July 2013

Around the Bay Area, you're being watched

Across the San Francisco Bay Area -- from Pittsburg to San Francisco, from Tiburon to Gilroy -- you're being watched. And it's not just the National Security Agency secretly vacuuming up your personal data. Local police agencies are increasingly adopting Big Data technologies such as automatic license-plate readers that gather information about everyone, whether they've broken the law or not. A lot of the information ends up on the 14th floor of a federal office building in San Francisco, where a "fusion center" run by state and local law enforcement agencies combines the data with a plethora of personal information about you, from credit reports to car rentals to unlisted phone numbers to gun licenses.

Tribune Company buys 19 television stations in $2.7-billion deal

Tribune Company has agreed to purchase 19 television stations owned by Local TV Holdings in a $2.73-billion deal that is expected to make Tribune the largest television station group in the country.

Tribune and Local TV Holdings said have entered into a definitive agreement for Tribune to acquire all of Local TV's television stations in a cash transaction. Local TV's stations are located in 16 markets, including Denver, Salt Lake City, Cleveland and Kansas City. The deal would give Tribune 42 television stations, up from 23 stations. The company will become the largest affiliated station group for Fox Broadcasting, owned by 21st Century Fox, with 14 Fox stations. Tribune also would own 14 stations carrying programming of the CW network, a joint venture between CBS and Warner Bros. Tribune also would have five CBS affiliates, three ABC affiliates and two NBC stations. The company would own 14 stations in the nation's top 20 markets. The deal increases its footprint in political battleground states Ohio, Virginia, Colorado and Pennsylvania. Local TV, which is based in Newport (KY), was formed five years ago with the purchase of nine stations previously owned by the New York Times Co. The firm, principally owned by private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, continued adding stations to its portfolio.

The boards of both Tribune and Local TV approved the transaction, which is expected to close by the end of 2013 and will be subject to Federal Communications Commission approvals and an antitrust review.

Talk of Mergers Stirs Cable TV’s Big Players

John Malone, the chairman of Liberty Media, is weighing a deal for Time Warner Cable, according to people briefed on the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly. In this deal, Charter Communications, a cable operator in which Liberty owns a 27 percent stake, would buy Time Warner Cable. Should he reach a deal, he will most likely use the combined company to roll up other cable operators, upending a status quo dominated by giants like Comcast.

Those possibilities are helping to build expectations for deals in an industry that investors and some analysts think is ready for more. Malone has recently become among the most vocal proponents, declaring in April that “there is more consolidation yet to be done.” Uniting cable or satellite television companies would give them more power in negotiating with programming providers like the Walt Disney Company and Viacom, which are demanding ever-higher rates for their channels. Mergers could also help blunt new challenges from companies like Intel, which is working on a subscriber TV service that would be delivered via the Internet. But just as big a target is the broadband Internet service that cable companies also provide. While cable television is mature and will most likely decline in the future, Malone believes broadband has only one direction to go: up. The emerging online rivals to cable TV, like Netflix and Hulu, require the kind of fast data connections that companies like Charter supply.

Journalism, Even When It’s Tilted

[Commentary] In a refracted media world where information comes from everywhere, the line between two “isms” — journalism and activism — is becoming difficult to discern.

As American news media have pulled back from international coverage, nongovernmental organizations have filled in the gaps with on-the-scene reports and Web sites. State houses have lost reporters who used to provide accountability, so citizens have turned to digital enterprises, some of which have partisan agendas. The question of who is a journalist and who is an activist and whether they can be one and the same continues to roar along, most recently in the instance of Glenn Greenwald’s reporting for The Guardian on the secrets revealed by Edward J. Snowden. Sometimes, a writer’s motives or leanings emerge between the lines over time, but you need only to read a few sentences of Greenwald’s blog to know exactly where he stands. Greenwald is an activist who is deeply suspicious of government and the national security apparatus, and he is a zealous defender of privacy and civil rights.

Public Radio’s Midday Show to Include Local Contributions

After weeks of appeals, public radio stations nationwide have chosen their new midday programming to replace NPR’s 21-year-old call-in show “Talk of the Nation,” which signed off last week.

For the moment, NPR has lost some midday real estate. The replacement program it is offering — an expanded two-hour version of “Here & Now,” an existing newsmagazine from Boston’s WBUR-FM, which NPR will now co-produce — will be carried by 302 stations. These stations include seven of the top 10 markets and 16 of the top 25, according to NPR. “Talk of the Nation,” by contrast, attracted 3.53 million listeners weekly on 407 stations, including nine of the 10 largest markets and 21 of the top 25, NPR said. Another program that has also tried to expand its midday distribution, “The Takeaway” from WNYC and Public Radio International, will now be heard on 190 stations reaching almost 55 percent of the country, up from 82 stations two months ago, WNYC said.

Voice of America: Domestic Outlets Get Access to International Broadcasts

In a move that could provide some low-cost, high-quality international news content to domestic cable and broadcast outlets, starting July 2 thousands of hours of international video and radio news content from the Voice of America and Radio and TV Marti will become available for domestic distribution for the first time.

Some of that content has been available on the Web, but not in a high-resolution format suitable for framing in a TV picture. Now, thanks to a change in law supported by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, restrictions on domestic broadcast of that content will be lifted so that the Voice of America can be a voice for America as well. Because the content has already been paid for with tax dollars, it will be available for reimbursable costs incurred in making it available -- burning a DVD or changing a format -- although if there is third-party content included that will have to be a separate negotiation. The target of the content is still other countries that lack a free press, but the U.S. press that could use some free content of their own in these tough economic times can now benefit, and the American public "will be able to know what they are paying for with their tax dollars," says BBG.

Nokia Buys Siemens Stake in Joint Unit for $2.2 Billion

Nokia Oyj agreed to buy Siemens’s share in a six-year venture for 1.7 billion euros ($2.2 billion), giving the Finnish company full access to the phone-equipment maker’s cashflow for a less-than-estimated price.

Nokia will pay 1.2 billion euros for Siemens’s 50 percent stake in Nokia Siemens Networks, with the remainder as a secured loan from Siemens due a year after the deal is completed. Nokia doesn’t plan to integrate Nokia Siemens and may still decide to seek partners, Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop said. The Finnish handset maker fighting to come back in the smartphone industry jumped as much as 10 percent in Helsinki trading. The purchase price values the venture, which became profitable last year, at 3.4 billion euros, less than at least 5 billion euros projected by Hannu Rauhala, a Helsinki-based analyst at Pohjola Bank. Siemens has been seeking to exit wireless-gear manufacturing to focus on energy equipment, healthcare and infrastructure projects.

Apple paid no UK corporation tax in 2012

Apple did not pay UK corporation tax last year, according to its latest filings, which are likely to underline the controversy over the US tech giant’s tax planning.

In May, a US Senate committee highlighted Apple’s overseas tax rate of less than 2 percent, which it said reflected its ability to shift profits into Ireland. Tax deductions from share awards to employees helped wipe out the corporate tax liabilities of the UK subsidiaries in the year to September 2012. In the previous year, the tax reported by the UK subsidiaries was £11.4 million. Apple’s tax affairs became the focus of global scrutiny in May after the US Senate Committee accused Apple of avoiding $10 billion of US tax a year. It said the company “left very small earnings, and correspondingly small tax liabilities, in countries around the world” because the economic rights to the goods it sold were held in Ireland.

Benton

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