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April 2013

US Internet TV Users Soaring

US Internet TV users are climbing faster than expected.

The number of U.S. digital TV users -- those viewing at least one TV show per month via the Internet -- will climb 37% in four years to 145 million in 2017 from 106 million in 2012. This amounts to digital TV user growth climbing at a 6.9% compound annual growth rate, quicker increases that previously forecasted in August 2012 by eMarketer. Next year, it says digital TV viewers will cross a critical tipping point -- surpassing 50% of the U.S. Internet user population. Those users who watch at least one movie per month on any Internet-capable device will climb to 115 million in 2017 from nearly 80 million in 2012, a 9.7% annual growth rate.

The Koch brothers’ media investment

Tribune Company’s moves to sell its newspapers—a string that includes the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune—has reportedly sparked the interest of the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch.

The Koch brothers, of course, are best known for funding conservative causes and conservative politicians -- and they don’t have much of a track record of media ownership. As news of their interest in the Tribune newspapers spread, Koch Companies spokeswoman Missy Cohlmia declined as a matter of policy to confirm or deny a bid. At the same time, though, she sought to dispel concerns that the Koch brothers would seek to transform Tribune newspapers into an arm of the broad network of conservative opinion and policy shops whose activities they underwrite. “We respect the independence of the journalistic institutions referenced in today’s news stories,” Cohlmia said. That didn’t stop some observers from worrying out loud, particularly on the left, about the political orientation of those papers, particularly their editorial pages.

What Will the Proposed Telecom Overhaul Mean for Mexico?

In his first 100 days in office, President Peña Nieto has successfully garnered widespread political support for various reform packages that had been pending from previous administrations. Education and labor reforms were the first to be approved by Congress and in the case of the former is now constitutionally law. The telecommunications reform package has won approval in the lower house of Congress and now must pass the Senate and be ratified by the states before becoming part of the Constitution.

Rather than being specifically targeted at any individual company, the reform is designed to open the sector to competition and to guarantee Mexicans access to services that up to now have been expensive and oligopolistic in nature. Measures such as opening up national television to additional channels, wider broadband coverage and a stricter regulatory regime are all designed to fundamentally change Mexico's telecoms structure. When finally approved, these changes will greatly benefit the Mexican economy by generating competition and additional players in the sector. All indications are that this reform package will be approved, perhaps with congressional modifications. Although there has been opposition by some in the PAN to parts of the proposal, the other parties are agreed on the majority of the changes. This augurs well for further proposals that Peña Nieto plans to send to Congress in the coming months, especially the energy and fiscal reforms that are so necessary for Mexico to guarantee future growth and prosperity.

Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet
Senate Commerce Committee
April 9, 2013
10:30am

This hearing will examine the current state of rural communications and challenges facing companies serving rural consumers.

Witness Panel

Mr. John Strode
Vice President, External Affairs
Ritter Communications, Inc.

Mr. Steven Davis
Executive Vice President
CenturyLink, Inc.

Ms. Patricia Jo Boyers
President and CEO
BOYCOM Cablevision, Inc.

Mr. Leroy T. Carlson, Jr.
Chairman
U.S. Cellular


Open Meeting

Federal Communications Commission
June 27, 2013
10:30am

Federal Communications Commission Acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn announced that the following items will be on the tentative agenda for the next open meeting scheduled for Thursday, June 27, 2013:

  1. Improving Broadband Data Collection: The Commission will consider a Report and Order to improve and streamline the collection of broadband subscription and deployment data.
  2. Increasing the Nation’s Supply of Spectrum: The Commission will consider a Report and Order with licensing, service, and technical rules in the H Block at 1915-1920 and 1995-2000 MHz, that would help increase the Nation’s supply of spectrum for flexible-use services, including mobile broadband.
  3. Protecting Customer Propriety Network Information on Mobile Devices: The Commission will consider a Declaratory Ruling clarifying that wireless carriers that collect, or direct the collection of, customer proprietary network information (CPNI) on mobile devices must adhere to statutory and regulatory CPNI requirements in protecting that information.
  4. Status of Universal Service Reform Implementation: The Wireline Competition Bureau and Wireless Telecommunications Bureau will present an update on universal service reform implementation. Read the presentation
  5. Status of the Broadcast Incentive Auction: The Incentive Auction Task Force will present an update on progress towards the television broadcast incentive auction. Read the presentation

Open Meeting

Federal Communications Commission
May 9, 2013
10:30am

Agenda

The FCC will consider:

  1. A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking to improve consumer access to broadband aboard aircraft and encourage innovation through establishment of an Air-Ground Mobile Broadband secondary service in the 14.0-14.5 GHz band, while ensuring that existing users are protected from interference.
  2. A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Notice of Inquiry to ease access to spectrum for commercial space launch operators and better facilitate federal government use of commercial satellite services, and seek comment on streamlining processes, eliminating unnecessary burdens, and identifying future communication and spectrum needs of the commercial space sector.

The following item was deleted from the agenda:

  • A Report and Order requiring CMRS providers and providers of interconnected text messaging services to provide consumers with an automatic bounce-back message if the consumer attempts to text 911 where that capability is unavailable.

April 2, 2013 (Should the Public or Private Sector Control Broadband?)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2013

Denver. Denver. Denver. See ya there. http://benton.org/node/117082


INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Should the Public or Private Sector Control Broadband? - op-ed
   Internet Pricing: The Next Policy Frontier - op-ed
   Keep the Internet free - op-ed

TV/RADIO
   FCC Working on Broadcast Indecency Complaints; Seeks Comment on Adopting Egregious Cases Policy - public notice
   Appeals court denies bid to shut down Web TV service Aereo

SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
   Vodafone-Verizon: a $245 billion solution
   Improving Public Safety Communications in the 800 MHz Band - public notice [links to web]
   Proposed Amendments to the Service Rules Governing Public Safety Narrowband Operations in the 769-775/799-805 MHz Bands - public notice [links to web]
   Apps allow parents to monitor children's mobile Web surfing [links to web]

PRIVACY
   Sen Franken still unsatisfied with Euclid's privacy practices

CONTENT
   CPB, PBS Team to Support Early Learning in Low-Income Communities with New Digital Content - press release
   Intelligent Content: Soon your media will know you better than you know yourself - op-ed
   Digital rights activists decry computer crime proposal [links to web]

ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
   Could Google tilt a close election?

TELECOM
   FCC Releases 2012 Universal Service Monitoring Report - research [links to web]
   Cyber criminals tying up emergency phone lines through TDoS attacks [links to web]

POLICYMAKERS
   FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee Rechartered - public notice [links to web]
   NAB Board Election Results Announced - press release [links to web]
   Google's Privacy Director Is Stepping Down [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   China slams US law restricting technology purchases
   Pressured by China, Apple Apologizes for Warranty Policies
   Syrian Newspapers Emerge to Fill Out War Reporting

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INTERNET/BROADBAND

PUBLIC VS PRIVATE CONTROL OF BROADBAND
[SOURCE: Government Technology, AUTHOR: Alex Marshall]
[Commentary] On September 21, 1932, presidential candidate Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed a big issue of the time: electrical service and who would provide it -- public utilities or private companies. “My answer has been, as it is tonight, to point out these plain principles,” Roosevelt told the crowd. “That where a community -- a city or county or a district -- is not satisfied with the service rendered or the rates charged by the private utility, it has the undeniable basic right, as one of its functions of government, one of its functions of home rule, to set up ... its own governmentally owned and operated service.” We are at a similar transition point with fiber-optic networks, the slender glass tubes that transmit the torrents of bits and bytes that power the Internet, cable television and telephone service, as well as a range of other services, including smart energy grids. It is now clear that fiber networks need to go everywhere; they should be carried into homes and businesses and replace the antiquated copper lines. But who will install these networks and who will control them? This question is key because it will impact decades of economic growth and who will benefit from it. For a couple key reasons, many Americans are unaware of these crucial battles taking place. First, people are so used to thinking of government doing things less efficiently that it turns their head around to realize the public sector can do some things better, even supplying physical infrastructure. Second, information is fractured. Although we live in a famously information-saturated time, what’s happening in places as disparate as Philadelphia, Lafayette and Chattanooga, Tenn., doesn’t travel far. Private companies can operate in a bubble, secure that a population one or two states over won’t know what they are doing. If the politicians falter, they should remember FDR’s words. It’s clear that fiber networks are a natural monopoly and need to be either run directly by the government, or so heavily regulated that it amounts to the same thing. [Alex Marshall, Senior Fellow, the Regional Plan Association in New York City]
benton.org/node/148781 | Government Technology
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INTERNET PRICING
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Daniel Lyons]
[Commentary] In the past few years, broadband providers have begun shifting toward tiered service plans (sometimes known as usage-based pricing) that offer customers a fixed amount of data each month for a fee. On average, less than 2 percent of users exceed the most commonly-used tier of 300 GB; nearly 80 percent of consumers never exceed even 50 GB per month. Nevertheless, some critics such as Public Knowledge and the New America Foundation are concerned that this trend may bring higher prices and reduced service. Most recently, NAF analyst Benjamin Lennett asked whether tiered service plans are a plot by cable companies to eliminate Internet-based competitors such as Netflix, which alone generates one-third of all North American download traffic. But a closer examination shows these concerns are largely exaggerated. Usage-based pricing is not inherently anticompetitive or anti-consumer. Rather, it is an alternative method of spreading costs across a network’s customer base.
benton.org/node/148806 | Wall Street Journal
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KEEP THE INTERNET FREE
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Rep Adam Kinzinger (R-IL)]
[Commentary] From the time of the Internet’s invention, the immense creativity and rapid expansion of the World Wide Web has been propelled by its freedom from government control. Now, that freedom is facing a threat from an entity that, to many, is unfamiliar — The International Telecommunication Union, a branch of the United Nations. The issues involved are complex, but the stakes are easy to grasp: Will we allow the essential freedom of the Internet to be undermined by opening the door to regulation by an international organization? The Internet’s creation and astonishing growth were not the result of government planning or regulation, but the very opposite. If the Internet is to grow, it must be protected from these attacks. The familiar saying, “the price of liberty is eternal vigilance,” contains a great truth. Those who wish to enjoy the benefits of liberty have no option but to accept their responsibility to defend it. I pledge to continue working with my colleagues to keep the Internet free and open.
benton.org/node/148799 | Politico
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TV/RADIO

FCC REDUCES BACKLOG OF BROADCAST INDECENCY COMPLAINTS BY 70% SEEKS COMMENT ON ADOPTING EGREGIOUS CASES POLICY
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
Since September 2012, the Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau has reduced the backlog of pending broadcast indecency complaints by 70% (more than one million complaints), principally by closing pending complaints that were beyond the statute of limitations or too stale to pursue, that involved cases outside FCC jurisdiction, that contained insufficient information, or that were foreclosed by settled precedent. The Bureau is also actively investigating egregious indecency cases and will continue to do so. The FCC now seeks comment on whether the full Commission should make changes to its current broadcast indecency policies or maintain them as they are. For example, should the Commission treat isolated expletives in a manner consistent with its decision in Pacifica (1987) (“If a complaint focuses solely on the use of expletives, we believe that . . . deliberate and repetitive use in a patently offensive manner is a requisite to a finding of indecency.”)? Should the Commission instead maintain the approach to isolated expletives set forth in its decision in Complaints Against Various Broadcast Licensees Regarding Their Airing of the “Golden Globe Awards” Program (2004)? Should the Commission treat isolated (non-sexual) nudity the same as or differently than isolated expletives? Commenters are invited to address these issues as well as any other aspect of the Commission’s substantive indecency policies. For purposes of this proceeding, we are establishing a new docket, GN Docket No. 13-86. All comments should refer to GN Docket No. 13-86.
benton.org/node/148798 | Federal Communications Commission | B&C | TVNewsCheck | AdWeek
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AEREO DECISION
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
A federal appeals court rejected a bid by TV networks to shut down Internet video service Aereo. The 2-1 decision upheld a lower court's ruling from July not to issue an injunction against the company, which is backed by billionaire Barry Diller. But the lawsuit, which claims that Aereo infringes on the broadcasters' copyrighted material, will continue as the company expands into new cities. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled that that Aereo's transmissions do not constitute a "public performance" under copyright law, and that the stations are not entitled to temporarily shut the company down as their lawsuit is pending.
benton.org/node/148777 | Hill, The
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

VOADAFONE-VERIZON WIRELESS DEAL?
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Bryce Elder]
According to usually reliable people, Verizon Communications and AT&T have been working on putting together a breakup bid for Vodafone. The bid would give Vodafone an enterprise value of around $245 billion. That would dwarf the previous M&A record holder, AOL’s $182 billion takeover of Time Warner in 2000. Barclays US has been tasked with putting together the potential transaction, the usually reliable people claim. The basic idea would be that Verizon buys Vodafone’s 45 percent stake in their Verizon Wireless joint venture while AT&T takes the non-US assets. For Vodafone, a takeover would achieve a premium for its Verizon Wireless stake without having to leak around $20 billion in tax (or suffer the bad publicity of trying to avoid it). For Verizon, bidding would clean up its structure without getting embroiled in the fights about leadership and domicile that were said to have stalled Vodafone merger talks in December. AT&T, meanwhile, would fulfill the long-stated ambition of expanding in Europe. Splitting the takeover premium would also make a deal much more palatable both for shareholders and debt ratings agencies.
benton.org/node/148813 | Financial Times | Bloomberg
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PRIVACY

EUCLID AND PRIVACY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
Sen Al Franken (D-MN) said he's still not satisfied with Euclid Analytics' privacy practices because the company requires a person to opt out of its tracking technology. The company requires shoppers to visit its website and opt out of its tracking technology. Instead, Sen Franken argues that shoppers should grant Euclid permission to cull data from their smartphones and wireless devices first. He added that this issue highlights the need for Congress to act on privacy legislation. Euclid's technology is geared towards helping retailers gather data about shoppers' behavior, such as how many people walk by their storefronts, how many new customers entered their stores on a given week, or how long they stay to shop in the store and which aisles they walked down. The company culls this data by using sensors to pick up the Wi-Fi signal on a consumer's smart phone.
benton.org/node/148804 | Hill, The
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CONTENT

DIGITAL EARLY LEARING CONTENT
[SOURCE: Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and PBS KIDS announced that they have partnered with five PBS stations to provide educational multimedia content to low-income communities. CPB awarded a total of $444,222 to these stations to test the effectiveness of digital content developed through Ready To Learn (RTL), a cooperative agreement funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement, to support the development of early math and literacy skills for children ages 2-8 in low-income families. Over the next year, five public television stations – Nashville Public Television (Nashville, TN), Louisiana Public Broadcasting (Baton Rouge, LA), KLRU (Austin, TX), New Mexico PBS (Albuquerque, NM) and PBS SoCal (Santa Ana, CA) – will serve as demonstration sites to implement RTL content with children, teachers and families. These stations will collaborate with educational partners in school, after-school, and summer settings, training educators in their communities to use RTL content with their students and teaching parents how to engage their children in math and literacy activities at home using a range of technologies, including computers, smart phones, tablets, and television.
benton.org/node/148793 | Corporation for Public Broadcasting
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INTELLIGENT CONTENT
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Roger Wood, Evelyn Robbrecht]
[Commentary] With the introduction of analytics into the visual design of written content, we are on the cusp of an era of incredible evolution: one where the design of information changes in real time in response to data about the readers consuming it. New technologies from Amazon, Apple, Google, WordPress and Tumblr already provide a preview of Intelligent Content. In essence, it won’t be long before the media we consume knows us better than we know ourselves. Publishers who recognize the design- and data-driven future of Intelligent Content will have a head start. They can experiment now with new ways to deliver content and measure how its readers engage with it. That data in turn can help them deliver even more engaging content experiences, ultimately preparing them for a future of Intelligent Content.
benton.org/node/148768 | paidContent.org
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA

KADOODLE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Craig Timberg]
Google’s motto is “Don’t be evil.” But what would it mean for democracy if it was? That’s the question psychologist Robert Epstein has been asking in a series of experiments testing the impact of a fictitious search engine — he called it “Kadoodle” — that manipulated search rankings, giving an edge to a favored political candidate by pushing up flattering links and pushing down unflattering ones. Not only could Kadoodle sway the outcome of close elections, he says, it could do so in a way most voters would never notice. Epstein, who had a public spat with Google last year, offers no evidence of actual evil acts by the company. Yet his exploration of Kadoodle — think of it as the equivalent of Evil Spock, complete with goatee — not only illuminates how search engines shape individual choices but asks whether the government should have a role in keeping this power in check.
benton.org/node/148779 | Washington Post | American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
   China slams US law restricting technology purchases

CHINA SLAMS US
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
China is protesting a new U.S. law that restricts government purchases of Chinese technology equipment. Shen Danyang, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, argued that the restriction sends a misguided signal and threatens to harm U.S.-China relations, according to state media reports. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei also urged the United States to reconsider policies that target Chinese businesses. The provision was part of a U.S. funding bill that President Obama signed into law last March 26. The law bars federal agencies from buying Chinese technology equipment unless the FBI or a similar agency determines the purchase would be in the national interest.
benton.org/node/148776 | Hill, The | IDG News Service
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APPLE WARRANTIES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Barboza, Nick Wingfield]
Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, took the unusual step of apologizing to Chinese customers over the company’s warranty policy and said he would improve customer service in the country. Apple’s apology was the latest twist in a strange spectacle that has unfolded in recent weeks in China over Apple’s warranty policies and underscored the challenges the company is facing as the country becomes an important market for its products. Apple’s problem began on International Consumers’ Day, when China’s biggest state-run television network, as is its tradition, broadcast an investigative report on how companies operating in China cheat or mistreat consumers. This year, on March 15, one of the targets was Apple. China Central Television criticized the American company’s after-sales iPhone customer service in China because it gave only a one-year warranty, while in China the law is two years. It also said that phone owners had to pay about $90 to replace a faulty back cover.
benton.org/node/148810 | New York Times | WSJ | FT | Bloomberg
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SYRIAN NEWSPAPERS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Neil MacFarquhar]
For media analysts, coverage of the Syrian war has seriously eroded the reputations of channels like Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. Where their newscasts once brought a measure of objectivity to a region dominated by servile state-run media, they are increasingly viewed as mouthpieces for the foreign policy objectives of Qatar and Saudi Arabia. “The major pan-Arab networks have lost a great deal of credibility on the Syria story,” said Marc Lynch, director of the Middle East studies program at George Washington University. Lynch said the change was particularly striking for Al Jazeera, once considered must-see TV during any Middle East crisis. “Al Jazeera has lost its ability to be the neutral ground where Arabs who disagree about things can argue,” he said. It was in the spirit of objectivity that Absi Smesem’s newspaper, Sham, another name for Syria in Arabic, began publishing in February. It was one of several publications introduced at roughly the same time.
benton.org/node/148811 | New York Times
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Vodafone-Verizon: a $245 billion solution

According to usually reliable people, Verizon Communications and AT&T have been working on putting together a breakup bid for Vodafone.

The bid would give Vodafone an enterprise value of around $245 billion. That would dwarf the previous M&A record holder, AOL’s $182 billion takeover of Time Warner in 2000. Barclays US has been tasked with putting together the potential transaction, the usually reliable people claim. The basic idea would be that Verizon buys Vodafone’s 45 percent stake in their Verizon Wireless joint venture while AT&T takes the non-US assets. For Vodafone, a takeover would achieve a premium for its Verizon Wireless stake without having to leak around $20 billion in tax (or suffer the bad publicity of trying to avoid it). For Verizon, bidding would clean up its structure without getting embroiled in the fights about leadership and domicile that were said to have stalled Vodafone merger talks in December. AT&T, meanwhile, would fulfill the long-stated ambition of expanding in Europe. Splitting the takeover premium would also make a deal much more palatable both for shareholders and debt ratings agencies.

Syrian Newspapers Emerge to Fill Out War Reporting

For media analysts, coverage of the Syrian war has seriously eroded the reputations of channels like Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. Where their newscasts once brought a measure of objectivity to a region dominated by servile state-run media, they are increasingly viewed as mouthpieces for the foreign policy objectives of Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

“The major pan-Arab networks have lost a great deal of credibility on the Syria story,” said Marc Lynch, director of the Middle East studies program at George Washington University. Lynch said the change was particularly striking for Al Jazeera, once considered must-see TV during any Middle East crisis. “Al Jazeera has lost its ability to be the neutral ground where Arabs who disagree about things can argue,” he said.

It was in the spirit of objectivity that Absi Smesem’s newspaper, Sham, another name for Syria in Arabic, began publishing in February. It was one of several publications introduced at roughly the same time.

Pressured by China, Apple Apologizes for Warranty Policies

Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, took the unusual step of apologizing to Chinese customers over the company’s warranty policy and said he would improve customer service in the country.

Apple’s apology was the latest twist in a strange spectacle that has unfolded in recent weeks in China over Apple’s warranty policies and underscored the challenges the company is facing as the country becomes an important market for its products. Apple’s problem began on International Consumers’ Day, when China’s biggest state-run television network, as is its tradition, broadcast an investigative report on how companies operating in China cheat or mistreat consumers. This year, on March 15, one of the targets was Apple. China Central Television criticized the American company’s after-sales iPhone customer service in China because it gave only a one-year warranty, while in China the law is two years. It also said that phone owners had to pay about $90 to replace a faulty back cover.

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