April 2008

Newsday Drama Continues

The escalating contest for ownership of Newsday took a couple of new twists on Wednesday. The owners of The New York Observer dropped out of the bidding, while a former suitor, Cablevision, prepared to get back into the competition. Cablevision, which signaled weeks ago that it would not pursue Newsday, is putting together a bid of well over $600 million, topping offers from Rupert Murdoch and Mortimer B. Zuckerman. Cablevision declined to confirm the bid. The Observer Media Group was prepared to bid more than $500 million, but then word came last week of competing $580 million offers from Mr. Zuckerman, the real estate developer and publisher, and Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation. Observer Media tried to interest Cablevision in a joint bid, but instead, Cablevision decided to go it alone.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/business/media/30paper-web.html
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Another Extension for XM-Sirius Merger

Look for XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio to announce Wednesday that they are extending their deal to merge. The two companies are extending the deal to May 15, with both agreeing to an automatic, two-week extension after that, unless one or the other says they don't want to extend it.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6556277.html?rssid=193

FCC Not Finding Takers for Early DTV Test

For the past several weeks, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has been trying to find a market or two where all the television stations would volunteer to make the switch to digital TV late this summer or early fall -- months ahead of the mandatory Feb. 17, 2009, deadline. Broadcasters across the nation have been begging off, telling the chairman that they would rather not -- or simply cannot -- cut off their analog service any sooner than they absolutely have to. Working mostly through state broadcaster associations, the FCC has approached stations in at least 10 markets: Youngstown and Columbus, Ohio; Gainesville and Fort Myers, Fla.; Madison Wis.; Yakima, Wash.; Lexington, Ky.; Santa Barbara, Calif.; Wilmington, N.C., and Shreveport, La. Of those, only stations in three markets -- Santa Barbara, Wilmington and Shreveport -- are still considering the matter.
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/04/30/daily.8/

Nielsen Issues DTV Transition Plan to Clients

Nielsen Media Research has issued to its clients a nine-page letter spelling out its plan for the transition to digital-only television broadcasting that goes into effect on Feb. 17, 2009, assuring that “most homes” in its audience ratings sample with TV sets not capable of receiving digital signals will take steps to ensure that they continue to receive TV signals after that date. According to Nielsen, 11.3 percent of the TV sets in its panels are “unready” to receive digital broadcast signals. Nielsen is requesting that people in the sample with those sets replace them with new sets equipped with digital tuners that will enable them to get over-the-air reception of digital broadcast signals. Or that those people subscribe to cable, so their analog signals can be converted to digital. Or that they purchase and connect their unready sets to government-subsidized, set-top converter boxes that will convert their current signals. Nielsen said its field staff is planning to make a "significant” number of visits to sample households to hook up meters to any new equipment that is purchased. Nielsen has also set a timetable for people in the sample with unready sets to take steps to transition to digital reception. Because the transition is taking place in February, Nielsen will move its sweep measurement period from February 2009 to March 2009 to ensure the most accurate measurement with no glitches.
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=10037...

FCC: Cable Operators’ Leased-Access Reports Due July 15

The Federal Communications Commission gave cable operators until July 15 to file their annual reports outlining channel placements, rates, usage and complaints related to leased access. Those reports had been due April 30. Cable operators with more than 36 channels are required by FCC rules to set aside 10%-15% (depending on size) for commercial lease to outside parties. That is in addition to the channels they must set aside for public, educational and government use. The annual reporting requirement is one of several changes to those rules the FCC adopted in an order released Feb. 1 in an effort to make it easier to lease space on cable systems and create more competition to existing channels. Other changes included lowering the rates cable operators can charge and making the complaint process easier for complainants and arguably more rigorous for cable systems by requiring them to produce more documents.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6556497.html?rssid=193

FCC Order
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-08-1021A1.doc

Piracy Bill Advances in House

The House Judiciary Committee approved a copyright holder-backed enforcement proposal known as the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property, or Pro-IP, Act, which is chiefly sponsored by the committee's chairman, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI). The bill would rewrite U.S. law to allow federal officials to seize property from convicted copyright infringers who made unauthorized copies of music, movies, or live performances. That property could include computers or other equipment used to commit intellectual-property crimes or obtained as a result of those proceeds. In civil cases, the feds would have to establish that there was a "substantial connection" between the property and the offense. The bill would create the US Intellectual Property Enforcement representative -- charged with acting as a chief adviser on intellectual property enforcement matters, 10 intellectual-property "attaches" to serve in U.S. embassies and creation of a new "intellectual property enforcement division" within the Justice Department. The measure does not contain a controversial provision that would have dramatically increased fines in copyright infringement lawsuits. Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn said, "We are pleased that the Committee amended the bill (HR 4279) to make clear there has to be a ‘substantial connection’ between property to be seized, such as a computer, a car or a house, and any violations of the copyright law. Now that the Committee has approved the bill, we look forward to legislative action on Orphan Works legislation, (HR 5889), that would work to restore balance in copyright law."
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9932260-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2...

House Judiciary Committee Bill Would Crack Down on IP Theft
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6556265.html?rssid=193

Public Knowledge
http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/1543

H.R. 5353, the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008
Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet Hearing
Tuesday, may 6, 2008
9:30 a.m. in room 2322 Rayburn House Office Building

On February 12, 2008, Rep Ed Markey (D-MA), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunication and the Internet, introduced H.R. 5353, the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, a bill to establish broadband policy and direct the Federal Communications Commission to conduct a proceeding and public broadband summits to assess competition, consumer protection, and consumer choice issues relating to broadband Internet access services. The legislation would create a four part national broadband policy.

Learn more about the bill at http://www.benton.org/node/9186

Read more about Hearing: The Internet Freedom Preservation Act (HR 5353)

Today's Quote 04.30.08

"The bottom line is that the FCC process appears broken and most of the blame appears to rest with Chairman Martin."
-- House Commerce Committee staff

Committee Criticizes Move at Journal

That didn't take long. A special oversight committee created to protect the editorial integrity of The Wall Street Journal has decided the ouster of paper's top editor last week did not live up to conditions that the News Corporation had agreed to when it bought Dow Jones & Company in December. The committee has the power to block the firing or hiring of the newspaper’s managing editor. But the editor, Marcus W. Brauchli, was not fired; he resigned on April 22, albeit under pressure, and accepted a role as a consultant to the News Corporation. The committee members were informed the day before that the company and Brauchli had agreed that he would leave. “Although our charter does not directly envision a process for dealing with a resignation, Committee members expressed the view that learning of the Brauchli matter after the fact failed to meet the letter and the spirit of the agreement,” the panel’s chairman, Thomas J. Bray, said in a statement. “Under the agreement, the committee has the duty and responsibility to approve or disapprove such actions.” The committee “decided that there was no practical way to ‘unresign’ Brauchli and start the process over,” Mr. Bray said. But he said the panel “intends to exercise fully its role in the approval of a successor managing editor and to take the steps necessary to prevent a repeat of the process it has just been through.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/business/media/30journal.html?ref=toda...
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Screen Actors Guild, Hollywood studios still far from a contract

After more than two weeks of negotiations, studios and the Screen Actors Guild appear to have made little headway toward a new contract. Despite mounting pressure on both sides to avert another costly walkout after the 100-day writers strike, the talks have bogged down over how much actors should be paid across both new- and old-media platforms, said people close to the negotiations who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss them publicly. Guild negotiators are pushing for significant improvements in the proposed three-year contract above what writers and directors negotiated in their recent deals. Among other things, actors are seeking to double what they earn from the sale of DVDs, on grounds that the formula has remained unchanged since 1986. Studios, however, have refused to budge, saying DVD revenue is needed to offset rising production and marketing costs. The sluggish pace of the talks suggests the parties could fail to hammer out a contract by Friday, barring a last-minute breakthrough. That's the end of the three-week period that studios and actors had set aside to reach a new agreement. Although the actors contract doesn't expire until June 30, negotiations are expected to go down to the wire, creating more uncertainty about a potential work stoppage that would shut down most film and TV production.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-sag30apr30,1,4053165....
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