Oct 5, 2009 (GOP to Obama: No Net Neutrality)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY OCTOBER 5, 2009
The Future of Music Policy Summit open a busy week -- see http://bit.ly/1RDZH1
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
Boehner and Cantor to Obama: Network Neutrality regulations are harmful
Google and the Problem With 'Net Neutrality'
NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
FCC Seeks Input on Broadband Clearinghouse
Evolving a National Broadband Plan
INTERNET/BROADBAND
The Internet's next frontier? News for your neighborhood
NPR to launch journalism project with $3 million grant
New America Foundation Announces Knight Media Policy Fellowships
ITU encourages national school-based community broadband plans
Unfinished Symphony: What we don't know about the future of the Internet
What shape will the wireless Web take?
Study: US Fifteenth In Broadband Quality
Broadcast Bankruptcies: The Solution to the Spectrum Crunch?
Broadcasters Tackle Spectrum-Sharing Debate
Can Google Stay on Top of the Web?
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
OMB to issue transparency directive within a few weeks
Obama's Promise of Transparency
A More Web-Friendly Register
Arrest Puts Focus on Protesters' Texting
JOURNALISM
Strong Support For Watchdog Role, Despite Public Criticism Of News Media
Many Americans Remain Distrusting of News Media
Combined Newsrooms a Sign of the Times
Study Says Reporting on Economy Was Narrow
Red Stations, Blue Stations
OWNERSHIP
FCC Asks Court To Keep Stay on Newspaper-Broadcast Crossownership Rule Change
Analysts Say a Comcast/NBCU Deal Would Likely Pass Government Muster
Analysts: What A Comcast/NBC Deal Could Mean
Web TV could come with a price tag after Comcast-NBC
Schmidt: Google-Apple board member should stay put
BROADCASTING
Is It Time To Dump Compulsory License?
CBS Asks Court To Take Up Constitutionality Of Indecency Enforcement
HEALTH IT
FDA's Growing Role Regulating Health 2.0, Health IT
Advocates Question Whether Stimulus Package Will Help Safety-Net Clinics Adopt Health IT
Transforming healthcare through secondary use of health data
MORE ONLINE ...
Staff Changes at FCC
DHS official says cyber czar 'bad idea,' cyber coordinator 'great idea'
Terrorists nearing ability to launch big cyberattacks against US
Internet TV Could Boom in the Next Few Years
Stop worrying about access line loss
Lawmakers discourage online gambling rules
iUHBA's audacious 10G broadband plan
Lack of computer skills foils many job-seekers
Thumbs on the Wheel
What Do All These Phone Apps Do? Mostly Marketing
On the Internet, Everyone's a Critic But They're Not Very Critical
Recent Comments on:
Comcast Move Signal Fears About Internet Shift
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
BOEHNER AND CANTOR TO OBAMA: NETWORK NEUTRALITY REGULATIONS ARE HARMFUL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kim Hart]
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to direct the Federal Communications Commission against adopting Network Neutrality rules. They wrote that the FCC should instead focus its resources on developing the national broadband plan as mandated by Congress. Any regulations that would prohibit Internet service providers from managing their networks, they said, would discourage those companies from investing the billions of dollars needed to expand broadband access. "We believe that network neutrality regulations would actually thwart further broadband investment and availability, and that a well-reasoned broadband plan would confirm our view," the pair wrote in the letter. "So to hastily begin the process of adopting network neutrality rules months before issuing such a plan implies that politics are driving the FCC's decision-making process." Public Knowledge responded saying, "It is truly unfortunate that the House Republican leadership has put itself in the position of trying to slow down the greatest economic engine for job creativity and innovation ever created. Under the neutral, non-discriminatory Internet, thousands and thousands of new businesses were created and millions of dollars were invested."
benton.org/node/28468 | Hill, The | B&C | MediaPost | PublicKnowledge
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GOOGLE AND THE PROBLEM WITH 'NET NEUTRALITY'
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Bret Swanson]
[Commentary] Last week, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski outlined a more expansive and legally binding regime for Network Neutrality. He would not only codify existing nonblocking principles but would also add a highly controversial "nondiscrimination" rule. This regulation could expand bureaucratic oversight to every bit, switch and business plan on the Internet. US Internet traffic will continue to rise 50% annually through 2015. Cisco estimates wireless data traffic will rise 131% per year through 2013. Hundreds of billions of dollars in fiber optics, data centers, and fourth-generation mobile networks will be needed. But if network service providers can't design their own networks, offer creative services, or make fair business transactions with vendors, will they invest these massive sums to meet (and drive) demand? Some question the network companies' expensive and risky plans, asking if the customers will come. But one thing's for sure: If you don't build it, they can't come. If net neutrality applies neutrally to all players in the Web ecosystem, then it would regulate every component and entrepreneur in a vast and unknowable future. If neutrality applies selectively (oxymoron alert) to only one sliver of the network, then it is merely a political tool of one set of companies to cripple its competitors. At a time of continued national economic peril, the last thing we need is a new heavy hand weighing down our most promising high-growth sector. Better to maintain the existing open-Web principles and let the Internet evolve.
benton.org/node/28471 | Wall Street Journal
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NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
FCC SEEKS INPUT ON BROADBAND CLEARINGHOUSE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
Several parties have suggested that a broadband clearinghouse should be created for easy access to broadband best practices. A broadband clearinghouse could reduce information barriers for municipalities, agencies, businesses, and non-profits that want insights into more effectively utilizing broadband infrastructure, or into broadband deployment or adoption projects. Such a clearinghouse could also provide information and a forum for scholars and policymakers to gather and contribute data. So the Federal Communications Commission, as part of the National Broadband Plan, is asking for targeted comment on the notion of a broadband clearinghouse. 1) Should the federal government, through either the Federal Communications Commission, or through another governmental entity, initiate or create a national broadband clearinghouse of best practices? If the federal government should not create such a clearinghouse, should a non-governmental entity create one? 2) What audiences would benefit most from a clearinghouse? 3) How could a clearinghouse be of most use to its users generally? 4) Who should maintain this clearinghouse? Comments are due November 16.
benton.org/node/28467 | Federal Communications Commission
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EVOLVING A NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
[SOURCE: Google, AUTHOR: Rick Whitt]
The Federal Communications Commission's job of writing a National broadband Plan is made more challenging by various impediments: 1) Rapidly-changing markets and
technologies; 2) Economics of communications infrastructure. 3) Lack of timely, relevant, and objective broadband deployment and adoption data. 4) Shortage of time to develop and adopt a plan. Google proposes adopting a data-driven, iterative, evolving policy process. Under such a process, the Commission can accurately assess the market conditions, oversee implementation of tailored projects and programs, and evaluate their realworld impact on an on-going basis. This is in contrast to adopting a one-time blueprint that tries to account for all known and unknown variables, and prescribes definitive solutions.
benton.org/node/28466 | Google
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
THE INTERNET'S NEXT FRONTIER? NEWS FOR YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
When regulators, industry leaders, and intellectuals rave about the rapid expansion of digital life via websites and blogs, you can count on them using terms like "empowerment" and "citizen journalism." You can expect to hear about the virtues of huge social networks like Facebook or YouTube, especially from industry lobbyists who say these miracles obviate the need to regulate older media. What you'll hear less often is praise for all the local news and information such sites provide. That's because the Internet hasn't quite figured that part out yet, and the sources that were supposed to provide this sort of fare—newspapers and broadcasters—are treading water, at best. "Emerging media have become amazing forces for enabling people to connect," notes a new report on the problem. "But their full potential is not yet realized in the service of geographic communities, the physical places where people live and work." For all the glories of social media, people still don't have much access to constructive information about critical issues facing their square block. So concludes Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age, a study produced by the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Democracy.
benton.org/node/28465 | Ars Technica | AP | FCC
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See also: NPR to launch journalism project with $3 million grant
New America Foundation Announces Knight Media Policy Fellowships
ITU ENCOURAGES NATIONAL SCHOOL-BASED COMMUNITY BROADBAND PLANS
[SOURCE: International Telecommunications Union, AUTHOR: Press release]
The International Telecommunications Union is encouraging its Member States to adopt school-based community broadband plans to bring information and communications technology (ICT) access to disadvantaged and vulnerable groups. The ITU effort was endorsed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the ITU TELECOM WORLD Youth Forum, in the presence of ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré and the Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT), Sami Al Basheer. The initiative aims to facilitate public-private partnerships that will help Member States establish school-based ICT centres. While ICTs provide unprecedented opportunities to accelerate social and economic development, communities that currently lack access and know-how are being further marginalized. Many of these communities also face additional barriers to development beyond mere connectivity, which prevent them from participating fully in the Information Society. Capacity building through training in the use of information and communication technologies and application development is critical. At the same time, persons with disabilities require assistive technologies and accessible websites in order to gain access to the many benefits ICTs offer. But providing connectivity, special training, services and equipment for disadvantaged and vulnerable groups on an individual basis is often too expensive for many developing countries.
benton.org/node/28470 | International Telecommunications Union
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UNFINISHED SYMPHONY: WHAT WE DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, AUTHOR: Lee Raine]
This speech was given to the American stakeholders interested in the United Nations Internet Governance Forum. It explores four major areas of uncertainty whose resolution will shape the future of the Internet. The first involves the kind of Internet we have from the standpoint of the Internet's architecture and its adoption. The second involves what kind of information policies we have that is, the kind of rules we develop about information property such as copyright, patents, and trademarks and the marketplace norms that apply to property. The third involves the kind of policies and norms we develop about our online identities specifically, the policies and practices we construct about online privacy, anonymity, and surveillance. The fourth area of uncertainty is that we do not yet know the full impact of the Internet when it comes to economic, medical, social, and political outcomes. The social science community is just beginning to tackle issues related to the value of the Internet both good and bad in empirical terms.
benton.org/node/28459 | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project
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WHAT SHAPE WILL THE WIRELESS WEB TAKE?
[SOURCE: McKinsey Quarterly, AUTHOR: Jacques Bughin]
The future of the Web is up for grabs—again. It was only a few years ago that the Internet made the leap from dial-up to high-speed broadband connections. Today, another transformation looms as those wired connections give way to the possibility of a wireless Web. At the helm of this change is a fast-evolving wireless ecosystem that combines the greater speeds and higher data volumes of today's wireless networks (such 3G-HSPA and, soon, LTE1) with the growing numbers of smart phones boasting bigger screens, better touch pads, and more processing power.
benton.org/node/28458 | McKinsey Quarterly
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STUDY: US FIFTEENTH IN BROADBAND QUALITY
[SOURCE: DSLReports.com, AUTHOR: Karl Bode]
A new study by the University of Oxford in England and the University of Oviedo in Spain measured broadband speed and latency in some 66 countries and 240 cities. The report claims top ranking countries saw "increasing investments in fiber and cable network upgrades, coupled with competition diversity, and supported by strong government vision and policy." Given many markets lack two or three of those, the country's ranking is once again not particularly surprising. Sure, the United States is larger than many of these other countries, and providing broadband to rural customers is an obvious challenge. But the United States also fails to break the top twenty best cities for broadband, five of which are in Japan. You'd think there'd be at least one U.S. city able to bump either Vilnius, Lithuania or Kocise, Sweden out of the top twenty. On the positive side, the United States has made some "significant, above average improvements" in infrastructure, according to the researchers. It's an obvious assumption that much of this improvement is courtesy of Verizon and Comcast's investment in fiber to the home and DOCSIS 3.0, respectively.
benton.org/node/28457 | dslreports.com
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BROADCAST BANKRUPTCIES: THE SOLUTION TO THE SPECTRUM CRUNCH?
[SOURCE: TMCnet.com, AUTHOR: Tom Wheeler]
[Commentary] Do the serial bankruptcies of multiple television broadcasters hold the answer to the broadband spectrum shortage? With almost 100 television stations now in bankruptcy and giant Sinclair Broadcasting warning its 30 stations may be there soon, the banks and hedge funds that own the broadcasters' debt will soon be the proud license owners of beachfront spectrum. It's hard to imagine they'll be content to sit on that beach. What if...the new owners just sold the spectrum directly to a wireless carrier? Or perhaps ran their own auction? The beauty of digital television is that in most markets the major broadcast outlets can be squeezed into one or two license allocations. This would assure continued access for the 10 percent of homes without cable or satellite connections while making the newly vacated spectrum available for sale. What if...the new broadcast owners could themselves provide mobile services based on the new ATSC-M/H standard for delivering video to handheld devices? It is not hard to imagine "mobile Hulu (News - Alert)" or a subscription service for time-shifting current programs for a fee. But, of course, the broadcaster will need someone with a subscriber billing arrangement to realize on that opportunity. That brings us back to the mobile carriers. What if...the local broadcasters offered their excess spectrum on a "carrier's carrier" basis? They wouldn't have to worry about subscriber relationships, just lease access to their capacity to wireless carriers the same way they lease access to their towers for wireless antennas. What if...a consortium of banks and hedge funds decided to pool their assets to create a nationwide footprint for any of the above options? Delivering national coverage of major population centers would mean the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The valuation multiple of such a footprint would justify the major effort this would require.
benton.org/node/28456 | TMCnet.com
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BROADCASTERS TACKLE SPECTRUM-SHARING DEBATE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
There has been much debate of late over sharing TV spectrum with laptops and other mobile wireless devices. Broadcasters have heard a lot of talk from companies such as Dell and Google about the fallow spectrum being protected in the TV band. But the national broadband plan, due to Congress on Feb. 17, 2010, has created numerous new opportunities for those companies and other parties -- including the Federal Communications Commission and Congress -- to take aim at broadcast spectrum and to raise questions about how efficiently it is being used. One of the latest red flags involving the issue came two weeks ago, with the commission's decision to seek specific comment, as part of the broadband plan, on how spectrum could be put to better use, including whether efficient use of spectrum should be part of the FCC's public-interest test for spectrum holders. Then there was the request last week by CTIA-The Wireless Association (which includes AT&T, Verizon and Sprint/Nextel) that the FCC needed to find and reallocate another 800 MHz of spectrum given the coming demands of wireless broadband. Those demands have been a constant drumbeat at the FCC as it works feverishly on the February plan. Wireless broadband needs more spectrum to produce the higher speeds the FCC suggests will be required to deliver applications.
benton.org/node/28455 | Broadcasting&Cable
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CAN GOOGLE STAY ON TOP OF THE WEB?
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Robert Hof]
As Bing, Facebook, Twitter, and less well-known upstarts nip at its heels, Google has hundreds of wizards racing to come up with smarter answers. As the Web evolves, there's no guarantee that search, or Google, will remain at its center. Not so long ago, portals such as AOL and Yahoo dominated the Internet as most people's first stop online. They lost ground as search improved and helped guide people quickly to sites they were looking for. Now Twitter and others are becoming significant drivers of people's attention to Web sites—Google's raison d'être.
benton.org/node/28450 | BusinessWeek
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
OMB TO ISSUE TRANSPARENCY DIRECTIVE WITHIN A FEW WEEKS
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Aliya Sternstein]
The Obama administration is poised to issue a long-awaited open government directive as soon as two weeks from now that strikes a balance between new information technology and new policies, White House officials said. The Obama administration is poised to issue a long-awaited open government directive as soon as two weeks from now that strikes a balance between new information technology and new policies, White House officials said. One of the president's first official acts on Jan. 21 was to issue a memo directing the person in the new position of federal chief technology officer to recommend within 120 days steps agencies should take to foster collaboration, participation and transparency in government. But the recommendations did not arrive on May 21, because CTO Aneesh Chopra was not confirmed until that day. Office of Management and Budget spokesman Tom Gavin said on Thursday that Chopra has made his recommendations. "We are close," he added. "In the next few weeks at most. In the next couple weeks, at best," assuring that the document would be out by the end of October. OMB Director Peter R. Orszag will issue the formal guidance. "It will echo many of the recommendations made by the public," Gavin said.
benton.org/node/28438 | nextgov
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OBAMA'S PROMISE OF TRANSPARENCY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Hopes for an effective law that would protect the public's access to essential news from inside government have been dealt a severe setback by the Obama administration. As a senator, President Obama co-sponsored a robust proposal to protect journalists and their sources who rely on confidentiality to reveal abuses, scandals and other inner workings of government agencies. But, White House officials are now proposing deep revisions to a Senate Judiciary Committee bill that weaken protections against forcing reporters to reveal their sources. At the heart of the disagreement is the balance between national security and the public's right to know.
benton.org/node/28477 | New York Times | Los Angeles Times
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A MORE WEB-FRIENDLY REGISTER
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ed O'Keefe]
Lawyers, lobbyists, librarians and concerned citizens, rejoice: As of Monday, it is much easier to access the Federal Register. The de facto daily newspaper of the executive branch publishes approximately 80,000 pages of documents each year, including presidential disaster declarations, Medicare reimbursement rates, and thousands of agency rulings on policies ranging from banking to fishing to food. It's a must-read for anyone with business before the federal government or concerned about inside-the-Beltway decisions, including academics, good-government advocates and Register junkies (yes, they do exist). Starting Monday, issues dating back to 2000 will be available at Data.gov in a form known in the Web world as XML, which allows users to transport data from a Web site and store it, reorganize it or customize it elsewhere. Officials suggested that the move puts readers, rather than the government, in charge of deciding how to access the Register's reams of information.
benton.org/node/28476 | Washington Post
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ARREST PUTS FOCUS ON PROTESTERS' TEXTING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Colin Moynihan]
As demonstrations have evolved with the help of text messages and online social networks, so too has the response of law enforcement. On Thursday, FBI agents descended on a house in Jackson Heights, Queens, and spent 16 hours searching it. The most likely reason for the raid: a man who lived there had helped coordinate communications among protesters at the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh. A criminal complaint in Pennsylvania accuses him of "directing others, specifically protesters of the G-20 summit, in order to avoid apprehension after a lawful order to disperse."
benton.org/node/28475 | New York Times
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JOURNALISM
STRONG SUPPORT FOR WATCHDOG ROLE, DESPITE PUBLIC CRITICISM OF NEWS MEDIA
[SOURCE: Pew Research center for the People & the Press, AUTHOR: ]
The press is coming under considerable fire these days. News organizations are facing a crippling financial crisis and public views of the accuracy of news stories have fallen to their lowest level in more than two decades, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. Nonetheless, most Americans continue to support the so-called "watchdog role" for the press. In fact, the percentage of Americans saying that press criticism of political leaders keeps them "from doing things that should not be done" is nearly as high now -- at 62% -- as it was in Pew Research's first poll in 1985 (67%) when views of the news media were far less negative than they are today. In 15 surveys since that initial poll, majorities have said that press criticism of political leaders keeps them from doing things that should not be done. Support for the press's watchdog role has continued even as positive views of press performance have plummeted. In Pew Research's most recent survey of press attitudes, released Sept. 13, just 29% said that news organizations get the facts straight; in 1985, nearly double that percentage (55%) said news stories were accurate.
benton.org/node/28435 | Pew Research Center for the People & the Press | Editor&Publisher
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MANY AMERICANS REMAIN DISTRUSTING OF NEWS MEDIA
[SOURCE: Gallup, AUTHOR: Lymari Morales]
Less than half of Americans (45%) say they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in the media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly -- on par with last year's record-low 43%. About 2 in 10 Americans (18%) have no confidence in the media at all -- which is also among the worst grades Gallup has recorded. Americans' views about bias in the news are also fairly steady over the past few years. Currently, 45% say the media are too liberal, while 15% say too conservative and 35% say they are just about right. None of these percentages have budged more than three or four points since 2005.
benton.org/node/28434 | Gallup
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COMBINED NEWSROOMS A SIGN OF TIMES
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Hillary Atkin]
It's a sign of the constantly shifting media landscape — television and print newsrooms in several major markets are being combined, led by Tribune Co., with merger operations either under way or scheduled soon in Los Angeles; Chicago; Hartford, Conn.; and Miami/Fort Lauderdale. It's the beginning of a new business model. Even as some stations across the country are shuttering their news departments entirely, many others are adding even more news. The average network television affiliate has on about 4.5 hours of news a day, even as station revenue is down 20 percent to 30 percent this year due to the severe reduction of advertising dollars. At the same time, even with staff cutbacks, stations are beefing up their Web sites to become 24/7 sources of news. Something's got to give, and for Tribune, which owns highly respected papers like the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, as well as local stations KTLA-TV and WGN-TV in those markets, the answer is fusing its newsrooms.
benton.org/node/28442 | TVWeek
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STUDY SAYS REPORTING ON ECONOMY WAS NARROW
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Richard Perez-Pena]
A study to be released today of financial news coverage this year found that government, Wall Street and a small handful of story lines got the bulk of the attention while much less was paid to the economic troubles of ordinary people. The study, by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, also found that when the stock market rebounded from its lows and pitched battles in Washington ended, the news media turned their attention away from economic coverage. Reviewing almost 10,000 reports from Feb. 1 to Aug. 31 in newspapers, on news Web sites, on the radio and on network broadcast and cable television, Pew found that almost 40 percent of economic news reports dealt with the trials of the banking and auto industries, and the federal stimulus bill passed in February. Unemployment and the housing crisis accounted for 12 percent. And, the study said, "stories that tried to explicitly examine the broader impact of the economic downturn on the lives of ordinary Americans filled 5 percent of the economic coverage." Three-quarters of the reports originated from Washington or New York, and a similar number were based on the actions of government and business leaders.
benton.org/node/28472 | New York Times
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RED STATIONS, BLUE STATIONS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Michael Malone]
With the traditional TV newscast model knocked on its rear, and a generation who grew up amidst the cacophony of cable news and talk radio coming of news-viewing age, many station executives around the country see merit in exploring whether the provocative nature of those media might work on their air. Some see a sobering lesson in Fox News Channel and MSNBC surging on the backs of primetime partisan pundits while CNN continues to play it down the middle—and lose ground on the competition. Granted, cable news and local television news are vastly different animals, and stations don't have much airtime to let commentators bloviate. A station's take on a national issue such as health-care reform is typically centered on the regional angle, with lawmakers representing the area offering local perspective. Moreover, broadcast television is regulated by the FCC, while cable is not. Several general managers expressed concern about running afoul of the FCC by offering commentary that shades red or blue, though an FCC spokesperson suggests stations have a wide berth, stating that the FCC cannot require that a station's political speech be balanced.
benton.org/node/28440 | Broadcasting&Cable
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OWNERSHIP
FCC ASKS COURT TO KEEP STAY ON NEWSPAPER-BROADCAST CROSSOWNERSHIP RULE CHANGE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Communications Commission has asked the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to keep the court's current stay of the FCC's newspaper-broadcast crossownership rule change in place for a while. In a status report filed with the court, the commission reaffirmed that its 2008 decision to loosen the ban no longer necessarily reflected the views of a majority of the commission (the 2008 was a Republican majority, the current majority is Democratic). The commission back in May, when it was a different, though still Democratic majority, had made that point to the court in asking that the stay be kept in place. The court complied, but asked for an Oct. 1 status report on the FCC's progress on the issue.
benton.org/node/28451 | Broadcasting&Cable
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ANALYSTS SAY A COMCAST/NBCU DEAL WOULD LIKELY PASS GOVERNMENT MUSTER
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Analysts at investment firm Stifel Nicolaus say they would expect a Comcast/General Electric jointly owned NBC Universal, if it is done, to pass government muster in Washington, though only after close scrutiny by the Department of Justice and perhaps the Federal Trade Commission. In an advisory, company telecom and media analysts David Kaut and Rebecca Arbogast said they thought Justice would be "more open to theories of vertical integration harm" than under the former administration, but that "it will continue to be difficult to establish that vertical deals are sufficiently anticompetitive to support blocking a merger." Kaut and Arbogast said the approval would likely come with conditions addressing increased concentration in video programming and cable distribution. They pointed to the DirecTV/News Corp. deal and its conditions of baseball-style arbitration for disputes over regional sport nets, collective bargaining for small cable operators and program access guarantees as likely precedent for those conditions. They also pointed to the rise of AT&T and Verizon as video competitors, who would likely push hard for conditions, as well as online video interests like Hulu, in which NBCU has a stake, as factors that would complicate the analysis. "However, in the end, we believe the deal is likely to be approved," they said. One veteran communications attorney agreed the deal would likely go through and gave it a "flashing green light."
benton.org/node/28462 | Broadcasting&Cable
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ANALYSTS: WHAT A COMCAST/NBC DEAL COULD MEAN
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Wayne Friedman, David Goetzl]
Bucking current media industry trends, big cable operator Comcast wants to become a more vertical media company -- by buying NBC Universal's high-profile programming/content -- to avoid being just a "dumb" pipe, according to Richard Greenfield, co-head of Pali Research for media and cable systems equities. He says that Comcast "wants to have a seat at both ends of the negotiating table." He says this is especially true considering the threat of anyone with a HD video camera creating content and distributing it globally on the Internet for free. The result of the big media deal would significantly change many existing businesses between the two companies -- especially new digital efforts. For example, while Comcast has pushed its video on-demand service for years, Greenfield says VOD is no match for Hulu.com and other content that is more easily delivered through Net protocols. The downside: Greenfield believes Comcast will take content off Hulu and put it on Fancast.com, part of its "TV Everywhere" effort. In essence, the free site would be transformed into a pay-site for non-Comcast video consumers. The upside: big-time benefits will exist for Comcast's own media channel assets: networks such as E!, Versus, G4, Golf Channel, Style, etc. NBC big marketing machine, as well its cable networks (USA Network, Bravo, Syfy, Oxygen), will only improve the financial performance of Comcast's cable networks. Greenfield beliefs the deal is just the beginning. He predicts that General Electric will continue to sell off more of NBC Universal, and Comcast will be the buyer. Which won't be good news for Comcast shareholders.
benton.org/node/28461 | MediaPost
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WEB TV COULD COME WITH A PRICE TAG AFTER COMCAST-NBC
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Yinka Adegoke]
Free TV shows on the Internet could be harder to find if Comcast Corp succeeds in acquiring a majority stake in NBC Universal. Comcast would become a partner in Hulu, the video website which allows viewers to watch TV shows on the Web for free, a business potentially worth billions of dollars if consumers had to pay to watch the shows. The video website is jointly owned by NBC Universal, News Corp and Walt Disney Co. Hulu is the most popular site in the United States for watching TV shows, according to comScore. If Comcast has a stake in Hulu's future, as Mitchell suggests, it effectively reduces competition to the cable sector. Since web video is still a fledgling sector, however, it is unlikely to raise the hackles of US regulators, said analysts. Indeed, the Federal Communications Commission is likely to focus on other concerns if General Electric, which controls NBC Universal, decides to sell a 51 percent stake to Comcast, as sources have said the two sides are talking about. Namely, the FCC may be concerned about combining NBC Universal's national broadcast network, NBC, and its huge range of cable networks, like Bravo and USA, with the largest cable operator in the country.
benton.org/node/28460 | Reuters
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SCHMIDT: GOOGLE-APPLE BOARD MEMBER SHOULD STAY PUT
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: John Poirier]
Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said former Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson should stay on the boards of both Google and Apple Inc, despite regulatory scrutiny.
Schmidt said on Friday that Google and Apple easily passed an antitrust test for overlapping board members relating to revenue overlap. "Google and Apple are well below" that percentage, Schmidt said.
benton.org/node/28444 | Reuters
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BROADCASTING
IS IT TIME TO DUMP COMPULSORY LICENSE?
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
[Commentary] Through retransmission consent fees, broadcast TV stations get twenty-five to fifty cents per cable subscriber per month. That fee needs to rise to $3 per subscriber. How's that gonna happen? One way would be for networks to negotiate on behalf of all its affiliates. Another option is far more radical and riskier. But maybe radical and risky is the way broadcasters should be thinking these days. This approach involves undermining the compulsory copyright license, which permits cable and satellite operators to carry local TV stations with their patchwork of local, syndicated and network programming without having to pay royalties to the stations or any of the other copyright owners. The license goes back to 1976. Congress concluded that cable carriage of TV stations was a good idea, but that it would be near impossible for the many tiny cable systems in the then unconsolidated industry to negotiate copyright deals with each and every TV station. So it created a blanket copyright license that cable systems could use to carry local TV signals for free. They would have to pay modest royalties set by the government to import distant signals, however. The license is compulsory in the sense that copyright holders really have no say in the matter. They are forced to license their programming cable systems. Disney and NBCU have been pushing the idea of overturning the license in Washington. As major copyright and station owners, they think it makes sense for themselves and, as operators of broadcast networks, they think it makes sense for their affiliates and broadcasting as a whole. Their plan would allow TV stations to stick with the current compulsory license/must carry/retransmission consent regime. Or, they could opt for a free-market approach, under which cable and satellite could no longer hide from copyright payments under the compulsory license. Stations would aggregate licensing rights from the networks, syndicators and other copyright holders whose programming fill their schedules and then turn around and license those same rights to the cable and satellite operators for big, fat payments. Or at least that's the hope.
benton.org/node/28443 | TVNewsCheck
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CBS ASKS COURT TO TAKE UP CONSTITUTIONALITY OF INDECENCY ENFORCEMENT
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
CBS is asking the Third Circuit Court of Appeals "to assess the constitutionality of the indecency rules given current realities and find that most applications can no longer survive First Amendment scrutiny." At issue, again, is the 2004 Super Bowl incident during which Janet Jackson's breast was exposed for nine-sixteenths of one second. The Supreme Court has asked the Third Circuit to rethink its decision that the FCC's fine of CBS stations was arbitrary and capricious. That came after the High Court ruled that the FCC had justified citing Fox stations for fleeting profanity. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals had also found the defense of that policy "arbitrary and capricious."
benton.org/node/28454 | Broadcasting&Cable
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HEALTH IT
FDA's Growing Role Regulating Health 2.0, Health IT
Advocates Question Whether Stimulus Package Will Help Safety-Net Clinics Adopt Health IT
Transforming healthcare through secondary use of health data
FDA'S GROWING ROLE REGULATING HEALTH 2.0, HEALTH IT
[SOURCE: iHealthBeat, AUTHOR: Bruce Merlin Fried]
[Commentary] The Food and Drug Administration likely will play an increasingly important role in regulating health information technology. A hearing, "Promotion of FDA-Regulated Medical Products Using the Internet and Social Media Tools," set for mid-November is intended to help guide FDA in making policy decisions on how the Internet and social media tools (e.g., blogs, microblogs, podcasts, social networking sites, online communications, video sharing, widgets, and wikis) can be used to promote FDA-regulated medical products -- including human and animal drugs and biologics, and medical devices -- in a truthful, non-misleading, and balanced manner. Specific questions that will be addressed at the meeting include: For what online communications will manufacturers, packers or distributors be held accountable? How can manufacturers, packers and distributors fulfill regulatory requirements (e.g., fair balance) in their Internet and social network promotions? What parameters should apply to the posting of corrective information on Web sites controlled by third parties? When is the use of links appropriate? In addition, FDA is seeking public comment on Internet adverse event reporting.
benton.org/node/28447 | iHealthBeat
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ADVOCATES QUESTION WHETHER STIMULUS PACKAGE WILL HELP SAFETY-NET CLINICS ADOPT HEALTH IT
[SOURCE: iHealthBeat, AUTHOR: Kelly Wilkinson]
Officials at community clinics and other safety-net facilities are questioning whether they will be able to take advantage of the health IT funds in the federal economic stimulus package. Although the stimulus package provides incentive payments for health care organizations that demonstrate "meaningful use" of electronic health records, some experts say it will be difficult for community clinics to generate the initial capital to purchase such systems.
benton.org/node/28446 | iHealthBeat
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TRANSFORMING HEALTHCARE THROUGH SECONDARY USE OF HEALTH DATA
[SOURCE: PriceWaterhouseCoopers, AUTHOR: ]
Hundreds of billions of gigabytes of health information are now being collected. As more organizations implement health IT, more data will be produced and the potential for secondary use of data will grow. The data that could be mined from the US health system can be re-used to improve patient care, predict public health trends, reduce healthcare costs, and get drugs to market faster and safer. This report offers specific recommendations for providers, payers, and pharmaceutical companies to consider in leveraging electronic health data.
benton.org/node/28445 | PriceWaterhouseCoopers
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