September 2013

Telecoms Use Astroturf Lobby Against Network Neutrality

In an examination of tax filings from 2008 to 2011, The American Independent found that the telecom industry funneled millions of dollars into more than 30 “grassroots” foundations and think-tanks -- in a technique commonly known as “astroturfing” in Washington circles -- to persuade the Federal Communications Commission that consumers were opposed to network neutrality regulations.

Many of the organizations that received those funds, such as the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and the American Association of People with Disabilities, have no obvious ties to the telecom industry or FCC regulatory policy. Despite that, they signed initiatives and public letters opposing network neutrality rules that were designed to protect consumers. Two major telecom-industry groups -- CTIA – The Wireless Association and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) -- contributed in excess of $4 million to the effort, and the industry spent another $2 million funding an umbrella organization of nearly 300 listed community groups who joined the coalition against net neutrality in support of the telecom industry. Many of those organizations also seem unlikely partners, such as the US Cattlemen’s Association and the Jewish Energy Project.

The Big Advertising, Media and Tech Issues Facing Congress

It’s more bark than bite. Despite the CBS blackout on Time Warner Cable, there’s little appetite in Congress to do anything about retransmission.

Time Warner and Dish are trying to convince lawmakers to tack reform onto the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act, which Congress must move on before the end of 2014. More noise is expected in September at the House communications and technology subcommittee hearing on the expiring act. On Sept 9, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in Verizon Wireless v. FCC, a case that has profound implications for future Internet policy–whether the FCC has the authority to regulate the Internet by imposing rules that prohibit online service providers from blocking or slowing down legal content from competitors. The FCC admittedly lacks authority even though acting chair Mignon Clyburn said she was “ready to consider appropriate action.” Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE), chairman of the commerce, manufacturing and trade subcommittee, is just getting started, forming a working group to examine privacy issues.

Dish's Dodge Proposes Distant Signal Retransmission Alternative

Dish executive vice president R. Stanton Dodge plans to tell Congress that not only should it renew the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA), but it should do more in order to comprehensively reform the "broken" retransmission consent regime.

In prepared testimony for a House Judiciary Committee subcommittee hearing on STELA, Dodge says that it is clear STELA should be renewed so that 1.5 million American households won't be left "without access to a full complement of network channels." A STELA renewal would continue the compulsory license that allows satellite operators to import distant network-affiliated TV stations into markets where there are none to viewers who can't get a sufficiently viewable version of the ones they do get. Warning that without some congressional or Federal Communications Commission action, millions more screens will likely go dark every year during retransmission blackouts, Dodge says that action could take a number of forms.

MLB Asks Congress to Get Rid of Compulsory Licenses

Major League Baseball is asking Congress to get rid of the compulsory license that allows satellite operators (and cable operators) to import network affiliated TV station signals without the consent of the copyright holders of content on those stations, content like MLB baseball games on local TV stations and Fox network's national contract.

According to the prepared testimony of MLB attorney Robert Garrett for the Sept 10 House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on satellite TV regulations, the satellite compulsory license, and cable's similar license, "divest baseball of any ability to negotiate with satellite carriers and cable systems over the terms on which those services commercially exploit broadcasts of MLB games." MLB calls the licenses unfair, an impediment to the free marketplace, and an administrative cost burden on baseball.

NAB: Time to Ditch Distant Signal License

The National Association of Broadcasters wants Congress to do away with the distant signal compulsory license that allows satellite operators to import distant TV station network affiliates into their markets.

In prepared testimony for a satellite hearing Sept 10 in a House Judiciary Committee subcommittee, Gerry Waldron, representing NAB, said that the license "has outlived its usefulness and can no longer be justified." NAB says the local-into-local compulsory license, which does not expire, should be enough to handle delivering over-air signals to subscriptions. NAB said the only defense of it would be in hardship cases of making network programming available to a small number of households that otherwise have no access to it. It is that definition of good faith negotiation where retransmission reformers could work in some of their updates. NAB wants none of that.

Cable Seeks Channel Substitution in Retransmission

Broadcast TV’s competitors will urge Congress to revise the retransmission consent law to permit cable and satellite TV companies to use distant network signals during retransmission consent negotiations.

“Without immediate action by Congress ... it seems likely that millions more screens will go dark every year, and consumers will pay more and more for their cable and satellite service,” R. Stanton Dodge, general counsel of Dish Network, will testify during a hearing before a House Judiciary Committee subcommittee, according to an advance copy of his written testimony. But the National Association of Broadcasters will urge lawmakers to veto the pleas for relief. “A change in the law that would permit a satellite carrier to import a distant signal — not based on need, but to gain unfair market leverage in a retransmission consent dispute,” Gerard Waldron, a communications attorney who is testifying in NAB’s behalf, will say, according to the text of his written testimony for the hearing.

Rep Eshoo Issues Retransmission Bill Draft

Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) released a draft of retransmission consent legislation in advance of a hearing dealing with that and other video regulation issues.

The bill, The Video CHOICE (Consumers Have Options in Choosing Entertainment), is intended to eliminate TV blackouts caused by retransmission consent disputes. The bill:
1) Gives the FCC explicit statutory authority to grant interim carriage of a television broadcast station during a retransmission consent negotiation impasse.
2) Ensures that a consumer can purchase cable television service without subscribing to the broadcast stations electing retransmission consent.
3) Prohibits a television broadcast station engaged in a retransmission consent negotiations from making their owned or affiliated cable programming a condition for receiving broadcast programming.
4) Instructs the FCC to examine whether the blocking of a television broadcast station's owned or affiliated online content during a retransmission consent negotiation constitutes a failure to negotiate in "good faith."
5) Calls for an FCC study of programming costs for regional and national sports networks in the top 20 regional sports markets.

National Association of Broadcasters President Gordon Smith said that a new draft retransmission consent bill could "embolden pay-TV giants," to "game the system." The former senator said he had "Great personal affection" for Eshoo, but was surprised that the bill was slanted toward distributors and strongly opposes it. The bill, which was circulated in advance of a hearing on video regulation, would allow the FCC to grant cable and satellite operators interim carriage during retransmission impasses, would not require cable operators to offer retransmission stations as must-buys in basic service.

Why I cut the cable cord and you probably shouldn't

[Commentary] Eighteen months after dropping our cable TV package, here’s what I learned:

1. It's great. I'm saving a bunch of money. And thanks to streaming Internet services, we've got way more stuff to watch than we could ever want.
2. But ... cutting the cord will remain a fringe activity for years to come. Watching the things you want to watch becomes a puzzle. It's a lot of work to replace all the options you had with the flick of the remote. It's too much effort for most people to find and track all this content across different platforms. And also, the lack of reasonably-priced options to watch sports will remain a deal killer for most people.

But that doesn't stop people from hoping that the masses will rise up and throw off the oppressive yoke of their local cable monopoly. Hating your cable company has become the new national pastime.

Spotlight on NTIA: Suzanne Radell, senior policy adviser, Office of International Affairs

Suzanne Radell, a senior policy adviser in NTIA’s Office of International Affairs, spent far more of her childhood abroad than she did in the United States. It’s one reason why she says she was drawn to work on international issues when she grew up.

Radell was born in Istanbul, Turkey and has lived in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Lebanon. She got her undergrad degree in political science from Schiller College in Paris but decided to return to the United States to obtain a Master’s Degree in political science from the State University of New York, at Binghamton. She is a dissertation short of obtaining her doctorate in international relations from George Washington University. After a three-year stint at the National Association of Manufacturers as a legislative assistant, she began working at NTIA in late 1982 as a policy adviser on international telecommunications and information policy issues ranging from trans-border data flows and opening foreign telecommunications markets to competition from US firms to international accounting and settlements policy. Radell also managed relations on these matters with the European Union and advanced US policy in meetings of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Udacity teams up with Google, AT&T and other tech giants for Open Education Alliance

Udacity and other massive open online course (MOOC) providers may have mixed support among academics, but the startup sure has a lot of allies in Silicon Valley. The company said that it had joined forces with a group of prominent technology companies to launch the Open Education Alliance, which intends to provide students around the world with a curriculum and skills they need to pursue careers in technology.

Benton

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