October 2008

McDowell optimistic "White Spaces" proposal will pass

Federal Communications Commission member Robert McDowell said on Wednesday he is optimistic communications officials will approve a plan, backed by Microsoft and Google, to open soon-to-be vacant television airwaves. Predicting a 5-0 vote, Commissioner McDowell said, "The order itself is a very tight box. Each device still has to be certified by the FCC." He said there is great potential for a new wave of innovative and faster devices to be developed by the private sector with the new spectrum. National Association of broadcasters President David Rehr sent a letter late yesterday to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin asking a series of questions related to the agency's plan to allow unlicensed "white spaces" devices to operate in television spectrum.

FCC concerned at trend of pay-TV rate hikes

The Federal Communications Commission expressed concern as several cable companies discussed plans to raise their rates for next year, including Cablevision Systems Corp., which on Wednesday announced an average hike for cable TV service of 3.5 percent. Cablevision noted that the price increase on video services falls below inflation and said it's also building a Wi-Fi network that its Internet subscribers will be able to use for free. An FCC spokeswoman said the trend could hurt already-battered consumers.

Senators Want More NFL on Free TV

Senators have asked the NFL commissioner to tackle the issue of making more game day TV broadcasts available to local fans for free. The league has said it provides free broadcasts in the home cities of competing teams. But 13 lawmakers said in a letter this week to Roger Goodell that the NFL is too narrowly interpreting what is a home city.

AT&T Yields On Video Regulatory Fees

As a provider of a start-up Internet Protocol video service, AT&T has been exempt from paying regulatory fees used to help fund the Federal Communications Commission's $313 million budget, much to the displeasure of incumbent cable operators. In a concession Monday, AT&T said it should begin to pay video-based fees -- not necessarily at the same rate as cable incumbents but more likely at a level that represents the actual burdens imposed by its nascent video service on FCC staff resources. "AT&T fully agrees that, as a [pay-TV] provider, it should pay an equitable share of the [FCC's] regulatory costs," the company said in an Oct. 27 FCC filing.

PTC Study Charts Increase in TV Profanity

The Parents Television Council reports that a new analysis of TV programming shows that profanity during primetime broadcast television not only has increased since 1998, but that harsher profanity has quickly risen in prominence and pervasiveness. More than a quarter of the expletives a child will hear on TV today will be the exact words or some form of [three unholy words] that air unbleeped or partially-bleeped on broadcast television, the watchdog group claims. PTC President Tim Winter said, "Our research is shocking and especially troubling to parents. Not only are harsher profanities like the f-word and s-word airing during hours when children are likely to be in the viewing audience, but they are airing with greater frequency. There is certainly no 'chilling' effect on broadcast television as the networks like to claim. The opposite has occurred: broadcast standards have become so permissive that the term is now an oxymoron."

Younger Viewers Transforming TV Watching, Report Says

Younger viewers are transforming how, what and where prime-time television is being viewed, according to a new report from Knowledge Networks. The report found that younger viewers are more likely to use DVRs and watch TV outside the home, with 39% of millennials ages 13-29 reporting that they do so at least once a week compared with only 11% of young baby boomers. Millennials were also more likely to say they switch around during prime-time commercials or program breaks and watch TV with others in the room. Meanwhile, the portion of people "typically watching TV" between 8 p.m. and midnight remained relatively close to Knowledge Networks' 2004 numbers. However, DVR usage increased from 27% in 2004 to 38%, and 48% of viewers now said that "most of the time" they turn on the TV in prime time "with the intent to watch a particular show" compared with 41% in 2004.

So far at least, networks feel little pain

There's good reason to think broadcast television would be having a lousy fall as the ad economy slumps. But so far the networks aren't doing all that badly. That's because money is coming in from the robust upfront ad market in late spring and early summer, when the broadcasters locked up orders for $9.3 billion, a year-to-year increase of just over 1 percent. Of course, all this could change in the coming few weeks. Spooked by the rough economy, advertisers could decide to begin canceling for the quarter, with up to a fourth of those orders subject to cancellation. The networks, mindful of advertisers' concerns, are giving them more time than usual to decide whether to back out of their upfront commitments.

CNN Courts Newspapers With New Wire Service

CNN is courting newspapers -- and possibly competing with The Associated Press -- with a new wire service the cable network plans to launch soon, with plans for an all-expenses-paid, three-day summit in December to show off its news gathering capabilities.

Martin names Navin and Margie Co-Chairs of 2011 World Radiocommunication Conf Advisory Committee

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has appointed Thomas Navin and Paul Margie as Co-Chairs of the FCC's Advisory Committee for the 2011 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-11). This Committee will be tasked with providing advice, technical analyses, and specific recommendations on matters relating to the WRC-11. Thomas Navin is a partner in the Washington law firm of Wiley Rein LLP, where he focuses on legal and regulatory issues faced by communications companies. Previously, Mr. Navin was the Chief of the Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau and Chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau's Policy Division. Paul Margie is a partner with the law firm of Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP, where he focuses on telecommunications and technology law and policy. Previously, Mr. Margie was the Senior Director for Technology Partnerships at the United Nations Foundation. Mr. Margie has served in senior positions at the FCC and on Capitol Hill as Legal Advisor to FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps and Senior Commerce Counsel for Senator John D. Rockefeller IV.

Report assesses K-12 online learning

Online learning is growing rapidly, but its continued growth will require specific policy and funding changes that focus on increasing educational choices and opportunities while ensuring high quality and improved student achievement, according to a new report. "Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning," the fifth in an annual series of reports examining the online-learning landscape, debuted at the North American Council for Online Learning's (NACOL's) Virtual School Symposium on Oct. 27. The report recommends several policies to increase online learning options for students. Those policy recommendations include ensuring that students and parents are free to choose online courses and schools; encouraging schools of education to incorporate online instruction as part of the curriculum for future teachers; creating true national content standards so online content does not need to demonstrate alignment with countless different content frameworks; revising accounting standards for funding to get away from count dates, seat time, and other measures that don't apply to the online environment; and establishing some standard metrics for basic quality assurance and measurements, such as consistent measures for course completions.

Benton

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