May 2013

SEC Will Start TV Network in 2014

The Southeastern Conference will carry 45 football games and hundreds of other events on its own television network each year starting in August 2014, following the lead of the Big Ten and the Pacific 12 conferences and the University of Texas, which have their own channels. The SEC Network, like Texas’s Longhorn Network, will be owned and operated by ESPN.

The long-anticipated 20-year SEC Network deal, announced at a news conference in Atlanta, was a 10-year extension of ESPN’s existing SEC deal. The original contract, signed in 2008, guaranteed the SEC $2.25 billion over 15 years. The extension will provide a significant financial boost to the conference, but the figures were not disclosed. The SEC, which will receive profits from the channel, will be tied to ESPN through 2034, the latest example of ESPN’s desire to lock up rights for as long as possible to provide continuity for its businesses and to keep the programming from rivals.

Copyright in the Digital Era: Building Evidence for Policy

Over the course of several decades, copyright protection has been expanded and extended through legislative changes occasioned by national and international developments. The content and technology industries affected by copyright and its exceptions, and in some cases balancing the two, have become increasingly important as sources of economic growth, relatively high-paying jobs, and exports. Since the expansion of digital technology in the mid-1990s, they have undergone a technological revolution that has disrupted long-established modes of creating, distributing, and using works ranging from literature and news to film and music to scientific publications and computer software. In the United States and internationally, these disruptive changes have given rise to a strident debate over copyright's proper scope and terms and means of its enforcement--a debate between those who believe the digital revolution is progressively undermining the copyright protection essential to encourage the funding, creation, and distribution of new works and those who believe that enhancements to copyright are inhibiting technological innovation and free expression.

examines a range of questions regarding copyright policy by using a variety of methods, such as case studies, international and sectoral comparisons, and experiments and surveys. This report is especially critical in light of digital age developments that may, for example, change the incentive calculus for various actors in the copyright system, impact the costs of voluntary copyright transactions, pose new enforcement challenges, and change the optimal balance between copyright protection and exceptions.

Welcome, Shawnee, Kansas!

The Shawnee City Council voted to bring Google Fiber to their city. We still have a lot of planning and engineering work to do before we’re ready to bring Fiber to Shawnee, so we don’t have an estimate for when service will be available yet. We’ll be sure to publish an update here as soon as we have it.

Politics and Vetting Leave Key U.S. Posts Long Unfilled

As the White House races this week to plug holes in the cabinet, the lights remain off in essential offices across the Administration.

The vacancies, attributed to partisan politics and lengthy White House vetting, are slowing policy making in a capital already known for inaction, and embarrassing a president who has had more than five months since his re-election to fill many of the jobs. “I don’t think it’s ever been this bad,” said Rep Frank R. Wolf (R-VA), who recently wrote a letter urging President Obama to act swiftly to fill top vacancies. The White House faults an increasingly partisan confirmation process in the Senate and what officials say are over-the-top demands for information about every corner of a nominee’s life.

Why Lobbying Is Now Increasingly In The Shadows

While ideological gridlock continues to immobilize Capitol Hill, another of Washington's institutions is morphing behind the scenes. The lobbying industry is becoming more secretive — reversing a trend that dates back to the 1990s. And campaign money now looms ever larger as a critical element in the persuasion business.

Ever since Congress strengthened the lobbying disclosure laws in 1995, most lobbyists have routinely registered and filed their quarterly disclosures of clients, issues and fees. But in the past few years, lobbyists by the hundreds have been rethinking that whole thing. "It's largely a matter of choice that each of us makes, as to whether we comply with the law or not," says Tony Podesta, one of Washington's top lobbyists. He says whether you have to register depends on how much lobbying you do for each client. "The line is 20 percent of your time being spent in preparation for or in contacting government officials," he says. But lobbying these days isn't just trips to Capitol Hill. There's strategic planning, public relations, grassroots lobbying, TV ads — none of which needs to be revealed.

Facebook, Samsung join ITI lobby group

The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) announced on that technology giants Facebook and Samsung have joined as member companies.

Online sales tax supporters push back on eBay

A coalition supporting an online sales tax measure is pushing back against a key opponent just days before the Senate is expected to give final approval to the bill. The Marketplace Fairness Coalition, a group of businesses from around the country, said that eBay was armed with “inaccurate comments” as it fought the bill.

“Fortunately, a broad coalition of sellers, states, and municipalities from across the country, as well as a strong bipartisan majority in the U.S. Senate and Governors in both parties, recognize that the time has come to pass this bipartisan compromise legislation that would level the playing field and restore fairness to the marketplace,” the coalition wrote in a letter to eBay’s chief executive John Donahoe. In its letter, the marketplace fairness group said the bill would mandate that states give businesses free sales tax software and would not give states more authority to audit companies.

MMTC Targets End of May for FCC-Sanctioned Diversity Study

The Minority Media & Telecommunications Council and BIA are still in the midst of interviews for their report on the impact of crossownership rules on minority ownership, which is expected to be completed by mid-May and delivered to the Federal Communications Commission at the end of May, according to MMTC.

The FCC will not be completing its 2010 quadrennial review until the study is finished, the outgoing chairman Julius Genachowski has signaled, and now that completion will have to be left to his successors since he announced this week a mid-May departure date. MMTC president David Honig said that they still needed to wrap up the interviews, write the report and have it peer reviewed, with the report expected to be done by May 17, and reviewed and sent to the FCC by the end of the month, which would put it in the hands of acting chair Mignon Clyburn. She praised the study at the time, saying it "could shed greater light on any potential harms that may result from increased media consolidation."

Flexing antitrust muscle, China is a new merger hurdle

China's new-found clout in regulating global mergers is causing headaches for companies seeking high-stakes deals that need Beijing's approval. Where corporate lawyers and advisers were once primarily concerned with merger clearance in the United States and Europe, China's anti-monopoly law - just five years old - has altered the calculus, as Beijing forces often painful delays with an antitrust regime that some see as an industrial policy tool. Tucked into the hulking Commerce Ministry (MOFCOM) a stone's throw from Tiananmen Square, a handful of antitrust officials are what stands between multi-billion dollar mergers and access to the world's second-largest economy. The hiccups in China's system have the potential to gum up the works - extending firms' funding needs and creating uncertainty around mergers.

CBO Scores Internet Governance Bill

H.R. 1580 would affirm the policy of the United States to preserve and advance a multistakeholder model to govern the Internet. Such a model, currently in practice, involves groups drawn from civil society, the private sector, governments, academic and research communities, as well as national and international organizations.

Based on information from the Federal Communications Commission and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would not have an effect on spending subject to appropriation because the workloads of those agencies would not be affected. Further, enacting H.R. 1580 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. H.R. 1580 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments.

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