October 2013

European Commission to push EU leaders on single telecoms market

Creating a single telecoms market in Europe and cutting the cost of doing business over the Internet could boost the region's economy by 4 percent by 2020, the European Commission will tell European Union leaders.

The push from the European Union's executive, when EU leaders meet on October 24-25, comes as Neelie Kroes, the EU's telecommunications commissioner, makes a fresh attempt to overhaul the bloc's telecoms sector. Following Brussels' success in curbing the cost of using mobile phone use, she now wants to cap the price of cross-border fixed-line calls in Europe, where the commission says technology and telecommunications make a smaller contribution to the economy than in the United States or China. Kroes also wants EU veto power over national auctions of mobile spectrum, and to make it easier for operators to charge companies such as Google more for carrying heavy loads of data at high speeds.

Sean Lev, FCC General Counsel, To Step Down By Year’s End

Acting Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn announced that Sean Lev will step down as General Counsel by the end of 2013.

Chairwoman Clyburn said: “Among … notable accomplishments, Sean has spearheaded the agency’s defense of the Open Internet rules; he has worked extensively on defending the Commission’s landmark Universal Service/Intercarrier Compensation Transformation Order, and he has led the Office of General Counsel to major victories in the D.C. Circuit on the Commission’s data roaming rules, and in the Supreme Court on the ‘shot clock’ rules for wireless facilities siting applications.” In addition to the advice and counsel Lev has provided as General Counsel, he has also served for the last 11 months as the Interim Director of the FCC’s Technology Transitions Policy Task Force.

Internet Domain Name Expansion Now Underway

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced that the first new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) from its New gTLD Program were delegated. This means they were introduced into the Internet's Root Zone, the central authoritative database for the Internet's Domain Name System.

As a result, the domain name Registries, the organizations approved to operate these and other soon-to-be-delegated gTLDs, can execute the final processes required to make their domain names available to Internet users. ICANN's New gTLD Program is responsible for the introductions of new gTLDs that will result in the expansion of the Domain Name System from 22 gTLDs (e.g., .COM, .NET, .ORG) to possibly 1,400 new names or "strings." The newly delegated gTLDs are in Arabic, Chinese and Cyrillic scripts. They are the first of many gTLDs in various non-Latin scripts as a demonstration of ICANN’s efforts to create a globally-inclusive Internet, regardless of language or region.

Facebook's lobbying climbs to record level

Facebook is searching for friends in the nation's capital faster than ever.

When President Barack Obama took office in 2009, the company had no federal lobbyists in Washington (DC), but since then, Facebook's lobbying expenditures have soared. During the third quarter of 2013 alone, Facebook reported spending $1.4 million on lobbying -- its second-highest quarterly amount since it first hired federal lobbyists in mid-2009. Since then, Facebook has spent $10.7 million on lobbying, including nearly $5 million so far, according to a Center for Public Integrity review of records filed with the US Senate. No matter what it spends during the final quarter of the year, 2013 will be a record year for the company. During the third quarter of 2013, Facebook lobbied on a host of issues including “privacy, security, protecting children and online safety,” as the Center for Public Integrity previously noted. The company also reported being active around "general electronic privacy issues including geolocation information" and "discussions urging more transparency and flexibility around national security-related orders as Facebook and many of its tech counterparts have been embroiled in controversy following revelations earlier by contractor Edward Snowden about National Security Agency surveillance measures. Facebook's political action committee -- which it launched in the autumn of 2011 -- is also on pace for a record-setting year. The PAC, which most recently submitted a financial report to the Federal Election Commission in July 2013, raised $203,000 during the first six months of 2013. That's up from $175,000 in all of 2012, and $170,000 in 2011.

Step Aside, Netflix: Amazon’s Entering the Original Series Race

The original series field just got more crowded thanks to Amazon, an Internet colossus used to doing things differently -- and successfully.

On the surface, Amazon’s foray into originals looks similar to the path blazed by Netflix. Both companies want to buttress their licensed-library content with TV-caliber originals that are available nowhere else. But that’s where the comparison ends. Though Hollywood tends to frown on those that try to shake its traditions, Amazon is intent on playing by its own rules. The company made that clear enough by releasing a number of pilots on Amazon.com for broad public viewing in order to gather data on user engagement, which helped decide which projects to greenlight. Amazon’s prospects for breaking into Hollywood might be more easily dismissed were it not for the fact the company has been monstrously successful at expanding into new market segments.

Why TV Networks Are Bypassing Pilots for Direct-to-Series Orders

As the battle for eyeballs grows more competitive, the broadcast TV networks increasingly are rethinking the pilot process.

On Oct. 17, 2013 Fox said it would bypass the pilot stage with a 13-episode commitment for Hieroglyph, a fantastical drama from Pacific Rim writer Travis Beacham. Blame the shift on the influx of TV competitors, from Netflix to WGN America, that are elbowing their way into the game by offering massive commitments. "A lot of this is about getting people to come to us over cable," says a network source of the broadcast buys, with another pointing to Netflix's 26-episode order for House of Cards as the game-changer. "As networks are trying to figure out how to compete with basic cable, premium cable and productions for digital platforms, what everyone realizes is, they have to be bold and not shy away from big ideas," says 20th Century Fox TV chair Gary Newman, acknowledging that some of the biggest swings aren't feasible on the pilot model.

Obama to Germany's Merkel: US not monitoring your phone

President Barack Obama has assured German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the United States “is not monitoring and will not monitor” her phone calls, the White House said.

The reassurance was offered in a phone call between the two leaders in which Chancellor Merkel told President Obama that the monitoring of her phone would be unacceptable. A Merkel spokesman said the German government “has received information that the chancellor's cell phone may be monitored by American intelligence.” Steffen Seibert said Chancellor Merkel told President Obama that “she views such practices, if the indications are confirmed ... as completely unacceptable.” White House spokesman Jay Carney looked to downplay the potential rift, saying the US government was “reviewing the way we gather intelligence to ensure the balance the security concerns ... with privacy concerns.”

Five things Netflix is going to disrupt next

Here are five things that Netflix is going to change up next.

TV seasons: Netflix is considering shortening the time we have to wait for the next season of a show to start
Movies: After its success with its original TV shows, Netflix has been getting plenty of questions about when it is going produce its own original movies
High definition: Netflix is looking to stream 4K videos straight to supported devices
Europe: Already in the UK, Ireland, Norway, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands, Netflix is likely to expand further into continental Europe, with both Germany and France being possible targets
Your cable box: Previously, content agreements with Hollywood prevented pay TV operators from including the Netflix app on leased devices, but those contracts changed

Netflix - 5 Reasons Cable Companies Should Just Say 'Yes!'

[Commentary] Here are 5 reasons why it is a no-brainer for the major cable and satellite companies to carry Netflix as another "channel" available to their subscribers:

Netflix Already Is Everywhere
Offer A More Compelling User Experience
Offer A One-Stop Shop for All Compelling Content
Netflix Will Bring More Attention to Cable’s Own Original Programming
Give Another Important Reason for Customers to Opt for Faster Broadband

[Csathy is CEO of Manatt Digital Media Ventures]

The Popular Culture That Is Actually Popular

[Commentary] Now more than ever, American culture seems to be caught up in a moment of intense innovation: This period in television has been called a golden age often enough that it amounts to a cliché; the Internet has made more music more accessible than ever before; and this past summer, you had to go to the movies eighteen times before having to watch a blockbuster a second time. And it's not just the material that's fresh but also the media. There's Netflix, there's Spotify, there's whatever curatorial project is just getting off the ground: There are endless new ways to see all the unbelievable new things. And all of this wonderful newness is fantastic except for the fact that when you look at what people actually watch, it's mostly the old. Real popular culture is stuff everybody's already seen and heard before.

Benton

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