December 2011

AT&T's lobbying turned back in T-Mobile bid

AT&T's aborted T-Mobile bid proved that a company can be too big and lobby too much to succeed in Washington.

Not even a nearly $16 million lobbying tab and almost $2 million in campaign contributions helped the wireless giant sell its proposed $39 billion mega-deal to federal regulators. In the end, the company’s well-oiled political machine sputtered, leaving AT&T no choice but to bail — costing the company a nearly $4 billion breakup fee in cash and spectrum. The end of the deal marks a serious defeat for AT&T’s Washington lobbying shop, which is one of the largest corporate lobbying offices in the capital. After announcing the deal in March, AT&T bulked up its presence in DC, leveraged its relationships with statehouses around the country and took its case to interest groups representing everything from milk producers to diverse communities. “Lobbying generally rolls off the back of the antitrust enforcement authorities,” said Harry First, director of the Competition, Innovation, and Information Law Program at New York University. First said the regulatory review itself seemed to be a “fairly apolitical” process, as it was the merits of the deal — and not the effectiveness of AT&T’s work stumping for it — that ultimately sunk its prospects.

Snapshot: Where Conservative Iowans Get Campaign News

What is the media diet of GOP contest-shaping Iowans? Conservative talk radio, Fox News, and, to a lesser extent, the Internet are key information sources for the likely GOP caucus-goers I interviewed at two recent political events here in Iowa. My snapshot jives with a New York Times/CBS poll of likely Iowa GOP caucus-goers earlier this month which found that 37 percent of respondents get most of their TV coverage of politics from Fox News, compared to 27 percent for all the major news networks combined. Another 32 percent frequently listen to political call-in shows.

FCC Nominees In Waiting Stay That Way

Nominees for the Federal Communications Commission -- Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel – and the Federal Trade Commission -- Jon Leibowitz and Maureen Ohlhausen – remain in limbo as the Senate has left town.

All the nominees have been approved by the Senate Commerce Committee and await a Senate floor vote. Given that anything can happen, there is still some outside chance of a Christmas miracle, with the Senate having to come back to vote on some payroll tax extension and taking the opportunity to vote on nominations, but that is not likely.

Ed tech unfunded in $1 trillion spending bill

Congress has passed a $1 trillion omnibus spending measure that continues funding for the Obama administration’s signature “Race to the Top” competition and includes a very modest increase in Title I funding for disadvantaged students. But an Obama proposal to create a new federal agency for ed-tech research and development received no funding in the bill.

The measure, which averted a possible government shutdown, funds 10 Cabinet agencies for fiscal year 2012. It awarded a slight increase to the Pentagon and veterans’ programs while trimming the budgets of most other domestic agencies. Democrats agreed to the cuts in exchange for dropping many policy provisions sought by GOP conservatives, such as attempts to block new rules aimed at preserving network neutrality and limiting greenhouse gases.

Friend Me, Follow Me or Google Me?

It sometimes feels like it was easier to exchange contact information with someone before the Web came along. You really had two options: handing out a business card or scribbling down a phone number. And although the Web promised to make this transaction simpler, it feels more confusing than ever. Now we have to decide where to send people online whom we meet in real life. Friend me on Facebook; follow me on Twitter; e-mail me; go to my personal Web site. Oh, forget it, just Google me. Facebook, Twitter, Google and a number of other social networks are trying to become the new first destination for everyone online.

2011’s Strong Start Couldn’t Last the Year

[Commentary] The year is ending on an up note for television broadcasters. Last week's news that CBS, Fox and NBC had extended their TV rights contracts with the NFL through 2022 shouts that TV broadcasting is still the No. 1 TV medium and will be for a good long while. And many local TV broadcasters might have been in need of a little boost since before that football news, the year has been a little bit of a disappointment.

Not that anybody was expecting big doings from the year, with political advertising in its biennial hibernation. But many thought the economy would really pick up some speed this year, and carry the industry into 2012 without any more bumps and bruises. But it wasn't to be the case. The economy never really did get going, and a lot of auto advertising dollars disappeared after Japan and its auto industry were devastated by the earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

Bowling Them Over: BCS Has ESPN Seeing Green

ESPN last year raked in more than $325 million in total bowl game ad sales revenue.

Naturally, the real money starts rolling in after New Year’s Day. Last year’s Rose Bowl contest delivered 20.6 million viewers, while Auburn’s 22-19 win over Oregon in the Jan. 10 BCS title game delivered a cable-record 27.3 million viewers. According to Kantar Media estimates, a :30 in the national championship broadcast can run as much as $1.15 million a pop; a spot in one of the lead-in bowls costs around $670,000. A rematch of the November’s grudge match between No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama, the Jan. 9 BCS title game could prove to be another ratings blockbuster. After weeks of hype, the Tigers’ 9-6 victory on Nov. 5 drew 20 million viewers, making it the most-watched regular season college football game on CBS in 22 years. ESPN got an added boost from its season-long partnerships with the 15 official BCS sponsors, a roster that includes newcomers Dell and Unilever. Along with the title sponsors—the Rose Bowl is presented by Vizio, Tostitos backs the Fiesta Bowl, Discover sponsors the Orange Bowl, and Allstate does double duty as the title sponsor of the Sugar Bowl and the BCS National Championship Game—the BCS boosters took major positions throughout the regular season. Three long-term backers (Ford, GM, Nissan) represent the resurgent automotive category, while another three clients (AT&T, DirecTV, Vizio) are in the telecommunications business. Financial services, beer, and QSR brands also invested in multiyear positions.

RIAA "report card" gives Google low marks for anti-piracy efforts

A year ago, Google announced a new initiative to combat illicit file-sharing on its various websites. The Recording Industry Association of America has marked the one-year anniversary of that announcement with a new "report card" faulting Google for what the RIAA considers the search giant's slow progress. In its December 2010 blog post, Google pledged to take four specific anti-piracy steps: respond to takedowns more quickly, remove piracy-related terms from autocomplete, make it harder for infringing sites to participate in AdSense, and make legitimate content easier to find in search results.

The RIAA grades Google's efforts to date as "incomplete," faulting the search giant's progress in all four areas. The industry group complains that phrases such as "lady gaga mp3 download" are still suggested by the autocomplete feature of Google search. It faults Google for refusing to explicitly "prioritize sites with authorized content over unauthorized sites"—though the report doesn't have much detail about how Google should distinguish the two. And it says Google "needs to be more proactive" about blocking infringing sites from using Google's AdSense advertising program.

But the RIAA pays the most attention to Google's promise to respond more quickly to takedown requests. Last year, Google said the first services to get faster takedowns would be Blogger and search. The RIAA tacitly admits that Google has kept its promise with respect to these two services. But the RIAA criticizes Google's management of the Android Marketplace, noting that Google "doesn't adequately screen apps" before accepting them in its app store. It also complains that apps removed from the Marketplace aren't automatically blacklisted from AdSense and Google Wallet.

Finally, the RIAA complains that, "the [takedown] tools Google has built have limits on the number of submissions rights holders can submit each day and they do not scale to the scope of piracy online." If the RIAA is describing the situation accurately (unfortunately, Google refused to speak to us about it) then this does seem like a legitimate complaint. On the other hand, the recent Megaupload and Hotfile takedown debacles illustrate the risks of abuse when copyright holders are given unlimited power to delete content from third-party services.

The RIAA completes its report card with a wish list of additional steps for Google to take: proactively block "pirate sites" from using its advertising networks, proactively screen Android apps for infringing content, proactively list sites with authorized content ahead of infringing sites in search results, and proactively remove from YouTube videos that advocate infringing activities.

It's A Wonderful, Trackable Life

[Commentary] What would the Internet be like if there was no tracking at all?

Much like the “It’s a Wonderful Life”’s hypothetical town that would have existed if Jimmy Stewart’s character had never been born, Pottersville – crass, sleazy and utterly unappealing. Not a pretty picture for anyone involved: publishers, advertisers or consumers. To begin with, the Web would be cluttered with many more ads. Why? Because without the ability to target ads to specific audiences, brands will have to compensate by running more ads in the hopes of reaching customers, effectively substituting quantity for quality. On the flip side, consumers will experience a wild decline in relevance. The ads they see will have nothing to do with who they are, what they are interested in or what matters to them. The next impact to consider is that removing tracking capabilities will mean significantly reducing a publisher’s revenue. Without the ability to assure advertisers that they can reach the specific audiences they want, the value of inventory will drastically decrease. And while the cost of advertising inventory units may go down – potentially a boon for advertisers – the ROI on these units will plummet even faster if advertisers can’t be confident that they are reaching their target consumers. With less advertising revenue coming in, publishers will need to find new sources of revenue which would likely mean more and taller pay walls, subscription models, etc. – more paid content. Consumers have come to expect a wealth of free content, but without the support of advertising revenues, publishers simply won’t be able to sustain the current model.

[Gieron is he Business Development Strategist at AdTruth]

Highlights of 2011: The Year In Book Publishing, By The Numbers

From Borders’ bankruptcy to Amazon’s ambitions, it was a busy year in book publishing. Here are five numbers to put 2011 in focus.

20: The percentage of book sales that are digital at big-six publishers Random House and Hachette, with other publishers well on their way to reaching that point.
$79: The price of Amazon’s cheapest Kindle, the ad-supported Kindle 4 with Special Offers.
100,000+: The number of original e-singles that longform journalism site Byliner has sold since April.
$9.99: The price around which class-action lawsuits against Apple and publishers are centered, and the price that Amazon charged for a New York Times bestseller before big-six publishers adopted agency pricing, which allows them to set the prices of their own e-books.
450: The number of titles that Amazon bought from children’s publisher Marshall Cavendish. The books provide the basis of Amazon’s new NYC-based children’s publishing imprint; all will be available in digital format as well as print.

Benton

Search