April 2014

TiVo: Adherence to C3 is Sucking Millions Out of TV Ad Market

In what may be the most cogent argument for the adoption of the C7 ratings currency, TiVo Research revealed that broadcasters beholden to the dated C3 metric are leaving hundreds of millions of dollars in ad sales revenue on the table.

According to TiVo’s analysis of its top 10 “Season Pass” broadcast series (a designation reserved for the shows that subscribers most commonly flag for automatic, full-season recording), there is an average lift of 8.2 percent in overall deliveries when four days of playback are added to the C3 data. As that increase is not compensated under the current metric, this translates to an overall loss of $87.8 million in ad sales for those 10 programs. (As the data was generated in a second-by-second analysis of TiVo subscriber behaviors, the numbers were not broken down by the relevant demographics.)

While a shift from C3 to C7 doesn’t proportionately move the ratings needle for Fox’s American Idol, which is largely watched in real time, the elevated cost of buying time in the show translates into the most amount of viewing that remains uncompensated. Per TiVo, when the 4.1 percent boost in deliveries is brought to bear on the average unit cost for the Wednesday and Thursday night Idol ($319,565 a pop), it all adds up to $14.4 million in wasted opportunities.

The Effect of Social Media in Young Girls

[Commentary] Recent studies have shown that there has been an increase in depression among girls that is linked with both obesity and can be caused by social media.

As part of this "waterfall" effect, girls with obesity have been scientifically linked with having lower grades than girls who are not depressed or obese. In other words:

Social media is prevalent in society today, and it has been scientifically linked with causing depression in young girls.
Depression is linked with obesity in young girls.
Obesity is also linked with lower grades in young girls.
Ultimately, social media is affecting the health and education of young girls nationwide.

[Tran is a Junior at Marina High School]

Clapper signs strict new media directive

A new directive issued by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper prohibits employees of certain government agencies from discussing any intelligence-related matter with the media, classified or not.

“[Intelligence Community] employees … must obtain authorization for contacts with the media” on intelligence-related matters, and “must also report… unplanned or unintentional contact with the media on covered matters,” the directive says.

DNI spokesperson Shawn Turner said that after the "damaging leaks in 2012," Clapper ordered a review to determine if there were a "consistent baseline requirement" for the intelligence community for engaging the media.

"The review demonstrated that baseline requirements were not consistent across the IC, but that there were best practices within the Community that could inform a consistent approach. That approach took shape as IC Directive 119," Turner wrote in an email. "This policy is being issued together with IC Directive 120 to ensure that members of the Intelligence Community are made aware of the protections provided them as whistleblowers who make protected disclosures. As with ICD 119, ICD 120 was initiated before Edward Snowden stole NSA property and leaked it to the media.”

AT&T Eyes 100 US Cities and Municipalities for its Ultra-Fast Fiber Network

AT&T announced a major initiative to expand its ultra-fast fiber network to up to 100 candidate cities and municipalities nationwide, including 21 new major metropolitan areas.

The fiber network will deliver AT&T U-verse with GigaPowerSM service, which can deliver broadband speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second and AT&T’s most advanced TV services, to consumers and businesses. AT&T will work with local leaders in these markets to discuss ways to bring the service to their communities.

Similar to previously announced metro area selections in Austin and Dallas and advanced discussions in Raleigh-Durham and Winston-Salem, communities that have suitable network facilities, and show the strongest investment cases based on anticipated demand and the most receptive policies will influence these future selections and coverage maps within selected areas.

This initiative continues AT&T’s ongoing commitment to economic development in these communities, bringing jobs, advanced technologies and infrastructure. The list of 21 candidate metropolitan areas includes: Atlanta, Augusta, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Fort Worth, Fort Lauderdale, Greensboro, Houston, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, Oakland, Orlando, San Antonio, San Diego, St. Louis, San Francisco, and San Jose. With previously announced markets, AT&T now has committed to or is exploring 25 metro areas for fiber deployment.

Verizon Wireless consumes Golden State Cellular and Mobi PCS

Verizon Wireless is expanding the reach of its LTE network in California and Hawaii via new deals with two small carriers, Golden State Cellular in California and Mobi PCS in Hawaii.

Under the terms of the two separate deals, which both still require Federal Communications Commission approval, Verizon will essentially buy the small carriers.

According to a Verizon filing with the FCC, Verizon plans to transition Golden State Cellular's customers to its service plans within 15 months after the deal closes. According to a person familiar with the transaction, Golden State Cellular operates a CDMA network and counts around 18,000 subscribers.

The Comcast deal would not make things better

[Commentary] The Washington Post’s editorial on Comcast’s proposed takeover of Time Warner Cable [“Cable merger,” April 15] served up a rather tepid endorsement of the mega-deal, saying the government should okay the merger, but “keep a close eye” on the new company.

Considering the poor track record of these two cable and Internet giants and the power they would wield as a single company, this merger should be flatly rejected.

The editorial correctly raised concerns about the conflicts of interest that could lead Comcast to give preference to its own products on the wires it owns. But it dismissed the very real prospect that a bigger Comcast could discriminate heavily in negotiations with content creators, which would likely be passed on to consumers in the form of even higher prices.

[Derakhshani is policy counsel with Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports]

The decades-old idea that could break the net neutrality logjam

Ever since the DC Circuit court ruled that the government can't ban Internet providers from blocking or prioritizing Web traffic, the Federal Communications Commission has been looking for a way to get around the ruling.

For network neutrality advocates, the few proposals that have emerged so far aren't satisfying; they're all a little risky, and they aren't guaranteed to produce the results that the FCC wants. Now a new recommendation has federal regulators sitting up. Under the proposal, regulators would surgically apply new rules on Internet providers that otherwise could only be imposed on phone companies. And with that, the FCC could solve some of the thorniest issues surrounding net neutrality, according to a paper co-written by Columbia Law scholars Tim Wu (who coined the term "net neutrality") and Tejas Narechania.

They argue that the FCC should selectively be able to apply more stringent, telecommunications-type regulations to certain aspects of an industry that tends to escape easy definition. From Wu and Narechania's perspective, this describes exactly what phone companies do: Establish the connection between a caller and a responder for the purposes of a transaction. And this telecommunications function is increasingly what we pay Internet providers to do -- unlike before, when they offered telecommunications as one of a bundle of features that together added up to an "information service."

Under these conditions, the authors say, the FCC would be completely justified in applying Title II of the Communications Act -- the part of the FCC's congressional charter that lets it apply blanket restrictions on phone companies -- to broadband companies, which are currently regulated lightly as Title I businesses.

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai Statement on Phone Rates

The data released by the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau show why the agency shouldn’t increase rural Americans’ phone bills.

The FCC’s so-called “rate floor” is supposed to ensure that urban and rural rates are “comparable.” But even though the Bureau’s data reveal that the local phone rate in Washington, DC is $14.10, the FCC is on the precipice of raising rates for rural Americans from $14.00 to $20.46. As a result, rural Americans will have to pay 45 percent more for local phone service than those living in our nation’s capital.

On top of all that, this rate increase will not save the government any money. This issue is another example of why so many in our nation’s heartland feel so alienated from Washington, DC. Too often, there is one set of rules for those inside the Beltway and another set of rules for everyone else. I hope the Commission will reconsider this ill-conceived policy and not raise rural Americans’ phone bills to no end.

The rise of Internet video news

[Commentary] Most of the discussion of youth news consumption and news literacy focuses on articles and written content. Increasingly, however, young people are consuming their news via online video.

More news consumption of any type might be viewed as a good thing, but it’s only as good as the videos younger folks are watching.

When comparing legacy media outlets, studies have often found that cable news viewers glean less than newspaper readers.

“They don’t call TV ‘the idiot box’ for nothing,” says Duy Linh Tu, director of the digital media program at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. “But video online is not just TV replicated online.” Many of the most popular original online news videos feature on-the-ground reporting.

FirstNet's hunt for a replacement GM may enable a fresh start

The surprise announcement that Bill D'Agostino, the First Responders Network Authority's general manager, has resigned, could provide a fresh start for the authority, which is still struggling to satisfy critics in the public-safety community.

D'Agostino resigned "for personal and family reasons," according to FirstNet. His hiring was announced on April 23, 2013. FirstNet has launched the search for a new GM. The authority, which is charged with building the 700 MHz LTE-based nationwide public-safety broadband network, has leased office space in Reston (VA), for its corporate headquarters, and the new GM, once he or she is chosen, will be located there.

D'Agostino generated praise for his performance as GM. But his past positions with Verizon Wireless and other mobile operators raised concerns among some in the public-safety community who felt FirstNet was already too closely tied to cellular carriers.

Benton

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