Sept 11, 2008 (FCC Wilmington report)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 2008
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BROADCASTING/CABLE
Here comes digital TV
FCC Report on Wilmington DTV Transition
Digital TV test shows the FCC will need more phones
Television finds unlikely ally in troubled economy
FCC Looks to Revive Leased Access Rules
MPAA: FCC Has No Authority to Impose a la Carte
INTERNET/BROADBAND
ITIF calls for broadband policy debate cease-fire
US Bounds Ahead on Broadband Proliferation
JOURNALISM
Tribune blames Google for UAL bankruptcy story
Mexico's Slim owns 6 percent of New York Times
WIRELESS
NCTA Weighs In on Mobile, Fixed Devices
CTIA convention a stage for wireless innovators
Who needs a good memory when there's Google?
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
Broadcast news campaigns against cable outlets in the race for election viewers
The Ads That Aren't
Tech Czar Might Rule Policy Under Obama
QUICKLY -- MPAA: Not All PG-13 Films Are Alike; Report: Retool instruction, or US will fail; Time Warner Nixes NBCU Merger Idea
BROADCASTING/CABLE
HERE COMES DIGITAL TV
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] The biggest change to television broadcasting since the introduction of cable is coming Feb. 17, when 1,800 local stations turn off their analog transmissions and broadcast only in digital. The benefits include crisper pictures and more channels for the 17 million or so households that rely on rabbit ears or antennas. Of course, those benefits will flow only to viewers equipped for the switch, with either digital sets or converter boxes. And despite a decade of hype about digital TV, some advocacy groups for minorities and senior citizens warn that many people will be caught unprepared. On Monday, broadcasters in Wilmington, N.C., gave the rest of the country a preview of the switch to digital. The FCC, which paid firefighters in Wilmington to help distressed TV viewers, plans to arrange the same kind of education and support in Los Angeles and 79 other markets with numerous over-the-air TV watchers. But local officials shouldn't wait for the feds to lead on this issue. Wilmington showed that the digital transition is too big a leap for some people, many of them elderly residents for whom TV is a vital source of information, entertainment and companionship. It's not too early to start lining up volunteers to keep viewers connected and to quickly reconnect the ones who will undoubtedly be cut off.
http://benton.org/node/16750
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FCC REPORT ON WILMINGTON DTV TRANSITION
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
In two releases, the Federal Communications Commission is reporting back on what happened in Wilmington (ND) on Monday. The 400,000 viewers in the Wilmington area represent an estimated 180,000 households, of which nearly 14,000 receive free over-the-air television programming with roof-top antennas or "rabbit-ears." During the first day of the transition, approximately 800 (797) area residents or less than one-half of one percent of area homes called the FCC helpline asking questions and seeking help with the switch-over to digital television. On September 9, the second day of the transition, the number of calls decreased by almost 50 percent from the first day to 424. Based on calls to the FCC helpline through the first day, most consumers were aware of and ready for the transition. The Commission's helpline received just 23 calls from consumers who said they were not aware of the switch to digital television and/or did not know the date of the transition.
http://benton.org/node/16746
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DIGITAL TV TEST SHOWS THE FCC WILL NEED MORE PHONES
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jim Puzzanghera]
Although Monday's apparently successful test of the digital TV conversion in Wilmington, N.C., still must be fully analyzed, new data released Wednesday indicates one thing: Federal officials are going to get a whole bunch of calls from confused viewers when the rest of the nation makes the switch in February. The Federal Communications Commission said that 797 Wilmington residents called a special government helpline on Monday after the region's five commercial TV stations permanently turned off their analog signals at noon EDT and began broadcasting only in digital. On Tuesday, the number of calls dropped to 424. The FCC noted that those first-day calls represented "less than one-half of 1%" of the region's 180,000 TV-viewing households. And combining the second day calls, the figure is still well under 1%. But translate that to the rest of the country, which has 112.8 million TV-viewing households, and even a call volume of 0.5% would produce approximately 564,000 calls.
http://benton.org/node/16745
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TELEVISION FINDS UNLIKELY ALLY IN TROUBLED ECONOMY
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Paul Thomasch]
It's been a tough run for the television business, with all the buzz around new media and those killer devices that let audiences skip right through commercials. But fortunes may be turning for the TV industry, at least for the moment. A number of media executives have indicated this week that TV advertising sales are weathering the current economic storm better than media categories like radio and publishing, and perhaps even the Internet. For advertisers, the big advantage that TV holds over other media is that it still allows them to reach the biggest audiences at any given moment in time. It's also familiar to advertisers, who have decades of experience with 30-second spots and vast research about audience behavior. Other traditional media have not held up as well, with radio and publishing both hard hit by the downturn, continuing trends that were evident even in a healthier economy. Local advertising has been the culprit, deteriorating faster than national advertising across media, even TV.
http://benton.org/node/16744
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FCC LOOKS TO REVIVE LEASED ACCESS RULES
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday took the first step toward revising cable leased access rules in response to objections raised by the budget arm of the Bush administration. The national media and communications regulator decided to seek public comment on two proposals by the Media Access Project, a public interest law firm representing the United Church of Christ's Office of Communication. In an Aug. 26 filing, MAP asked the FCC to exercise its authority and overrule the Office of Management and Budget, which refused to approve the FCC's implementation of regulations for the new cable leased access rules, particularly the vast information collection requirements. OMB, which is under direct White House control, said the FCC's data collection burden placed on cable operators violated the Paperwork Reduction Act, a law designed to reduce bureaucratic red tape on regulated entities, especially small business. MAP also urged the FCC to revise its rate formula to address cable's objections that lease access programmers could get on cable systems by paying nothing. The FCC is accepting initial public comments until Sept. 24 and subsequent responses by Oct. 1.
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MPAA: FCC HAS NO AUTHORITY TO IMPOSE A LA CARTE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The major Hollywood studios, represented by the Motion Picture Association of America, told the Federal Communications Commission in no uncertain terms that it has no authority to impose a la carte -- either wholesale unbundling of channels or retail per-channel sales -- on cable operators. The MPAA said it was responding to a filling by Media Access Project that argued that the FCC did have such jurisdiction.
http://benton.org/node/16742
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
ITIF CALLS FOR BROADBAND POLICY DEBATE CEASE-FIRE
[SOURCE: NetworkWorld, AUTHOR: Grant Gross]
People concerned about broadband adoption and policy in the U.S. need to back off from a largely partisan and bitter debate and instead focus on the country's needs, according to the Information Technology and Information Foundation. Debate over issues such as Network Neutrality and US rankings on broadband adoption and rollout has gotten "over the top," with some people "playing fast and loose" with the facts, ITIF's Rob Atkinson said at a forum Tuesday. Broadband and some other tech issues have frequently broken down into arguments between the political left and right, he said, and he called on both sides to cool the rhetoric.
http://benton.org/node/16741
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US BOUNDS AHEAD ON BROADBAND PROLIFERATION
[SOURCE: internetnews.com, AUTHOR: Sean Michael Kerner]
Though the U.S. still trails other parts of the world in deployment of high-speed broadband, all is not lost. According to the latest State of the Internet report from content delivery player Akamai, the nation's broadband penetration is on the rise. Akamai found that U.S. broadband connections -- defined as connections at 5 megabits per second (Mb/sec) or faster -- grew in number by 29 percent, compared to the previous quarter. The country still sits sixth on Akamai's list of the most widely broadband-enabled counties, with only 26 percent of U.S. Internet connections having been clocked at speeds of 5Mb/sec or greater. South Korea continues to hold the top spot with 64 percent of its Internet user's connection at speeds of 5 Mb/sec or greater.
http://benton.org/node/16740
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JOURNALISM
TRIBUNE BLAMES GOOGLE FOR UAL BANKRUPTCY STORY
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Robert MacMillan]
Tribune Co on Wednesday blamed technology owned by search engine company Google for treating an outdated story about UAL Corp's bankruptcy as current, breaking news. Tribune said in a press release it had identified problems with Google's "Googlebot" technology months ago and asked the company to stop using it to "crawl" for stories on its website. The Chicago-based publisher said it believes Google continued using the technology to identify stories and make them available as search results on its Google News site, and that Google continues to misclassify stories.
http://benton.org/node/16739
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MEXICO'S SLIM OWNS 6 PERCENT OF NEW YORK TIMES
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Robert MacMillan]
Mexican telecommunications tycoon and billionaire Carlos Slim has bought a 6.4 percent stake in The New York Times Co. Asked why he bought the stake, Slim, who has U.S. assets in retail, told reporters in Mexico City, "It's financial," indicating he was not making a strategic move into U.S. media. He declined to say how much he paid or whether he would increase his stake. Slim's telephone company Telmex, a former state-owned monopoly, has 90 percent of Mexico's 20 million fixed phone lines. His America Movil is Latin America's biggest mobile phone company with operations from Mexico to Brazil.
http://benton.org/node/16738
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WIRELESS
NCTA WEIGHS IN ON MOBILE, FIXED DEVICES
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The National Cable & Telecommunications Association gave the Federal Communications Commission a laundry list of reasons why it doesn't think the commission should allow mobile, or fixed, wireless devices in the so-called TV white spaces until it resolves key interference issues. While broadcasters have only been lobbying hard against mobile unlicensed devices, the NCTA said current proposals for fixed licensed devices don't pass muster, either, and could create interference to cable systems. The trade group pointed out that the devices could interfere with reception of distant TV signals at cable headends, for example, which, it argued, are more susceptible to interference from the devices, arguing that such interference could "wipe out" programming to an entire community. It also argued that allowing the powerful transmitters needed for fixed devices would threaten cable signals.
http://benton.org/node/16737
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CTIA CONVENTION A STAGE FOR WIRELESS INNOVATORS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Alana Semuels]
People want to use their phones for more than just talking. CTIA-the Wireless Assn., said this week that revenue from wireless data services rose 40% in the first half of 2008, to $14.8 billion. Grabbing a piece of that pie is a different story, especially with so many products doing very similar things.This week, CTIA exhibitors include 10 companies that deal in billing and accounting systems for phones, 22 that work in location-based services and tracking technology and 33 that deal in mobile entertainment such as ring tones and games. There are companies that help you use your phone to avoid traffic and companies that track trucks stuck in traffic, services that turn voice mail into text messages and other services that turn text into voice. They all are jockeying for the attention of consumers, carriers or handset manufacturers, angling for a piece of the growing market.
http://benton.org/node/16748
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WHO NEEDS MEMORY WHEN THERE'S GOOGLE?
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Emily Walshe]
[Commentary] In this technocratic age we have come to rely less and less on memory. In fact, we rely less on our own authority altogether. The future of everyday cellular is quietly moving beyond asynchronous communication to what mobile digerati are calling memory augmentation - an application for recording, organizing, and archiving the elements of your life and then creating sophisticated indexing taxonomies upon which to search and retrieve its details. "What was that cute song our toddler sang in the bathtub?" "Was that a hint of irony in your brother's wedding toast?" A Bluetooth-like appendage registers and compresses the days of our lives and holds them in cache until we need them again. With so many of us slave to tin can memory, our human capacity for identification is jeopardized. Because when we commit things to mind, we become the authors of experience. When we choose to remember, we relate to our most fundamental resource and, in so doing, achieve a unique and perfect balance between representation and meaning.
http://benton.org/node/16747
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ELECTIONS & MEDIA
BROADCAST NEWS CAMPAIGNS AGAINST CABLE OUTLETS IN THE RACE FOR ELECTION VIEWERS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Matea Gold]
As the 2008 presidential campaign moves into its final, frenzied push, the race has never been more competitive. In this case, the rivals are the broadcast television news divisions and their cable news challengers jockeying to win viewers for their political coverage. The cable channels showed clout during the party conventions, but ABC, CBS and NBC are hoping that their evenhanded style and high-profile exclusives will keep people watching this fall. Even with less air time, broadcasters argue that they deliver weightier and more substantial coverage. Still, four years after Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather were the dominant television figures covering the presidential race, there's no question that the authority traditionally wielded by network anchors is eroding.
http://benton.org/node/16752
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THE ADS THAT AREN'T
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Paul Farhi]
When Democrats turned their attention to national security themes at their nominating convention last month, Sen. John McCain's campaign was ready. In a withering TV commercial called "Tiny," McCain claimed that Sen. Barack Obama had called Iran a "tiny" country that "doesn't pose a serious threat." As reporters scrambled to vet the claims -- which, it reportedly turned out, distorted Obama's comments -- few noticed something curious about the commercial itself: "Tiny" appeared almost nowhere on the air except in news accounts. Since introducing the much-discussed commercial two weeks ago, in fact, McCain's campaign has bought airtime for it just 10 times. The McCain ad, in other words, wasn't really much of an ad at all. In political parlance, "Tiny" was a "vapor," or "ghost," ad. The goal of such spots is to stir up news-media interest rather than to reach voters directly through the purchase of expensive TV time.
http://benton.org/node/16751
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TECH CZAR MIGHT RULE POLICY UNDER OBAMA
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: David Hatch]
An administration run by Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) would likely create a national technology czar with broad authority to develop policy, elevating high-tech issues to the cabinet level in a major recalibration of the government's approach to regulating the communications sector. The move would have substantial implications for the FCC, an independent agency that could be answerable to a new layer of bureaucracy or bolstered by it, depending on political circumstances. The plan is being floated by the Democratic presidential nominee's top tech-minded advisers and supporters, including FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, widely viewed as a contender to run the agency if Obama is elected.
http://benton.org/node/16735
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QUICKLY
MPAA: NOT ALL PG-13 FILMS ARE ALIKE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Joan Graves, the head of the Motion Picture Association of America's ratings board, says there should be no line drawn that says you can't advertise a PG-13 movie to kids. "PG-13 does not necessarily mean you can't take a younger child to it." She pointed out that the ratings contain content descriptors that help parents to decide which of those movies might be suitable for their kids -- say a film with course language might be OK with some parents, but not one with sexuality. "Many 13s are appropriate for younger children," she added.
http://benton.org/node/16736
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REPORT: RETOOL INSTRUCTION, OR US WILL FAIL
[SOURCE: eSchool News, AUTHOR: ]
Creating a 21st-century education system that prepares students, workers, and citizens to triumph in the global skills race is the central economic competitiveness issue currently facing the United States, according to a new report from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21). The report provides a sobering wake-up call for the nation's civic and education leaders. The report, called "21st Century Skills, Education, and Competitiveness," argues that for the United States to be globally competitive--and for states to attract growth industries and create jobs--the nation requires a fresh approach to education that recognizes the critical role 21st-century skills play in the workplace. The report summarizes the challenges and opportunities that, if left unaddressed, would curtail U.S. competitiveness and diminish the nation's standing in the world economy. It urges policy makers and leaders in business, education, and workforce development to use the report as a resource for shaping policies that are attuned to competitive needs.
http://benton.org/node/16734
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TIME WARNER NIXES NBCU MERGER IDEA
[SOURCE: MediaDailyNews, AUTHOR: David Goetzl]
A top Time Warner executive threw lukewarm water Wednesday on any possible merger or alliance with NBC Universal. Questions about the future of NBC (now NBCU) within General Electric have percolated for at least a decade now, but the likelihood of a divestiture remains slim. Time Warner Executive Vice President and CFO John Martin said his company has not "heard anything that they would be interested in selling or be open to a potential strategic alliance."
http://benton.org/node/16749
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