June 2009

SHVERA Streamlined

This year's model of the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act (SHVERA) remains on the fast track. The bill (HR 2994) passed unanimously in the House Communications, Technology & Internet Subcommittee Thursday with essentially no entangling amendments. A full committee markup will come later in the summer. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-VA) is sheparding the bill; he said broadcasters, satellite operators and other stakeholders are close to a deal, perhaps within days, to provide local-into-local service in all 210 markets. The bill remained straightforward, with no amendment offered by Rep. Mike Ross (D-Arkansas), who has for several years been pushing a bill that would allow cable and satellite operators to import adjacent-market signals.

TV Everywhere Plan Will Change Ad Model

Time Warner's TV Everywhere initiative aimed at preserving the subscription revenue for TV programming airing online may end up also altering the current advertising model for online video for better or worse. Time Warner and Comcast are hoping to pursue C3 commercial rating accreditation for shows that are offered online. In order to gain that rating, video providers must air commercials in the same format they air on TV, according to Nielsen. A typical ad load on TV is on average around 15 minutes per hour. One Madison Avenue executive thinks it's highly unlikely that viewers of online content will agree to watch that many spots. "The billion dollar question is how do you capture revenue if you lose it in TV...There is no way you can have the same ad load," said Chris Allen, VP, video innovation director at media agency Starcom. "Maybe there'd be four to five commercials, but there is no way we'll get to 13.8 minutes plus promos and local." Allen suggested such a plan to simply move the ad load from TV to online in order to gain C3 ratings could "stifle creativity," since some advertisers seek to use online programming as a test bed for new ad formats with interactive capabilities.

Sirius XM raises prices

Satellite radio provider Sirius XM is preparing to raise prices. The Copyright Royalty Board has raised music royalty fees and Sirius will pass those costs on to customers starting next month. In a letter to subscribers, Sirius CEO Joe Zarella said "Beginning on July 29, 2009, a 'U.S. Music Royalty Fee' of $1.98 per month for primary subscriptions and $.97 per month for multi-receiver subscriptions will be effective" the next time they renew their subscription. Royalty rates have risen steadily since 2007 when the CRB established performance royalty rates for satellite radio. The rate jumped from 6 percent last year to 6.5 percent this year and will go up every year until 2012, when the rate will top out at 8 percent. Sirius and XM promised the Federal Communications Commission they would not raise rates as a condition of the companies' merger, but the FCC did allow them to issue rate hikes to account for any increase in royalty costs.

Teens Still Rely Primarily on Traditional Media

According to Nielsen, the leading type of media use among teens is still television, with the average teenager watching 3 hours and 20 minutes per day, debunking the myth of YouTube as the lead medium. Actually, Nielsen says, teens watch more TV than ever, with usage up 6% over the past five years in the US. In comparison, a typical teen watches about 11 minutes of online video per day, Nielsen found, or an average of about 3 hours per month. That is much less than adults ages 18-24 who watch 5 hours and 35 minutes per month and less than adults ages 35-44 who watch 3 hours and 30 minutes per month, according to the study, which compiled data from across Nielsen's media measurement businesses and its biannual global survey of consumers across 50 countries.

Iran and the "Twitter Revolution"

The political unrest in Iran has demonstrated as never before the power and influence of social media. How big has the subject been in the social media conversation in recent days and what role does the discussion appear to be playing? The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism took a special look this week at the role of Twitter and other social media to find out in an expanded version of the weekly New Media Index. From blogs to "tweets" to personal Web pages, the topic dominated the online conversation far more than in the mainstream media as users passed along news, supported the protestors and shared ideas on how to use communication technology most effectively.

And Data for All: Putting All Gov't Info Online

The Obama administration's most radical idea may also be its geekiest: Make nearly every hidden government spreadsheet and buried statistic available online, all in one place. For anyone to see. Are you searching for a Food and Drug Administration report that used to be obtainable only through the Freedom of Information Act? Just a mouseclick away. Need National Institutes of Health studies and school testing scores? Click. Census data, nonclassified Defense Department specs, obscure Securities and Exchange Commission files, prison statistics? Click click. Click. Click. The man in charge is the US government's first-ever chief information officer, Vivek Kundra. Previously CTO of the District of Columbia, Kundra, 34, knows that the move from airtight opacity to radical transparency won't be a cakewalk. Until now, the US government's default position has been: If you can't keep data secret, at least hide it on one of 24,000 federal Web sites, preferably in an incompatible or obsolete format. (Also at this link -- Meet "Obama's Geek Squad")

Internet Accounts for One Third of Consumer Media Day

According to a recent report by The Media Audit, in the past three years, the average U.S. adult has nearly doubled their daily use of the Internet as the average US adult spent 2.1 hours per day online in 2006, compared to 3.8 hours in 2008, an 81% increase over three years. As a result, the Internet now represents 32.5% of the typical "media day" for all U.S. adults when compared to daily exposure to newspaper, radio, TV and outdoor advertising. Even those who are considered heavy newspaper readers spend about as much time online today as the typical U.S. adult. According to the report, heavy newspaper readers, those who spend more than an hour per day reading, currently spend 3.7 hours per day online. In 2006 the Internet represented only 18.4% of a heavy newspaper reader's "media day," but today it represents 28.4%.

US vs. Japan: Residential Internet Service Provision Pricing

The New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative released a report comparing residential high-speed Internet pricing in the United States and Japan. With broadband stimulus funding applications due soon and discussion over the creation of a national broadband policy heating up, this report sets a baseline for comparing the current state of Internet service provision. The Open Technology Initiative compares residential cable, DSL and Fiber-optic Internet pricing from major Internet providers in the U.S. and Japan, primary sourcing all information gleaned from each provider's website. The report reveals that the U.S. has less competition in the high-speed Internet access market, particularly fiber-optic Internet. Verizon is currently the only national-level fiber-optic Internet provider and offers only three main options of service. In the U.S., the price for the fastest download stream (50Mbps) is $145. In Japan, consumers have far more choices for fiber-optic providers and many more tiers of service to choose from, resulting in Internet download speeds of 100Mbps-1Gbps at a cost of $40 to $67 per month.

Sprint Persuades Judge to Reject Group Suit Over Taxes, Refunds

Sprint Nextel, the third-largest US mobile-phone company, won't face a nationwide class-action lawsuit over claims it overcharged data-card customers for taxes and refused to issue refunds. US District Judge Robert Bryan in Tacoma, Washington, concluded Sprint customers couldn't show that being allowed to press claims about wireless-network card charges as a group would insure the case would be handled efficiently. Consumers contend Sprint officials improperly tacked on taxes and surcharges to their bills. Consumers "have not proven that the benefits of adjudication of the plaintiffs' claims at one trial would outweigh the complexity of such a proceeding," Bryan wrote in his June 23 decision.

Coalition Says Consumer Role is Key to HIT & Health Reform

The future of health care should encourage expanded use of information tools to help consumers better manage their health, 56 diverse organizations said Thursday as they embraced a framework for personal health information access and privacy. The framework — developed by the Markle-operated Connecting for Health public-private collaborative — includes four overviews and fourteen specific technology and policy approaches for consumers to access health services, to obtain and control copies of health information about them, to authorize the sharing of their information with others, and sound privacy and security practices.