February 2009

Four weeks after coming to power on the back of what was widely dubbed the first Internet election campaign, Barack Obama is establishing himself as the first truly multimedia president. The president's use of the full span of media - from network news to webcasts - has echoes of Franklin D. Roosevelt's "fireside chats" in the radio age and the mastery of television shown by John F. Kennedy. While such use of new media devices has been highlighted, analysts and advertising executives have also been struck by the president's use of "old" media tools such as prime-time television. "He has revitalized the bully pulpit," said Harris Diamond, of Interpublic's constituency management group. "He is the first president who's using all the tools of communication." One medium seems to have eluded the president, however. Talk radio remained "the preserve of the right," Diamond said. Cracking that may be more challenging.

The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday gave the green light to the use of channels in the 700MHz band for fixed and portable unlicensed broadband, or "white space," devices (WSDs). The agency says that its rules will be effective on March 19. Although this decision was originally made in November 2008, it has just been published in the Federal Register. "Any step forward in this process is progress," Wireless Innovation Alliance spokesperson Jake Ward said. "It has always been our position that the Commission's process for testing, evaluation, and rulemaking is a necessary and worthwhile, and we are pleased that we have moved one step closer to a white space enabled world." But the circumspect quality of this comment is appropriate. As already noted, the Federal Register announcement says the decision doesn't apply until mid-March. But even then, not all of it. According to the Register document, the White House's Office of Management and Budget must still certify that various sections of the FCC's decision are in compliance with that law. What sections are those? The sections having to do with the TV bands database, the databases' administration fees, and the database administrator.

After more than a decade of hype about the Internet being the next great stage for mass entertainment, it remains dominated by amateurs with most Hollywood stars watching from the wings. Even as talent agencies like William Morris and television networks such as NBC push for more celebrities on websites and better quality programs, many actors and producers balk at Internet projects, saying they have meager revenue potential compared with TV and movies. The future of Web entertainment is front and center in fractious labor contract talks between the Screen Actors Guild and Hollywood's major studios that, after a nearly eight-month stalemate, begin again on Tuesday. Among major sticking points is a demand by SAG, the largest U.S. actors union representing some 120,000 actors, for payments when members' work goes online. But the studios argue they are making too little money on the Web now, and its future as an entertainment medium is uncertain. Still, they are pushing ahead because they see an audience of teens and young adults -- consumers of the future -- who are more often online than in front of the TV.

[Commentary] The team that worked on the broadband provisions of the stimulus law really put careful thought into how to create a package that would go to underserved or unserved urban and rural communities, would re-enforce community institutions, and would provide a boost for both competition and open networks. It is difficult to overstate the extent to which this represents a paradigm shift from the last 8 years, or even to the broadband efforts of the Clinton Administration. The old paradigm saw only traditional carriers and residential or enterprise customers. The regulatory arguments centered on what mixture of bribery, cajolery and compulsion would get large for-profit companies to do what policymakers in Washington wanted — provide "affordable" broadband. The broadband stimulus bill offers a much more sophisticated approach. The question is not "regulate" or "deregulate," nor is the goal so narrow as simply building infrastructure. The stimulus bill embraces the idea of a "broadband ecology" in which we — as a matter of public policy — value broadband for its transformative effect rather than for its consumer value and place it within the communities we hope to positively transform.