March 4, 2013 (The IRS and Nonprofit Media)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2013 (Happy Casimir Pulaski Day)
F2C: Freedom to Connect 2013 and The IRS and Nonprofit Media http://benton.org/calendar/2013-03-04/
INTERNET/BROADBAND
BTOP-BIP Brouhaha - analysis
House Intelligence chairman aims for cybersecurity bill markup in April [links to web]
Administration turns to industry for support on cybersecurity order [links to web]
As Hacking Against U.S. Rises, Experts Try to Pin Down Motive
You Don’t Want Super-High-Speed Internet, Says Time Warner Cable [links to web]
Controversial activist takes on the telecom industry [links to web]
OWNERSHIP
Comcast to FCC: We've Overdelivered on NBC Promises
Comcast Says NBCU Is Negotiating 'Full Freight' Internet TV Deals
FCC Asked to Turn Down Alaska Station Buy
Disney, News Corp. Discuss Hulu's Future [links to web]
Bertelsmann Acquires Full Control of BMG Music Company [links to web]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
TV Spectrum Speculation Nears $345 Million
Las Vegas says plans for Wi-Fi moving forward [links to web]
The Evolving Economics of the App
Apps Rocket Toward $25 Billion in Sales
Smartphone Math Doesn't Add Up [links to web]
CONTENT
Authors Guild Wants Lawsuit Against Universities Revived [links to web]
Hollywood targets "rogue" mobile apps in war on pirated content [links to web]
In Atlas Deal, Facebook Gets Serious About Measuring Ads
Want some 4k video with your broadband cap? Good luck with that [links to web]
Google may be winning battles with publishers, but it is losing the war - analysis [links to web]
To battle Kindle, German booksellers partner with Deutsche Telekom on new e-reader [links to web]
'Search is still in its infancy,' says Google CFO [links to web]
As It Turns Out, Kids Get Copyright - op-ed [links to web]
As Pirates Run Rampant, TV Studios Dial Up Pursuit [links to web]
A Six-Strike Rule for Internet Piracy - editorial [links to web]
Google Scores Copyright Win in Germany [links to web]
PRIVACY
Web Privacy Becomes a Business Imperative [links to web]
TELEVISION/RADIO
Rate Hikes Fuel Pay TV Subscriber Discontent: Survey [links to web]
Arrested Development on Netflix is going to redefine what TV can be [links to web]
Three reasons why ceiling for rights fees is nowhere in sight - analysis [links to web]
Don’t Touch That Dial! Low-Power Radio Is About to Make FM Hot Again [links to web]
Tribal Radio Priority - press release [links to web]
In Sweden, TV Tax Comes to Smartphones [links to web]
Controversial activist takes on the telecom industry [links to web]
BUDGET
President Issues Sequester Order
The sequester will hurt tech nationally [links to web]
EMERGENCY
FCC Field Hearing Focuses on Innovative Network Technologies
TELECOM
Chairman Rockefeller Vows to Avert Wireless Cramming Scams on Consumers - press release [links to web]
Controversial activist takes on the telecom industry [links to web]
PATENTS
Judge Slashes Jury Award in Apple-Samsung Case
Apple Argues Suit Over IPhone Data Fails to Show Harm [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
IRS Roadblocks to Nonprofit News Orgs – Time for a Change
Denied in the Supreme Court, warrantless wiretap opponents are losing ground fast
From LBJ to Nixon to Obama, why the White House may ‘regret’ hassling the press - op-ed [links to web]
FCC Library Invites Technology Manufacturers and Service Providers to Showcase their Tablets, Telephones and eBook Readers - public notice [links to web]
Are hashtags a political #wasteoftime? [links to web]
MORE ONLINE
How Can Luddite Adults Help Digital-Savvy Teens? - analysis [links to web]
Working on the Weekend? Welcome to the Media Industry [links to web]
Signing off as Washington Post ombudsman - analysis [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
BTOP-BIP BROUHAHA
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] On February 27, the House Commerce Committee’s Communications and Technology Subcommittee held an oversight hearing on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) broadband stimulus programs: the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) directed by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in the Department of Commerce and the Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) run by the Rural Utilities Service in the Department of Agriculture. Larry Strickling, the head of the NTIA, and RUS Administrator John Padalino testified before the Subcommittee. On February 11, the New York Times previewed this week’s hearing noting that rural areas certainly suffer a lack of high-speed Internet access. While about 88 percent of urban households in the United States have access to high-speed cable Internet service, only 40 percent of rural households do, according to NTIA’s and the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Map About 20 percent of United States households have access to fiber optic Internet service, the fastest connection, compared with 86 percent in Japan and two-thirds in South Korea. But in the haste to get broadband everywhere, some grant planners appeared not to have taken into account the current condition of infrastructure.
http://benton.org/node/146726
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MOTIVE FOR HACKING?
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nicole Perlroth, David Sanger, Michael Schmidt]
When Telvent, a company that monitors more than half the oil and gas pipelines in North America, discovered last September that the Chinese had hacked into its computer systems, it immediately shut down remote access to its clients’ systems. Company officials and American intelligence agencies then grappled with a fundamental question: Why had the Chinese done it? Was the People’s Liberation Army, which is suspected of being behind the hacking group, trying to plant bugs into the system so they could cut off energy supplies and shut down the power grid if the United States and China ever confronted each other in the Pacific? Or were the Chinese hackers just trolling for industrial secrets, trying to rip off the technology and pass it along to China’s own energy companies? “We are still trying to figure it out,” a senior American intelligence official said recently. “They could have been doing both.”
benton.org/node/146818 | New York Times
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OWNERSHIP
COMCAST COMPLIANCE REPORT
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Comcast filed its two-year NBCU deal compliance report at the Federal Communications Commission. The report outlines compliance with the voluntary conditions agreed to by Comcast in order to secure government approval of the deal. Comcast executive VP David Cohen says the takeaway is that the company has met, or exceeded, all its obligations in the transaction. That includes
the two 2012 launches of minority-owned independent networks, ASPIRE and Baby First Americas;
$24 million in PSAs on various topics;
1,000 more kids VOD choices than were required by year three;
an additional 1,700 hours of local news and information on its NBC-owned TV stations. Comcast says it has increased the hours by 1,700 above pre-transaction levels; and
extending its broadband plant to 221,891 more homes for a cumulative total of 421,767 in two years, already topping its three-year commitment.
benton.org/node/146768 | Broadcasting&Cable
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NBCU NEGOTIATING FULL FRIEGHT INTERNET TV DEALS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Todd Spangler]
NBCUniversal is in talks with several Internet video providers to license a full lineup of programming comparable to what it offers traditional pay TV providers, Comcast disclosed in its annual report to the Federal Communications Commission. In the past year, “NBCUniversal received and is negotiating several 'full freight' requests,” Comcast said in its second annual compliance report filed with the FCC. The report is required under the FCC's 2011 approval of Comcast/NBCU transaction. Comcast declined to provide additional details on the negotiations. Aside from those seeking such “full freight” deals, Comcast noted that content-licensing agreements with OVDs have become a regular part of NBCU’s business. In the past year, NBCUniversal entered into new agreements with Internet video distributors, including Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Flixster, Google, MediaNavi, Target, Toys ‘R’ Us and Vd.io.
benton.org/node/146766 | Multichannel News
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ALASKA TV STATIONS
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Doug Halonen]
A group of Alaska broadcast television station owners urged the Federal Communications Commission to deny applications by Denali Media Holdings, a subsidiary of General Communication, to buy three TV stations: CBS affiliate KTVA Anchorage (DMA 145) and NBC affiliates KATH-LD Juneau (DMA 201) and KSCT-LP Sitka (in the Juneau DMA). “Grant of these applications would result in the combination of ownership of television stations in two of the three television markets in Alaska with ownership of the largest, indeed in many cases the exclusive, provider of terrestrial cable and broadband service to much of Alaska’s population,” the broadcasters said in their petition to deny. “GCI officials have boasted to business executives and employees of other television stations that they intend to use their combined assets to restrict competition in Alaska, and to reduce the diversity of news and information sources for Alaskans,” the broadcasters continued. GCI identifies itself as Alaska’s largest telecommunications firm. GCI’s cable plant, which provides voice, video and broadband services, passes 80% of Alaska’s households.
benton.org/node/146764 | TVNewsCheck
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
TV SPECTRUM SPECULATION
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: ]
In anticipation of the Federal Communications Commission incentive auction, spectrum speculators have bought 39 broadcast television stations — 14 full-power and 25 Class A low-power — since 2011, paying nearly $345 million, according to a SNL Kagan study. NRJ TV has been the biggest spender, at $234.2 million for full-power stations, SNL Kagan found. OTA Broadcasting, a subsidiary of computer retail billionaire Michael Dell's MSD Capital firm, is runner up with deals totaling $52.8 million. Locus Point has acquired seven stations, all in November and December 2012, and all Class A properties. The speculators are buying the stations with the intention of selling the spectrum to the FCC so that it can turn around and auction it to wireless broadband carriers. The FCC hopes to conduct the auction in 2014.
benton.org/node/146754 | TVNewsCheck | |
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ECONOMICS OF APPS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Greg Bensinger]
Using a wealth of data from mobile devices, developers of apps ranging from children's games to fitness trackers are increasingly testing an array of price points and business models. They are drawing some conclusions: Free remains king, though users on iPhones and iPads generally have a greater tolerance to pay the price to download apps and shut off advertising than those on Android devices. Users of apps in Amazon's app store, meanwhile, tend to make more purchases within the apps. But overall, the economics of the apps business remains in flux as people upgrade smartphones and manufacturers introduce higher-end devices. As of the end of 2012, the average price for a paid app in the Apple app store was $3.18 on an iPhone and $4.44 on an iPad, according to research firm Distimo. That compares with an average $3.06 in the Google Play store and $2.84 on Amazon 's app store. App stores generally take a 30% cut of the sale.
benton.org/node/146812 | Wall Street Journal
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APP SALES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jessica Lessin, Spencer Ante]
Nearly five years after Apple kicked off the mobile-apps craze, the industry is booming. App stores run by Apple and Google now offer more than 700,000 apps each. With so many apps to choose from, consumers are estimated to spend on average about two hours a day with apps. Global revenue from app stores is expected to rise 62% this year to $25 billion, according to Gartner. The apps industry has matured in some respects. Some of the Wild West tactics of five years ago—like scams to accrue more downloads—have given way to more order as Apple and others tighten their rules. App developers are more methodical about marketing their apps and focusing on the few apps that work best. For every Instagram, the wildly popular photo sharing app that Facebook bought for $1 billion last year, there are hundreds of thousands of apps that don't catch on. As the battlefield shifts to new geographies, new categories and new devices, developers are still trying to figure out which business models are the most profitable.
benton.org/node/146811 | Wall Street Journal
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CONTENT
FACEBOOK AND ATLAS SOLUTIONS
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Cotton Delo]
Facebook announced a long-rumored deal to acquire Microsoft's Atlas Solutions division and that its interest in the technology stack boils down to measurement. Microsoft will continue to buy its own ads through Atlas. The price had been expected to be less than $100 million, based on prior bids for Atlas, which were in the $30 to $50 million range. Atlas had looked like a potential building block for Facebook to start building an external ad network powered by its social data, but the social network's director of product marketing Brian Boland said that's not the plan. He said that Facebook's advertisers have been clamoring for more tools to let them see how effective their spend is across online channels, and that's where Atlas comes in.
benton.org/node/146751 | AdAge
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BUDGET
SEQUESTER ORDER
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
On March 1, President Barack Obama issued the sequestration order for Fiscal Year 2013. The 5% across-the-board cuts include the Federal Communications Commission. In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), the President called cuts "deeply destructive" and the result of congressional failure to act. He said the sequester "was never intended to be implemented and does not represent a responsible way for our Nation to achieve deficit reduction." If the sequester is allowed to remain in place, the FCC will have to cut $17 million from its $342 million budget over the next seven months.
benton.org/node/146805 | Broadcasting&Cable
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EMERGENCY
FCC FIELD HEARING
[SOURCE: Government Technology, AUTHOR: Rachelle Chong]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) held a field hearing on network resilience and reliability on Feb. 28. This was the second national field hearing, with a prior set of field hearings held in New York City and Hoboken, N.J., relating to Superstorm Sandy on Feb. 5. This field hearing had a decided California flavor. The focus was on what innovative network technologies, smart power solutions, social media and mobile applications might do to improve communications network resiliency in times of disaster. Chairman Julius Genachowski opined that broadband is essential to our daily lives, and high reliability is important as a result. With 30 percent of Americans relying on cellphones, he said it is critical that users be able to reach 911. The FCC is working on “Next Gen 9-1-1,” improving location accuracy for mobile 911, and enabling wireless emergency alerts to allow local authorities to send warnings and texts to people in affected geographic areas. The chairman announced that the FCC staff had conducted a comprehensive analysis of the “super Derecho” violent thunderstorms. A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would be considered at the March FCC meeting.
[Rachelle Chong is a former Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission]
benton.org/node/146761 | Government Technology
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PATENTS
APPLE-SAMSUNG UPDATE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nick Wingfield]
A federal judge weakened the blow from Apple’s legal victory in a patent case against Samsung, lopping more than 40 percent off the damages a jury awarded last year. It was a mostly symbolic setback for Apple, one that did not shift the case — one of the most closely watched in the technology industry — in Samsung’s favor. While Apple has lost other skirmishes against Samsung in courts around the world, the jury award in the United States case has been the biggest victory for either side so far. Even at a reduced level, it would be among the highest damage awards in a patent dispute. The judge ordered a new trial to recalculate a portion of those damages, leaving open the possibility that some of them could be restored. She also indicated that Apple is entitled to additional damages for sales of Samsung products that have occurred since the jury’s decision last summer, which could further swell the amount Apple is owed by Samsung. In her review of the jury’s decisions, which originally awarded Apple more than $1 billion for patent violations by Samsung in its mobile products, Judge Lucy Koh of the United States District Court in San Jose, Calif., knocked those damages down by $450 million, to $599 million. The new trial will determine how much of the $450 million, if any, should be restored.
benton.org/node/146774 | New York Times | WSJ | LATimes | Reuters
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
IRS ROADBLOCKS TO NONPROFIT NEWS ORGS
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Cecilia Garcia]
[Commentary] This nation has a proud history of journalism, long tied most closely to newspapers. But the newspaper industry, as we know, has experienced a severe decline in recent years. The emergence of digital technology has complicated the landscape for news organizations. While there is great opportunity for innovation in news gathering and dissemination, not to mention the possibility for new nonprofit news enterprises, there are also obstacles posed by outdated regulations. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a report in 2011 entitled, “The Information Needs of Communities: The changing media landscape in a broadband age.” Pointing to the severe cutbacks in newsrooms across the country, the report noted that local communities are losing out on the kind of accountability reporting necessary to make informed decisions on local issues. Nonprofit media, the report suggested, could help address this concern. To further explore the current state of nonprofit media, The Knight Foundation and the Council on Foundations joined forces to create a working group tasked to dig into regulatory obstacles. I was honored to participate on this working group and am pleased that our report, “The IRS and Nonprofit Media: Toward Creating a More Informed Public,” is being released on March 4th.
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http://benton.org/node/146795
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WARRANTLESS WIRETAP OPPONENTS FACE SETBACK
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: Joshua Kopstein]
For the past decade, a legal battle has been brewing on multiple fronts over the US government’s ability to conduct secret surveillance on the phone calls and emails of American citizens without a warrant. And after a Supreme Court decision, it's a fight that the American people are in grave danger of losing. The 5-4 decision that ended Clapper v. Amnesty International earlier this week did not address the important question of whether or not warrantless wiretaps are constitutional, as various lawyers, journalists, and civil rights groups have been asking the court to do since the program first came to light in 2005. Rather, the court dismissed the challenge outright on the grounds that since plaintiffs can’t prove they’ve been specifically targeted (as no one short of the government itself really can), they don’t have the proper standing to sue in the first place. For privacy advocates, the dismissal is nothing short of a disaster.
benton.org/node/146758 | Verge, The
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