June 2014

Study: Downstream Demands To Reach 165 Mbps By 2020

The demand on the broadband downstream will outstrip upload requirements by an 8:1 ratio by 2020, according to a new study commissioned by Cable Europe and NL Kabel.

The study, undertaken by the Technical University of Eindhoven and Dialogic, predicts that the average broadband user will demand downstream speeds of 165 Mbps, versus 20 Mbps in the upstream, by the end of the decade.

In 2013, the average sufficient provisioned speeds were about 15.3 Mbps down and about 1.6 Mbps upstream, the study noted. While back-up services will tax the upstream, video will need to carry the load in the downstream, the study noted.

Cable Europe said the industry’s current broadband technology roadmap puts MSOs in great position to support those demands. While state-of-the-art DOCSIS 3.0 technology can bond enough channels to support downstream bursts of more than 1 Gbps, the coming DOCSIS 3.1 platform is targeting capacities of up to 10 Gbps down by 2 Gbps upstream.

Fox And Cox Swap TV Stations In Memphis, Boston, And San Francisco

Fox Television Stations will become a power in the San Francisco Bay area as a result of the television station swap with Cox in Memphis, Boston, and San Francisco.

Fox will pick up San Francisco area affiliate KTVU and independent KICU and give Cox Media Group WHBQ in Memphis and WFXT in Boston -- which will remain Fox affiliates -- the companies say.

Regulators will have to approve the deal. But assuming they do, then Fox “will benefit from both the strong demographics of the Bay area market as well as the alignment with our package of sports rights,” FTS chief Jack Abernethy says. KTVU carries Fox’ broadcasts of NFL games and shares a studio with KICU.

SF is the largest market where Fox didn’t own a station. Cox’s Bill Hoffman says that the Memphis and Boston stations “fit nicely into CMG’s broadcast portfolio” and offer an opportunity to have “a great news presence in these two markets.”

LA's share of TV pilot production drops to a historic low

Los Angeles, once the king of TV pilots, is rapidly losing its domain to New York and other rivals. The LA region's share of pilot production dropped to a historic low in the most recent pilot season, as producers took their business to the Big Apple and other cities offering stronger tax breaks and rebates, according to a new report.

Among 203 pilots produced in the 12 months ended in May, only 44% (90 pilots) were filmed in the LA region, down from 52% the previous season and 82% from the 2006-07 pilot season. The rest mainly filmed in New York, Atlanta, and the Canadian cities Vancouver and Toronto, an annual survey released by FilmLA concluded. The decline has been especially sharp in the category of TV dramas -- New York surpassed Los Angeles for the first time in filming one-hour TV drama pilots.

The Big Apple drew 24 TV drama pilots versus 19 in LA. The decline in the number of TV drama pilots is especially significant because dramas are considered the most economically valuable type of TV production, employing large crews and often over a period of several years. A TV drama pilot costs about $6 million to $8 million to produce.

Barnes & Noble to split bookstore, Nook units

Faced with dropping e-reader sales, Barnes & Noble is spinning off its Nook business as a separate public company in an effort to boost shareholder value.

The split will be completed by the first quarter of 2015, the company said. The company also reported its fourth-quarter results, showing a drop in comparable sales at Barnes & Noble stores, in addition to continuing losses with the Nook. Revenue in the Nook unit fell 22% to $87 million.

Digital content sales fell 19% to $62 million.

Barnes & Noble posted a fourth-quarter net loss of $36.7 million, or 72 cents a share, compared with a loss of $114.8 million, or $2.04, a year earlier. Revenue rose 3.5% to $1.32 billion, helped by the company's college business.

“We believe we are now in a better position to begin in earnest those steps necessary to accomplish a separation of Nook Media and Barnes & Noble Retail,” Michael P. Huseby, the company’s chief executive, said. “We have determined that these businesses will have the best chance of optimizing shareholder value if they are capitalized and operated separately.”

The Diminishing Returns of Tricking China’s Censors

[Commentary] Online censorship is about more than just the technical means of scrubbing information away. Its power to hinder effective communication can truly demoralize those seeking to oppose the status quo.

If memes and morphs are to become a tool for organizing, activists must engage and inspire young people before they can even think of educating them about the things being hidden from them, much less rousing them to action. Only then will the censors and their targets be playing on equal terms.

[Ng is a research fellow at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab]

Merger mania in media? Cable companies could be just the start

The massive cable and telecom mergers under review may just be the start of a broader wave of consolidation to hit the entertainment industry.

Rumors are rife that Time Warner is negotiating with Vice Media, the magazine-turned-media company now known for producing edgy documentaries that air on HBO. Viacom could rejoin CBS, which it split from nearly a decade ago. Univision may be seeking a buyer and has been in talks with Time Warner and CBS, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Some lawmakers and analysts say it's inevitable that television programmers will bulk up to stand up against demands from increasingly powerful cable and telecom distributors like Comcast who want to lower their costs for programming.

10 things to know about the smartphone kill switch

The smartphone kill switch appears to be on its way to every handset sold in the US so what's all the fuss about? Here's a look at the main points of the technology.

What is it? It's a piece of software installed in every new phone that can disable a stolen handset.
Why is it needed? In the last few years, the number of violent thefts of smartphones on the streets of major US cities has been rising. Some estimates say 1 in 3 thefts in the US involve a smartphone.
How will it work? If your phone is stolen, you or someone you have authorized will be able to call your carrier or use a website to send a "kill" signal to your phone. That signal will lock the device and, if you choose, will also delete personal data.
When will it begin? Minnesota's law and the proposed California legislation both mandate a kill-switch for smartphones that are both sold in those states and manufactured after July 1, 2015. Pending federal legislation says Jan 1, 2015.
How much will it cost? The Minnesota law and the proposed legislation in California and at the federal level mandate it must be available at no extra cost to users.
Do I have to have it on my phone? No. Minnesota's law says it should be installed or available for download.
What about Find My iPhone or Google's Android locator? Built-in tracking services can help locate a phone and wipe its memory if the phone remains online, but all too often thieves switch off a stolen phone and reinstall the operating system.
What's the industry doing? The industry is hoping to avoid legislation and make it a voluntary commitment. Previously, it launched a database of stolen phones that could be used to prevent them from being reused with new accounts. However, the database has limited reach outside of the US and many stolen phones are sent overseas.
Will it work? It's too early to tell, although some early data from New York, London and San Francisco showed significant drops in thefts of iPhones after Apple launched its kill switch.
So, can the government kill my smartphone? A court order is typically required, although an exception is made in an emergency that poses "immediate danger of death or great bodily injury."

If it ain’t broke… FCC’s ‘Measuring Broadband America’ report shows a healthy Internet sector

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission published its fourth annual report on measuring fixed broadband, and the results yet again speak to the healthy state of the sector and the benefits of light-touch regulation.

The last thing the country needs right now is for the FCC to regulate Internet Service Providers under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, as if they were public utilities. Significantly, in the report, the FCC researchers found that DSL, an older technology deployed in a more heavily regulated environment, gives consumers less than what they are expecting -- while cable, fiber, and satellite goes above and beyond.

That consumers are trading up to higher speeds is further evidence that they are enthusiastic about having high-quality Internet service -- and trust the providers to give them exactly that. That is hardly a marketplace that’s crying out for a regulatory fix.

[Glassman is a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute]

NMC and CoSN Release the NMC Horizon Report > 2014 K-12 Edition

The New Media Consortium and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), with the support of Hewlett Packard, released the NMC Horizon Report > 2014 K-12 Edition.

This sixth K-12 edition describes annual findings from the NMC Horizon Project, an ongoing research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on teaching, learning, and creative inquiry in education.

Six key trends, six significant challenges, and six emerging technologies are identified across three adoption horizons over the next one to five years, giving school leaders and practitioners a valuable guide for strategic technology planning.

The format of the report is new, providing these leaders with more in-depth insight into how the trends and challenges are accelerating and impeding the adoption of educational technology, along with their implications for policy, leadership, and practice.

Broadcasters defend radio stations’ free music

Broadcasters are defending radio stations’ ability to play music without paying musicians as Congress looks to update the copyright system. The National Association of Broadcasters released a new study arguing that musicians sell more songs when radio stations play those songs.

"This study highlights clearly the enormous value that radio airplay provides in promoting music and generating music sales," NAB Executive Vice President of Communications Dennis Wharton said. “Local radio remains the premiere platform for exposing new music and generating sales for record labels."

According to the study -- conducted by Nielsen and commissioned by NAB -- increased radio airplay has “an immediate” impact on a song’s sales and drives on-demand streaming of that song. The study noted to a strong correlation between radio airplay and sales, which is even stronger for country, Latin and Top 40 music.

The study also pointed to a previous Nielsen study, which found that 61 percent of people discover new music through AM/FM radio stations. Currently, AM/FM radio stations do not pay musicians to play their songs over the air, a facet of the current copyright system that some lawmakers are determined to change.

Benton

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