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October 2012

Google News wars are here again: Schmidt vs France on ‘news tax’

France has set Google a year’s-end deadline for agreeing to voluntarily pay news publishers — or it may legislate that it must pay a levy for the privilege. Google chairman Eric Schmidt met French president François Hollande at the Elysée, which, in a statement, says:

“(Hollande) stressed that dialogue and negotiation between partners seemed, to him, the best way – but, if necessary, a law could intervene on this issue, as with the current project in Germany. The development of the digital economy calls for an adaptation in taxation in order to better understand the value of sharing and funding the creation of content.”

A unified policy from Europe’s two big axes, France and Germany, against Google’s view — that it crawls news stories but publishes only excerpts – could be a big problem for Mountain View.

It's Political Season - Where's The Remote?

This year, candidates, PAC groups and “issue” advertising are expected to account for $3 billion. Yes, that’s billion. With a “B.” And, several sources say Americans will be bombarded with up to 4,500 messages each DAY in the last 30 days of the election cycle. Just the other night, every single commercial break in prime time was filled with competitive election ads. Many for candidates I’ve never heard of. So is it worth it? How can an average person make sense of so many messages simultaneously? The human brain can only process a limited number of messages; and the more commitment required by consumers, the more targeted advertising needs to be. Most mass marketing of political candidates appears to stem from a “spray and pray” mentality. If I shout louder than my competitor, I'll win. That argument used to hold water. But today, people are multitasking more during viewing and thus have more ways than ever before to tune out.

Political ads make a run for the border

In the race for the presidency, the little guy is winning -- at least among Minnesota broadcasters trying to profit from campaign commercials. While a record-breaking $3.3 billion is expected to be spent nationwide on political ads this season, relatively little of that cash is flowing into the Twin Cities TV market. But it's boom times for Minnesota stations in smaller markets along the borders of battleground states Wisconsin and Iowa.

Campaigns have spent less than expected in the Twin Cities because President Obama appears to have a sizable lead in the metro, said Rob Hubbard, general manager of KSTP, Ch. 5. "TV advertising is not going to make someone a 40-point winner, but in close races, TV ads can swing things a percent or two," he said. Unfortunately for Hubbard, only 4 percent of his audience lives in hotly contested Wisconsin. That helps explain why Twin Cities TV stations have collected a relatively modest $3 million from commercials supporting either Obama or Mitt Romney, according to data from the Campaign Media Analysts Group and interpreted by the Washington Post.

David Cohen may be Comcast’s secret weapon, but in D.C. he’s a wonk rock star

In fall 2009, Comcast planned to launch an Internet service for the poor that was sure to impress federal regulators. But David Cohen, the company’s chief of lobbying, told the staff to wait. At the time, Comcast was planning a controversial $30 billion bid to take over NBC Universal, and Cohen needed a bargaining chip for government negotiations. “I held back because I knew it may be the type of voluntary commitment that would be attractive to the chairman” of the Federal Communications Commission, Cohen said.

The strategy was quintessential Cohen. The hard-charging 56-year-old veteran of Philadelphia politics and Democratic campaign bundler is Comcast’s chief dealmaker in Washington. In Cohen’s decade at the company, Comcast has ballooned in size through a series of mergers that he has steered through government approvals. Today, with $58 billion in annual revenue, Philadelphia-based Comcast is the nation’s biggest provider of broadband Internet and cable television and the owner of network television programs, a movie studio and broadcast stations across the country. Any company doing business in media or technology crosses paths with Comcast and usually comes with hat in hand, eager to reach the cable giant’s 22 million customers.

October 30, 2012 (Hurricane Sandy)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2012


EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
   US Satellite Plans Falter, Imperiling Data on Storms
   FEMA, WH send storm victims to Internet
   Hurricane Sandy and the power of social media
   Media, Advertisers See Online Sandy Surge
   Internet, Phone Companies Brace for Hurricane Sandy [links to web]
   Cellphone carriers prepare for outages [links to web]
   Cell phone carriers brace for Hurricane Sandy [links to web]
   Cable Operators Brace For Sandy [links to web]
   Hurricane Sandy Blows Up Digital Storm [links to web]
   Stations Improvise to Cover Massive Sandy [links to web]
   As Sandy Takes Its Time, TV News Is an Endless Loop of Anticipation [links to web]
   Seven Years After Katrina, FCC Still Fails to Make Sure Everyone Receives Lifesaving Information in an Emergency - analysis

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Administration defends Bush-era surveillance law before high court

MEDIA & ELECTIONS
   Presidential Election: From Net Neutrality to Piracy, The Issues Keeping Hollywood Up at Night
   Hollywood Votes With Its Wallet: Obama Holds 16-1 Advantage in Fund-Raising [links to web]
   Political Ads: Do Minority Media Outlets Benefit? - op-ed
   Political Affiliation Becomes Ad Targeting Data Point [links to web]
   You Don’t Need Wealthy Donors to Run a Campaign: How NationBuilder is Making Sure Every Vote Counts [links to web]
   Ace Metrix Scores Most Effective Ads of Election [links to web]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Is U.S. broadband fast enough? Let the market decide - op-ed

CONTENT
   Google Signs Deal With Warner Music Group [links to web]
   Advocacy Groups Argue Against Shutting Down Aereo [links to web]
   A new wrinkle in interactive TV [links to web]

ADVOCACY
   Why The Technology Industry Must Get Involved In Government - op-ed

EDUCATION
   In Seattle, Virtual University Will Have a Physical Campus, Too [links to web]

JOURNALISM
   Lance Armstrong shows why the disruption in journalism matters [links to web]

OWNERSHIP
   Chairman Leibowitz says FTC open to settling Google case [links to web]
   Do book publishers deserve special treatment? Antitrust experts say no [links to web]
   Liberty Proceeds With Telenet Deal Amid Valuation Dispute [links to web]

ADVERTISING
   Fake Social Profile Info Impedes Ad Targeting [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   UK's first 4G mobile service launched in 11 cities by EE [links to web]
   Benefits of 4G overstated, says report
   Afghanistan telecom sector evolves after decades of conflict [links to web]

MORE ONLINE
   Inside Apple's major shakeup [links to web]
   Apple: 'From a tech titan into a dinosaur' -- but not for a year [links to web]
   Justices Weigh Case on Imported Textbooks [links to web]

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EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

US SATELLITE SYSTEM
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: John Cushman Jr]
The United States is facing a year or more without crucial satellites that provide invaluable data for predicting storm tracks, a result of years of mismanagement, lack of financing and delays in launching replacements, according to several recent official reviews. The looming gap in satellite coverage, which some experts view as almost certain within the next few years, could result in shaky forecasts about storms like Hurricane Sandy, which is expected to hit the East Coast early next week. The endangered satellites fly pole-to-pole orbits and cross the Equator in the afternoon, scanning the entire planet one strip at a time. Along with orbiters on other timetables, they are among the most effective tools used to pin down the paths of major storms about five days ahead. Experts have grown increasingly alarmed in the past two years because the existing polar satellites are nearing or beyond their life expectancies, and the launch of the next replacement, known as J.P.S.S.-1, has slipped to 2017, probably too late to avoid a coverage gap of at least a year. Prodded by lawmakers and auditors, the satellite program’s managers are just beginning to think through alternatives when the gap occurs, but these are unlikely to avoid it.
benton.org/node/138090 | New York Times
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EMERGENCY INFO ONLINE
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Steve Friess]
Television and radio are still the primary methods of getting information about Hurricane Sandy to the public, but social media are increasingly important to those efforts, Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Craig Fugate said. Despite the heightened expectation of widespread power and cable television failures, everyone from President Barack Obama to local newscasters seem to expect the public to rely entirely on the Internet and their TVs for vital news and instructions. A call to FEMA’s news desk found even they didn’t have any non-Internet information readily available beyond suggestions that people call 911 in an emergency. When asked where folks should turn for information if they have no power, a FEMA spokeswoman said, “Well, those people who have a laptop with a little battery life on it can try that way. Otherwise, you’re right.” Such blind spots are perilous to the public, experts say.
benton.org/node/138106 | Politico
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RECEIVING EMERGENCY INFORMATION
[SOURCE: Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, AUTHOR: Marcella Gadson]
In September 2005, one month after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council filed a joint petition with the Federal Communications Commission, urging the FCC to take action “now to ensure that emergency warnings are made available to non-English speaking persons.” More than seven years later, as the East Coast braces for “Frankenstorm” Hurricane Sandy, we are reminded that the FCC has still failed to implement a comprehensive Multilingual Emergency Alert System (EAS) to make sure countless lives aren’t lost in avoidable accidents during natural disasters, as they were during Hurricane Katrina.
benton.org/node/138079 | Minority Media and Telecommunications Council
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SANDY AND SOCIAL MEDIA
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Deborah Netburn]
On Twitter, #Sandy is the lead trending phrase of the day followed by New Jersey (where the storm is slated to hit first). FEMA, East Coast, Long Island and Tappen Zee Bridge have all showed up in the trending list too. The Sandy storm is raging on Facebook as well where the terms "Sandy," "Hurricane Sandy," and "Hurricane" were the most-used terms for Facebook users in the U.S. on Monday, according to Facebook's Talk Meter -- a tool that measures chatter on Facebook. Other popular phrases were "stay safe" and "be safe" as well as "storm" "east coast" "praying" "power," and "my friends."
benton.org/node/138127 | Los Angeles Times
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ONLINE SANDY SURGE
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
Sometimes it's not the size of the storm, it's where it hits. As Hurricane Sandy raged through one of the country's most densely populated regions, it created a surge in online traffic Monday as people sought weather-related news and various forms of online entertainment. One of the biggest beneficiaries of the brisk online traffic was The Weather Channel, which began streaming its television feed live on YouTube and on its own website late Sunday night. On Monday, the channel's website had its biggest day ever, serving up 200 million page views as of 7 p.m. Eastern. "It's like our mini Super Bowl," said Curt Hecht, the chief global revenue officer for channel owner The Weather Co. "As a company, everybody really pulls together. There are three or four or five days when nobody's sleeping, when we need to be at our best." Free online access to the live feed of The Weather Channel is unusual but not unheard of. The channel is usually restricted to the televisions of pay TV subscribers, but exceptions are made in disaster situations. It is the first time the channel has partnered with YouTube on a live feed. With an increase in audience comes a surge in advertising revenue. Regular TV commercials were not played in the online Weather Channel stream, but insurer State Farm sponsored a banner ad that ran along the bottom of the screen over a weather map shown during commercial breaks.
benton.org/node/138125 | Associated Press
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

SURVEILLANCE LAW AT SCOTUS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
The Obama Administration defended a warrantless wiretapping law before the Supreme Court. At stake in the case is whether civil liberties groups -- including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Amnesty International -- have the legal standing to challenge the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments, which former President George W. Bush signed into law in 2008. The law authorizes the government to monitor phone calls and emails without a warrant as long as one of the parties to the communication is reasonably believed to be outside the United States. The civil liberties groups sued, arguing the law allows for "dragnet surveillance" of American citizens in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Donald Verrilli, the solicitor general of the United States, argued that the civil liberties groups cannot challenge the law's constitutionality because it does not harm them. But Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director for the ACLU, argued that his organization has had to take expensive precautions to keep the government from listening in on phone calls with clients who are suspected of terrorist activity. He argued that those precautions, such as flying overseas to meet clients face-to-face, qualify as a harm of the law, giving the ACLU the right to sue. The court's liberal members appeared skeptical of the government's claim that the ACLU lacks standing.
benton.org/node/138107 | Hill, The | NPR | Politico
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MEDIA & ELECTIONS

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ELECTION
[SOURCE: The Wrap, AUTHOR: Brent Lang]
From the economic recovery to the war in Iraq, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have espoused starkly different world views during their battle for the presidency, but what's keeping Hollywood up at night are a series of legislative and legal battles that could determine the future of the entertainment business. Less often articulated than their policy differences on geo-politics have been the candidates' views on network neutrality, media ownership rules and piracy. But these issues are enormously important to studios and broadcasters. Lobbyists and analysts say the difference between a Romney and Obama administration could be the deciding factor on whether or not Tinseltown gets its way over the next four years. TheWrap breaks down the issues for you: Arts and Public Broadcasting funding, Network Neutrality, Media Ownership, Retransmission consent fees/Cable blackouts, Piracy, Spectrum for Broadband, and Indecency rules for broadcasters.
benton.org/node/138073 | Wrap, The
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DO MINORITY MEDIA OUTLETS BENEFIT?
[SOURCE: Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, AUTHOR: Joseph Miller]
[Commentary] With less than two weeks remaining before Election Day, the presidential candidates and Super PACs have spent nearly $1 billion on advertising, enriching broadcast station owners. But without unraveling confusing datasets from at least two separate federal agencies, it is almost impossible for the average person to determine how much of that money is being spent on broadcast stations owned by minorities. While the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) requires anyone buying broadcast advertising time in excess of $10,000 on behalf of a political candidate to report, within 24 hours, the “amount of each disbursement of more than $200 … and the identification of the person to whom the disbursement was made,” it is almost impossible to cross-reference this data with data the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) collects on minority station ownership.
[Miller is Deputy Director and Senior Policy Counsel of the Media and Technology Institute at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies]
benton.org/node/138068 | Minority Media and Telecommunications Council
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

IS US BROADBAND FAST ENOUGH?
[SOURCE: Merced Sun-Star, AUTHOR: Clifford Young]
[Commentary] American ingenuity is also creating an out-of-this-world experience right here on the ground. Today we are able to wirelessly download books and magazines to a tablet we can manipulate with our fingertips. We can access Spotify, the world's largest record store, from anywhere -- for free. We can chat with friends and loved ones with crystal clear video and audio quality. Our mobile phones now double as everything from credit cards to house keys. All of these technologies rely on America's robust high-speed Internet infrastructure, a network born in part from the kind of bipartisan political agreement -- in this case, the decision in 1996 to replace regulation with competition to spawn what would become high-speed data networks -- that almost seems alien to us today. Indeed the loss of this bipartisan consensus-building has, on telecommunications, created a fractured debate where the extremes get the attention, and where consensus on how to build the next phase of broadband revolution is lost. What's especially troubling is that these squeaky wheels are trying to drive a debate with -- shall we say -- a rusty fact checker. Our broadband investment has helped new entrepreneurs find financial success in what the prestigious Progressive Policy Institute calls the "app economy," which has created half a million jobs and is the key to future productivity. Without investment in broadband, names like Mark Zuckerberg, Reed Hastings and Larry Page would not be known in every U.S. household. Neither would Elon Musk -- the man who made millions inventing PayPal, the revolutionary online payment system, and turned it into SpaceX. By any measure, the Internet is a sturdy launch pad to new frontiers -- even the final frontier.
[Young is a professor of public administration at California State University, San Bernardino]
benton.org/node/138101 | Merced Sun-Star
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ADVOCACY

TECH IN SAN FRANCISCO
[SOURCE: Tech Crunch, AUTHOR: Ron Conway]
[Commentary] As the tech industry continues to grow its footprint in San Francisco, its leaders have a responsibility to help improve the city for all of its residents. The tech sector is uniquely qualified to give back and invest in our community because its entrepreneurs have the ability to use resources within their companies to improve the lives of San Franciscans. Gone are the days when the tech community can innovate and run their businesses in spite of government. As we saw with the SOPA/PIPA debate, public policy has a direct and significant impact on startups and the investors who support them. Whether it is regulations that stifle innovation or tax policies that hinder job creation, government has a major role in the success or failure of a startup. It is critically important for the tech community to engage in public policy. The tech ecosystem depends on sound public policy that nurtures innovation and creates more jobs. All of us — founders, engineers, investors, and consumers — have a responsibility to actively engage with our public officials and community partners to make San Francisco the innovation capitol of the world.
[Conway is an angel investor and chairman of sf.citi]
benton.org/node/138124 | Tech Crunch
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

4G BENEFITS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Daniel Thomas]
Superfast broadband is unlikely to deliver the rapid returns for the UK economy that have been predicted, according to a leading business consultancy. The Economist Intelligence Unit will say that expectations of big early returns from superfast fiber and mobile broadband may be overstated, even if there is greater confidence of a beneficial longer-term impact. The warning that there needs to be a “dose of reality” about short term benefits will come as mobile users in the UK have their first opportunity to use long-delayed superfast mobile broadband on a 4G network. The network, which will initially be available in 10 cities, will allow download speeds several times faster than 3G.
benton.org/node/138112 | Financial Times
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Hurricane Sandy and the power of social media

On Twitter, #Sandy is the lead trending phrase of the day followed by New Jersey (where the storm is slated to hit first). FEMA, East Coast, Long Island and Tappen Zee Bridge have all showed up in the trending list too.

Media, Advertisers See Online Sandy Surge

Sometimes it's not the size of the storm, it's where it hits. As Hurricane Sandy raged through one of the country's most densely populated regions, it created a surge in online traffic as people sought weather-related news and various forms of online entertainment.

One of the biggest beneficiaries of the brisk online traffic was The Weather Channel, which began streaming its television feed live on YouTube and on its own website late Sunday night. On Monday, the channel's website had its biggest day ever, serving up 200 million page views as of 7 p.m. Eastern. "It's like our mini Super Bowl," said Curt Hecht, the chief global revenue officer for channel owner The Weather Co. "As a company, everybody really pulls together. There are three or four or five days when nobody's sleeping, when we need to be at our best." Free online access to the live feed of The Weather Channel is unusual but not unheard of. The channel is usually restricted to the televisions of pay TV subscribers, but exceptions are made in disaster situations. It is the first time the channel has partnered with YouTube on a live feed. With an increase in audience comes a surge in advertising revenue. Regular TV commercials were not played in the online Weather Channel stream, but insurer State Farm sponsored a banner ad that ran along the bottom of the screen over a weather map shown during commercial breaks.

Why The Technology Industry Must Get Involved In Government

[Commentary] As the tech industry continues to grow its footprint in San Francisco, its leaders have a responsibility to help improve the city for all of its residents. The tech sector is uniquely qualified to give back and invest in our community because its entrepreneurs have the ability to use resources within their companies to improve the lives of San Franciscans.

Gone are the days when the tech community can innovate and run their businesses in spite of government. As we saw with the SOPA/PIPA debate, public policy has a direct and significant impact on startups and the investors who support them. Whether it is regulations that stifle innovation or tax policies that hinder job creation, government has a major role in the success or failure of a startup. It is critically important for the tech community to engage in public policy.

The tech ecosystem depends on sound public policy that nurtures innovation and creates more jobs. All of us — founders, engineers, investors, and consumers — have a responsibility to actively engage with our public officials and community partners to make San Francisco the innovation capitol of the world.

[Conway is an angel investor and chairman of sf.citi]

Advocacy Groups Argue Against Shutting Down Aereo

This year TV studios sued Barry Diller's Aereo, which recently unveiled a $12 monthly service that allows people to watch over-the-air TV shows on iPhones, iPads, Roku and other devices.

Shortly before launching, Aereo installed thousands of antennas, each the size of a dime, in various New York locales. Aereo uses those antennas to capture over-the-air broadcasts, creating individual recordings of them for customers' personal use, and then allowing customers to play back those recordings with a remote digital video recorder. Earlier this year, U.S. District Court Judge Alison Nathan in New York declined to issue a preliminary injunction shuttering Aereo. The networks appealed to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, which is now considering the matter.

Late last week, a coalition of public interest groups sided against the networks in a friend-of-the-court brief. "There is much more at stake in this litigation than the continued operation of one company," the groups Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge and the Consumer Electronics Association wrote in papers filed with the 2nd Circuit. "By making broadcast programming more accessible, and by creating more choices for private viewing technologies, Aereo improves and does not disrupt the free television industry. Aereo serves the public interest, and its service should not be enjoined."

A new wrinkle in interactive TV

Developed by Youtoo Technologies, it uses smartphones, tablets and laptop computers to enable viewers to record brief videos themselves in high definition and send these segments, with the press of a button, to a cable or broadcast network. The software filters the submissions for obscenity and nudity, then places the videos in a queue for a show's producer to review. If selected, the viewer's submission airs alongside the program. "This is where all the rocket science happens," Youtoo Chief Executive Chris Wyatt said. "Within three clicks and in under three minutes, you can be on national TV." Youtoo is the latest wrinkle in interactive TV, a concept that dates from the 1950s, when the children's show "Winky Dink and You" handed young viewers a "magic" crayon and encouraged them to draw pictures and save the hero.

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