Shanghai Media Group, China's second-largest broadcaster, is planning to spin off several units and list them over the coming two years, in an ambitious push for further reform of the country's state-owned media. The group, which is controlled by the Shanghai municipal government and had revenues of Rmb6bn ($875m) last year, was now seeking to introduce private equity investors in several of its businesses and take some public later.
At this year's annual TV bazaar know as L.A. Screenings, fewer media executives from abroad made the trip to L.A. to buy programming from U.S. studios -- and those that are here are spending less. It's just the latest setback for studios, which have been suffering from a steep decline in DVD sales. Because the vast majority of programs produced by the Hollywood studios for the networks are made at a loss, foreign sales have been an important factor in recouping the costs of production.
If you live in the United States, chances are you have never heard of some of the best international films. Foreign-language movies by world-class, award-winning directors whose careers are the subject of global acclaim are a fading presence in US cinemas, if not absent completely. They have seen few - in some cases none - of their films given a wide American release. And these three are only a few of those whose films have played on the world's biggest festival stages - from Cannes to Venice - yet are virtually unknown to American audiences.
Last week, with terrorism registering as the No. 1 story for the third time in little over a month, a clear trend emerged: The complex, visceral and increasingly politicized issue of how to combat the terror threat is now leading the mainstream news agenda, even pushing out the economy. For the week of May 18-24, the subject filled 19% of the newshole in the News Coverage Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Two major events drove the coverage: The Democratic-controlled Congress rebuking Obama by refusing to fund the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison and dueling speeches by Obama and former Vice-President Dick Cheney that much of the media treated like the national security equivalent of Ali-Frazier.
Twelve hours with no technology -- no iPods, no cell phones, no video games, no DVDs, TVs or PCs. That was the challenge for a senior English class studying "Brave New World." What were the results? Students talked about how consuming tech conveniences can be. They shared stories of how they occupied themselves while gadgetless. A car was washed. A salsa was made. A book or two was read. Some songs were sung. A texting session was replaced by a face-to-face conversation. And a lesson was learned. One that wasn't lost on a class of students in the midst of graduating into a brave, new world of their own.
America's 42 million low-income residents will only marginally participate in a "knowledge economy" unless Internet access to job training skills is increased, according to Dr. Eileen Applebaum, director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University. At a symposium entitled "Economic Empowerment for Low-Income Workers Through Broadband Training," Applebaum joined other panelists who touted the necessity of an aggressive expansion of U.S. broadband capacity. The United States currently ranks fifteenth in the world, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Broadband measurements assess the rate of speed with which information can be uploaded, transmitted and received. Critical services like telemedicine, for example, which utilize a system's capacity to send and receive large volumes of data, are dependent on the availability of broadband. While corporations and institutions can afford the cost of broadband systems that use fiber optics, satellite, or cable, many Americans still access the Internet through telephone dial-up services at a far lower rate of speed.
4G networks, which will use the 700-MHz spectrum that the government auctioned off last year, promise to blanket every medium to large city in Net-ready radio waves. It's about time. Cell phone companies have been asleep at the wheel for years, loath to upgrade to expensive new networks when their old ones "work just fine." The iPhone slapped them awake. Before Apple's smooth-talker, portable broadband didn't look juicy enough to chase—cellular data usage was slim. But the typical iPhone owner uses five times more data than the average cell user. "It took Apple and its ecosystem of apps and interactivity to prove the pent-up demand for ubiquitous broadband," says Ashvin Vellody, senior vice president for enabling technologies at communications research firm Yankee Group.
If broadband access is catching on in mainstream America, why are so many rural communities getting left behind? In fact, 19,000 communities across the nation currently don't enjoy broadband connectivity. It's a digital divide separating rural and urban America that illustrates more than simply techno-inequality. Broadband connectivity spurs economic growth, supports continuing education, delivers job training, provides job search opportunities, and grants the U.S. a competitive advantage in today's global economy. The bottom line: Rural America simply can't afford to live without broadband access.
[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission's Notice of Inquiry on a National Broadband Plan asks some 500+ question related to broadband deployment and use, but some questions -- on operator structure, competition, and privacy -- appear to invite comments that could have broader strategic implications for cable operators.
Whenever anyone tries making an argument against municipal broadband and/or open networks, more often than not it starts by citing UTOPIA as the poster child for failure, the example given for why other cities shouldn't pursue plans to wire themselves. And in many ways, UTOPIA -- the audaciously named, multi-city municipal wholesale-only full-fiber build in Utah--has been a cautionary tale. Started in 2002, the network still doesn't cover any of its pledging cities in total, it's not yet financially self-sustaining, it's already over $150 million in the hole, and it has struggled to attract service providers, especially any big names. As Paul Larsen, Economic Development Director for Brigham City and member of UTOPIA's Executive Board, put it last week, twelve months ago they were discussing what color UTOPIA's casket was going to be. But the last twelve months have seen the beginnings of a dramatic turnaround for UTOPIA, starting with the introduction of Todd Marriott as their new executive director last May.
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