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  2. January 2013

January 2013

Sec Clinton: Government Has Left Media Message Void That Jihadists Filled

At a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that she created a new unit at the State Department to counter jihadist propaganda in social media.

When Al Qaeda puts up a video saying how terrible the U.S. is, she said, State puts up one about how terrible they are. While CNN and Fox are out there in the world, the U.S. government had abdicated its radio and TV presence, leaving a void that jihadist propaganda had filled. The Broadcasting Board of Governors oversees U.S. broadcasts internationally, including to the Middle East. But like everything thing else in Washington, it has been hit by budget cuts. Sec Clinton said BBG was "nearly defunct."

US ITC to review Apple patent complaint against Samsung

The US International Trade Commission will review a potentially key decision in the patent fight between Samsung Electronics and Apple over smartphones and tablets.

The Commission also sent part of the dispute back to the judge who ruled in October that Samsung, the world's top maker of smartphones, infringed four Apple patents but did not violate two others. The full commission said it would review the judge's decision, and asked the agency judge to take a second look at portions of two patents where he had found that Samsung infringed. One of the patents in question allows the use of a headset with the smartphone while the other allows the device to show an image on a screen with a second, translucent image over it. The case at the International Trade Commission is No. 337-796.

Spectrum Coalition Pushes FCC To Reclaim At Least 120 Mhz

The coalition of television broadcasters willing to sell spectrum rights has grown to 39 large-market stations, according to comments filed at the Federal Communications Commission by the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition, and it wants the FCC to make the auction as attractive as possible by not limiting wireless bidders or which stations can share spectrum with.

The coalition, whose members don't have to identify themselves publicly because of the obvious competitive and operational issues related to publicizing their willingness to sell, also is pushing the FCC to reclaim "at least" 120 Mhz. The coalition was formed because the principal broadcast trade association, the National Association of Broadcasters, is focusing on making sure the auctions hold harmless broadcasters who are not selling and want to remain in the business.

YouTube’s quiet evolution into the heart of Google

In the past, YouTube has always been treated as one of many parts of Google’s business: worth a shout-out, and maybe a nice data point if time permitted during an earnings call. This time around, it seemed to move more towards the center.

“Video is now baked into all of our products,” said Google Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora, adding that video is especially important for advertising: “Video is a key language that brands speak.” Arora said that Google’s top 100 brand advertisers spent 50 percent more money on YouTube in 2012 than during the previous year. He reiterated that the site now generates more than 4 billion views a day. One new metric shared during the call was that 70 percent of YouTube’s in-stream ads are now what the company calls TrueView - ads that viewers can skip, and that advertisers only pay for if they’re not skipped.

Facebook Vaults Ahead of Google Maps to Finish 2012 as #1 U.S. Mobile App

The latest comScore Mobile Metrix ranking of the top mobile apps by audience shows that Facebook finished the year strong to capture the #1 position from Google Maps.

Of course Apple’s decision to replace Google Maps with Apple Maps on iOS 6 also caused a decline in Google Maps usage in October, which is largely responsible for the position swap. Meanwhile, Google Maps has been clawing its way back the past few months after getting reinstated on iOS 6, so look for the competition for the #1 spot to heat up as we head into 2013. While tablets are gaining steam at a rapid clip, smartphone apps remain the key drivers of media consumption in the post-PC paradigm with the majority of mobile Internet access occurring from smartphones and 4 out of every 5 minutes on smartphones spent on apps. The app space is highly competitive and it’s getting more and more important every day for media brands to ensure they are carving out that valuable real estate on consumers’ screens.

Google spent $16.5 million on lobbying as it fended off antitrust probe

Google nearly doubled its lobbying spending in 2012 as it came under the microscope of antitrust regulators.

The Internet giant spent $16.48 million trying to influence Washington policymakers last year, according to disclosure forms. The company spent $9.68 million on lobbying in 2011. Its spending in the fourth quarter was actually down slightly from previous periods. The company spent $3.35 million in the final three months of 2012, compared with $3.76 million in the same period in 2011.

Democrats: Cybersecurity legislation a priority in new Congress

A coalition of leading Senate Democrats said that enacting legislation to better protect the nation's critical computer systems from hackers will be a priority in 2013.

Senate Republicans blocked a vote on the president's preferred cybersecurity bill in 2012, warning that it would burden businesses and do little to improve security. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Tom Carper (D-DE) introduced a bill stating that gaps in cybersecurity "pose one of the most serious and rapidly growing threats to both the national security and the economy of the United States." The resolution is co-sponsored by Sens. Carl Levin (D-MI), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Chris Coons (D-DE).

More Than 20 Million Viewers Watched Coverage of Inauguration

A total of 20.552 million viewers tuned in on 18 separate television networks to watch coverage of the second inauguration of President Barack Obama, the Nielsen Company reported.

The number, which measured the hours between 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. January 21, was down sharply from the 37.793 million Nielsen recorded for Obama’s first inauguration in 2009. That was the second-highest total since Nielsen began its accounting for television viewership of the event in 1969. The highest number was recorded in 1981 for the first inauguration of Ronald Reagan. Second inaugurations are generally watched by fewer viewers, though Richard Nixon added viewers for his second in 1973, which came as the Watergate scandal was beginning to heat up. Obama’s second inauguration fared far better than that of his predecessor, George W. Bush, which drew only 15.536 million viewers, easily the smallest number recorded by Nielsen. It was, however, slightly lower than the viewing number for the second inauguration of Bill Clinton in 1997, which Nielsen reported at 21.583 million. The audience for this year’s event now stands as the second-lowest on Nielsen’s list for inaugurations since 1969.

An Entire Senate on Twitter. Really

All 100 senators in the 113th Congress will be tweeting. That’s a huge increase from the opening of the 112th Congress in 2011 when only 44 senators were tweeting. Twitter also boasts 398 House members with accounts. All of the senators -- or usually their staffs, of course -- are tweeting at least several times a week but, more importantly, a solid proportion of those tweets include content that would actually be valuable to people following the senators’ activities, such as links to legislation the lawmaker introduced, notes on committee work and alerts about media appearances.

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