May 2009

Netbooks could drive up mobile broadband usage up in the coming years. Pyramid Research is recommending that operators do what they can to support netbook sales. "There is growing evidence that netbooks are catching on with the under-21 crowd; if that trend develops, the adoption rate for netbooks could accelerate even more, which means these cheap and approachable devices could have a huge impact on how network operators make money off their services," Laux adds. The relatively inexpensive nature of these small laptops also makes them appealing in "lower-income countries" in the Asia/Pacific region, the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. Pyramid believes that netbooks will hit "mass-market shipments" in 2010 as the average price of the mobile PCs falls below $350.

Late Friday, the Federal Communications Commission released on order denying a challenge to New Corp's ownership of WNYW-TV (NY) and WWOR-TV (Secaucus, NJ) and the New York Post. The challenge had been lodged by the United Church of Christ and Rainbow/PUSH but, because the organizations did not file a petition to deny those grants in 2006, the FCC concluded that they lacked standing to challenge that on reconsideration and denied the petition. Apparently, the FCC made the ruling on January 15, 2008 and took 16 months to share the decision with the public. As part of the order released Friday, Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein put their two dissents in, dissents that Adelstein pointed out were "inexplicably" not included by the (Kevin Martin-controlled) commission in the October 2006 order. Chairman Copps called the 2006 decision woefully deficient, saying there had been no "serious" public interest analysis of the waivers before they were renewed. He added an update for the 2008 decision, renewing his dissent and pointing out that in the interim News Corp. had bought the Wall Street Journal, operating two of New York's most popular TV stations and two of its most popular newspapers.

You're probably not learning this here: on Tuesday, President Obama nominated US Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. What you might not have heard/read is that Judge Sotomayor has a background in intellectual property litigation -- as an associate and partner at the Manhattan law firm Pavia & Harcourt and as a judge on the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. As a district court judge in 1997, Judge Sotomayor heard a case brought by a group of freelance journalists who claimed various news outlets including the New York Times and Time violated copyright laws by reproducing their work on electronic databases and archives such as Lexis-Nexis without first obtaining their permission. Judge Sotomayor ruled against the freelancers, arguing that the publishers were within their rights under the Copyright Act. The appeals court reversed Sotomayor's decision, siding with the freelancers, and the Supreme Court upheld the appellate ruling 7-2.

Despite the troubled economy, most advertisers are not drastically cutting their national TV ad budgets for next season, which might bode well for the broadcast networks -- if they don't take hard-line positions regarding rate increases. Although many analysts project "upfront" sales for the bulk of advertising slots next season could slide by 20 percent or more compared with last year, most media buyers said the slippage might fall in the 5 percent-8 percent range. Even if the money is not allocated in the upfront negotiations currently underway, they added, it will get spent in the "scatter" market, i.e. closer to a show's airdate. Last year's upfront take floated around $9 billion, and most buyers said this year's total will range between $8.2 billion and $8.5 billion.