December 2012

With its $1.26 billion acquisition of Arbitron, Nielsen is buying much more than the most widely followed radio ratings service.

It is also extending its already substantial reach into the overlapping forms of media through which people consume their entertainment and news, and spend their money — information that is essential to advertisers. Nielsen is best known for its television ratings, but its various branches also track an array of consumer product sales, like books and music, as well as consumers’ habits online and through their mobile devices. Just on Dec 17, for example, Nielsen announced a new system with Twitter to rank TV shows by their levels of social-media chatter. Arbitron, meanwhile, has remained primarily focused on radio consumption, which has held surprisingly strong in the Internet age as people stay plugged in to their favorite radio stations, particularly while driving. Through the deal with Arbitron, Nielsen should be able to track even more of consumers’ media consumption and buying habits.

Microsoft and Google's Motorola phone unit remain millions of dollars apart in their respective valuations of video and Wi-Fi patents at issue in a pivotal case before a federal judge in Seattle.

The outcome, expected sometime next year, could be a key development in the balance of power between Microsoft and Google - and the rest of the technology industry - in the running battle over ownership of the technology underlying increasingly popular smartphones, tablets and game consoles. A trial, held November 13-20 in the Western District of Washington federal court, was designed to settle the matter of how much Microsoft must pay Motorola for use of two of its standard, essential patents used in its Xbox game console and other products. In redacted post-trial filings made public on Dec 17 - essentially its final arguments before the judge - Microsoft argued that it should pay no more than $502,000 per year for Motorola's H.264 video compression patent, and no more than $736,000 per year for Motorola's 802.11 Wi-Fi technology.

Once again, a wide range of breaking news stories kept local television news departments busy at home as well as sending them across the country and around the world, in some cases. Other developments this past year included an encouraging increase in jobs and the amount of news being produced. Some experiments didn’t work out and while a survey listed broadcast news among the worst jobs, a growing number of station GMs are coming from news departments. This is the first part of TVNewsCheck’s annual look back at the year.

In discussions of the newspaper industry’s seemingly inevitable collapse, Google is probably most often cited as the reason why many people stopped paying for news. As the argument goes, why pay when you can find the information you need through a simple search? It’s a straightforward thesis that nonetheless glosses over any number of other forces that have chipped away at newspapers’ profits: Craigslist; the economy; advertiser confidence; oh, and, yeah, giving away the content for free.

While Google remains sensitive to those claims (as they have every right to be), recently the Internet giant tacitly acknowledged the profound effect it’s had on newspapers by unveiling a journalism fellowship. Yes, journalism. Google will pay, albeit a modest sum, for eight journalism students to learn about data-driven reporting starting in June. “As a company dedicated to making the world’s information easily accessible, Google recognizes that behind many blue links is a journalist and that quality journalism is a key ingredient of a vibrant and functioning society,” the company said in its announcement about the fellowship.