April 2012

FCC official provides more details on possible broadcasting participants

Federal Communications Commission Media Bureau Chief William Lake gave a few more details on which broadcasters may participate in incentive auctions to make more spectrum available for wireless use, saying some stations have inquired about possibly sharing channels. Lake and media analyst Mark Fratrik, vice president of BIA Kelsey, also said that some investors have been buying up broadcast stations in recent years with the intent of offering their spectrum for auction as part of the proposal authorized by Congress in February.

Under the process, broadcasters that choose to participate will offer a bid for what it will take for them to give up all their spectrum and get out of the business, give up of their spectrum and share a channel with another broadcaster, or trade their UHF channel spectrum for a lower-quality VHF channel. "There are purchases of television stations in the most recent few years ...in anticipation of the auctions," Fratrik said at the National Association of Broadcasters annual show. "We've seen prices of television stations that were sold only two or three years earlier go up by several hundred percent in large markets...These tend to be independent stations that are obviously players on the reverse auctions. So I think you're having an impact already, and it's a positive one." But he added that there's still much uncertainty and concern among broadcasters about the "rules of the road" and how the repacking process will work, which will involve moving broadcast stations that plan to stay in business in order to create a chunk of spectrum that can be auctioned for wireless providers.

FCC ‘Unlikely’ to release Repacking Data

Are you among the broadcasters waiting for the results of the Federal Communications Commission’s computer analysis of various TV spectrum repacking scenarios? Get used to it. You may be waiting forever.

FCC Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake said that it is “probably unlikely” the agency would ever release the computer runs, although it has released the algorithm on which they are based. Lake suggested that the “test runs” were not meant for public consumption. “We have done many, many runs of [the algorithm]…. We will be trying to refine our approach to that as we move into the rulemaking.” Lake’s answer differs from the one he gave at last year’s NAB. Asked then when the FCC would release its analyses, he promised them in “a few months.”

At US Patent Office, Mobile Makes Up Nearly Quarter of Those Granted

By one estimate, nearly a quarter of all patents being granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are now going to mobile technologies, a concentration of innovation that shows why a company like Google would pay $12.5 billion for a treasure chest of patents like Motorola Mobility Holdings. Chetan Sharma, an independent consultant focused on the wireless industry, analyzed 7 million patents granted by the U.S. patent office and the European Patent Office for a new report examining how mobile technologies are changing the composition of intellectual property pursuits.

The DOJ's Publishing Lawsuit May Doom Digital Rights Management

In the days following the announcement of the U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit against publishers accused of colluding with Apple to raise e-book prices, much of the U.S. publishing industry decamped to the U.K. for the annual London Book Fair.

Not surprisingly, the suit was a major topic of conversation at cocktail parties and booths across the Earls Court Exhibition Centre—in particular speculation about whether the DOJ suit might finally push big publishers to consider easing their requirements for digital rights management (DRM), the controls that keep e-book readers from being able to pass a copy of a title on to a friend. Publishing-industry futurists -- individuals typically far removed from the real-world calculations being crunched in publishers’ accounting departments -- have long argued that the DRM requirements prevent small e-book retailers from entering the market and competing with the giant e-book distributors (read Amazon) and, in general, inhibiting e-book innovation. In London this year, says Lorraine Shanley of publishing consultancy Market Partners International, more mainstream publishing executives are talking seriously about ending DRM restrictions. “It would allow individual publishers much more flexibility with their own content and in making it available directly to consumers,” says Shanley. “And it would allow consumers to access content without getting locked into one device -- e.g. the Kindle.” Some analysts say that’s wishful thinking.

The future of Netflix isn’t just streaming — it’s original programming

Over the past several years, Netflix has gotten really good at licensing some serious TV content from major networks. But if the company’s latest moves are any indication of its future direction, Netflix could soon become a major player not just in content licensing, but content creation.

Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos took the stage at the National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas to give a preview of the streaming service’s upcoming slate of original programming. It was an interesting moment. After all, here’s the guy who has spent the last several years making nice with cable and broadcast networks, writing big checks for their content. Now, he’s showing that Netflix is seeking to become a bit of a competitor with the very same networks and studios that it currently sources content from. But if Netflix ends up competing for a greater share of viewers’ attention with its streaming offering, it’s only fair, Sarandos posited. After all, the increasing number of TV Everywhere apps and services are starting to encroach on its turf, he reminded the audience.

Why Facebook Could Beat Google

[Commentary] Facebook has set itself up to take on Google in a big way. It’s the hackers at Facebook against the engineers at Google -- and the hackers have a really good shot at winning. Here’s why.

Identity -- Facebook has the potential to succeed where OpenID failed. With Facebook Platform and the huge benefits companies like Fab.com and Spotify have seen from building on the Open Graph, I only see more Web sites giving you the chance to login via Facebook. Facebook could easily become your default identity online.
Social Search -- Right now, Facebook is killing Google in terms of self-reported knowledge. Sure Google knows what I search for or what emails I get, but it doesn’t know what I actually like and don’t like. It seems a much easier leap for Facebook to expand into search based on socially-relevant results than for Google to get the information I’ve already given to Facebook on Google+. Facebook already has the filter and the data is easier to acquire.
Location and Mobile -- Facebook now has Instagram in its back pocket for mobile photos and the recently acquired Gowalla team working on location. Layer Instagram on search within Facebook and tie it with location, and I’ve got the chance to see pictures from friends of their meal at a local restaurant, at their favorite vacation spot and all sorts of other random activities that are the backbone of mobile photography. Couple that with check-ins, tips and reviews on a newly revamped location platform and Facebook becomes so useful you can’t even think about taking it off your smartphone.

Online Advertising Hits $31.7 Billion In 2011

Internet ad spending grew 22% in 2011 to $31.7 billion, according to the latest data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. That growth rate tops last year’s 14.5%, indicating digital advertising continues to ramp up after a recession-induced setback in 2009.

For the fourth quarter of 2011, online ad spending hit nearly $9 billion, up 20.4% from a year ago, and 14.7% from the third quarter. The IAB said mobile advertising -- which it began tracking in 2010 for the first time -- was the fastest-growing category in 2011, jumping 149% to $1.6 billion from $641 million in 2010. Mobile also doubled from 2.5% to 5% of total online ad dollars this year. Digital video advertising, which the IAB includes as part of display advertising, saw strong growth as well, rising 29% from $1.4 billion to $1.8 billion. Overall, display spending rose 15% in 2011 from $9.6 billion to $11.1 billion. Search advertising enjoyed even bigger gains, growing 27% from $11.7 billion to $14.8 billion. It continued to make up the largest proportion of online ad spend: at 46.5%, up from 44.8% in 2010. That increase came at the expense of display, which declined from 37% in 2010 to 34.8% last year.

NBC’s London Olympics strategy: If it moves, stream it

Rick Cordella, VP and GM of NBC Sports Digital Media, revealed that his company will for the first time stream live each and every event during the London Olympic Games in July and August.

This is a ramp-up in commitment from the conglomerate’s strategy for 2008′s Beijing Olympics, during which NBCUniversal streamed 25 sports live but held back popular events like swimming, track & field and diving that were shown in prime time. Two years ago for the Vancouver Olympics, NBC only streamed hockey and curling live. This time around, the NBC Sports Group — newly formed under corporate parent Comcast — will stream prime-time events, too. However, viewers wishing to see archived footage of these events will have to wait until their prime-time presentations on U.S. television are complete.

Colorado launches $130 million broadband project

Colorado officials announced the launch of a $130 million broadband project that will help provide high-speed Internet access for schools, libraries, healthcare facilities and government offices statewide.

The 4,600-mile fiber-optic network is scheduled to be completed in August 2013. Led by intergovernmental agency Eagle-Net, the network will serve as the "middle mile" connection. Last mile connections will be provided by companies such as Comcast and CenturyLink or other partners selected by participating organizations. The project will be funded by a $100.6 million federal grant from the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program and $30 million in matching funds and services from private and public entities throughout Colorado.

Facebook's Telescope on Human Behavior

A Q&A with Facebook Data Team Leader Cameron Marlow.

One way to describe Facebook is as the most extensive data set on human social behavior that ever was. Every month more than 845 million people record and share traces of their daily lives, relationships, and online activity through their friend connections, messages, photos, check-ins, and clicks. The richness of that information goes some way to explain why the company is expected to become worth more than $80 billion when it floats on the stock market later this year. One research group inside Facebook, known as the Data Team, is tasked with the challenge of mathematically sifting through that data to look for patterns that explain the how and why of human social interactions. The people who do that, mostly PhDs with research experience in computer and social sciences, look for insights that will help Facebook tune its products, but have also begun to publish their findings in the scientific community. Marlow likens what they do to building a telescope, saying that the techniques they develop will transform scientific understanding of human behavior in the same way that astronomy transformed our understanding of the cosmos. Technology Review's computing editor, Tom Simonite, met with Marlow at Facebook's offices to hear about what the company's data science can uncover.

Benton

Search