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July 2008

IFTA to FCC: Deny Studios' HD-Movie Request

The Independent Film & Television Alliance asked the Federal Communications Commission to deny the request by the Motion Picture Association of America to prevent the copying of some HD movies. In comments to the Commission, the independent producers said allowing the major studios to "remotely shut off a particular output on a program-by-program basis" would harm program diversity by diminishing access to independent films. The IFTA argued that the MPAA did not define how the service would work, including how consumers would be protected against "overextended use" of the waiver.

Obama lavished with airtime -- and criticism

It seems like just about everybody has spent the last week beating up on the media for showering too much love on Barack Obama, during what John McCain's camp derides as the Obama World Tour. True, statistics show broadcast networks have devoted more than twice as much airtime in recent weeks to the Democrat than to the Republican. But don't assume that more coverage is always good coverage. Reports from the Mideast and back home in recent days have revealed that reporters were determined not to cut Obama any slack. That's only right. Obama has received breathless, man-of-the moment coverage. Now, he has to expect the tough questions that confront any presidential candidate. But even as the media moves to correct itself, it's entering a period of shallow analysis. Yes, Obama has won the extended airplay and the kind of command-moment video that any presidential candidate would crave. But the soundtrack from the media? It's spotty and a bit off track.

GOP losing the new-media war

Here's the emerging difference between the conservative presence on the Internet and the liberal one: The right is engaged in the business of opining while the left features sites that offer a more reportorial model. At first glance, these divergent approaches might not seem consequential. But as the 2008 campaign progresses, it's becoming increasingly clear that the absence of any websites on the right devoted to reporting -- as opposed to just commenting on the news -- is proving politically costly to Republicans. While conservatives are devoting much of their Internet energy to analysis, their counterparts on the left are taking advantage of the rise of new media to create new institutions devoted to unearthing stories, putting new information into circulation and generally crowding the space traditionally taken by traditional media. And it almost always comes at the expense of GOP politicians.

Time to drop cable/satellite television?

As cable and satellite television bills creep higher, some consumers are asking why they should pay for it. There's other options offered now from the likes of TiVo, Sony, Amazon, Netflix, Roku and Microsoft. The latest push into the living room aims to solve what has stymied earlier products, including the complexity of hooking up these devices, lack of content and relatively high prices, with some devices costing well past $500. But even the experts don't think cable will be replaced anytime soon and point to a string of high profile failures. Lack of content, a general aversion to yet another gadget in the living room and the high prices are reasons why the idea has failed to catch on. Premium channels such as Time Warner Inc's HBO are also unavailable on the Internet to non-subscribers, except through iTunes, where some programs are sold. But that has not stopped the tech industry from buzzing again after a number of new products that address some of these issues were unveiled in quick succession.

Stragglers Still Working on DTV Buildouts

Last week, in a little noticed action, the FCC granted DTV construction deadline extensions to 20 stations, giving them until Feb. 17, 2009 -- the last day of analog broadcasting -- to complete their full-power DTV facilities. In asking for an extension, each station made the case that it faced a "unique technical challenge." All the stations are broadcasting a low-power DTV signal. But a range of technical, physical and logistical challenges is making it difficult for them to achieve full-power DTV while their analog channels are still on air.

NARUC: FCC Must Step In on DTV Converters

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners are calling on the Federal Communications Commission to step in to help people whose digital-TV-to-analog converter-box coupons expired. NARUC wants the FCC to ask Congress to force the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to modify its converter box program. NARUC also called on the FCC to boost its DTV-transition-education efforts by posting a list of the features of all certified DTV-to-analog converter boxes and encouraging retailers to explain their exchange and return policies to consumers when they sell them the boxes.

NTIA DTV Converter Box Update

The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that the TV Converter Box Coupon Program has certified more than 150 converter boxes, including 63 that enable viewers to watch both analog broadcasts from low-power television stations and digital programs from full-power television stations. To date, more than 6.3 million converters have been purchased using a $40 coupon from the Program.

Britain agrees to plan to tackle online music piracy

Britain's music and film industries launched a fight back against online piracy on Thursday, persuading the six biggest Internet providers to send warning letters to those suspected of illegal file-sharing. Some 6 million Britons are thought to engage in illegal file-sharing each year and the trend has cost the music and film industries millions in lost revenue.

to be Examined by Knight Commission and Aspen Institute

Trends, Access, Quality, and Presidential Candidate Policies to be Studied in Aspen, CO August 9-12

The Annual Aspen Institute Forum on Communications and Society (FOCAS) (www.aspeninstitute.org/focas) will be held in conjunction with the second meeting of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy (www.knightcomm.org). The Commission's mandate is to determine community information needs, trends that affect how community information needs are met, and how public policy and private initiatives can better meet these needs.

Saturday, August 9th - The Knight Commission will convene to examine the current and future state of journalism including the growth of citizen journalism.

Sunday, August 10th - Tuesday August 12th - The Knight Commissioners and 40 other invited members to FOCAS will discuss how the media facilitates citizen engagement, the information rights and responsibilities of citizens, and the role of media in the electoral process. Participants will develop recommendations for citizens, media, and public institutions to serve the goals of American democracy better.

Participants include:

Jonathan Adelstein, FCC Commissioner
Madeleine Albright, Principal, The Albright Group
John Carroll, Former Editor Los Angeles Times
Reed Hundt, Former FCC Chairman
Alberto Ibargüen, President, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Henry Jenkins, Director, Comparative Media Studies and Professor, MIT
Paula Kerger, President, Public Broadcasting Service
Michael Lomax, CEO, United Negro College Fund
Marissa Mayer, Vice President, Google
Craig Newmark, Founder, Craigslist
Theodore B. Olson, Former Solicitor General of the United States
Philip Rosedale, Founder, Second Life
William Dean Singleton, Vice Chairman & CEO, MediaNews Group

WHERE:
Doerr-Hosier Center at the Aspen Institute Aspen Meadows Campus
1000 North Third Street
Aspen, Colorado 81611

WEBCAST: The Knight Commission will be webcast live and available for future viewing at www.knightcomm.org and FOCAS will be webcast live on www.aspeninstitute.tv.

TO ATTEND OR SCHEDULE PHONE INTERVIEWS CONTACT:
Sarah Snodgress
Tel. 202.736.5818
Email: sarah.snodgress@aspeninstitute.org

RSVP REQUIRED

http://www.aspeninstitute.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=huLWJeMRKp...


July 24, 2008 (XM-Sirius Deal Done?)


BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY JULY 24, 2008

MEDIA OWNERSHIP
   XM-Sirius Deal Done?
   Tribune plans no more newspaper sales in 2008

ELECTIONS & MEDIA
   McCain says coverage is 'fun to watch'
   CBS Sidesteps Questions About Editing Of McCain Interview
   Candidates' Differences on Media Outlined
   Olympic Deal Sealed: Obama Makes $5 Million Buy

BROADCASTING/CABLE
   The End of Broadcast Television?
   Protesters denounce Fox News as racist
   High-Stakes Race to Unlock a Wider Web

EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
   President Bush Signs Bipartisan VoIP/Public Safety Bill Into Law

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   AT&T Earnings Give Hope to Telcos
   Now ISPs Want to Serve You Ads, Too
   Senators To Unveil New IP Bill

QUICKLY -- Alexander Joins McDowell's Staff; Time for the Shield

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MEDIA OWNERSHIP

XM-SIRIUS DEAL DONE?
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
OK, here's what we think we know. On Tuesday morning, Federal Communications Commission member Jonathan Adelstein voted against the proposed merger between Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio after the companies refused to embrace any of his proposed conditions to win his support for the deal. That left FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and Commissioner Robert McDowell for the merger and Commissioners Adelstein and Copps against it. Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate, as expected, became the deciding vote. She's indicated she will vote in favor of the buyout if the companies agree to settle charges they have violated agency rules, in addition to other lesser promises. Lawyers from both companies have met several times in the past two weeks with Tate and agency enforcement officials. The discussions appear to have involved the use of ground-based signal repeaters, used by the companies to ensure adequate coverage in all parts of the country. In one document, XM stated that it had been operating some of its repeaters in violation of FCC rules. Late Wednesday, the status of the enforcement action was unknown, but published reports indicate the companies were expected to enter into a consent decree and pay the FCC $20 million. The companies have agreed to submit to a number of conditions, including a three-year price cap, setting aside 8 percent of "full-time audio channels" for public interest and minority programming and adoption of an "open radio" standard that was less specific than what Adelstein was proposing.
http://benton.org/node/15470
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TRIBUNE PLANS NO MORE NEWSPAPER SALES IN 2008
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Robert MacMillan]
Tribune Co has no plans to sell other newspapers in 2008 after agreeing to sell Newsday to Cablevision Systems Corp, Chief Executive Sam Zell said. Zell told employees that he has had "intermittent conversations" with people interested in other Tribune properties, but would not describe the discussions. A group of buyers has publicly expressed interest in The Sun in Baltimore, while the only public potential bidder to surface for the Hartford Courant has since said a deal would make no financial sense. Tribune is selling properties, including the Chicago Cubs, as it tries to pay down about $13 billion in debt that it took when it went private in a deal led by Zell. Observers think Zell may get $1 billion for the Chicago Cubs, Wrigley Field and a 25% stake in cable channel Comcast SportsNet.
http://benton.org/node/15469
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ELECTIONS & MEDIA

MCCAIN SAYS COVERAGE IS 'FUN TO WATCH'
[SOURCE: Politico.com, AUTHOR: Mike Allen]
Trying to avoid being portrayed as a whiney spoilsport, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) broke with his advisers Tuesday and told Katie Couric of CBS News that news coverage of the presidential campaign has been fair and even "fun to watch." Asked whether he believes he'd had unfair media coverage, Sen McCain replied, "I don't think so. I think ...it is what it is. I'm a big boy. And I'm enjoying every minute of the campaigning. And I'm certainly not complaining. And, in fact, I think it's fun to watch." Couric asked: "Do you think your campaign simply isn't as adept as Senator Obama's when it comes to facilitating media coverage?" Sen McCain replied: "No, I think my campaign's doing fine. We're two or three points behind. We're doing fine. I'm very happy with where we are."
http://benton.org/node/15468
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CBS SIDESTEPS QUESTIONS ABOUT EDITING OF MCCAIN INTERVIEW
[SOURCE: Talking Points Memo, AUTHOR: Greg Sargent]
CBS is under attack because the network mysteriously edited out of an interview with John McCain a passage where McCain flubbed the timeline of the Anbar Awakening and the surge, a serious foreign policy gaffe at a sensitive moment for the Arizona Senator. The flubbed-timeline quote never aired. It's only available in a transcript on CBS' Web site. Here's what a CBS spokesperson is sending reporters who ask for an explanation: "As all news organizations do with extended interviews, last night's Obama and McCain interviews were edited to fit the available time and to give viewers a fair expression of the candidates' major differences. The full transcript and video were and still are available at cbsnews.com"
http://benton.org/node/15467
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CANDIDATES' DIFFERENCES ON MEDIA OUTLINES
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
At the Minority Media & Telecommunications Council conference on Tuesday, former Federal Communications Commission chairman and current Barack Obama supporter William Kennard again sparred with former Assistant Secretary of Commerce and current John McCain supporter John Kneuer. Kennard questioned Sen. McCain's support for increasing the number of broadcast stations owned by minorities through certificates to ease taxes while supporting ownership changes that lead to more consolidation of media ownership. Kennard also said proponents of consolidation wrongly cite the Internet and new media as providing competition, when most Americans still get their news and information from traditional broadcast and cable media. Advertisers too spend most of their media dollar on the traditional media. Noting that every candidate for president announced their intentions on the Internet, Kneuer said Obama is underplaying the competition new media offers, saying these are no longer "nascent" technologies. Kneuer also said Sen McCain backed the view that the government should proceed carefully in any regulation of the Internet and rely mostly on antitrust regulation, rather than rules on Network Neutrality.
http://benton.org/node/15466
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OLYMPIC DEAL SEALED: OBAMA MAKES $5 MILLION BUY
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
Sen. Barack Obama's campaign will be among the TV sponsors of NBC Universal's Olympics coverage. In the first significant network-TV buy of any presidential candidate in at least 16 years, the Obama campaign has taken a $5 million package of Olympics spots that includes network TV as well as cable ads. The Obama campaign's spending on the high-rated and expensive Olympics tops anything that has been done on network TV by presidential candidates in years. Presidential candidates have mostly used their advertising to target battleground states, turning to cheaper cable buys when they sought national scope. The buy comes as the Obama campaign continues to set fundraising records. Its decision not to accept federal matching money leaves it able to spend as much money as it can raise.
http://benton.org/node/15465
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BROADCASTING/CABLE

THE END OF BROADCAST TELEVISION?
[SOURCE: Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Shelly Palmer]
[Commentary] In case you haven't noticed, the business of broadcast television is in trouble. Ratings have been trending down year over year for more than 30 years and there's no end in sight. Most pundits blame this audience fragmentation on outside forces like the proliferation of cable channels, DVDs, video gaming, DVR's and most recently online video, personal video and wireless offerings. Ben Silverman, co-head of programming for the NBC Television Network said the following: "We're managing for margin and not for ratings." There is nothing technology can do to help or hurt this strategy. It is truly the end of broadcast television. If you want to see TV ratings improve, the business improve and the rate of investment improve, try investing in programming, not margins.
http://www.benton.org/node/15463
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PROTESTERS DENOUNCE FOX NEWS AS RACIST
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Nancy Leinfuss]
Protesters gathered on Wednesday outside Fox News Channel to denounce what they claim is its racist campaign coverage, including a pundit who called Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama a terrorist. The crowd of some 150 people wielded a petition with more than 600,000 signatures objecting to news coverage by Fox, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, organizers said. Some demonstrators held signs that crossed out the network's "Fair and Balanced" slogan and replaced it with the words "Fairly Racist!" Led by activist groups MoveOn.org and ColorOfChange.org, protesters cited incidents on Fox including an on-screen graphic calling Michelle Obama "Obama's baby mama" and a pundit who confused Obama with Osama bin Laden and joked they should both be assassinated.
http://benton.org/node/15476
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HIGH-STAKES RACE TO UNLOCK A WIDER WEB
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Kim Hart]
The nation's top technology companies have spent millions of dollars and nearly two years building devices, poring over laptops and working in federal labs trying to come up with a new way of providing high-speed Internet to bandwidth-hungry cities as well as hard-to-reach rural regions. Last week, the companies moved from lab to field. Engineers from the technology heavyweights, including Motorola and Philips, lugged their laptops, antennas and other equipment to parks, homes and high-rises around the Washington area, hoping to prove to the Federal Communications Commission that the unlicensed airwaves between television stations, known as white spaces, could provide a new form of mobile Internet service.
http://benton.org/node/15477
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EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

PRESIDENT BUSH SIGNS BIPARTISAN VOIP/PUBLIC SAFETY BILL INTO LAW
[SOURCE: US Senate Commerce Committee]
President George W. Bush signed into law H.R. 3403, the New and Emerging Technologies 911 Improvement Act of 2008. This new law makes certain that Americans using Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services can dial 911 during an emergency. The measure will update 911 laws and ensure that emergency calls made over Internet Protocol technologies have the same access, obligations and protections as other 911 technologies. Previously, 911 calls placed over VoIP networks were not always able to connect to the necessary 911 infrastructure. It will also ensure that future 911 networks account for the challenges of serving rural America.
http://benton.org/node/15464
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

AT&T EARNINGS GIVE HOPE TO TELCOS
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Olga Kharif]
AT&T said second-quarter net income jumped 30%, to $3.7 billion, as operating revenue rose 4.7%, to $30.86 billion. It also reported adjusted operating margins of 37.3%, beating the expectation of some analysts. The largest US phone company's profit jump suggests that the economic slump may not be as harsh as expected for some telecom service providers. Some of the strength came from cost cuts, and the economic slowdown is crimping demand for some services, including high-speed Internet access. AT&T continues to bleed access lines and could not cover that lost revenue with improved broadband sales. But AT&T was able to offset weaknesses through ongoing demand in such areas as wireless calling.
http://benton.org/node/15475
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NOW ISPs WANT TO SERVE YOU ADS, TOO
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Olga Kharif]
Carriers including Embarq and BT are exploring ways to mine data they can collect about customers' online habits to deliver tailored ads. At stake is a slice of the $25.9 billion in online advertising. Already, phone companies use a technology known as deep-packet inspection (DPI) to weed out spam, catch viruses that could possibly harm a network, or determine what practices are hogging bandwidth. It wouldn't be a stretch to also use DPI to figure out which ads to shoot to which users. Robert Dykes, CEO of advertising DPI vendor NebuAd, likens the technology to "an eyedropper, picking up select things" from the communications network.
http://benton.org/node/15474
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SENATORS TO UNVEIL NEW IP BILL
[SOURCE: Tech Daily Dose, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and ranking member Arlen Specter (R-PA) will join Sens. Evan Bayh (D-IN) and George Voinovich (R-OH) on today in unveiling new legislation intended to boost government efforts to crack down on counterfeiting and piracy. The bill is expected to reflect a compromise of a number of intellectual property rights proposals introduced this session and strengthen federal resources and authorities to combat IP crimes.
http://benton.org/node/15473
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QUICKLY

ALEXANDER JOINS MCDOWELL'S STAFF
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
Federal Communications Commission member Robert McDowell announced that Nick Alexander will be joining his staff as Legal Advisor for wireline issues. Alexander has worked at the Commission since 2005, most recently as Acting Deputy Chief of the Telecommunications Access Policy Division in the Wireline Competition Bureau. Before coming to the Commission, he was an associate in the Communications and Information Technology Group of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. John Hunter, who has served as both Special Counsel on wireline issues and Chief of Staff to Commissioner McDowell, will now serve as Deputy Chief, Pricing Policy Division, in the Wireline Competition Bureau.
http://benton.org/node/15462
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TIME FOR THE SHIELD
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] A proposal to protect reporters from having to reveal confidential sources passed the House of Representatives by an overwhelming margin last year. A similar measure was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, 15 to 4. The presumptive Republican and Democratic presidential nominees support it. So do the attorneys general of 42 states, who urged the Senate last month to act on the measure. Although 49 states and the District recognize a reporter's privilege, the absence of a federal statute undermines those protections. It is time for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to bring this bill to the floor.
http://benton.org/node/15478
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