union, an arm of the United
Nations, at an Orlando, Florida hotel near Disney World. The new standard
will be a compromise between 3Com's "X2" technology and Rockwell's "K56flex"
with some improvements from Lucent and Motorola.
** Media and Politics **
Title: Nixon vs. the nets
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (pg.64)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: Chris McConnell
Issue: Media & Politics
Description: Newly released tapes and other Nixon administration records
report initiatives to use pending antitrust litigation as a weapon against
the networks and a plan to elicit favorable coverage from CBS in exchange
for help with the network's troubles with Congress. Nixon aide Charles
Colson wrote a memo in 1971 to White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldemen
saying: "[Former CBS President Frank] Stanton is willing to personally
involve himself in news matters...I think there is a possible gain to us of
some magnitude." Colson wrote this as CBS was facing a House vote to cite
CBS and Stanton for contempt after the network refused to supply lawmakers
with subpoenaed outtakes from its documentary "The Selling of the Pentagon."
Administration memos on the vote suggest that officials hoped to gain more
favorable coverage in exchange for helping CBS avoid the citation.
** Public Interest **
Title: The Bizarro Universe Gore commission
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (pg.26)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Issue: Public Interest
Description: The Media Institute said it is forming its own group to
study the question of broadcast public interest duties in the digital age.
The lineup: First Amendment lawyer Robert Corn-Revere, Thomas Jefferson
Center for the Protection of Free Expression Director Robert O'Neil, and
former RTNDA gen. counsel J. Laurent Scharff to name a few. The Media
Institute said the group will submit comments to the Gore commission and
will also consider the public interest issue on its own.
** Arts **
Title: In Los Angeles, a New Generation Discovers Philanthropy
Source: New York Times (A14)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/hollywood-giving.html
Author: Judith Miller
Issue: Philanthropy/Arts
Description: In Hollywood it appears that a new generation of
philanthropists is being born. In the past, members of the entertainment
industry have been pretty stingy when it comes to supporting charities. Los
Angeles, the nation's second largest city, ranked 48th in a survey of giving
by the Chronicle of Philanthropy in 1994 - the most recent available data.
(The survey ranked New York City at 27th and Minneapolis as No. 1.)
"Hollywood has not really been involved in the city until now," said Harold
M. Williams, president of the Paul Getty Trust. "While there are incidents
of huge generosity, there is, unlike New York, no sense of civic pride that
obliges one to give in a sustained or systematic way. There is no Brooke
Astor." Philanthropy experts are hoping that Disney's "challenge" gift to
the Disney Concert Hall, which depends on other corporate sponsors to donate
$25 million more, will be the start of a trend in the LA area. "Once the
city has a few high-profile projects around which all citizens can rally,"
said Mr. Broad, the SunAmerica executive, "people who have never given will
do so and a tradition of giving will finally take hold here."
Title: A Wind of Gratitude Blows Through the Performing Arts
Source: New York Times (A20)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/arts/kennedy-center-honors.html
Author: Rick Lyman
Issue: Arts
Description: The Kennedy Center Honors was held this past weekend in
Washington DC. The premier event, celebrating its 20th anniversary this
year, turns attention toward celebrating lifetimes of achievement in the
performing arts. This year's honorees were Lauren Bacall, Bob Dylan,
Charlton Heston, Jessye Norman and Edward Villella. "The arts are now, to
borrow a phrase from one of our honorees, perhaps the strongest current
blowing in the wind," said President Bill Clinton. Referring to Bob Dillan,
the President added, "He probably had more impact on people of my generation
than any other artist." When George Stevens Jr., who developed the event
and has been co-producer since its inception, was asked about Dylan's
participation, he said, "I guess I'd say it's not so much that we're turning
a corner as that it's part of a long continuum."
[Oh, the times they are a-changin'...(sorry - I had to say it, just call it
our Monday morning 'cheese' bite)]
Title: Last Picture Show
Source: Washington Post (Media Notes, B1)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-12/08/138l-120897-idx.html
Author: Desson Howe
Issue: Arts
Description: There was little to mark the closing of the Key Theatre,
which has been a part of Georgetown life for almost 30 years. Eddie
Cockrell, a film festival organizer, said, "There's gotta be 100 films
you're guaranteed not to get now." The Key's demise means "the presentation
of cinema in Washington is going to me much more corporate," said Peggy
Parsons, curator of film at the Nat'l Gallery. She was referring to the
acquisition of independent film companies, like Miramax and Sony Classics,
by Hollywood studios. This may mean more independent movies for audiences,
but it spells strangulation for places like the Key and the Biograph
Theatre. David Levy, the Key's owner, will continue to host the Key Sunday
Cinema Club, which will relocate to the United Artist's theatre in Bethesda
in February.
*********
