December 2011

What a difference a year doesn’t make

The calendar has Headlines thinking back not just at 2011, but to our beginnings. Benton launched this service in 1996 as a way to keep people informed about the pressing communications policy debates of the day. We were watching implementation of the landmark Telecommunications Act of 1996 and figured other people would like to know about it, too.

Not so much on purpose, but aligned with the foundation’s priorities, we covered lots of issues surrounding broadcasting “back in the day.” We certainly had an eye on telecommunications and universal service reform – and that wacky Internet thing – but we found more stories on broadcasting than any other issue.

In recent years, especially since editor Kevin Taglang’s return in 2004, we’ve focused more on broadband – extending its reach to all Americans, seeking policies that make it more affordable, and encouraging people to make effective use of it to improve their lives and community. As you probably know, we've tracked implementation of the National Broadband Plan.

2011 has been different, however. 2011, from Headlines’ perceptive, has really been the year of wireless. So we devote this week’s round-up – our last of 2011 – to the state of the wireless industry.

Stacey Higginbotham – one of our favorite writers – wrote a nice piece on wireless that got us thinking about all this. She noted -- : “Between the collapse of AT&T’s proposed $39 billion merger with T-Mobile and the death throes of a proposed wholesale 4G network created by a satellite company and now-broke hedge fund, the wireless industry has generated a lot of stories but no real change in the past year. We still have the same top four providers, and Clearwire is still struggling. The hoped-for entrance of LightSquared as a wholesale LTE-provider hasn’t materialized, and while Dish says it plans to enter the market, that news is balanced out by Cox’s deciding to leave it.”

AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile, announced in March, did probably grab the most headlines this year. We knew the review of the transaction would be a big deal and created a central spot to collect all the stories, all the filings, all the events surrounding the debate. [Editor’s note: Benton voiced opposition to the deal shortly after it was announced] We think back now to Public Knowledge Legal Director Harold Feld saying that this review was bigger than just AT&T/T-Mobile, but about the future of antitrust enforcement and the soul of antitrust enforcement.” So the top story for us this year is AT&T’s decision to end the bid to acquire T-Mobile after the both the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission opposed the deal.

But on the same day we reported AT&T’s decision, we reported on Verizon’s application to buy 122 wireless spectrum licenses from Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House (and don’t forget a similar deal with Cox will be reviewed in 2012, too). This deal – valued at $3.6 billion – isn’t getting as many headlines, but the transaction could have an even greater impact on the competitiveness of the wireless industry -- and the pay TV industry. Even though the cable companies never used the spectrum in question to serve customers, the companies also announced that they have entered into several agreements, providing for the sale of various products and services. Through these agreements, the cable companies, on the one hand, and Verizon Wireless, on the other, will become agents to sell one another's products and, over time, the cable companies will have the option of selling Verizon Wireless’ service on a wholesale basis. Additionally, the cable companies and Verizon Wireless have formed an innovation technology joint venture for the development of technology to better integrate wireline and wireless products and services. That would allow, for example, a consumer to walk into a Comcast store and get a Verizon Wireless plan tacked on to his television, Internet and landline phone service.

In its application, Verizon stresses that the transaction will have no impact on competition. The Benton Foundation is not so sure about that and neither, apparently, is the Department of Justice.

Industry analysts, from the announcement of this deal, have noted there’s huge implications for competition as potential competitors now become friends selling each other’s products. An interesting piece by Tim Farrar -- President of Telecom, Media and Finance Associates – says we’re headed now towards a new model in wireless, pitting Verizon and cable TV on one side against AT&T and satellite TV on the other.

Verizon’s purchase of SpectrumCo was the first indicator of this new model, with the cable companies being granted wholesale access to Verizon’s LTE network in four years’ time so they can offer their own wireless services. Now, after the collapse of the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger, all eyes are focused on AT&T’s potential purchase of DISH Network, which could enable the buildout of an LTE Advanced network across 52MHz of spectrum.

The ripple effect from this transition range from what happens to DirecTV and Cablevision if they are left on their own once the other cable companies and DISH choose sides, to whether Sprint’s Network Vision plan can compete with second rate spectrum and limited scale against retail-focused providers with access to AT&T or Verizon’s far superior 4G network infrastructure.

In this new environment, Farrar writes, the FCC and DoJ will have to emphasize retail competition instead of the facilities-based competition that has been the focus of FCC policy ever since the 1996 Telecommunications Act. The only way to do that will be through making the initial wholesale commitments ventured by Verizon and AT&T into a much broader framework for supplying wholesale LTE network access to other wireless providers.

But, obviously, we’re moving into an election year. Would imposing wholesale access commitments on the telecom industry be viewed as “European-style” socialism? Would commitments for large scale wireless deployment be enough of a win for President Barack Obama?

Farrar isn’t the only industry watcher thinking about the transforming wireless landscape. Fortune’s Scott Woolley asks if AT&T and Verizon as an inevitable duopoly. AT&T and Verizon are indeed an intimidating pair. They have 101 million and 108 million wireless customers, respectively. That huge scale results in much fatter profits than the rest of the industry. Together the two companies now generate close to 85% of the U.S. wireless industry's total cash flow. While those huge profits appear tempting for new competitors, the hurdle for any effective challenger is replicating the two companies' scale. At the end of September, Verizon owned spectrum the company valued at $73.2 billion, which will climb to $77 billion if the Justice Department agrees to let them buy more airwaves from the cable companies.

What sort of competitor can make an investment to compete with that? Even if a company found $50 billion to spend on airwaves at today's prices, they'd still have to billions more to build the actual physical network of towers around the country. So perhaps its no surprise that in the past year the viable candidates for the title of "duopoly killer" have all but disappeared.

But The Verge’s Joshua Topolsky, writing in the Washington Post, sees a possible brighter future. He thinks that instead of battling over coverage areas, perhaps carriers should start thinking about ways they could work together to serve their customers better. He thinks carriers incompatable networks result in less coverage, fewer device choices, longer contracts and likely higher rates for service — a scenario that is bad for consumers. “A sophisticated wireless network in this country is imperative for businesses, schools and, yes, regular human beings,” Topolsky writes. He thinks carriers working together is the solution, but, if not – an “exceedingly simple fix: Government regulations (and the required herding) to get all of our carriers on the same page. A mandate from the people (remember, that’s who our government is supposed to work for) that we start making the decisions that are right for our citizens, not just for the bottom line of a few companies that happen to be in control of an increasingly precious resource.”

No doubt, Headlines will have its eyes on developments in wireless in 2012. We’ve set up a page to collect all the info on the Verizon deal as we did for AT&T/T-Mobile.

See you in January.

December 22, 2011 (New Media Ownership Proposal Expected Today)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2011

Jacob Goldman, Founder of Xerox Lab, Dies at 90

WIRELESS
   AT&T-Verizon: The inevitable duopoly? - analysis
   The next broadband battle: AT&T/Dish and Verizon/Cable - analysis
   AT&T may eye Dish or Clearwire deals next
   AT&T’s retreat from T-Mobile deal is a chance to make wireless future brighter - op-ed
   US Won't Back Ban on Phones for Drivers
   Many fliers refuse to turn off electronic gadgets
   Verizon says network is returning to normal [links to web]
   How People Shopped Online This Holiday Season [links to web]
   Cellphone Jugglers Seek Best Deals [links to web]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Special access gets special scrutiny from the courts
   House Commerce Committee Urges ICANN to Delay Expansion of Generic Top-Level Domain Program
   After Chinese hacks, how do we secure the Internet of Things? - analysis [links to web]
   Hold those caps: The average web page is now almost 1MB [links to web]
   Nevada Sets Stage for Online Poker
   North Georgia getting high speed internet
   How People Shopped Online This Holiday Season [links to web]
   Lawmakers Urge Action on Hacking [links to web]

CONTENT
   Scribd protests SOPA with disappearing act
   Hold those caps: The average web page is now almost 1MB [links to web]
   Kindle Fire no longer blocks Android Market website [links to web]
   Internet Radio Wants More Ad Dollars [links to web]

PRIVACY
   The Future Of The Internet's Here. And It's Creepy
   Irish Regulators Order Facebook to Boost Privacy Protections
   Carrier IQ: Motorola, T-Mobile detail use
   In the eyes of the law, are we all public figures on Facebook? - analysis [links to web]
   FTC Accepts Final Settlement with Online Advertiser Scan Scout, Which Allegedly Used Flash Cookies to Track Consumers - press release [links to web]

TELEVISION
Small TV Stations to FCC: We Need Shared Services Agreements

JOURNALISM
   2011: A Year of Big Stories Both Foreign and Domestic - research
   The Year in New 2011 - research
   Why we need advocacy journalism - editorial
   Chicago Sun-Times company to be sold for more than $20 million [links to web]
   Billionaire Sam Zell Sues Shareholders Over Tribune Buyout He Engineered

OWNERSHIP
   FCC Expected To Vote On Proposed Media Ownership Changes Today
   HTC to remove feature that infringes Apple patent
   Apple Unlikely to Win Ban on Samsung Galaxy 10.1N, Court Says [links to web]
   comScore, Nielsen Settle Patent Dispute: Nielsen Acquires $19 Million In comScore Shares

ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
How to react to an explosion of negative political ads - editorial

EDUCATION
Petition calls for more E-Rate funding

FCC REFORM
Reps Walden, Stearns Request Update on FCC’s Backlog
FCC Launches Personalized Web Interface

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Petition Aims to Digitize U.S. History [links to web]
   Extended Deadline for Public Access and Digital Data RFIs - press release [links to web]
   Scientific Integrity Policies Increasingly in Place - press release [links to web]

MORE ONLINE
Year of the Talking Phone And a Cloud That Got Hot - analysis [links to web]
Companies Should Communicate Via Social Media [links to web]

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WIRELESS

AT&T-VERIZON DUPOLOY?
[SOURCE: Fortune, AUTHOR: Scott Woolley]
The cell phone industry is imperiled by a duopoly, according to the antirust watchdogs at the Department of Justice. First regulators killed AT&T's $39 billion deal to buy T-Mobile. Now the Justice Department is taking a hard look at Verizon's plan to buy $3.6 billion worth of airwave licenses from cable TV companies, which would allow it to expand its giant wireless network even further. AT&T and Verizon are indeed an intimidating pair. They have 101 million and 108 million wireless customers, respectively. That huge scale results in much fatter profits than the rest of the industry. Together the two companies now generate close to 85% of the U.S. wireless industry's total cash flow. While those huge profits appear tempting for new competitors, the hurdle for any effective challenger is replicating the two companies' scale. At the end of September, Verizon owned spectrum the company valued at $73.2 billion, which will climb to $77 billion if the Justice Department agrees to let them buy more airwaves from the cable companies. What sort of competitor can make an investment to compete with that? Even if a company found $50 billion to spend on airwaves at today's prices, they'd still have to billions more to build the actual physical network of towers around the country. So perhaps it is no surprise that in the past year the viable candidates for the title of "duopoly killer" have all but disappeared.
benton.org/node/108418 | Fortune
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AT&T/DISH VS VERIZON/CABLE
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Tim Farrar]
[Commentary] The business model for standalone wholesale wireless network operators, such as LightSquared or what Clearwire hoped to be, is broken. But in the coming year, a new and ultimately more successful model is poised to emerge, one that will transform the entire communications landscape as we know it, and pit Verizon and cable TV on one side against AT&T and satellite TV on the other. Verizon’s purchase of SpectrumCo was the first indicator of this new model, with the cable companies being granted wholesale access to Verizon’s LTE network in four years’ time so they can offer their own wireless services. Now, after the collapse of the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger, all eyes are focused on AT&T’s potential purchase of DISH Network, which could enable the buildout of an LTE Advanced network across 52MHz of spectrum. Such a deal would also have to address the way forward for T-Mobile, which admittedly does not have a clear route to LTE. Thus it seems very likely that T-Mobile would be granted wholesale access to this new 4G network to complement its 3G roaming agreement with AT&T. Of course, while worries about monopolies will be ever-present, we can expect both Verizon and AT&T to commit to a very extensive and rapid LTE network buildout, bringing 4G wireless to 97 percent or 98 percent of the population in line with the objective set out by President Obama in his State of the Union address last February.
In this new environment, the FCC and DoJ will have to emphasize retail competition instead of the facilities-based competition that has been the focus of FCC policy ever since the 1996 Telecommunications Act. The only way to do that will be through making the initial wholesale commitments ventured by Verizon and (I assume) AT&T into a much broader framework for supplying wholesale LTE network access to other wireless providers.
[Tim Farrar is President of Telecom, Media and Finance Associates, a consulting and research firm which specializes in technical and financial analysis across the satellite and telecom sectors]
benton.org/node/108416 | GigaOm
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AT&T MAY EYE DISH OR CLEARWIRE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Sinead Carew]
AT&T may look to Dish Network or Clearwire for its next deal as it recovers from its failure to buy T-Mobile USA. AT&T said its $39 billion proposal to buy T-Mobile USA was motivated solely by its spectrum shortage, so the No. 2 U.S. mobile service now needs to look for another acquisition to bolster its wireless airwaves holdings. AT&T is already seeking regulatory approval for its deal to buy a small amount of spectrum from wireless chip maker Qualcomm. Dish and Clearwire are seen as the most likely places AT&T will look for new spectrum because Dish is poised to buy a massive chunk of airwaves and Clearwire needs funding and it has large amounts of spectrum it is not using today.
benton.org/node/108428 | Reuters
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A BRIGHTER WIRELESS FUTURE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Joshua Topolsky]
[Commentary] AT&T’s proposed purchase of T-Mobile would have made AT&T the largest carrier in America, and it would have also arguably created a duopoly where AT&T/T-Mobile’s only true competitor would have been Verizon. That kind of arrangement is usually bad for consumers, and it’s definitely bad for other companies, such as Sprint, which are in the same market and trying to keep a hold of their customers. But something weird happened on the way to the bank for AT&T — regular people, journalists and policymakers started speaking out about the merger and, in the end, it was killed.
A few months ago, I suggested that instead of battling over coverage areas, perhaps carriers should start thinking about ways they could work together to serve their customers better. At the time, I suggested that perhaps government intervention was required to cook up a long-term plan for wireless build-out and to ensure that all of the parties played nicely. But maybe it’s easier than that. I think we need real options to make our wireless future brighter — and I think it’s important that the carriers commit to making it happen. Better wireless in this country doesn’t just mean you can watch an episode of “Glee” whenever you want (not that that isn’t a big perk). A sophisticated wireless network in this country is imperative for businesses, schools and, yes, regular human beings. It’s time for our service providers to start taking responsibility for their industry. Last time I checked, AT&T and Verizon weren’t operating at a loss. In fact, they’re both running highly profitable businesses. If they’re really worried about spectrum constraints and bad user experiences, they should put down the swords for a moment and start working together to fix the problems.
benton.org/node/108723 | Washington Post
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LAHOOD NOT BACKING CELLPHONE BAN
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sharon Terlep]
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said he won't back a proposal to prohibit drivers from talking on cellphones, even hands-free devices, giving a boost to car makers and mobile-phone companies that stand to lose if regulators impose a ban. The National Transportation Safety Board last week asked states to ban cellphones while driving in response to a deadly collision in Missouri last year that the agency blamed in part on a driver who was texting while driving. The NTSB wants the ban to include hands-free devices, which let drivers keep their hands on the wheel while talking through speakers or a headset. Secretary LaHood declined to endorse the NTSB's proposal. Hands-free calling "is not the big problem in America," Sec LaHood said. "If other people want to work on hands-free, so be it." An NTSB spokesman said the board has no response to LaHood's comments. "Our recommendations are out there and we stand by them," he said. The Dept of Transportation has rule-making authority over auto safety; the NTSB doesn't. So his comments are likely to bring relief to auto makers and the wireless industry,
benton.org/node/108720 | Wall Street Journal
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FLIERS AND GADGETS
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Gary Stoller]
Gadget-dependent fliers are turning a deaf ear to flight attendants' instructions to turn off their devices during takeoff and landing, despite decades of government warnings, a USA TODAY investigation shows. The investigation, which reviewed thousands of pages of technical documents and surveyed hundreds of frequent fliers, also confirms that the worry about electronics on planes is not baseless: The devices emit radio signals that can interfere with cockpit instruments and flight systems. "We really need to get the technical findings out to the public and tell them it's dangerous to use their portable electronic devices in-flight," says Bill Strauss, an electrical engineer whose doctoral thesis at Carnegie Mellon University studied use of electronic devices in-flight. Documents reviewed by USA TODAY include: more than 25 papers by electronics experts; presentations, papers and advisories by government aviation officials in the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe; congressional testimony; and Boeing research and information for airlines. The investigation also included: a review of government accident reports and airline pilots' incident reports; a survey of more than 900 frequent fliers; and interviews with Boeing, NASA and independent electromagnetic interference (EMI) experts, flight attendants and pilots unions, and college electrical engineering professors. Fortunately for air travelers, the probability of EMI is small, the technical papers say.
benton.org/node/108450 | USAToday
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

SPECIAL ACCESS TO HAVE DAY IN COURT
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
The DC Circuit Court of Appeals decided to take action on a request asking the court to force the Federal Communications Commission to get moving on the issue of how much mobile and rural operators pay for access to the Internet. If the potential court order from Monday prompts the FCC to take action, the big wireline phone companies might see regulations capping how much they can charge others for access to their middle-mile pipes. NoChokePoints, an organization funded by those affected by high special access charges (this includes businesses), filed a petition in July asking the court to issue a writ of mandamus forcing the FCC to decide the issue within the next six months. On Dec 19 the court ordered expedited briefings ending Feb. 10, 2012, and told its clerk to set oral argument “at the first appropriate date.” (A mandamus petition is a request to a higher court asking a lower court or agency to rethink a decision, and most mandamus petitions go nowhere, so analysts and public interest organizations think the court’s action is noteworthy.)
benton.org/node/108419 | GigaOm | Connected Planet
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HOUSE COMMERCE PRESSURES ICANN
[SOURCE: House of Representatives Commerce Committee]
Members of the House Commerce Committee urged the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to delay expansion of the generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) program. The members wrote:
“Last week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held a hearing to examine the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) pending expansion of the generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) program. Although we believe expanding gTLDs is a worthy goal that may lead to increased competition on the Internet, we are very concerned that there is significant uncertainty in this process for businesses, non-profit organizations, and consumers. To that end, we urge you to delay the planned January 12, 2012, date for the acceptance of applications for new gTLDs. “Many stakeholders are not convinced that ICANN’s process has resulted in an acceptable level of protection. A wide coalition of interested groups, including top U.S. and multinational companies and large non-profit organizations, support the call for a delay. “Given these widespread concerns, a short delay will allow interested parties to work with ICANN and offer changes to alleviate many of them, specifically concerns over law enforcement, cost and transparency that were discussed in recent Congressional hearings."
benton.org/node/108446 | House of Representatives Commerce Committee
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NEVEDA EMBRACES ONLINE POKER
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Alexandra Berzon]
Nevada is positioning itself to become the first state to allow Internet-poker games within its borders, a move that comes as online-gambling laws are being debated in statehouses and in Congress. The state's gambling regulator will vote Dec 22 on rules that would allow companies to apply for licenses to operate poker websites in Nevada. The new rules were designed to put the state in a position to move quickly to become the center of a lucrative new part of the gambling industry should Congress pass one of several laws overturning the ban on Internet wagering, making the state the de-facto national licensing body. In the meantime, Nevada's new regulations could allow the state's casino companies to operate gambling websites limited to players within Nevada's borders, said Mark Lipparelli, chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, the body that drew up the rules, which are set to be voted on by the Nevada Gaming Commission. Lipparelli said websites limited to Nevada's borders could be up and running before the end of next year if the gaming commission votes to allow them. Lipparelli said technology is available to allow companies to limit the bets to people within state borders but that the systems would have to be vetted by regulators and state attorneys to ensure they comply with rules.
benton.org/node/108717 | Wall Street Journal
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GEORGIA ARRA BROADBAND PROJECT
[SOURCE: WXIA-TV, AUTHOR: Jon Shirek]
Businesses, schools, hospitals and residents across North Georgia will soon be able to get high-speed Internet access, connecting them to the global marketplace for the first time. It's a monumental leap forward for the region. "It's a big step," said Charlie Auvermann, the Executive Director of the Development Authority of Dawson County. "It opens up a lot of possibilities for this region." The project means that companies in North Georgia that currently need days to exchange huge data files with clients, using snail-mail, will now be able to transfer those files, online, in seconds -- just like their competitors across the globe. The money for North Georgia's new Internet network comes mostly from $33.5 million of federal stimulus funds announced by Vice President Biden in Dawsonville on December 17, 2009. The state and county governments, kicked in an additional $9 million for the $42 million project. Eight North Georgia counties are about to be connected, and other counties will be able to tap in to the network after that. The eight counties are Dawson, Forsyth, Habersham, Lumpkin, Rabun, Towns, Union and White.
benton.org/node/108408 | WXIA-TV
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CONTENT

SCRIBD SOPA PROTEST
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
Scribd, which has aimed to do for document sharing what Spotify has done for music, is protesting two bills in Congress, the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act, by making some of the words in documents posted to its site disappear. The site allows its members to post documents they’re reading or discussing, and the company is worried that the two bills — if broadly interpreted — could result in its site being pulled from the Web completely. “Congress is pushing through legislation that threatens the future of the Internet,” said Jared Friedman, CTO and co-founder of Scribd, in a statement. “With this legislation in place, entire domains like Scribd could simply vanish from the web. That’s why we’re showing our users just what SOPA and PIPA could do to Scribd and other sites. These bills aren’t just dry acronyms; they’re a direct attack on the underpinnings of the web.”
benton.org/node/108451 | Washington Post
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PRIVACY

THE CREEPY INTERNET
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: Neal Ungerleider]
In Gary Shteyngart's 2010 novel Super Sad True Love Story, ordinary Americans are glued to superpowered iPhone-like devices while authority figures monitor their every move. Two newly released research papers on the Internet's future, it seems, prove the author did a good job of predicting things. One Pew study has found that text messaging is growing more quickly than anyone has imagined, while a new Brookings paper is predicting cheap and total monitoring of all electronic communications by authoritarian governments in the next few years. First, the dystopian future. John Villasenor of UCLA conducted research for the Brookings Institution that paints a depressing picture of where Internet monitoring is headed. In the paper, Recording Everything: Digital Storage As An Enabler Of Authoritarian Governments, Villasenor has uncovered convincing evidence that repressive regimes worldwide will soon be able to cheaply monitor all voice and data communications in their country. According to Villasenor, “For the first time ever, it will become technologically and financially feasible for authoritarian governments to record nearly everything that is said or done within their borders--every phone conversation, electronic message, social media interaction, the movements of nearly every person and vehicle, and video from every street corner.” The same technological advances that enable amazing consumer gadgets like iPhones also help fuel ominous government surveillance projects.
benton.org/node/108437 | Fast Company
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FACEBOOK AND PRIVACY IN IRELAND
[SOURCE: PCMagazine, AUTHOR: Chloe Albanesius]
In response to an audit by Irish data protection officials, Facebook has agreed to be more transparent about its facial-recognition feature and how its European users' data is used, the social network announced. "There should be room for improvement in how Facebook Ireland handles the personal information of users," deputy Irish data commissioner Gary Davis said. In particular, European Facebook users will receive more alerts about how the face-based, photo-tagging feature works so they can decide whether or not to use the program. Facebook said it will also change "a number of policies" regarding data retention, like how data is logged when people access Web sites with Facebook plug-ins "to minimize the amount of information collected about people who are not logged in to Facebook." Finally, Facebook will also work with Irish officials to "improve the information that people using Facebook are given about how to control their information both on Facebook and when using applications," Facebook said. The Office of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) will follow up with Facebook in July 2012 to make sure these changes have been put in place.
benton.org/node/108407 | PCMagazine | Facebook
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MOTOROLA, T-MOBILE DETAIL CARRIER IQ USE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
Motorola and T-Mobile responded to requests from Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) for more details on how they use Carrier IQ software. In its letter to Sen Franken, T-Mobile revealed that it uses the device on some of its premium smartphones including the HTC Amaze and the Samsung Galaxy S II. It estimates that 450,000 of its customers “use devices that contain Carrier IQ’s diagnostic software” to collect some information, such as the telephone numbers a user dials and the phone numbers from incoming calls. It does not collect the content of text messages sent or received, the content of e-mails sent or received, the URLs of Web sites visited, information from users’ address books or any other keystroke data. Motorola replied that it installs software on four models — the Admiral, Titanium, Bravo and Atrix 2 — at the request of its carrier partners, AT&T and Sprint. “As of the end of the third-quarter of 2011, we have sold a total of approximately 145,000 units of these models to our wireless carrier partners,” wrote company government relations senior vice president Dale Stone. However, Stone said, Motorola has no mechanisms in place to track how many of the devices are currently in use or how the devices are collecting data.
benton.org/node/108429 | Washington Post | GigaOm
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TELEVISION

SHARED SERVICES AGREEMENTS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Small-market television station representatives met with Federal Communications Commission staffers Dec. 19 to make their case for shared service agreements and other similar arrangements, pointing out they can be a local programming lifeline for stations whose pre-tax profit average plummeted by 95% between 1999 and 2009. The FCC is preparing to vote, as part of a combined rulemaking proposal and inquiry, to look into whether those joint station arrangements, which can include joint operations, sales and news, violate the FCC's local ownership caps, which it plans to retain as part of the rulemaking portion of the item.
In their pitch to staffers with FCC Commissioners Robert McDowell and Mignon Clyburn, representatives of the Coalition of Smaller-Market Television Stations, the markets where FCC rules limit joint ownership, said that such agreements allow stations to preserve local -programming. They also tried to put in context the financial pressures on smaller stations that make such arrangements necessary. According to data submitted to the FCC and based on NAB TV financial Surveys, the pre-tax profit average for markets 50-210 went from $908,462 in 1999 to only $42,003 in 2009, the last year for which figures were shown. That is a drop of 95.4%. The figures were only slightly better for Big Four network affiliates, dropping from a $1,096,054 average pre-tax profit in 1999 to only $131,863 in 2009, down 88%. The coalition cited what it said were "real-world" examples of where SSA's has "saved and expanded local public service and diversity in news operations."
benton.org/node/108448 | Broadcasting&Cable
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JOURNALISM

A YEAR OF BIG STORIES
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center, AUTHOR: ]
The threat of nuclear disaster in Japan and the killing of Osama bin Laden by Navy SEALs were two of the breaking news stories that captured the greatest amount of public attention in 2011. But Americans also kept a steady watch on the economy at home. More than half said they followed news about rising fuel prices very closely in April, while the struggling economy remained a top story throughout the year. In the week after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, 55% said they were following news about the disaster very closely, the highest for any news story over the course of the year. News about the situation in Japan proved to be the most closely followed news story for six consecutive weeks, as the extent of damage to a nuclear power complex became a more grave concern. But 2011 was a year of many big stories. In early May, half (50%) of Americans very closely followed news about Osama bin Laden’s death. And on the domestic front, 53% said they tracked news about rising gas and oil prices very closely in mid-April. The January shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and others in Tucson, Arizona was closely tracked by 49%. Since the meltdown of 2008, the economy has routinely been among the public’s top stories. And across most of the 2011 weekly News Interest Index surveys, about four-in-ten said they followed news about the economy very closely. About half (49%) said this in late February, a high point for 2011.
benton.org/node/108435 | Pew Research Center
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THE YEAR IN NEWS 2011
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Mark Jurkowitz]
The faltering U.S. economy was the No. 1 story in the American news media in 2011, with coverage increasing substantially from a year earlier when economic unease helped alter the political landscape in the midterm elections, according to The Year in the News 2011, a new report conducted by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. The year 2011 was also characterized by a jump of more than a third in coverage of international news, by a growing contrast in the content of the three broadcast networks and by a series of dramatic breaking news events that dominated coverage in ways unprecedented in PEJ's five years of studying news agenda.
The biggest story of the year, however, was the economy. As the recovery weakened and Washington engaged in partisan warfare over the debt ceiling, news about the state of the economy jumped to the same level of attention it had received in 2009 when newly elected president Barack Obama passed his controversial stimulus package in response to the "Great Recession." For all of 2011, the economy made up 20% of the space studied in newspapers and online and time on television and radio news, an increase of more than 40% from 14% of the newshole studied in 2010. The unfolding uprisings in the Middle East-from the mass protests in Egypt in February to the hunt for Muammar Gaddafi in October-was the second biggest story of the year. Those events filled 12% of the newshole studied in 2011. That makes the Middle East uprisings the second- biggest annual foreign story on record since PEJ began analyzing the news agenda five years earlier. The only bigger international story was Iraq in 2007, the year of the "surge" under George Bush.
The biggest component of the Mideast story in 2011 was the uprising in Libya, which involved international military intervention and the dramatic search for the fleeing Libyan dictator. The overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt was the second biggest part of the Mideast uprisings story. The ongoing violence in Syria was the third biggest element.
The No. 3 story of the year overall in 2011 was the race for U.S. president, even though no primary or caucus has yet been held or single vote cast. The race for president consumed 9% of the news space in the last year. What was once called pre-primary period, or the invisible primary, is invisible no longer. Four years ago, in 2007, with nomination battles raging in both parties, the presidential campaign was a bigger story, however, accounting for 11% of the newshole.
benton.org/node/108434 | Project for Excellence in Journalism
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WHY WE NEED ADVOCACY JOURNALISM
[SOURCE: Online Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Robert Niles]
[Commentary] When "objective" journalism decays into a cowardly neutrality between truth and lies, we need advocacy journalism to lift our profession - and the community leaders we cover - back to credibility. Advocacy is not the antonym of objectivity. Objectivity is the goal of accounting for your own biases when observing of an external reality, so that your report accurately reflects that reality. By reporting objectively, the goal is that you be able to produce an observation that others, observing the same reality, can reproduce. There's nothing about objectivity that prohibits you from advocating on behalf of your results. In fact, putting your work up for peer review, and being able to defend it, is part of the scientific method that influenced the journalistic concept of objectivity. Every journalist advocates for their stories - anyone who thinks otherwise has never hung around an editor's desk or been to a front-page budget meeting. So advocacy's part of the job. And as journalism schools are supposed to be teaching their students how to advance their careers, they need to be teaching their students how to advocate for their work - whether that's getting an assignment approved, a freelance gig okayed, or a story onto P1 or into the first slot on the website's homepage.
benton.org/node/108406 | Online Journalism Review
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ZELL SUES TRIBUNE SHAREHOLDERS
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Steven Church]
Billionaire Sam Zell sued former shareholders of the bankrupt publisher Tribune Company, claiming he should be paid along with other creditors should a court rule the 2007 buyout he engineered was a fraud. The suit, filed by the Zell-controlled company EGI-TRB LLC, defends the buyout as legitimate while also attempting to preserve Zell’s ability to collect money should a court disagree. “If it is determined that the selling shareholder payments represent fraudulent conveyances, EGI-TRB is entitled to recover from such transfers or conveyances in an amount in excess of $225 million,” Zell’s attorneys said in court papers filed in state court in Chicago
benton.org/node/108426 | Bloomberg
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OWNERSHIP

NEW MEDIA OWNERSHIP PROPOSAL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Apparently, the Federal Communications Commission will propose on Dec 22 to scrap the radio-TV cross-ownership rules, but leave in place the radio and TV local market ownership caps and essentially preserve the FCC's attempted loosening of the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rules, which the FCC tried to do under Republican Chairman Kevin Martin. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) was being voted by the commissioners on circulation rather than waiting for the next public meeting, which means retiring Commissioner Michael Copps would be able to weigh in on an issue near and dear to his heart. A final order will likely be scheduled for that public vote sometime in the first part of next year, after a sufficient notice and comment period on the proposed changes. That is particularly important since a lack of sufficient notice was one of the reasons the Third Circuit Court of appeals gave for throwing out parts of the FCC's 2007 decision under then chairman Kevin Martin to loosen the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rules. While the NPRM basically reinstates the Martin plan of making combos between TV stations and newspapers in the top 20 markets presumptively in the public interest, it does put out for comment the Martin four-part test for determining whether such combos should be allowed and whether they should be the criteria. That test is "the extent to which the combination will increase the amount of local news in the market; whether each media outlet in the combination will exercise independent news judgment; the level of concentration in the DMA; and the financial condition of the newspaper or broadcast station, and whether the new owner plans to invest in newsroom operations if either outlet is in financial distress."
benton.org/node/108724 | Broadcasting&Cable
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HTC TO REMOVE FEATURE
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Tim Culpan]
HTC, Asia's second-biggest maker of smart phones, can tweak the technology in its handsets to avoid a U.S. trade agency ban. Dealing with the threat from Apple's and Samsung Electronics' new devices may prove tougher. The U.S. International Trade Commission said that, beginning in April, it would ban the sale of HTC phones that infringed an Apple patent on so-called data detection, such as touching a phone number or an address in an e-mail to dial or find the address on a map. HTC responded by saying it will remove the offending features from its phones. Keeping the handsets on the market solves HTC's immediate challenge after becoming the top selling vendor in the United States. Samsung's Galaxy Nexus and Apple's faster, Siri-enabled iPhone hit the market within the past quarter, posing a new threat to HTC's place in the $262 billion global mobile-phone market. The Taiwanese company is forecast to post its slowest annual sales growth and first profit decline since the 2009 economic crisis.
benton.org/node/108710 | Bloomberg
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COMSCORE-NIELSEN SETTLEMENT
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Joe Mandese]
Online audience measurement rivals comScore and Nielsen this morning announced a settlement of ongoing patent disputes, resulting in a “cross-licensing agreement,” and giving Nielsen $19 million in comScore stock. Under the terms of the settlement, the companies said that comScore will acquire ownership of the “four Nielsen families of patents,” which include a portfolio of both U.S. and international patents for online audience measurement methods. comScore, meanwhile, has granted Nielsen worldwide licenses for its “families of the four patents.” Both parties agreed not to bring any patent action against the other for the next three years.
benton.org/node/108411 | MediaPost
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA

REACTING TO NEGATIVE ADS
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Candidate-bashing advertising has already started in the 2012 election campaign – from the presidential race on down. In the Republican contest for the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, negative ads are already a hot issue in their own right. As they should be. By next fall, more than $1 billion could easily be spent on all types of campaign ads, with many of them slams at opponents. Campaign ads in 2012 will probably be more plentiful than at any time in the past. Any change in campaign-finance laws will require that voters rebel at the proliferation of super PACs, and especially negative ads. Voters need to wake up to an unspoken premise in such advertising – that Americans haven’t done their homework on issues and candidates. With Congress in the doghouse with voters – at 9 percent popularity – the time may be ripe for a voter backlash at the root of that distrust of lawmakers: influence-peddling by big monied groups. Both the “Occupy” movement and the tea party have helped raise the issue. As super PACs roll out their ads in coming months, the rest of America should also see through the ads to the purpose of the money that pays for them.
benton.org/node/108711 | Christian Science Monitor, The
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EDUCATION

MORE E-RATE FUNDING
[SOURCE: eSchool News, AUTHOR: ]
The federal E-Rate program, which helps schools and libraries connect to the internet, should receive more funding so that more schools and libraries can serve not only students, but community members as well, E-Rate compliance firm Funds For Learning wrote in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission. In an open letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, John Harrington, CEO of Funds For Learning, requests that the commission increase the available funding in the E-Rate program and invites E-Rate stakeholders and supporters to sign the online petition before it is delivered to the FCC in early 2012. In the letter, Harrington explains that schools and libraries, especially those in the nation’s poorer communities, rely on the E-Rate program as “the financial backbone that enables them to keep their sophisticated and expensive telecommunications networks up and running.”
benton.org/node/108423 | eSchool News
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FCC REFORM

FCC BACKLOG
[SOURCE: House of Representatives Commerce Committee]
As part of an ongoing effort by the House Commerce Committee to review and improve how the Federal Communications Commission operates, Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-FL) are requesting an update on the Commission’s backlog of petitions, complaints, and license applications. The committee last month released a report on the Workload of the FCC, which outlined the number of pending at items at the Commission based on July data. The chairmen wrote:
“There is growing consensus that Federal Communications Commission (FCC) processes need to be reformed. Under both Democratic and Republican chairmen, the FCC has fallen into practices that weaken decision-making and jeopardize public confidence. The data reported to the Committee on Energy and Commerce (Committee) in July 2011 demonstrated that there have been substantial improvements in the handling of the Commission’s workload since Chairman Genachowski joined the Commission. Nevertheless, the Commission still faces significant challenges in its work, including a significant backlog of unanswered petitions and unheard consumer complaints. For example, the Commission had 5,328 petitions, more than a million consumer complaints, and 4,185 license applications that had been sitting for more than two years as of July 2011. This letter seeks updated data regarding the FCC’s current workflow.”
benton.org/node/108445 | House of Representatives Commerce Committee
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PERSONALIZED FCC WEBSITE
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Joseph Marks]
Frequent visitors to the Federal Communications Commission website can now personalize the site's homepage by picking and choosing which elements they want to display. My.FCC.gov, which the FCC launched in a Beta testing version, has eight sample dashboards. Six of those dashboards are optimized for visitors from different industries such as wireless and broadcast. A seventh is designed for reporters and an eighth for consumers. Site visitors also can build their own My.FCC homepage by mixing and matching 22 different display widgets -- each corresponding with some major agency activity or publication. Users can install those widgets on a separate website where they'll be automatically updated as the FCC posts new content.
benton.org/node/108410 | nextgov
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December 2011

Broadcast TV: Still the medium of choice

5 Ways The Smartphone Market Evolved In 2011

SOPA Haters Are Already Finding Easy Ways To Circumvent Its Censorship

New Sun-Times will ramp up specialized content online

2011 is the Year of the Hacktivist, Verizon Report Suggests

Looking Back at 2011

Benton Editorial

Looking Back at 2011

What a difference a year doesn’t make

December 22, 2011 (New Media Ownership Proposal Expected Today)

Jacob Goldman, Founder of Xerox Lab, Dies at 90