June 2009

Prescription drug fight goes before appeals court

So-called data-mining companies that collect information about the drugs doctors prescribe asked an appeals court Tuesday to stop Vermont from enacting a law next week restricting their work. Attorney Thomas Julin told a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that it would violate the First Amendment rights of the companies if the law is enacted on July 1. He asked the appeals court to block implementation of the law until it decides whether to uphold a lower court ruling that concluded the law did not violate the Constitution. Both sides were expected to submit written arguments in the wider appeal case within two months. The court did not immediately rule, but Judge Barrington Parker called it a fascinating case.

Global ad spend revised down again

Global advertising spend is expected to drop 5.5 percent in 2009, more than previously thought, before a mild recovery begins in 2010, according to a new forecast. WPP's GroupM said on Wednesday that spending on measured media was expected to drop to $417 billion in 2009 and to be down 1.4 percent to $411 billion in 2010, according to the forecast which looked at 70 countries. Its previous forecast in March put the 2009 decline at 4.4 percent. GroupM, which acts as the parent company to the WPP media agencies, said the BRIC nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China were set to lead the recovery.

Leahy Offers Patent Office Bailout Bill

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy and ranking member Jeff Sessions came to the rescue of the Patent and Trademark Office on Wednesday night when they introduced a bill that will allow the agency to use funds designated for its trademark portfolio to be used to address its growing backlog of patent applications. The trademark budget, which is statutorily untouchable, has a $60 million-$70 million surplus. CongressDaily reported this week that Commerce Department and PTO officials had been making the rounds on Capitol Hill to let key lawmakers know how the office was struggling in the recession and offering up legislative ideas like the loan plan.

Genachowski: Timely Resolution of Carriage Disputes a Priority

Potential Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski says enforcing program carriage rules is an "important task" and the FCC needs to resolve disputes "in a timely manner." His remarks come in answer to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller's suggestion that the FCC "rarely resolves carriage disputes in a timely way." Genachowski said he would work with the committee to help the FCC be a "more efficient forum" (Rockefeller's term) for resolving those complaints.

New SHVERA Draft Would Enable Satellite Carriers to Put Local Stations HD Signals on Separate Dish

Satellite carriers would be able to put local TV station HD signals on a separate dish, according to a new draft of the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act. That is one of a few changes to the original June 12 draft of the bill. The latest draft still does not address getting local-into-local service to the remaining un-served markets-about 30-or delivering adjacent-market signals to so-called short or split markets. But that could all change when the bill is marked up Thursday. The newest version says that a satellite operator can import a high-definition, distant-signal network affiliated TV station so long as it also carries the HD version-where supplied-of the local affiliate of that network. The bill requires all local stations to be carried on the same antenna, but says that the HD versions can be on a separate antenna, which was not part of the original draft. The new draft also has additional language about how the FCC determines who qualifies for a distant signal.

Second Circuit Appeals Court Rejects Cablevision's Must-Carry Challenge

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected a must-carry challenge and gave a shout-out to the rule as meant to help TV stations do more than just survive. The court this week rejected Cablevision's challenge to an FCC order requiring carriage of WRNN New York in some Long Island communities under the market-modification provisions of must-carry. In the process, it took an expansive view of the benefits of the must-carry rule, citing the Supreme Court's Turner decision and concluding that it did not mean to limit must-carry to the minimum of replicating a DMA. The FCC had added the communities to WRNN's market for must-carry purposes. Cablevision balked, saying the station was shopping for beachfront property, and took the decision to court. Oral argument was held in April 2008 in what was just the latest in an ongoing tug-of-war between the station and Cablevision over carriage.

Nielsen Says 2.1 Million Still Unready

Nielsen estimates that, as of June 21, 1.8% of US TV households (2.1 million overall) are unable to receive digital television signals. That is down 400,000 homes since June 14, two days after the switch to all-digital full-power broadcasting.

More Newspapers Drop Print Editions -- And Now Online Must Carry the Day

A recent Associated Press-compiled list of papers that have dropped at least one print day per week in the last year spans some 100 publications in 32 states, with a dozen in Ohio alone. The cutbacks range from a Monday or Saturday — which often offered little newshole anyway — to multiple days and, in some cases, even Sunday. But one less print edition means less work for the newsroom, right? Hardly. Rather, newsrooms now find themselves having to strike a balance by coming up with attractive content for the Web on non-print publishing days, while also moving some ink-on-paper content around to different days in order to keep subscribers and older readers happy.

Free riding: a deeply embedded media tradition

[Commentary] Are the new media really any more parasitical than the old media? Is this a case of the pot calling the kettle black? A large literature of media criticism suggests that free riding on the work of others is deeply embedded in the old media's DNA. Consider the following parasite-on-host relationships within the old media: 1) Broadcaster-On-Newspaper: broadcasters' free riding on newspapers "has long been one of broadcasting's dirty little secrets." 2) Newspaper-On-Newspaper. Slate media critic and editor Jack Shafer, citing Joe Mullin's blog, The Prior Art, writes: "It's quite common for editors to ask reporters to 'match' a story that has been published or broadcast by a competitor by re-tracing the facts, and of the sources, of the 'scoop.' As long as it's all re-reported and re-written, that's fair game." 3) Old-Media-on-New-Media. 4) Old Media-On-Government. 5) Old Media-On-Academics. 6) Old Media-On-Press-Releases.

Back to the drawing board on meaningful use

The federal advisory policy committee on health IT sent its workgroup back to the drawing board on Tuesday with recommendations the workgroup had made earlier in the day to outline the criteria. The HIT policy committee's workgroup, composed of members of the private sector, government and nonprofit organizations, have been pulling together criteria for a meaningful use definition over the past month. The criteria were presented at a Tuesday meeting of the full policy committee for a vote of approval, with a public comment period open for the next 10 days. After a "lively discussion [on the criteria] and considerable input on meaningful use, we decided to send the workgroup back to work on another set," David Blumenthal, MD, national coordinator for health information technology, said. The policy committee expects to receive a new set of recommendations from its workgroup at its July 16 meeting.