July 2012

ESPN Grabs Political Football

Get ready for more political ads to appear on "SportsCenter" this fall.

ESPN has come up with a way to sell a bigger portion of its ad time to political campaigns. The sports network has struck a deal with a middleman that will result in more political ads appearing on ESPN programs, including NFL and college football games, in October and November—the critical period before the general election. There is "great demand" for ad time from "political parties and the super-PACs," said Ed Erhardt, ESPN's president of global customer marketing and sales. While cable has drawn an increasing share of viewers and overall television advertising over the past couple of decades, political advertising has remained primarily on broadcast TV. That's because cable networks are mostly national outlets, while most political ads are sold locally. And local TV ad time is more readily available on broadcast TV stations, including those affiliated with national networks. Cable networks give up a couple of minutes an hour to cable operators, who then sell the time to local advertisers. But cable in recent years has promoted its ability to target geographically more narrowly than broadcast TV. And increased ratings have helped cable win more political ad dollars. Cable is expected to draw about 14% of TV political ad spending this year.

Eight in 10 Swing-State Voters Have Seen Campaign Ads

Voters in 12 key presidential election swing states have already been exposed to a large dose of campaign advertising, with 82% reporting having seen a campaign ad on television, compared with 62% of non-swing-state voters.

At the same time, swing-state voters are no more likely than non-swing-state voters to say they have been contacted by one of the campaigns or to have been an active participant in the campaign. The results are based on the most recent USA Today/Gallup Swing States poll, conducted June 22-29. The swing-state survey interviews voters in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin -- the 12 states whose results are most likely to decide the election, and where much of the campaign activity is likely to be focused. The lack of difference in campaign contact could change closer to the election, as the campaigns focus their efforts on getting out the vote in the swing states, particularly in the final days of the campaign. Now the campaigns may be focusing more on fundraising, and their efforts in that regard would not need to focus on a limited number of states crucial to deciding the electoral vote outcome. Within the swing states, Obama and Romney voters report roughly equal levels of campaign contact (37% and 36%, respectively) and campaign activity (13% and 11%).

Life’s Too Short for So Much E-Mail

[Commentary] Last year, Royal Pingdom, which monitors Internet usage, said that in 2010, 107 trillion e-mails were sent. A report this year from the Radicati Group, a market research firm, found that in 2011, there were 3.1 billion active e-mail accounts in the world. The report noted that, on average, corporate employees sent and received 105 e-mails a day. Sure, some of those e-mails are important. But 105 a day? All of this has led me to believe that something is terribly wrong with e-mail. What’s more, I don’t believe it can be fixed. I’ve tried everything. Priority mail, filters, more filters, filters within filters, away messages, third-party e-mail tools. None of these supposed solutions work. Last year, I decided to try to reach In-box Zero, the Zen-like state of a consistently empty in-box. I spent countless hours one evening replying to neglected messages. I woke up the next morning to find that most of my replies had received replies, and so, once again, my in-box was brimming. It all felt like one big practical joke.

Converting TV Laughs Into Dollars

Given the changing landscape of the television business, the Comedy Central channel has decided it now makes sense to sell T-shirts as well as laughs. Not to mention DVDs, concert tickets, books, coffee mugs and whatever else the network’s newly created enterprises division can conceive of in the effort to extend and solidify its brand. “It’s not just about what’s on the TV screen anymore,” said Michele Ganeless, Comedy Central’s president. The network will announce this week that it is establishing a business division, Comedy Central Enterprises, intended to cash in on its identity as a destination for comedy.

European Parliament rejects ACTA

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), was rejected by the European Parliament on July 4, and hence cannot become law in the European Union.

This was the first time that Parliament exercised its Lisbon Treaty power to reject an international trade agreement. 478 MEPs voted against ACTA, 39 in favor, and 165 abstained. While debating whether to give its consent to ACTA, Parliament experienced unprecedented direct lobbying by thousands of EU citizens who called on it to reject ACTA, in street demonstrations, e-mails to MEPs and calls to their offices. Parliament also received a petition, signed by 2.8 million citizens worldwide, urging it to reject the agreement. ACTA was negotiated by the EU and its member states, the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Switzerland to improve the enforcement of anti-counterfeiting law internationally. Wednesday's vote means that neither the EU nor its individual member states can join the agreement.

NAB Files Motion to Block FCC Political Ad Rule

The National Association of Broadcasters filed a motion on July 3 in federal court to stop a Federal Communications Commission rule requiring television stations to post information online about political ad spending. The FCC said earlier on Tuesday that the rule, which it adopted in April, will go into effect Aug. 2. In response, the NAB filed a stay with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to keep the rule from going into effect.

Google Sued For Misappropriating Trade Secrets

Google has been sued for allegedly copying portions of its video chat platform from the company Be In, which offers its own video chat program, CamUp. Be In alleges in its complaint, filed in federal court in San Jose (CA), that Google misappropriated trade secrets, infringed copyright in the audiovisual elements of CamUp's site and violated the Lanham Act.

3 other papers besides Chicago Tribune identify false bylines in Journatic stories

Three more newspapers said that hyperlocal content provider Journatic used false bylines on a number of stories they have published, both in print and online. The San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle and Chicago Sun-Times joined the Chicago Tribune in identifying the use of aliases in stories produced by Journatic, an ethics breach prompting growing concern as more newspapers outsource content.

"We've produced lots of stories in lots of places and we've since decided we're going to go in and look at every byline we've ever done," Journatic co-founder and CEO Brian Timpone said. Journatic's use of false bylines came to light during a national radio broadcast during the weekend. "This American Life," which is produced by Chicago public radio station WBEZ-FM, included a segment on aliases in several Journatic-produced stories that ran this year on TribLocal websites, prompting an investigation by the Tribune. That review is under way and expected to wrap up within the next week, according to executives.

Ex-Commerce Secretary Won't Be Charged In Hit-Run

Prosecutors declined to file criminal charges against former U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson, saying a seizure caused a bizarre series of traffic collisions that led to his resignation.

Bryson's Lexus struck a car on June 9 that was stopped for a train in San Gabriel. He spoke briefly with the three occupants then hit the car again as he departed, police said. Bryson then rammed another vehicle in a neighboring city a few minutes later. He was found unconscious in his vehicle. The Commerce Department said at the time that Sec Bryson had a "limited recall of the events" and had not suffered any previous seizures. Bryson, 68, was cited by police for felony hit-and run, and tests revealed he didn't have any alcohol or drugs in his system. Low amounts of Ambien were found in his bloodstream, but investigators couldn't determine if the sleep aid was a factor in the collisions. "Both treating doctors agree that suspect was suffering from confusion following a seizure and crashed as a result," court documents say. "Based on doctors' opinions there is insufficient evidence to show knowing failure to provide personal information for hit-and-run."

Commerce Department Awards Contract for Management of Key Internet Functions to ICANN

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration awarded the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions contract to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The IANA functions are key technical services critical to the continued operations of the Internet's underlying address book, the Domain Name System (DNS).

Last year, in anticipation of the contract's expiration, NTIA consulted with Internet stakeholders, both domestic and international, on how best to enhance the performance of these services. Based on input from the global community, NTIA added new requirements. Those include a clear separation between the policy development associated with the IANA services, and implementation by the IANA functions contractor; a robust company-wide conflict of interest policy; a heightened respect for local national law; and a series of consultation and reporting requirements to increase transparency and accountability. The process used over the last year, and the resulting new contract requirements, are tailored to ensure respect for the relevant global multistakeholder policy processes. This is consistent with NTIA's belief that the multistakeholder model is the most effective way to address Internet issues, and further internationalizes the IANA functions.

The IANA Functions include: (1) the coordination of the assignment of technical Internet protocol parameters; (2) the administration of certain responsibilities associated with the Internet DNS root zone management; (3) the allocation of Internet numbering resources; and (4) other services related to the management of the ARPA and INT top-level domains (TLDs).

The current IANA contract expires on September 30, 2012. The period of performance for the contract announced today is October 1, 2012 - September 30, 2015, with two separate two-year option periods for a total contract period of seven years.

Benton

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