June 20, 2011 (Captioning Suits)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, JUNE 20, 2011
Games for Change and Will the Last Reporter Please Turn Out the Lights kick-off this week's agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2011-06-19--P1W/
ACCESSIBILITY
Suit demands CNN offer online captions for deaf
National Association of the Deaf Files Complaint against Netflix for Lack of Online TV and Movie Captioning
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Internet Body Approves Freer Domain Names
Internet braces for new addresses beyond ‘.com,’ including ‘.bank,’ ‘.eco’ and ‘.Canon.’
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
GLAAD chief resigns, but AT&T fallout continues
LightSquared Reaches 15-Year Sprint Deal That May Be Valued at $20 Billion
Could MetroPCS take over T-Mobile's slot in the Tier I carrier ranks? - analysis [links to web]
Broadband for First Responders - analysis
OWNERSHIP
Skype Said to Fire Executives, Avoiding Payouts After Microsoft Takeover
Google’s $400 Million Admeld Deal to Get Justice Probe as FTC Reviews
FTC Approves Skype Acquisition By Microsoft: Now For The Hard Part
JOURNALISM
Bold Analysis, Weak Solution - analysis
The Ultimate Man-Bites-Dog News Story - editorial
Ugly Details in Selling Newspapers
CONTENT
For Google, the search never ends
May 2011 US Online Video Rankings - research [links to web]
Average U.S. Smartphone Data Usage Up 89% as Cost per MB Goes Down 46%
Why social media isn't - editorial [links to web]
CABLE
Big Cable's Powell: Comcast/NBCU Merger Net Positive for Industry [links to web]
Comcast to Use NBC Cash to Buy More of Unit, Not Major Deals [links to web]
Cable Operators Fight Online Competition by Mimicking Web Interface [links to web]
FCC Denies WealthTV Complaint [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Lawmakers say House must move more quickly to embrace new technology [links to web]
POLICYMAKERS
Staff Changes at the FCC - press release
STORIES FROM ABROAD
EU body aims to settle web piracy disputes [links to web]
Google to digitize British Library collection [links to web]
BBC sets the stage for bigger Hollywood role [links to web]
MORE ONLINE
FTC Approves Final Order Settling Charges that Company Deceptively Tracked Consumers’ Online Activities - press release [links to web]
ACCESSIBILITY
CNN CAPTIONING
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Bob Egelko]
As increasing numbers of Americans get their news online, the owner of CNN.com was accused in an Alameda County lawsuit of discriminating against the hard-of-hearing by failing to provide closed captions for videos posted on the Internet. CNN's refusal to offer computer users the captions it provides to its television audience "excludes Californians who are deaf or hard of hearing from a wealth of critical information regarding current events," said the suit, a proposed class action in Superior Court on behalf of the state's hearing-impaired residents. More than 100,000 Californians are functionally deaf, lawyers said. They said the suit is the first in the nation to seek equal treatment for the deaf from a commercial content provider on the Internet. The refusal of Time Warner, CNN's owner, to offer closed captions is "astounding, given how central the Internet is in today's communication environment," said attorney Anna Levine of Disability Rights Advocates.
benton.org/node/78327 | San Francisco Chronicle
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NAD COMPLAINT AGAINST NETFLIX
[SOURCE: Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology, AUTHOR: ]
The National Association of the Deaf filed a lawsuit against Netflix alleging Netflix violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by not providing equal access to its “Watch Instantly” Streaming Content. This major federal lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, Western Division in Springfield, MA (Case No. 3:11-cv-30168). The lawsuit charges the entertainment giant with failing to provide closed captioning for most of its “Watch Instantly” movies and television streamed on the Internet. As a major player in the online-only video subscription business, Netflix has over 60% of the streamed video services market share. NAD is asking the court to declare that Netflix’s behavior constitutes a violation of Title III of the ADA, and to require that Netflix provide closed captions on all of its streaming content.
benton.org/node/78325 | Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
ICANN APPROVES DOMAIN NAME CHANGES
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Pavel Alpeyev, Ketaki Gokhale]
Websites will no longer need to use suffixes such as “.com” and “.org,” according to the group that manages Internet addresses. Requests for the domains, which can include the names of companies or generic domains like “.shop” or “.music,” will be accepted from Jan. 12 to April 12, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers said in a statement on its website. Users will be able to register domains in any language, it said. The move would pave the way for domain names to expand beyond the 22 existing top-level ones and may help prevent so- called cybersquatting, the practice of registering domain names and then selling them to trademark owners at a profit. “Today’s decision will usher in a new Internet age,” Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of ICANN’s Board of Directors, the statement said. “We have provided a platform for the next generation of creativity and inspiration.” Applications will cost $185,000, and the first of these “top level domain names” won't go live until the end of 2012, Adrian Kinderis, a member of ICANN’s advisory council, said.
benton.org/node/78369 | Bloomberg | LATimes | NYTimes
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ICANN MEETING
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: ]
Coming soon to the Internet: website addresses that end in “.bank,” ‘’.Vegas” and “.Canon.” The organization that oversees the Internet address system is preparing to open the floodgates to a nearly limitless selection of new website suffixes, including ones in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts. That could usher in the most sweeping transformation of the Domain Name System since its creation in the 1980s. More than 300 suffixes are available today, the bulk of them country-code domains, such as “.uk” for the United Kingdom and “.de” for Germany. Hundreds or even thousands more suffixes could be created, categorized by everything from industry to geography to ethnicity. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will meet June 20 in Singapore to vote on its expansion plan for domain names. If ICANN approves the plan as expected, new domains could start appearing late next year.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration sent ICANN a letter on June 16, sharing Administration concerns about preserving competition in the DNS marketplace.
benton.org/node/78345 | Washington Post | NTIA letter to ICANN
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
GLADD'S AT&T FALLOUT
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
Following the resignation of Jarrett Barrios as president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation on June 18, gay activists are calling for reassessment of the group’s policies and for more heads to roll over its backing of AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile. GLAAD’s board of directors will discuss by telephone whether to formally accept Barrios’s resignation. Influential members of the gay community say they believe Barrios’s resignation is a positive for GLAAD, but that the organization may need to further clean house and revisit its advocacy for causes unrelated to gay rights. “GLAAD certainly has an AT&T problem that isn't going to go away when Jarrett leaves,” John Aravosis, editor of AMERICAblog and a leading gay rights advocate. Aravosis called for the resignation of another GLAAD board member, Troup Coronado, a former AT&T official and lobbyist. Coronado’s bio on GLAAD’s website said that from 2008 to 2010 Coronado worked as AT&T’s vice president for external affairs in Los Angeles. AT&T had identified Coronado as a lobbyist for the company as recently as 2006, but the company said in its 2008 filing that he was no longer representing AT&T as a lobbyist. Coronado is “going to have to pack his bags and get on the same train Jarrett is taking,” Aravosis said.
benton.org/node/78367 | Politico
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LIGHTSQUARED-SPRINT DEAL
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Greg Bensinger]
Billionaire Philip Falcone’s LightSquared reached a 15-year deal with Sprint Nextel to share network expansion costs and equipment, and to provide high-speed wireless service to the phone company. “LightSquared and Sprint will jointly develop, deploy and operate LightSquared’s 4G LTE network,” according to a letter from Falcone to Harbinger Capital Partners hedge fund investors. “Sprint will become a significant customer of LightSquared’s 4G LTE network.” The deal is an important step forward for Falcone, whose effort to challenge Verizon Wireless and AT&T was met with skepticism after plans for LightSquared emerged in government filings about 15 months ago. Falcone is gambling more than 60 percent of his hedge fund on LightSquared. For Sprint, the deal would provide a new source of revenue as the third-largest U.S. wireless company struggles to compete with bigger rivals Verizon and AT&T. Sprint has pledged $5 billion to upgrade its network over the next three to five years. The company can use LightSquared’s network to lessen the load on its own network as data demand has skyrocketed, an issue that has plagued other carriers.
benton.org/node/78339 | Bloomberg | GigaOm
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BROADBAND FOR FIRST RESPONDERS
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
As one of its six overarching goals, the National Broadband Plan lists Goal #5: Every first responder should have access to a nationwide, wireless, interoperable broadband public safety network. The plan notes the conclusion of the 9/11 Commission that "“Compatible and adequate communications among public safety organizations at the local, state, and federal levels remains an important problem." As we near the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington (DC), there's a renewed push this year to create a nationwide, wireless, interoperable broadband public safety network.
http://benton.org/node/78207
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OWNERSHIP
SKYPE FIRINGS
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Joseph Galante]
Skype Technologies SA, the Internet-calling service being bought by Microsoft, is firing senior executives before the deal closes, a move that reduces the value of their payout. Vice Presidents David Gurle, Christopher Dean, Russ Shaw and Don Albert were dismissed from the Luxembourg-based company. Chief Marketing Officer Doug Bewsher and Anne Gillespie, head of human resources, were also fired. Executives Ramu Sunkara and Allyson Campa, from the 2011 Qik purchase, were also let go. The timing of the dismissals means stock options will be worth less than if the executives stayed until the closing of the $8.5 billion deal, the people said. When a company gets bought, compensation is often tied to the purchase price, said Neil Sims, a managing director at Boyden, a search firm. “All is good if you’re staying with that transition team or you’re packaged out,” said Sims, who is based in San Francisco. “But if you’re eliminated unceremoniously, without a package and without some negotiation, you could certainly lose unvested options.”
benton.org/node/78370 | Bloomberg
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JUSTICE TO REVIEW GOOGLE-ADMELD DEAL
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Sara Forden]
Apparently, Google's planned purchase of Admeld, an Internet advertising company, will be subject to a probe by the Justice Department for its potential to hurt competition. The review of the deal by the Justice Department comes at the same time the Federal Trade Commission is preparing a separate investigation of Google’s dominance of the Internet search industry. Simultaneous antitrust investigations of one company by the two agencies is “unusual,” said Rebecca Arbogast, a Washington-based analyst with Stifel Nicolaus & Co., adding that probes by regulators are fast becoming the “new normal” for Google.
benton.org/node/78334 | Bloomberg | paidContent.org, | Reuters | New York Times
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FTC OKs MICROSOFT'S PURCHASE OF SKYPE
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Ingrid Lunden]
Microsoft has received approval from the Federal Trade Commission for its $8.5 billion purchase of Skype. The FTC clearance is the latest, and a significant, bit of approval that Microsoft needs to complete the purchase. Although Microsoft has in the past faced regulatory problems for some acquisitions -- a $1.5 billion purchase of Intuit was blocked in 1994 -- this deal has so far gone relatively smoothly.
benton.org/node/78333 | paidContent.org | FTC
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JOURNALISM
BOLD ANALYSIS, WEAK SOLUTION
[SOURCE: Free Press, AUTHOR: ]
The Federal Communications Commission has finally released its much anticipated report on the “Information Needs of Communities” (aka the “Future of Media Report”). The 400-page report is a wide-ranging look at the media landscape with an eye toward two questions: whether people and communities are getting the news and information they need, and whether current media policy is furthering local public interest goals.
The Future of Media Report is significant in a number of respects. First, the analysis is one of the most comprehensive to come out of the FCC or any other agency on this topic. This is in large part due to the open and inclusive process staked out by Steve Waldman, the report’s author, as well as to the countless hours that the entire Future of Media team spent listening to diverse stakeholders.
Also remarkable is that the FCC (an agency that generally avoids criticizing the powerful industries it regulates) was so candid in its critique of the media industry, broadcast television and the agency itself. Indeed, the report’s findings vindicate what media reform groups, consumer groups and citizens themselves have been saying for years: Many broadcast stations aren't doing local news; paid propaganda is rampant on the airwaves; and the FCC doesn't always protect the public interest. But on balance, the report disappoints. The report recognizes problems, but punts on concrete proposals to fix them and on the FCC’s general responsibility to promote a vibrant media system.
benton.org/node/78321 | Free Press
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REACTION TO FCC JOURNALISM REPORT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: L Gordon Crovitz]
[Commentary] A strange thing happened in Washington earlier this month: After spending two years studying an issue, a federal agency published a 475-page report documenting the problem only to announce that government is not the solution. "Just because we have identified a problem does not mean we can solve it," said Steven Waldman, the lead researcher for the agency. "We did not feel we had to show some big regulatory pot of gold at the end of the rainbow to prove this work had value." This act of government humility was committed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which as part of its mandate to oversee broadband access and its effects analyzed the sharp decline in news reporting at the state and local levels. The Internet led to this decline by undermining the business models of local newspapers. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski set expectations for new policies when he announced this study and chose as his adviser Waldman. But Waldman says he and Chairman Genachowski concluded that "the First Amendment circumscribes the role government can play in improving local news" and that in any case "government is simply not the main player in this drama." This does have one downside. Because journalists do not experience the burdens of being highly regulated, they often have too much faith in regulation as the answer to problems in other sectors. The modesty of the FCC in leaving the local news industry alone is a reminder that the government that governs least governs best.
benton.org/node/78360 | Wall Street Journal
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UGLY DETAILS IN SELLING NEWSPAPERS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Carr]
Any look behind the curtain of Wall Street is not going to be pretty. But there is not pretty and then there is plain ugly. James O’Shea, the former editor in chief of The Los Angeles Times, found a classic of the genre in the course of reporting out “The Deal From Hell: How Moguls and Wall Street Plundered Great American Newspapers,” his deep dive into the two deals that tipped over the companies that owned, among many other newspapers, The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune.
benton.org/node/78362 | New York Times
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CONTENT
GOOGLE
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Amit Singhal]
If you read newspapers or websites these days, it’s understandable if you conclude a couple of things about the search business: First, Google stands unchallenged; and second, search as a service is largely figured out. But you'd be wrong on both fronts. In fact, as the person responsible for trying to make our search engine function better, I can attest to the fact that we face challenges — serious ones — all the time. Far from being a solved problem, search is constantly evolving. To understand where we are today, we need to go back to 2001. Back then, we had already built a better way to organize the online universe, making a wealth of information widely accessible. But when Al Qaeda attacked the U.S. on Sept. 11, we realized we were woefully inadequate.
benton.org/node/78331 | Politico
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MOBILE DATA USE UP
[SOURCE: Nielsen, AUTHOR: Don Kellogg]
The mobile Data Tsunami is still growing at an astounding pace. According to Nielsen’s monthly analysis of cellphone bills for 65,000+ lines, smartphone owners – especially those with iPhones and Android devices — are consuming more data than ever before on a per-user basis. This has huge implications for carriers since the proportion of smartphone owners is also increasing dramatically. (Currently, 37% of all mobile subscribers in the United States have smartphones.) In just the last 12 months, the amount of data the average smartphone user consumes per month has grown by 89 percent from 230 Megabytes (MB) in Q1 2010 to 435 MB in Q1 2011. A look at the distribution of data consumption is even more shocking: data usage for the top 10 percent of smartphone users (90th percentile) is up 109 percent while the top 1 percent (99th percentile) has grown their usage by an astonishing 155 percent from 1.8GB in Q1 2010 to over 4.6GB in Q1 2011. Even as data usage has almost doubled, most users are paying around what they did a year ago for data. That translates to a lower cost per unit of data consumed. The amount the average smartphone user pays per unit of data has dropped by nearly 50 percent in the last year, from 14 cents per megabyte (MB) to a mere 8 cents.
benton.org/node/78322 | Nielsen | MediaPost | Fast Company
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POLICYMAKERS
STAFF CHANGES AT FCC
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the appointment of Zachary Katz as Chief Counsel & Senior Legal Advisor. Katz will succeed Rick Kaplan, who recently became Chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. As Chief Counsel, Katz will manage the Commission’s overall policy agenda, and will be responsible for policy coordination among the Bureaus and Offices. In addition, he will continue to have specific responsibility for wireline, international and Internet issues, including universal service reform, Open Internet, and satellite matters.
In addition, Chairman Genachowski announced that Sherrese Smith, currently a Legal Advisor, will also become Senior Counsel; and Amy Levine, currently Special Counsel, will also take on a new role as a Legal Advisor. In her role as Senior Counsel & Legal Advisor, Smith will oversee the Media, Consumer, and Enforcement bureaus. Levine will take on new responsibilities overseeing the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and Office of Engineering & Technology, adding to her portfolio that currently includes spectrum auction policy and public safety issues.
Meanwhile, FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell announced that Erin McGrath will be joining his staff as Acting Legal Advisor for media issues. Rosemary Harold, who has served as Legal Advisor for media issues to Commissioner McDowell since September 2008, has decided to begin considering other opportunities outside the Commission. [more at the URL below]
benton.org/node/78336 | Federal Communications Commission | McDowell's office | B&C - Genachowski | B&C - McDowell | National Journal | WashPost
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