June 2, 2009 (Baker to FCC?)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY JUNE 2, 2009
The 9th Annual WilmerHale Intellectual Property Conference began this morning. For all of this week's events see http://www.benton.org/calendar/2009-06-02--P1W
FCC NEWS
GOP Nominees for FCC Appear Set
FCC Gives Sirius XM New Deadline
ADVERTISING
Media Industry Feels pain of GM Bankruptcy
Why Wont Traditional Media Outlets Innovate?
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Time Warner Changes to Terms of Service Could Allow Metering, Tiers
NARUC Tells Feds: To Get BTOP Back on Track, Let States Lead
Cable companies want cash from tiered service, remote DVRs
On the Street and On Facebook: The Homeless Stay Wired
New software, services help you manage passwords, protect online identity
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
China blocks Twitter service ahead of anniversary
US military turns to Twitter for Afghan hard news
ED TECH
Television a real conversation stopper for tots, parents
Tech Company Helps South Korean Students Ace Entrance Tests
Recent Comments on:
Verizon, Frontier ask FCC to back license transfers
FCC NEWS
GOP NOMINEES FOR FCC APPEAR SET
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz]
Republicans appear to have settled on two people to fill the GOP seats on the five-member Federal Communications Commission, paving the way for a confirmation hearing in June. Senate Republicans have agreed on Meredith Attwell Baker, the former head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration at the Commerce Department, and current FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell. Baker is the daughter-in-law of former Secretary of State James Baker. On the Democratic side, the White House has already nominated Julius Genachowski to be chairman of the FCC and Mignon Clyburn, a South Carolina public utilities commissioner and daughter of House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina. Senate Democrats have expressed some frustration at the delay in the Genachowski confirmation. The agency is supposed to help administration officials decide how to hand out some $7 billion in broadband stimulus funds and must write a national broadband plan. Senate Republicans said they wanted to pair Genachowski's nomination with a Republican FCC member, but until recently they hadn't settled on anyone. The holdup has also prevented FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein from moving to the Agriculture Department where he has been nominated to head an agency with a spotty record of handing out grants. The agency now has $2.5 billion in broadband stimulus money it must distribute, but Adelstein must remain on the FCC until new commissioners are in place. The FCC is currently being run by interim Chairman Michael Copps, who's been focusing most of his time on the transition to digital-only television. Though he has mostly acted as a caretaker, Copps has teed up a few issues, including studies on increasing diversity in media ownership and a new national broadband plan.
http://benton.org/node/25630
Recommend this Headline
back to top
FCC GIVES SIRIUS XM NEW DEADLINE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commision]
The Federal Communications Commission has extended, until June 29, a deadline for Sirius XM to comply with a voluntary commitment to lease out 4% of its full-time audio channels. The condition of the merger of the two satellite radio companies requires the combined company to lease the channels to "qualified designated entities."
http://benton.org/node/25626
Recommend this Headline
back to top
ADVERTISING
MEDIA INDUSTRY FEELS PAIN OF GM BANKRUPTCY
[SOURCE: TheDeal.com, AUTHOR: Gerald Magpily]
Advertising agencies, newspapers and magazines, television and radio stations, and Web sites will lose hundreds of millions in GM advertising dollars from the fallen American industrial icon. Those losses will likely translate into more corporate restructuring in the form of possible layoffs or divestments to protect the bottom lines of these media companies. In fact, GM's largest unsecured creditor claiming trade debt is not an auto parts maker, but an advertising company. Chicago-based diversified advertising group Starcom MediaVest Group Inc. is listed as the sixth-largest unsecured creditor with a claim of $121.5 million. Starcom's claim exceeds bankrupt auto parts maker Delphi Corp.'s claim of $110 million. Meanwhile, Starcom is not the only advertising company making the top 50 list of unsecured creditors. Paris-based advertising agency Publicis Group SA is owed $25.2 million of unsecured debt, followed by $15.9 million to Interpublic Group of Cos. and $4.6 million to McCann Erickson of Calgary, Alberta. While the bankruptcy documents list advertising agencies, it doesn't elucidate the impact on the media companies. The advertising agencies are the intermediaries who deal with the media companies. In order to understand the impact on media companies, you must look at the crumbs left in news stories and SEC filings. Look for media stocks with heavy newspaper investments such as Gannett Co., E.W. Scripps & Co. and New York Times Co. to also feel more pain from a loss of GM auto advertising dollars in their already slowing ad revenues. In the first quarter, classified ad revenue fell 39% at Gannett, 42% at New York Times and 43% at E.W. Scripps. The GM bankruptcy is possibly going to force a shakeout in the industry with some smaller companies that relied on auto-related revenue to seek a merger to survive and bigger players to become more creative to fill the GM loss.
http://benton.org/node/25629
Recommend this Headline
back to top
WHY WON'T TRADITIONAL MEDIA OUTLETS INNOVATE?
[SOURCE: Forbes.com, AUTHOR: Scott Donaton]
[Commentary] The old ways of doing business in traditional media no longer apply. Media companies that resist change are doomed to fail. Legacy models have been overturned by digital technology. But traditional media companies are clinging ever more desperately to what they know. Just when they should be taking advantage of a chaotic marketplace to justify aggressive restructuring aimed at opening ancillary revenue streams, many are going the other way. They are huddled in the corner, trying to preserve old business models and protect their paychecks.
http://benton.org/node/25625
Recommend this Headline
back to top
INTERNET/BROADBAND
TIME WARNER CHANGES TO TERMS OF SERVICE COULD ALLOW METERING, TIERS
[SOURCE: BroadbandCensus.com, AUTHOR: Andrew Feinberg]
Consumer advocacy groups are gearing up for another fight with Time Warner Cable after the Internet provider quietly updated its terms of service with language that critics have pounced on as a harbinger of future metering and usage caps. Time Warner subscribers received an updated copy of the terms of service on their most recent bills - which contained the changes. But the offending provisions came to light Monday after circulating through the blogosphere over the weekend. The new changes come only months after Time Warner scrapped plans to institute bandwidth caps on customers, reportedly after pressure from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). In addition to representing the company's home state, Sen Schumer sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Congress, the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission should investigate Time Warner's practices, Public Knowledge Founder Gigi Sohn said in a statement. Inquiries would determine "the extent to which [the policies] hamper the free flow of information online, and to which they are anticompetitive," she said.
http://benton.org/node/25636
Recommend this Headline
back to top
NARUC TELLS FEDS: TO GET BTOP BACK ON TRACK, LET STATES LEAD
[SOURCE: BroadbandCensus.com, AUTHOR: Ryan Womack]
The Broadband Technology Opportunity Program can be put back on a faster schedule if state governments are used as a main points of contact for grant applicants, National Association of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners president Fred Butler of New Jersey and Communications Committee chairman Roy Baum of Oregon wrote Friday. The letter strongly reiterated NARUC's previously stated position, under which states would play a leading role in the screening process for grant applicants. The NARUC letter comes in response to the Obama administration's announcement last week of timelines for grant distribution that were later than expected. NARUC's approach will work faster, the group said: "Proceeding [with states in the lead] is likely to better position [NTIA and RUS] to release the funds months before the end of the year."
http://benton.org/node/25628
Recommend this Headline
back to top
CABLE COMPANIES WANT CASH FROM TIERED SERVICE, REMOTE DVRs
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Chris Foresman]
Cable companies are still worried about drops in revenue that may come as the economic pinch encourages subscribers to cut out premium TV services. That may be why, despite consumer backlash, they've made recent moves to adopt bandwidth caps and metered usage plans. But they may be getting another revenue option, as the Obama administration is backing Cablevision's attempts to sell a networked DVR service to its customers.
http://benton.org/node/25627
Recommend this Headline
back to top
ON THE STREET AND ON FACEBOOK: THE HOMELESS STAY WIRED
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Phred Dvorak]
In America today, even people without street addresses feel compelled to have Internet addresses. New York City has put 42 computers in five of the nine shelters it operates and plans to wire the other four this year. Roughly half of another 190 shelters in the city offer computer access. The executive director of a San Francisco nonprofit group, Central City Hospitality House, estimates that half the visitors to its new eight-computer drop-in center are homeless; demand for computer time is so great that users are limited to 30 minutes. Shelter attendants say the number of laptop-toting overnight visitors, while small, is growing. SF Homeless, a two-year-old Internet forum, has 140 members. It posts schedules for public-housing meetings and news from similar groups in New Mexico, Arizona and Connecticut. And it has a blog with online polls about shelter life. Cheap computers and free Internet access fuel the phenomenon. So does an increasingly computer-savvy population. Many job and housing applications must be submitted online. Some homeless advocates say the economic downturn is pushing more of the wired middle class on to the streets.
http://benton.org/node/25624
Recommend this Headline
back to top
NEW SOFTWARE, SERVICES HELP YOU MANAGE PASSWORDS, PROTECT IDENTITY ONLINE
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Brandon Bailey]
Most people who use the Internet know the difficulty of remembering all the passwords they need to check e-mail, chat online, download music and transfer funds. Experts advise against using the same password for multiple accounts, in case it falls into the wrong hands. But all those different sign-ons are hard to keep straight and, even with password-manager software to help, they can be hard to keep secure. Software makers have come up with several alternatives that you're likely to hear more about in coming months. Already, you can sign on to several sites with a single "OpenID" that you've registered with one provider. You can use your mobile phone to generate a digital "key" that you don't need to remember. You can even click on an encrypted "information card" that might one day replace your passwords altogether. The technology behind these alternatives has been around for a while. But security experts, programmers and industry groups have struggled to make them both convenient for consumers and secure enough to win acceptance from major banks, retailers and other Internet services.
http://benton.org/node/25631
Recommend this Headline
back to top
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
CHINA BLOCKS TWITTER SERVICE AHEAD OF ANNIVERSARY
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Lucy Hornby]
Access to the popular social networking service Twitter and email service Hotmail was blocked across mainland China late on Tuesday afternoon, two days before the twentieth anniversary of a bloody crackdown on Tiananmen Square. Indignant users filled chatrooms with protest, after access to Twitter was denied. Thursday is the twentieth anniversary of June 4, 1989, when tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square before dawn to quell weeks of protest by students and workers. China has never released a death toll from the crackdown on what it classes as a "counter-revolutionary" conspiracy.
http://benton.org/node/25635
Recommend this Headline
back to top
US MILITARY TURNS TO TWITTER FOR AFGHAN HARD NEWS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Paul Tait]
"What are you doing?" For the US military in Afghanistan, the answer to the latest social networking craze seems to be: "Killing Taliban." US commanders launched their "social networking strategy" for Afghanistan Tuesday, using the hugely popular website Twitter to release information about some of their operations. The decision to use the latest Internet fad was meant to "engage non-traditional audiences directly with news, videos, pictures and other information from Operation Enduring Freedom," the U.S. military said, and to "preempt extremist propaganda." The military said it did not think using a site more commonly devoted to people talking about their social lives would trivialize the gravity of its operations in Afghanistan.
http://benton.org/node/25634
Recommend this Headline
back to top
ED TECH
TELEVISION A REAL CONVERSATION STOPPER FOR TOTS, PARENTS
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Liz Szabo]
A study released Monday adds to the debate over whether television impairs children's language development. The study finds that parents and children virtually stop talking to each other when the TV is on, even if they're in the same room. For every hour in front of the TV, parents spoke 770 fewer words to children, according to a study of 329 children, ages 2 months to 4 years, in the June issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. Adults usually speak about 941 words an hour. Children vocalized less, too, says author Dimitri Christakis of the Seattle Children's Research Institute. In some cases, parents may have spoken less because they sat a child in front of a TV and left the room, he says. In others, parents simply zoned out themselves while watching TV with a child. Researchers didn't note the content of the TV shows. Parents may not realize how little they interact with children when a TV is on, Christakis says. A mother may think she's engaged with a baby because they're both on the floor playing blocks. But if a TV is on in the background, the two of them talk much less, he says. That may help explain earlier studies finding that babies who watch a lot of TV know fewer words, although they catch up to their peers by 16 months, Christakis says. "Babies learn language from hearing it spoken," he says.
http://benton.org/node/25633
Recommend this Headline
back to top
TECH COMPANY HELPS SOUTH KOREAN STUDENTS ACE ENTRANCE TESTS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Choe Sang-Hun]
In 1999, while watching a home-shopping channel on television, Son Joo-eun came up with the idea for an online test preparatory school. As South Koreans were embracing broadband Internet, he thought: why not bring classes into the home, too? He turned to the Web to provide "an honest, inexpensive education available to everyone," and South Korea's multibillion-dollar test preparation industry has never been the same. Megastudy.net, the online tutoring service Mr. Son started in 2000, may be the perfect convergence of South Koreans' dual obsessions with educational credentials and the Internet. In this country, where people's status and income at 60 are largely determined by which college they entered at 18, South Korean parents' all-consuming task is to ensure that their children enter an elite university. And that requires a high score on the college entrance exam. By tapping into those anxieties, which deepen during recessions, Megastudy has become South Korea's fastest-growing technology company, with sales expected to grow 22.5 percent this year, to 245 billion won ($195 million), even as the country's economy is projected to contract.
http://benton.org/node/25632
Recommend this Headline
back to top