June 2014

Andrew Woelfling, a top aide to Rep John Dingell (D-MI), has been appointed as Deputy Director of the Federal Communications Commission’s Office of Legislative Affairs (OLA).

His appointment becomes effective on June 30.

Said OLA Director Sara Morris, “Andrew’s firm grasp of communications and consumer protection issues along with his invaluable experience in congressional affairs will help ensure good communications between the FCC and Capitol Hill.”

Woelfling currently serves as Rep Dingell’s Deputy Chief of Staff and Legislative Director. His major areas of legislative and policy focus have included consumer protection, the upcoming 600 MHz broadcast incentive auction, and federal spectrum policy.

Prior to working for Rep Dingell, Woelfling was a professional staff member on the House Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection, chaired by Rep Bobby Rush (D-IL). He also worked at the Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association and DaimlerChrysler in each organization’s government affairs divisions.

According to a new report from CCS Insight, the dramatic and continued growth of the Android smartphone operating system may not be the boon to Android developer Google that some may have expected.

According to the firm, fully one in four Android phones don't currently access Google services like Maps, Gmail and the Google Play app store -- and that number will likely grow in the future.

"Android's dominance will increasingly fail to translate to Google dominance," the firm wrote in a wide-ranging report on the smartphone market. "The proliferation of forked variants of Android and the Chinese government's blocking of Google search in China is producing a growing proportion of Android devices that pose a challenge for Google's open-source Android model. Such devices provide Google with little or no revenue or data and provide a platform for services from Google's competitors. We estimate this could increase to over 30 percent in 2015. It also raises a question about how Google will control Android in the future as policing the platform through access to Google services will prove increasingly ineffective."

A controversial ruling from a European court recently granted people the so-called "right to be forgotten," forcing Google to remove some search links upon request.

If you'd like a medium for sending such a request, Forget.me will now step in, spiriting away everything about you.

The site, a European privacy advocacy project, gives requesters a step-by-step procedure for lodging a request with Google, no knowledge on the finer points of law required. Log in, choose your country, perform a search for yourself, select the offending link, decide on which category your request falls under, and ship it all off to Google. While you wait, Forget.me will track the link's status, informing you when the information has left the physical plane.

ABC has effectively wrapped up its upfront ad sales for the 2014-15 season, an individual with knowledge of the negotiations said.

With all but a bit of clean-up left, the network is finishing its upfront season with an approximate 5 percent increase in the rate for CPM, or the cost of reaching 1,000 people since 2013. (That figure excludes sports programming, which undergoes a separate round of ad-sales negotiations.)

ABC did not release any dollar figures.

The network also made some so-called “C7” deals which measure how many viewers see ads up to seven days from their original airdate. The current industry standard calls for C3 deals, in which advertisers pay based on how many people see their ads over three days.

Networks have sought a larger window in recognition of the fact that more and more viewers watch shows on DVR.