November 2005

BROADCASTING/CABLE
NCTA Plan: Allow Limited Regulation
Public Broadcasting's Enemy Within
Moyers Has His Say
2nd Music Settlement by Spitzer
TV Turns to Retail
House Duo: Tap Modem Cash
Time Warner Wins on Fees

QUICKLY -- Nominations Help Lobbyists Reaffirm Value of Connections

BROADCASTING/CABLE

NCTA PLAN: ALLOW LIMITED REGULATION
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
The cable industry would agree to regulation of its most-popular
programming tiers for indecency -- on condition that any federal
legislation governing its content for profanity or sexual behavior wouldn't
take effect until after the courts had ruled on the law's
constitutionality. The proposal, endorsed by the National Cable &
Telecommunications Association leadership, could lead to the Federal
Communications Commission's policing the content of basic and
expanded-basic channels for the first time in cable's half-century of
history. Currently, the only media whose content is monitored for indecency
are broadcast radio and broadcast television, on the basic grounds that
they employ public airspace and are universal. Basic and expanded basic are
the cable home of scores of networks, both regional and national. Some,
like FX and MTV, have come under assault from the Parents Television
Council for salacious content. For business and political reasons, the NCTA
has concluded that allowing regulation on basic channels for indecency
would be the least disruptive to the financial interests of cable system
operators. Alternatives include encouraging customers to buy programs a la
carte or in small chunks of channels, such as family tiers. But such an
approach would undermine the sale of expanded-basic service as a package,
breaking up the all-you-can-eat cable bill into smaller fees levied for
individual portions of programming. That could strike at the heart of how
cable programming is sold today. The NCTA also wants to see the indecency
fight come to a conclusion so the industry can focus on larger
telecommunications issues, such as whether cable systems should be neutral
carriers of Internet services; how franchises to provide video programming
in communities across the country should be awarded; who pays what into the
federal Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes communication service to
rural areas; or whether Internet protocol-based voice services should be
regulated.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6286832.html
(requires subscription)
* TV Smut Fines by Christmas
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6286550.html?display=Breaking...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

PUBLIC BROADCASTING'S ENEMY WITHIN
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] As chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,
Kenneth Tomlinson proved to be a disastrous zealot. Internal investigators
found he repeatedly broke federal law and ethics rules in overreaching his
authority and packing the payroll with Republican ideologues. His actual
job - to maintain a "heat shield" between public broadcasting and politics
- was turned on its head. The scathing investigation concluded that Mr.
Tomlinson was a beacon of partisanship, hiring GOP consultants as ludicrous
bias-control monitors and recruiting Patricia Harrison, a former
co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, to be the corporation's
new president. The inspector general's report is a case study of how
dangerous ideological cronyism is as a substitute for nonpartisan
expertise. Defenders of public broadcasting now must guard against still
another conservative putsch - a Congressional move to cut financing for the
corporation's $400 million budget of vital aid for local stations. This
time, the "balance" zealots may resort to irony by citing the very chaos
wrought by Mr. Tomlinson.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/28/opinion/28mon2.html
(requires registration)
* CPB chairman's unilateral actions to adjust PBS program politics exceeded
his authority
http://www.current.org/
* Journal ignored specific charges raised by CPB inspector general to
defend Tomlinson
http://mediamatters.org/items/200511210008

MOYERS HAS HIS SAY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
An interview with former NOW host Bill Moyers. Eggerton asks, "Was your
show liberally biased?" Moyers answers: "Right-wing partisans like
Tomlinson have always attacked aggressive reporting as liberal. We were
biased, all right -- in favor of uncovering the news that powerful people
wanted to keep hidden: conflicts of interest at the Department of Interior,
secret meetings between Vice President Cheney and the oil industry,
backdoor shenanigans by lobbyists at the FCC, corruption in Congress,
neglect of wounded veterans returning from Iraq, Pentagon cost overruns,
the manipulation of intelligence leading to the invasion of Iraq. We were
way ahead of the news curve on these stories, and the administration turned
its hit men loose on us. And when we weren't reporting the truth behind the
news, we were interviewing a wide variety of people: Ralph Reed and Ralph
Nader; Cal Thomas and Molly Ivins; Robert Bartley, editor of the Wall
Street Journal; Katrina Vandenheuval, editor of The Nation; The
Conservative Union's David Keene; Dorothy Rabinowitz (also of the Wall
Street Journal); Charles Lewis of the Center for Public Integrity; the Club
for Growth's Stephen Moore; historian Howard Zinn; and Indian activist
Arundhati Roy. And on and on."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6286824?display=News&referral...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

2ND MUSIC SETTLEMENT BY SPITZER
[SOURCE: New York Times 11/23, AUTHOR: Jeff Leeds]
Warner Music Group, the nation's third-biggest record company, has reached
a settlement with the New York attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, to resolve
accusations that it made payoffs to persuade radio programmers to play
certain songs. Mr. Spitzer said that Warner executives had obtained play
time for songs through "deceptive and illegal" practices, including making
payoffs in the form of personal electronics and tickets to the Grammy
Awards, the World Series and the Super Bowl. Warner executives also tried
to land their artists on playlists by paying for a station's daily
operations, Mr. Spitzer said. He cited examples of the record company's
covering the cost of painting a station logo on a promotional vehicle, the
production of a station "jingle," and the costs of hiring a voiceover
talent. Warner, which counts acts like Green Day and Twista on its artist
roster, also provided an array of "promotional" items for use in listener
contests and giveaways, a practice company executives described as "an
industry standard." Spitzer criticized the Federal Communications
Commission, which he said had displayed a "disappointing" lack of action in
dealing with the radio broadcasters under its jurisdiction since the New
York inquiry became public. The agency announced shortly after Mr.
Spitzer's first settlement that it would start its own inquiry. Despite
e-mail messages and other evidence that appear to point to widespread
violations of the federal law, Mr. Spitzer said broadcasters did not seem
worried about the prospect that the FCC could impose its toughest penalty,
revoking a station's license. "Because the notion of license revocation is
so clearly discounted, nobody is terribly concerned about the consequences
of the FCC's involvement," Mr. Spitzer said. "That's too bad, because
what's at stake here is the airwaves. Why the FCC is not responding is a
little mysterious to me." FCC Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein has
pressed for deeper involvement, saying the agency "needs to act on this
evidence and conclude as soon as possible" its own inquiry.
Commissioner Adelstein said the practices Mr. Spitzer illuminated appeared
to reflect "the most widespread and systematic abuse of FCC rules in the
history of American broadcasting." An FCC spokesman declined to comment on
the status of the investigation, but said "three months is not a long
period for investigations."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/23/business/media/23payola.html
(requires registration)
* Statement from FCC Commissioner Adelstein:
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-262338A1.doc
* Warner Payola: Be Warned
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] Here's some free advice for big media companies: Don't
routinely break the rules in your search for ever bigger profits.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6286827?display=Opinion&refer...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

TV TURNS TO RETAIL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Anne Becker]
At a time when networks' ad revenue is hit by everything from competition
from new networks to DVRs, many are looking at retailing as a new revenue
stream. The sales may be a trickle now, but cable and broadcast networks
are hoping to become floods of consumer products, branded with either the
network itself or a character the network licenses. Kid-targeted items have
fueled the fastest growth in TV consumer products.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6286820.html?display=Feature&...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

HOUSE DUO: TAP MODEM CASH
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
A House draft bill would require cable operators to contribute revenue from
cable-modem services to the federal program that subsidizes affordable
telecommunications services in rural areas of the United States. The cable
proposal was recently floated by Reps. Rick Boucher (D-VA) and Lee Terry
(R-Neb) in a draft bill they spent six months preparing. After receiving
comments from cable and other affected industries, the two plan to
introduce a bill in January. Requiring cable to share modem revenue to fund
"universal service" programs would be a first.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6286636.html?display=Policy
(requires subscription)

TIME WARNER WINS ON FEES
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
A federal judge has ruled that Time Warner Cable may refuse to pay
franchise fees on cable-modem service revenue, handing the cable company a
legal victory over the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The ruling, handed
down Nov. 10 by U.S. District Judge Ann D. Montgomery, accorded with other
modem-fee court rulings and key rulings by the Federal Communications
Commission. A spokeswoman for the Minneapolis government was not
immediately available to comment on a possible appeal. Judge Montgomery
agreed with Time Warner that franchise fees may be collected only on cable
services. She noted after the FCC classified cable modem service as an
information service in 2002, cities lost authority to impose the typical 5%
fee on cable data revenue.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6286635.html?display=Policy
(requires subscription)

QUICKLY

NOMINATIONS HELP LOBBYISTS REAFFIRM VALUE OF CONNECTIONS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Jeffrey H. Birnbaum]
[Commentary] Getting rich is what lobbying -- and, increasingly, what
Washington -- is all about.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/27/AR200511...
(requires registration)
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