January 2012

Google wants former lawmakers for lobbying gig

Internet giant Google Inc. has gone Washington. The tech company is looking to fill its top DC lobbyist slot with a former member of Congress — a classic Washington play.

Several names have been circulating on K Street for weeks — and former Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) is among the top contenders, according to several sources. Former Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) and former Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s (D-AR) names have also been floated. All three have gone into consulting or legal work since exiting Capitol Hill. The slot has been open since November, when Alan Davidson announced his departure, telling colleagues that he wanted to “explore other opportunities.” And filling the slot is a top priority, since the search giant is engaged in a lobbying battle royal over online piracy legislation that the company fears could dramatically change the online landscape. If Google does hire a former lawmaker, it would be a major tactical shift for the tech company, which made a practice of hiring tech policy experts when it opened its Washington office.

If You Pay For Cable, You're A Hostage Of Sports

[Commentary] For the many reasons that the Republican presidential debates have been so popular, the main one is simply that they're live. Happening right before our eyes. When Rick Perry says "Oops," he's saying it just as we're hearing it. Live. Wow: "Oops." This is why, whether you like sports or not — perhaps you'd desperately prefer NPR to have somebody else right now, talking about something really important, not sports — nonetheless, each month, you're charged about eight bucks on your cable bill for the privilege of not watching sports. Pay up for sports, or you don't get anything else you might want to watch on cable, un-live. It's where the money is. It's why professional leagues and teams and college conferences all now want to have their own cable networks. And it's why, last week, Comcast renamed one of its properties NBC Sports Network –– all sports, all day, all year — the better to try to get a larger share of what ESPN does. ESPN now collects an average of $4.69 for every cable home –– four times more than any other network. Throw in the various other ESPN channels, plus other sports networks –– like that new NBC Sports –– that your cable provider makes you pay for, and there's $8 for sports on your monthly bill. Or, as the CEO of Liberty Media describes it, "a tax on every American household."

Consumer Electronics Websites: Microsoft is Most Visited, but Apple has Longest Time Spent

Consumers are turning to a range of sources for consumer electronics information, with Microsoft leading as the most visited computer and consumer electronics brand online in September 2011.

Microsoft’s websites saw nearly 94 million unique U.S. visitors, according to Nielsen’s State of the Media: Consumer Usage Report. Among top brands in the category, consumers spent the most time on Apple’s websites, where 68.7 million visitors averaged one hour and two minutes per person, compared to 42 minutes on Microsoft’s sites. Adobe, Mozilla, and CNET rounded out the top five brands, with 24 to 28 million visitors going to their sites and spending 2 to 6 minutes each on average. CNET was the only news website among the top 5 in this category overall.

Everything Everywhere to sell spectrum in UK

Everything Everywhere, the combined UK operations of France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom, will in the next month begin a rare auction of spectrum that can be used for next generation mobile services in a process that could raise as much as £400 million ($619 million).

Everything Everywhere, which operates the Orange and T-Mobile brands in the UK, is in exclusive discussions to appoint Royal Bank of Scotland to oversee the process, according to people familiar with the plan. The sale mandate is expected to be confirmed next week, with plans to begin the sale shortly afterwards. Bankers with knowledge of the deal expect the sale to generate up to £400m, although one source said that it was difficult to gauge the exact price ahead of discussions with bidders. Everything Everywhere has been forced to sell some of its spectrum by European competition authorities after the merger of Orange and T-Mobile to create Britain’s largest mobile operator by subscribers. A share of the 1,800 MHz spectrum is regarded by industry specialists as valuable given it can be used for the provision of data services crucial to the future of the industry.

Cameron to call for more mainstream UK films

David Cameron will urge British film-makers to shift their focus from art house cinema to more mainstream movies in a bid to bolster the country’s £4 billion film industry.

The prime minister’s remarks, to be made during a visit to Pinewood studios, the spiritual home of British film-making, come just days before the publication of a review of government policy towards the industry by Lord Smith. Cameron is expected to call for more “commercially successful pictures” to rival those produced in Hollywood. This is likely to be at the expense of art house producers, or, in Cameron’s euphemistic phrase, “culturally rewarding” films.

China Targets Entertainment TV In Cultural Purge

According to new directives, China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) has cut almost 70 percent of entertainment shows from prime time, with 126 entertainment shows pruned down to just 38. Broadcasters are allowed to air only two entertainment shows a week, with a maximum of 90 minutes of entertainment daily between 7:30 and 10 p.m. Online there's been an outcry, with netizens decrying the killjoy moves as "doomsday for entertainment."

Can you say that on TV? The Supreme Court debates

In colorful give and take, the Supreme Court debated whether policing curse words and nudity on broadcast television makes sense in the cable era, one justice suggesting the policy is fast becoming moot as broadcast TV heads the way of "vinyl records and 8-track tapes."

The case involves programing that is available to all viewers free over the air — even though many now receive it through paid cable connections — during hours when children are likely to be watching. Some justices said they were troubled by inconsistent standards that allowed certain words and displays in some contexts but not in others. One example frequently cited by the networks was the Federal Communications Commission's decision not to punish ABC for airing "Saving Private Ryan," with its strong language, while objecting to the same words when uttered by celebrities on live awards shows. Justice Elena Kagan said the FCC policy was, "Nobody can use dirty words or nudity except Steven Spielberg," director of the World War II movie. Other justices seemed more open to maintaining the current rules because they allow parents to put their children in front of the television without having to worry they will be bombarded by vulgarity.

More From T-Mobile CEO: On Pricing, LTE and That Ever-Elusive iPhone

With the AT&T deal dead and no similar transaction in sight, T-Mobile CEO Philipp Humm has his work cut out for him. So just what is he going to do?

Well, some of the details are still being worked out. But Humm said a big part will be continuing with the “value plans” that the company introduced last year. Those plans, which offer lower monthly rates to those who forego a device subsidy, can indeed save many customers money, but they are also complicated to make sense of. “I think it’s more complicated because it means you separate out the handset from the rate plan,” Humm said. “On the other hand, it is more honest. It is a way for customers to optimize based on what they need.”

ICANN CEO: Cities, States Eager for New Top-Level Domains

Some of the greatest interest in the slate of new top-level Internet domain names set to be opened up has come from governments, the chief executive of the non-profit body that will oversee those new domains said. In some cases national governments are interested in new top-level domains that, for the first time in history, will be opened up to non-Latin scripts such as Chinese and Arabic, said Rod Beckstrom, CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Even more often, cities and states or provinces are eager for the chance to wield greater control over their Internet presences.

Twitter slams Google for search changes

Twitter slammed Google in a statement after the search giant announced it would begin highlighting its own social networking content in search results.

"As we’ve seen time and time again, news breaks first on Twitter; as a result, Twitter accounts and tweets are often the most relevant results," Twitter said. "We’re concerned that as a result of Google’s changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone. We think that’s bad for people, publishers, news organizations and Twitter users," the company said.

Benton

Search