November 2012

Arab-American Media: Bringing News to a Diverse Community

If it were just a matter of population growth, the story of the Arab-American media would be a simple tale of opportunity. Over the last decade, Arab Americans have become one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the United States. But the story of the media trying to serve that audience is more complicated than that: The Arab-American population across the United States is ethnically diverse.

Arab-American media are being buffeted by the same technology and economic trends as the news media generally, as well as a more challenging advertising market. And, advancements in technology have brought new competition from Arab outlets located in the Middle East and North Africa. Overall, the current Arab-American news media are relatively young. Newspapers and news websites are currently the most prominent sector, with much of the coverage focused on community news and events. There is also coverage at the national level, though, and recently, the Arab uprisings have given rise to more international coverage of news from "back home."

The Future of Video is Not About Convincing Cable Companies to Make Less Money

[Commentary] There's a seemingly-endless debate online about whether pay TV companies are leaving money on the table by sticking with their traditional business models, which many highly digitally-connected people think are obsolete. I tend to agree that they are not.

These are rational companies and they are motivated to make money, and if they could make more money by changing their business models, they would. But the rationality of these companies doesn't strike me as a very interesting question. What's interesting is whether there are market or regulatory structures that are keeping prices high and the business models stagnant. PK has argued that there are. Cable companies, who are also the largest broadband providers, are able to use data caps and other means to limit the potential of online video competitors like Amazon Instant Video and Netflix.

Establishing Effective Spectrum Policy

[Commentary] Proponents now seek to dramatically change the way the Federal Communications Commission’s spectrum screen is applied in ways that would create marketplace uncertainty and lead to arbitrary results that threaten to reduce competition, investment, and innovation. It is not radical change in the essential workings of the spectrum screen that is necessary. Instead, the FCC should take more modest steps to update the screen and ensure that it is applied in a way that best promotes competition, innovation, and investment.

First, the FCC should update the screen to include all of the available spectrum that is “suitable” for mobile wireless services. Most prominently, the FCC should correct a current glaring omission by including in the screen the entire 194 MHz of BRS and EBS spectrum held almost entirely by Sprint/Clearwire, rather than the mere 55.5 MHz the FCC has included to date. That spectrum is in use today and there is no principled basis upon which it can continue to be excluded from the screen. The FCC should also conduct annual rulemakings to update the spectrum screen inventory as new allocations are brought online.
Second, the FCC should reaffirm that the “safe harbor” provided by the screen is truly safe – i.e., that the FCC will not entertain spectrum aggregation-related challenges to any proposed spectrum acquisition that does not exceed the safe harbor level. This step is necessary to restore predictability to the workings of the screen, which the FCC has long recognized promotes innovation and investment.
Third, the FCC should make clear that its case-by-case analysis of proposals to exceed the safe harbor level in any local market will remain tightly focused on whether the spectrum available to competitors and potential competitors remains sufficient to enable robust facilities-based competition to continue. This analyses should be informed by the reality that today’s screen, which is set at one third of suitable and available spectrum, is almost certainly too low and holdings in excess of the screen in some markets may promote the public interest by putting fallow or under-deployed spectrum to its best and most valuable uses.

Rulemaking Process at the FCC

Whenever Congress enacts a law affecting telecommunications, the Federal Communications Commission starts a proceeding to create the rules and policies required by the new law. The FCC also may start a proceeding when an outside party files a petition seeking a new law or change in existing rules. There are three basic types of rules. (Rules are also sometimes called “regulations”).

They are:

Legislative (sometimes called “Substantive”) Rules. These rules create legally binding rights and obligations for the agency and the public. For example, a legislative rule might say that broadcast towers must have lights to reduce the hazard to aviation.
Non-legislative Rules. These rules are of two subtypes:

i. Interpretive Rules. As the name suggests, these rules interpret the meaning of statutes or legislative rules that the Commission administers.
ii. Policy Statements. These tell the public how the agency plans to exercise some discretionary power that is has. For example, a policy statement might explain the typical fines for particular violations of the Commission’s rules.

Organizational and Procedural Rules. These rules describe the agency’s structure and the way in which its determinations are made. For example, such rules may delegate authority to make certain decisions to a particular Bureau within the Commission or set a deadline for filing comments with the Commission.

Senate Commerce Committee
Dec 04 2012
2:30 PM

The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation announced a hearing on the nominations of Dr. Mark Doms, to be Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs, Department of Commerce; Ms. Polly Ellen Trottenberg, to be Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy, Department of Transportation; Ms. Mignon L. Clyburn, to be a Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (reappointment); Dr. Joshua D. Wright, to be a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission; Mr. Christopher R. Beall, to be a Director on the Amtrak Board of Directors; and Ms. Yvonne B. Burke, to be a Director on the Amtrak Board of Directors.

Read more about FCC and FTC Nominations Hearing

Spectrum Management Advisory Committee Meeting

Department of Commerce
January 17, 2013,
10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time (EST)
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/fr_csmac_meeting_notice_...

The Committee will receive reports from designated committee members on the recommendations of working groups (WGs) which were established to facilitate collaboration efforts between industry and government stakeholders to develop proposed relocation, transition, and sharing arrangements and plans for the 1695–1710 MHz and the 1755–1850 MHz bands:

1. WG1 1695–1710 MHz Weather Satellite Receive Earth Stations,
2. WG2 1755–1850 MHz Law Enforcement Surveillance and other short-range fixed,
3. WG3 1755–1850 MHz Satellite Control Links and Electronic Warfare,
4. WG4 1755–1850 MHz Fixed Point-to-Point and Tactical Radio Relay, and
5. WG5 1755–1850 MHz Airborne Operations.

Read more about Spectrum Management Advisory Committee Meeting (Jan 2013)

YouTube expands captioning

YouTube announced that it is expanding support for its automatic captioning service for six European languages. The company said that its service will now display captions in German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Russian and Dutch. That brings the total number of languages up to 10: YouTube already generates automatic captions for English, Japanese, Korean and Spanish.

As with the current languages, viewers will be able to see the captions by clicking the “CC” button in the lower right-hand corner of eligible videos. The company provides the auto-captions as a baseline transcript of what’s going in its videos. However, since speech recognition technology isn’t perfect, it also provides editing tools to improve the quality of the captions on its site.

Growth of viral video leaves deaf in the dark

Viral videos may be good for sharing ideas and spreading funny foreign pop hits, but they are also leaving millions of deaf and hearing-impaired people out of the loop.

Online video is becoming a more ubiquitous part of American life. Netflix videos made up one-third of online data used in the United States last year. YouTube expects 90 percent of online traffic to be video in the next few years. By 2016, Cisco estimates that 1.2 million minutes of video will be streamed or downloaded every second. That video explosion has been great for small film and TV producers, who are able to reach an audience without a big studio budget, and fans of niche programming. But in some ways, it has left the deaf and hard-of-hearing community starting from scratch after years of advocating for captions on traditional television. “We could be back to square one,” said Christian Vogler, director of the Technology Access Program at Gallaudet University.

White House promotes 'My2k' Twitter hashtag in tax-rate debate

President Barack Obama is taking to Twitter to rally supporters behind his push to extend the Bush-era tax rates for all but the wealthiest Americans. The White House is planning to promote a new Twitter hashtag — #My2k — that represents the estimated $2,200 by which middle-class families would see their taxes increase, on average, if Congress fails to extend the Bush-era tax rates. Administration officials will ask supporters to post on the social media network and the White House website about how a tax increase would affect them.

Rural Telecoms: USF Reforms Are Pushing Us Toward Fiscal Cliff

Rural telecom providers have taken their complaints about the Federal Communications Commission's Universal Service Fund (USF) reforms to the White House, tying the issue to the "fiscal cliff" negotiations.

The USF funds telecom build-outs in high-cost areas where there is not a business case absent the government subsidy. The FCC is moving that support for phone service in high-cost, particularly rural, areas to broadband deployment, the new must-have telecom service, and to reform subsidies to reflect the move of voice to IP delivery. The goal is also to provide a "glide path" for that migration given that the switch-over will take time, though rural carriers suggest it is more like a crash landing for their particular economies. In a letter to President Barack Obama, the Rural Broadband Alliance asked to include language in fiscal cliff legislation suspending some of the reforms and require the FCC to submit them to the Federal State-Joint Board for their recommendations. The carriers say the "well-intentioned but misguided" changes -- part of the FCC's migration of support from traditional telecom to broadband -- has led to job cutbacks and consumer rate increases.

Benton

Search