January 2009

Hope Springs Anew For Leased-Access Advocate

Leased-access programmer Charlie Stogner hopes the new regime at the Federal Communications Commission will finally yield a ruling on whether cable operators must provide leased-access programmers the same ability to deliver programming via the Internet to the cable headend, and on the same terms, as non-leased programmers. Stogner's been pushing the FCC for more than a year to release a decision on his petition, which was filed back in March of last year. Stogner says he is paying $100 a month in eight different places while other non-leased programmers, HBO for example, not only get free satellite reception but operators put up the dish and all the equipment.

Watchdog Bashes Google, Health IT Stimulus

Consumer Watchdog, a newcomer in Washington privacy circles that has been pressuring Google to enhance the privacy and security of its various Web applications, slammed the Internet giant Tuesday for allegedly lobbying to allow the sale of electronic medical records in the latest version of the House economic stimulus legislation. In a letter to Congress that was also sent to President Barack Obama, Consumer Watchdog asked for the removal of what it perceives as loopholes in the package's ban on the sale of patient data and to include other privacy protections currently absent from the legislation.

Rep Gingrey: Back off, Rush

Responding to President Obama's recommendation to Republican congressional leaders last week that they not follow Limbaugh's lead, the conservative talkmeister said on his show that Obama is "obviously more frightened of me than he is Mitch McConnell. He's more frightened of me, than he is of, say, John Boehner, which doesn't say much about our party." And Rep Phil Gingrey (R-GA) doesn't like it: "I think that our leadership, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, are taking the right approach. I mean, it's easy if you're Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or even sometimes Newt Gingrich to stand back and throw bricks. You don't have to try to do what's best for your people and your party. You know you're just on these talk shows and you're living well and plus you stir up a bit of controversy and gin the base and that sort of that thing. But when it comes to true leadership, not that these people couldn't be or wouldn't be good leaders, they're not in that position of John Boehner or Mitch McConnell."

American Author John Updike Succumbs to Lung Cancer

John Updike, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, prolific man of letters and erudite chronicler of sex, divorce and other adventures in the postwar prime of the American empire, died Tuesday at age 76. Updike, best known for his four ''Rabbit'' novels, died of lung cancer at a hospice near his home in Beverly Farms (MA). A literary writer who frequently appeared on best-seller lists, the tall, hawk-nosed Updike wrote novels, short stories, poems, criticism, the memoir ''Self-Consciousness'' and even a famous essay about baseball great Ted Williams. He released more than 50 books in a career that started in the 1950s, winning virtually every literary prize, including two Pulitzers, for ''Rabbit Is Rich'' and ''Rabbit at Rest,'' and two National Book Awards. Born in 1932, Updike spoke for millions of Depression-era readers raised by ''penny-pinching parents,'' united by ''the patriotic cohesion of World War II'' and blessed by a ''disproportionate share of the world's resources,'' the postwar, suburban boom of ''idealistic careers and early marriages.'' He captured, and sometimes embodied, a generation's confusion over the civil rights and women's movements, and opposition to the Vietnam War. Updike was called a misogynist, a racist and an apologist for the establishment. E.B. White, offered him a position at The New Yorker, where he served briefly as foreign books reviewer. Many of Updike's reviews and short stories were published in The New Yorker, often edited by White's stepson, Roger Angell. Updike's ''The Witches of Eastwick,'' released in 1984, was later made into a film of the same name.

UPDATED: DTV Delay Bill in House -- Expect Vote on Wednesday

House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) cancelled a markup on his version of a digital television transition delay bill, saying he would defer to the Senate version and work for its passage in the House, which is expected on Wednesday. "I am pleased that the Senate has acted to delay the deadline, which is our only hope of mitigating the negative impact on millions of consumers," said Chairman Waxman . "In light of the Senate action, I will work with the House Democratic Leadership to bring up the Senate bill for consideration Tuesday." House Republicans are not on board, however. Rep Joe Barton (R-TX), who set the Feb 17 hard date while serving as then-chairman of the House Commerce Committee, took aim at the proposed move in a report on the broadband stimulus portion of the Obama administrations' economy recovery bill, which includes $650 million in funds for DTV-to-analog converter box coupons. The report, issued by Barton's office, labeled the funding as an effort to pay for "the disaster that delaying the digital transition will cause." The Republicans said moving the date from Feb. 17 to June 12 was unnecessary and will "cause more harm than good by confusing consumers and jeopardizing spectrum earmarked for public safety." Rep Barton was joined by Rep Cliff Stearns in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to delay the vote: they invoked 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden in their plea. The National Association of Broadcasters, however, backed the plan to delay. The Association of National Advertisers, American Association of Advertising Agencies, and the American Advertising Federation also expressed support.

For Nielsen, Digital TV Transition No Worse Than Christmas

Even as lawmakers voted to extend the U.S. transition to digital TV broadcasting for another four months, Nielsen executives maintain that the TV ratings firm is more than prepared even if that transition were to occur today. "Given where we are on the digital transition today, the effect would be less than what we have over a normal Christmas season," Pat McDonough, senior vice president-insights, analysis and policy of Nielsen Co. told MediaDailyNews of Nielsen's current preparedness. By the Christmas season, McDonough was referring to the amount of technological change that occurs in television households during a typical holiday season, when consumers purchase new televisions or other electronic equipment that change how they receive and watch TV, causing Nielsen engineers and field workers to troubleshoot how those households are metered for ratings. McDonough said during the average Christmas holiday season, 10% of the Nielsen ratings sample is impacted by changes in TV viewing technology, including new TV sets, DVRs, DVDs, and other equipment. She said it normally takes Nielsen a couple of weeks to adjust to those changes, but estimated that if the digital TV transition were to happen now it would impact only about 6% of the households in Nielsen's sample.

Tech wonks embrace government activism in telecom policy

At a New America Foundation-hosted event, Federal Communications Commission member Jonathan Adelstein and a cohort of top tech wonks looked forward to a golden age of government activism in telecom policy. Setting the tone for the event, Commissioner Adelstein exulted that it was "refreshing to finally have a leader at the top who truly understands the importance of these digital connections, and has already established a legacy of using them to effect profound social change," looking forward to a "springtime in the garden of ideas." The Commissioner's vision of profound change came couched in marketplace metaphors-like Oliver Wendell Holmes' "free trade in ideas"-but if his remarks had a leitmotif, it was the expectation that the "misguided... do no harm" approach of the past eight years would soon fall by the wayside. That means more active government investment in expanding broadband access, which Adelstein called the "skeleton key" to economic opportunity, and in particular wireless broadband, "the wave of the future." Net neutrality boosters were assured that "we won't allow a few gatekeepers to control the Internet...Internet freedom will prevail." Conservatives who have been telling scary campfire tales about the resurrection of the dreaded Fairness Doctrine, meanwhile, must have felt a cold chill at the commissioner's insistence that "in this era of responsibility that we've been called to, the media must be responsive to their communities, and the diversity of America should be represented on the public's airwaves."

Obama's Broadband Plan Disappoints Telecommunications Companies

Qwest says it can start immediately on the kind of "shovel ready" projects to expand Internet service President Barack Obama wants to stimulate the economy. The company and the industry may be disappointed. The current House version of the $825 billion stimulus package sets aside just $6 billion for broadband deployment, about a third of the amount that some Democratic lawmakers had wanted. In addition, the money comes with conditions that some companies said discourage them from participating in the program. "It's not a lot of money and then you have to jump through a lot of hoops to get it," said Paul Glenchur, a Washington- based telecommunications policy analyst with Stanford Group. While Obama made a campaign promise to extend the reach of high-speed Internet networks, the economic crisis forced the incoming administration to redirect resources to other programs such as repairing roads and bridges. In a bill before the House, Qwest would end up competing for about half the $6 billion for broadband, as $2.8 billion of the amount is set aside for smaller telecommunications companies that already serve remote rural areas.

Congress mulls Internet, wireless tax credits

Sen John Rockefeller (D-WV), a senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, and Sen Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) will offer the amendment to the $825 billion economic package Tuesday, offering a plan to give tax credits to Internet and wireless companies as part of a broad stimulus package to boost the ailing economy. The proposal would provide a 10 percent tax credit to companies that build out high-speed Internet in rural and underserved areas, and 20 percent for those willing to exceed current speeds. Telecommunications companies have been pushing for tax credits, rather than grant money, the route the House of Representatives has taken thus far. "Our concern about tax credits is that they may fund projects that would have been built anyway," said Derek Turner, research director at the public interest group Free Press.

Inside the Stimulus: Broadband's Triple Play

Sure, stacked up against prescriptions for staving off complete collapse of the global credit market, what's in Obama's stimulus package having to do with broadband might seem minor in comparison. But the bill's provisions are indeed important, perhaps even hugely so. Three in particular are worth talking about. The first aims to fund the build out of high-speed Internet in unreached parts of the U.S. to the tune of about $6 billion. The second maps where in the U.S. broadband is available. And the third is Network Neutrality.

Benton

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