August 2012

FCC Accelerates Digital Cable Rollout by Moving to Eliminate Unnecessary Regulatory Barriers

The Federal Communications Commission adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) proposing to modernize and reform its cable television technical rules, facilitating the cable industry’s widespread transition from analog to digital transmission systems. The proposed rules reflect the Commission’s ongoing commitment to regulatory reform and will permit the industry to utilize their existing spectrum more efficiently, while also ensuring good quality signals for digital cable customers and will protect against digital signal leakage.

The NPRM proposes to update the Commission’s signal quality rules, which were established when analog technology was predominant and digital technology was nascent. The proposed revision will streamline compliance for operators of digital cable systems. The NPRM also proposes to modernize the Commission’s cable signal leakage rules that were also designed with analog systems in mind. The proposed revision will protect the spectrum used for aeronautical communication and navigation services from interference by cable signal leaks, while enabling digital operators to more efficiently use their systems. Finally, the NPRM proposes a number of minor technical revisions, and seeks comment on any other technical changes necessary to bring the Commission’s cable rules into the 21st century.

FTC Announces Appointments to Agency Leadership Positions

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz announced four appointments to leadership positions in the agency. Andrew I. Gavil will join the FTC from Howard University School of Law and serve as Director of the Office of Policy Planning (OPP), and Steven M. Bellovin, from Columbia University, will become Chief Technologist. William H. Efron became Director of the FTC's Northeast Regional Office in June. Richard M. Brunell will join the agency from the American Antitrust Institute as Senior Advisor for Competition Matters.

Professor Bellovin will advise the agency on evolving technology and policy issues. He has taught computer science at Columbia since 2005. During more than 20 years at Bell Labs and AT&T Labs Research, he focused on network security firewalls, protocol failures, routing security, and cryptographic protocols. Bellovin is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a B.A. from Columbia University. On September 4, 2012, he will replace Edward W. Felten, who is returning to Princeton University and will consult for the FTC.

The Biggest Night in $1.3B Presidential Ad Race? Eagles vs. Saints on ESPN

Of the $1.1 billion in broadcast TV ad spending and $200 million in local cable ad spend that Kantar Media's CMAG now expects to see in the presidential race, we're nowhere close to the halfway mark.

This $1.3 billion estimate assumes no further expansion of the battlefield, currently consisting of eight states plus lower-level bipartisan skirmishing in Pennsylvania and Republican forays into Michigan and Wisconsin. The estimate will rise if any of these three states become as competitive as the Great Eight, or shrink if any of the 11 drop off the list. If the 2012 air war has lacked major milestones, big-event advertising and government oversight until now, you'll see all of the above as we transition to late summer and the all-important fall. Every "watch list" item previewed below bears the stamp of the unprecedented nature of this air war: more money flowing from more deep-pocketed advertisers into fewer markets, resulting in prohibitively priced inventory.

If you're a retailer or bank that relies on local spot advertising, your agency presumably has prepped for the months ahead, but even the most experienced agencies may not have anticipated six months ago that $1.3 billion in presidential advertising alone would be squeezed into -- at this writing -- just 67 DMAs.

AUGUST 2: That crack in the planet you just heard was the sound of 200 TV stations posting their political ad sales on the Federal Communications Commission's website for anyone to see -- including CMOs and agencies for non-political advertisers.
AUGUST 3: In an air war that is almost entirely focused on economic issues, the release of any new economic data, such as the July jobs report, becomes potential ammo for ads.
AUGUST 12: The Olympics end.
AUGUST 27-30 AND SEPTEMBER 4-6: In the "old" days, say 2004, when the conventions were held in July and August, the start of the Republican confab would mean some ratcheting down of Democratic TV advertising and vice-versa. But with the 2012 conventions taking place within 71 days of Election Day, all advertisers will keep at full throttle.
SEPTEMBER 5: Romney's exponentially larger ad budget will in fact be one of the three most significant events of the fall air war, but it's just the precursor to the other two: the start of regular season football and the lowest unit rate.
SEPTEMBER 7: The third shake-up of the fall occurs on Sept. 7 when the lowest unit rate kicks in, 60 days out from Election Day.
OCTOBER 3-22: TV news executives have been unable to halt the increasing use of their footage and anchors in campaign ads. There's no reason to think the campaigns won't "borrow" clips from the three presidential debates slated for October if that usage will give them some sort of advantage.
OCTOBER 24: The World Series isn't football, and viewership does depend somewhat on the line-up, but the Series and the preceding division and league championships nevertheless draw big live audiences of a key demographic.
NOVEMBER 2: Advertisers will have five days to make hay of the October jobs report.
NOVEMBER 6: Some stations used to refuse to sell political advertising on Election Day, believing it was tacky.

Leaked: US proposal on copyright's limits

A few short paragraphs of text were leaked that revealed something of the terms on fair use being negotiated in secret by the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The TPP is a treaty currently being negotiated by nine Pacific Rim countries seeking to establish a new free-trade agreement on many issues, including intellectual property. The next negotiating round is set for early September in Leesburg, Virginia.

FCC Launches Computer Recycling/Donation Program

The Federal Communications Commission and its Connect2Compete public private partnership are launching a computer recycling and donation drive. Redemtech, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and the Latin American Youth Center are partnering in the effort to get broadband into the hands of more low-income families.

CWA Slams Verizon/SpectrumCo Deal It Suggests Is Imminent

The Communications Workers of America signaled August 3 it thought regulators were poised to approve the Verizon/SpectrumCo deal.

"Regulators looking to slam the door on our high-speed future," the group headlined a release slamming both the Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice for "seem[ing] to have lost their focus on competition" on a deal they suggested was imminent. An FCC spokesman said no decision has been made, but the general read in Washington communications policy circles is that the deal will be approved, likely with conditions -- preventing Verizon from selling Comcast in its FiOS footprint -- and likely within the next month. That is based on the fact that the deal frees up wireless spectrum currently laying fallow -- something that the FCC is trying to do in other areas -- and involves a spectrum sale rather than a merger of companies, though the attendant cross-marketing agreements have deal critics concerned it will be a merging of interests that discourages competition. CWA sounded like the deal had already been done.

FCC Chairman Lobbies Pentagon for More Spectrum

At a press conference on August 3, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski said on that he is personally lobbying the military to help free more airwaves for private companies. He has recently taken to working with Pentagon officials on plans that would provide more spectrum to companies and help the military manage its resources. "I do see the potential for win-win solutions," Chairman Genachowski said. Direct, high-level engagement with the Pentagon, he said, increases the likelihood that a compromise can be worked out.

How AT&T can create a fat nationwide 4G pipe to match Verizon’s

AT&T’s LTE rollout plans are a bit of a hodgepodge. The problem is spectrum. It never managed to piece together the licenses to form a consistent nationwide 4G band like that owned by archrival Verizon. Instead AT&T cobbled together 700 MHz licenses here and Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) licenses there. The result is a network that already has some big capacity shortfalls in key markets and could eventually have gaps in coverage.

But AT&T is trying to rectify that situation by tapping spectrum in the most unexpected places. AT&T announced its intentions to buy spectrum squatter NextWave and its big hunk of Wireless Communications Services (WCS) spectrum. Shortly afterward it filed notice with the FCC that it plans to pick up smaller WCS holdings from Comcast and Horizon Wi-Com. UBS Investment Research analyst John Hodulik believes AT&T is now approaching Sprint, which is the last remaining WCS licensee of note. Hodulik said in a research note that those deals will give AT&T almost exclusive ownership of the WCS band, which ultimately would allow it to deploy a 20 MHz LTE network nationwide. Getting all those licenses is key to AT&T’s strategy otherwise WCS will remain useless for mobile broadband services, as it has for the last 15 years. Interference problems with the neighboring satellite radio services have made the band a no-man’s land for terrestrial cellular technologies. But a compromise between Sirius XM Radio and AT&T would solve the problem.

Google records show book scanning was aimed at Amazon

Google has so far spent more than $180 million on book scanning and, at the outset of the project, one of its stated goals was to keep web searchers away from Amazon. These are among the details set out in a new court filing by the Authors Guild, which is locked in a long-running case over the search giant’s decision to digitize libraries.

The filing points to internal Google documents in an attempt to show that the scanning was an overtly commercial project, and that the scanning was not a fair use as Google is claiming. In a 2003 internal Google presentation described in the filing, the company stated “[we want web searchers interested in book content to come to Google not Amazon.” As annotated by the Authors’ Guild, the 2003 Google presentation also said “[e]verything else is secondary … but make money.” (The presentation was filed under seal so the context of the remark is unclear).

Unintended Consequences of FTC's New COPPA Children's Online Privacy Rules

[Commentary] The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a revised set of proposed rules (PDF) regarding the implementation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). As I understand it, these rules apply to information that is being collected for the purposes of advertising or marketing -- not information necessary to maintain a network or offer a service. And it's only for sites that are specifically aimed at children (or aimed at both children and adults) but not sites that don't allow children.

Facebook, for example, requires users to state their date of birth and does not allow users who's stated birth date indicates that they're under 13. Of course, it's possible to lie about one's age, which is why Consumer Reports estimates that 5.6 million of Facebook's users are under 13. There have been stories in the news that Facebook may open its membership to kids under 13, but the company has not confirmed its intention to do that and, as of now, remains available only to people 13 and older. It's unclear whether these rules would apply to Facebook apps and plug-ins, including those that put Facebook's "Like" button on sites. Notwithstanding that some kids lie about their age, any site that requires a user to sign-in via Facebook is certifying that that person claims to be 13 or older based on Facebook's terms of service.

Benton

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