December 2010

Bid To Revive Community Radio Stalls In Senate

For the past decade, a coalition of advocacy groups has been asking Congress to let hundreds of new community radio stations go on the air. Supporters of the idea — from the Christian Coalition and Sen. John McCain, to Move On and Sen. Maria Cantwell — say the new stations would do wonders for communities from coast to coast. But the bill to expand community radio is currently stalled in the Senate, the victim of anonymous holds by two or more senators, and supporters worry that even with bipartisan support, the bill may once again die without an up-or-down vote.

Telecom Scandal Plunges India Into Political Crisis

Tycoons with friends in high places. Public tenders conducted by irregular rules. Tens of billions of dollars in potential losses for the national treasury. Allegations of government ministers on the take, and of a respected prime minister too aloof to notice. Those are some of the ingredients of a telecommunications scandal that is growing into India’s equivalent of Teapot Dome.

It has produced almost daily revelations about bribery, abuse of power, and privatization of public wealth that paralyzed Parliament for more than three weeks before its winter session ended Monday and have plunged the governing Congress Party into its worst political crisis in years. The issue is how a minister allied with the party sold cellphone operators the airwaves to provide their service in 2008. But the amounts involved, and subsequent revelations of how some of India’s richest men sought to exercise influence over political appointments and regulatory decisions, have surprised a nation seemingly inured to reports of corruption in politics. An independent auditor estimated that the government may have left almost $40 billion on the table by selling the rights too cheaply. The political fallout seems to grow each day.

Why Genachowski's network neutrality proposal is best

[Commentary] The bottom line is that the network neutrality order up for vote would be a consumer win, as it:

Protects an open Internet and prevents against discrimination of content.
Enables reasonable network management to protect consumers against privacy and cybersecurity concerns, as well as support the business of providing and consuming if more robust online experiences, in terms of performance and capacity demands.
Supports continued innovation and investment in communications technologies, facilitating broadband access improvements and network upgrades, as well as adding related American jobs.

We must look past the smoke and mirrors of the doomsday hypothetical's being thrown around by extreme proponents of reclassification of the Internet. The "what if" and "imagine this" scenarios are doing nothing but harming a best resolution of this complex issue, which lies in compromise.

[Jorge Bauermeister is a former commissioner of the Puerto Rico Telecommunications Regulatory Board and a former member of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners' (NARUC) Telecommunications.]

Key network neutrality advocates oppose Genachowski's plan

A who's-who of the most influential network neutrality advocates has decided to oppose Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski's plan for regulating Internet lines, which he announced earlier this month.

The groups declared their opposition to the proposal in a meeting with Democratic FCC Commissioner Michael Copps and his staff on Dec 9. The groups released the ex parte document describing the meeting on Dec 13. "At the outset of the meeting, the participants expressed their unanimous unwillingness to support the proposed open-Internet framework in its present form as they understand it," according to the ex parte document.

The participants included Jeffrey Blum, Dish Network; Parul Desai, Consumers Union; Michael Drobac, Netflix; Harold Feld, Public Knowledge; Michael Forscey, Writers Guild West; Joel Kelsey, Free Press; Sascha Meinrath, New America Foundation; Emmett O’Keefe, Amazon.com; Staci Pies, Skype; Andrew Jay Schwartzman, Media Access Project; Gigi Sohn, Public Knowledge; Aparna Sridhar, Free Press.

Groups say FCC proposal not real network neutrality

Public interest groups, businesses and civil rights groups signed a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, saying network neutrality rules should ban paid prioritization of online content. They also said the framework FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski laid out last week gave wireless carriers too much freedom to police Internet traffic.

"This is a make-or-break issue, and the signatories on this letter are unequivocal in their demand that fatal flaws with Chairman Genachowski's draft proposal be fixed immediately," Sascha Meinrath, director of New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative, said. The groups identified what they consider to be shortfalls in the proposal that could allow Internet providers to "harm consumers, stifle innovation and threaten to carve up the Internet in irreversible ways." Among the areas needing improvement was the flexibility granted to wireless carriers.

Upton: No network neutrality rules for NBC-Comcast

Incoming House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) wrote to the Federal Communications Commission on Dec 10 urging the agency not to impose network neutrality conditions on Comcast as part of the proposed acquisition of NBC Universal.

Rep Upton said the only thing the FCC should be reviewing is whether or not the new entity would be able to unfairly influence the markets for video content creation and distribution to the detriment of consumers. He warned against using the merger as an excuse to impose network neutrality or achieve other political goals. "I will be troubled if it appears that the Commission is using this transaction to accomplish broader, partisan objectives that it does not have the policy support to impose industry-wide, that it might not have the authority to pursue were it not presented with a license transaction, and that the parties cannot object to without risking their propose endeavor," Rep Upton said. He also exhorted the FCC not to let third parties or groups hijack the review process to push their agendas.

Comcast, the biggest cable company, looks to get bigger

Comcast is by far the biggest pay-TV provider in the San Francisco Bay Area. It controls TV rights to Giants, A's, Sharks and Warriors games. Many of its customers also sign up for high-speed Internet service. And the company, if it has its way, is about to get a whole lot bigger.

In a deal valued at $30 billion that was announced a year ago but has received scant attention outside the nation's capital, Comcast is attempting to buy a majority share of NBC Universal. The merger would give the nation's largest cable company control of a vast array of programming, in addition to the pipes that deliver it. And that powerful combination is prompting warnings that the company could use its newfound leverage to muscle out competitors like DirecTV and Dish Network, stifle the nascent market for TV over the Web and, over time, raise prices for subscribers with near impunity. Federal regulators appear to be taking those issues seriously. While the deal is expected to win approval by the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission within weeks or months, regulators are weighing a range of options to prevent Comcast from abusing its expanded market power.

Viacom Raises Red Flags On Comcast/NBCU

Viacom expressed concerns that the proposed merger of Comcast with NBC Universal would impact independent programming during meetings with Federal Communications Commission members Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn.

Viacom representatives said they were concerned about the impact the merger would have on independent programming, saying the new company would have "increased incentive and ability to impede competition in the markets for linear and over-the-top video programming by favoring its own content to the detriment of independent programmers." Those are the same concerns raised by some Members of Congress in calling on the FCC to put access conditions, including online access, on the joint venture.

Senators press China on piracy, counterfeiting

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) are urging China to step up efforts to protect American movies, software and other goods from illegal copying.

The senators timed the release of a new US International Trade Commission report on piracy and counterfeiting in China to coincide with high-level U.S.-China talks taking place in Washington (DC). The report is the first of two the ITC is doing for the Senate Finance Committee. In the second one, due in May, the ITC will try for the first time to estimate the damage done to the U.S. economy by Chinese piracy and counterfeiting.

Time Warner-Fox Deal Changes Retransmission

Retransmission consent negotiations may never be the same.

A deal struck last January between Time Warner Cable and News Corp. included a precedent-setting condition to allow TWC to carry Fox's network programming if retransmission negotiations with Fox affiliates break down. Many TV execs likened Fox's move to throwing its non-owned Fox affiliates under the bus.

Just how much leverage Fox affiliates could lose in retransmission negotiations is getting tested right now as Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest Fox affiliate group with 20 Fox affiliates, and TWC try and hammer out a deal before the current one expires at the end of the year. In the case of Sinclair, negotiations will center on the value of the local news or syndicated line up. Sinclair is betting that only two hours of network programming a day will give it enough negotiating clout, according to a report in the Columbus Dispatch. Fox's position is that it is helping its affiliates, not hindering negotiations. "We are in their corner," said Scott Grogin, svp of communications for Fox. "The goal is to protect our viewers from service interruptions, allowing Sinclair to get local [advertising] dollars while they negotiate without deadline pressure." If the deadline passes without a deal, TWC will pay Fox a fee for network programming. If more TV networks bypass affiliates and do retransmission deals directly with pay-TV providers, it could add up to a tough situation for TV groups looking to retransmission fees as a viable second revenue stream.

Benton

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