May 2012

Sony: Internet video service on hold due to Comcast data cap

An executive from Sony said that concerns about Comcast's discriminatory data cap are giving the firm second thoughts about launching an Internet video service that would compete with cable and satellite TV services.

In March, Comcast announced that video streamed to the Xbox from Comcast's own video service would be exempted from the cable giant's 250 GB monthly bandwidth cap. Sony's Michael Aragon was speaking at the Variety Entertainment and Technology Summit. Aragon reportedly said Sony was "waiting on clarity" about whether regulators would allow Comcast to exempt its own video services from the broadband cap. "These guys have the pipe and the bandwidth," he said. "If they start capping things, it gets difficult."

How Will the Murdoch Implosion Be Felt in the US?

[Commentary] A scathing report in Britain that Rupert Murdoch and other News Corp. executives engaged in a cover-up of "rampant law breaking" may have ramifications for the media mogul in the United States.

How far-reaching those consequences are depends on U.S. politicians' willingness to face down one of the most powerful media figures of our generation. But chinks in Murdoch's armor have deepened since Tuesday, when a U.K. government investigation found that News Corp. executives hacked private phone messages, bribed government officials and then sought to conceal this wrongdoing, in part by giving misleading testimony to British law enforcement and Parliament. Congressional hearings in the U.S. could bring to light even more misdeeds by a company that thinks itself too big to fail -- or be held accountable before the law.

TV Ads May Encourage Underage Drinking

Minors who are familiar with TV alcohol ads are more likely to have tried alcoholic beverages and binge drink than those who do not recall seeing such ads, according to a study presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Boston.

The study shows a link between recognition of nationally televised alcohol ads and underage drinking initiation and heavier use patterns, said lead author Susanne E. Tanski, assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Children's Hospital at Dartmouth, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Previous research by Tanski and her colleagues showed an association between seeing smoking and drinking in movies and adolescents engaging in these risky behaviors. This study expanded on those findings by exploring whether there is an association between exposure to TV alcohol ads and substance use.

In a Better Place with Telework

Several federal agencies used this year’s Telework Week event as a way to test their business continuity plans, and many of those plans proved to be in a better place than they were one year ago. According to figures released by Telework Exchange, 71 percent of organizations participating in Telework Week, which ran March 5-9, noted improved continuity of operations as a main benefit of the event, a 19 percent increase over last year.

Why cable should bank on broadband and thank Netflix

With initiatives like TV Everywhere and broadband usage caps, is the cable industry biting the hands of the streaming video companies that are driving its most vibrant prospect for growth? Now that Time Warner Cable, AT&T and Verizon have kicked off the latest round of quarterly earnings reports by multi-channel operators late last month — a series that continues Wednesday when Comcast releases its first-quarter numbers — a case can be made that the cable industry has a better future in providing broadband services rather than TV/video bundles. And they have Netflix and YouTube to thank for that.

Judge stays e-book class action case against two publishers

Publishers Hachette and HarperCollins slipped further away from the class action lawyer who wants them to pay over an alleged e-book price-fixing conspiracy. In an order signed in New York federal court, Justice Denise Cote ruled that the class action could be halted on the grounds that the publishers are close to a consumer restitution settlement with state governments.

What this means in practice is that the class action lawyers will be frozen out because the state governments’ deal trumps the consumer class action. In a letter to Justice Cote, lead class action lawyer Steve Berman said the court should only suspend part of the proceedings because many states might not take part in the agreement. He also said the two publishers should have to share documents related to the Justice Department’s antitrust investigation, but the judge’s order means that will not happen for now. The two publishers, for their part, have entered a memorandum of understanding with several states, and have suggested a deal with all 50 states is imminent. The publishers would likely have to pay millions under a settlement, but it would allow them to escape the class action proceedings and avoid the risk of a jury award that could be even higher.

Europe’s digital chief hopes France can liberalize digital copyright

The lawmaker leading Europe’s digital agenda initiatives is hoping France can liberalize its digital copyright regime, after introducing a policy to warn and disconnect illegal content downloaders.

France’s Hadopi public agency, created to administer sending of warnings to alleged freeloaders, sent 755,015 first warnings to ISP subscribers in its first 14 months of operation. But now it is also conducting a review of whether France’s underpinning copyright law itself needs some technical reform. European Commission digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes says she discovered the review, which she calls a “pioneering work,” “with pleasure” because: “Combating piracy is not done only by coercive measures. You are all, in fact, aware that I am not a fan of measures that punish individuals or families by cutting off internet access. The best way to combat piracy is to encourage the legal supply to satisfy the legitimate expectations of users. . So we must be very ambitious when it comes to creating a regulatory framework that promotes the development of legal offers online.”

Time Warner’s CEO: “Hulu authenticating makes sense”

Hulu should require viewers to have a cable subscription, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes suggested in an investor call following the company’s Q1 2012 earnings report.

“We think Hulu authenticating makes sense,” he added. “We think Hulu is heading in the right direction now and it might continue to be viable.” Bewkes was responding to a question on rumors that Hulu will start requiring users to prove that they have a cable TV subscription before using its service. HBO Go is having “a significant positive impact” on Time Warner’s business and 93 percent of users say Go makes them more loyal to HBO, Bewkes said. Consumers using HBO Go are watching HBO more than they used to, Bewkes said, and HBO Go will launch on more platforms soon — it will “become widely accessible on connected TVs.” Microsoft’s Xbox Live added HBO Go in March.

Remember the Telephone

If writers, academics, and observers of all stripes are concerned about the effects social media are having on society, they're hardly the first to worry about the changes wrought by a new technology.

Pretty much any disruptive technology is met with a now-familiar cycle of dismissal, "grandiose pronouncements," and gradual adoption, explains Tom Vanderbilt, and for a fine telling of what this has looked like historically, turn to his story of the telephone's early life in the new issue of the Wilson Quarterly. Yet despite its "seemingly transformative nature," the telephone, Vanderbilt writes, is rather understudied. There is not a single scholarly publication devoted in its entirety to the phone. The parallels between its early years and our own nascent Internet age go unremarked. "Even the mobile phone, arguably, is more scrutinized for its computer-like texting functions than its influence on our vocal communication."

NBC Says Its Stations Will “Significantly Increase” Investigative Reporting

NBC Owned Television Stations President Valari Staab says that the stations are hiring additional reporters, creating special units to handle big stories, and developing sections at their Web sites to highlight the journalists’ work. “This continued emphasis on local reporting deepens our strong commitment to our communities,” she said. The company says that stations in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Bay Area, Washington, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Connecticut already have dedicated sections on their Internet sites featuring investigative work. They’ll be added soon to NBC’s three other stations in Los Angeles, Miami, and San Diego.

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