July 2015

Chairman Wheeler Addresses Spectrum Auction Questions

After a contentious Federal Communications Commission monthly meeting foreshortened when two controversial topics about the broadcast spectrum incentive auction were dropped from the agenda, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler faced a news conference where, predictably, the major interest was in those two topics.

"I feel comfortable that we will be able to issue a public notice [about the auction] in three weeks," Chairman Wheeler said, insisting that his August 6 target date will stick for a vote on auction procedures. "We are working toward a solution that will make sure that there is a majority vote," he said. "When we bring it up, that will happen." He offered no details about how he plans to assure that both Democratic commissioners vote with him. Although Chairman Wheeler sidestepped the question of whether he can tailor the "duplex gap" issue in a way that will convince Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel to vote with him, Chairman Wheeler expounded on the data that explain solutions for spectrum repacking, which is believed to be at the core of Rosenworcel's dissatisfaction with the current plan. Several reports noted that Chairman Wheeler pulled the auction items because of Rosenworcel's reticence rather than because of congressional or NAB requests based on the release of limited repacking simulations.

US Judge Says Internet Streaming Service Should Be Treated Like Cable

US District Judge George Wu in Los Angeles ruled that online television service FilmOn X should be treated like a traditional cable system in order to transmit the programs of the nation’s broadcasters over the Internet. The ruling, coming as consumer TV-watching habits are increasingly migrating to the Internet, is the first to first to view a streaming service like a cable provider and could have major implications for broadcasters if it is upheld by higher courts.

Judge Wu ruled that FilmOn X is entitled to a compulsory license under the Copyright Act to retransmit the broadcasters’ programs if it meets the law’s requirements. Acknowledging the major commercial consequences of his decision, Judge Wu said he would allow an immediate appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He also left in place an injunction against FilmOn X’s operations that the broadcasters had won in 2012, so FilmOn will still not able to stream their content pending the appeal.

John Bergmayer, Senior Staff Attorney at Public Knowledge, said, "If upheld, this decision could help bring more competition to the video marketplace. Similar services shouldn't be subject to totally different rules depending on whether they’re offered over coaxial cable, fiber, satellite transmissions, or online.”

Do Americans deserve a 'right to be forgotten' rule from Google?

[Commentary] Requiring companies to do something in the United States because they have to do it in Europe would set an ugly precedent that fails to recognize the continents' different legal and cultural traditions. More important, though, the European "right to be forgotten" is bad policy. It puts Google in the position to judge when truthful information that's been lawfully published and shared online is no longer relevant to the public. But what strikes Google as irrelevant might not be so inconsequential to a historian, a potential business partner, an investor or a fiancée. And there's precious little difference between removing the links to an item and making it disappear.

To use a pre-Internet analogy, it's as if someone embarrassed by a nonfiction book could order librarians to remove that title from the card catalog. The issue is a challenging one, but turning search engines into incomplete guides to the historical record is a bad idea.

Silicon Valley struggles to hack its diversity problem

Silicon Valley has a diversity problem, a contentious issue that has come into sharper focus in recent months as tech firms have sheepishly released updates on their hiring of minorities.

The companies have pledged to do better. Many point to the talent pipeline as one of the main culprits. They’d hire if they could, but not enough black and Hispanic students are pursuing computer science degrees, they say. But fresh data show that top schools are turning out black and Hispanic graduates with tech degrees at rates significantly higher than they are being hired by leading tech firms. And Silicon Valley’s diversity problem exists not just on the tech side. Tech’s largest firms also significantly lag in their hiring of minorities for sales, marketing and public relations jobs. For a tech sector accustomed to hacking its way out of problems, making its workforce more diverse has emerged as a major challenge. And the industry has only recently admitted its shortcomings. Big tech companies, aside from their concerns about the pipeline, also point to a tangle of challenges, including unconscious biases that have given preference to white men. That bias shows up in recruiting, with companies drawing from the same top universities, where black and Hispanic graduates are still lagging behind other groups.

Social media aim for US politicians’ marketing budgets

The US election is 16 months away but presidential candidates are already scrapping for dollars to bulk up their campaign war chests — and social media companies are making a push for a bigger cut of their advertising budgets.

Politicians are set to shell out nearly $1 billion on online ads, six times the $159 million they spent during the last presidential campaign, according to Borrell Associates, a media analytics company. Social media sites will capture $558 million, or nearly 60 percent of that total, up from a third in the 2012 election. Sites including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have built teams to sell political advertising to entice people to donate, participate and eventually vote in the run up to the November 2016 election. Three factors are fuelling the push from social sites: they are increasingly a destination for watching video; they are seen as a key way to reach people on mobile devices; and they offer rich data to target potential voters.

Ad Blockers, Internet Advertisers Play Cat and Mouse

A cat-and-mouse game between ad blockers and firms hired to circumvent them is playing out across the Internet, as ad revenue moves online.

For years, users fed up with banner and pop-ads have been downloading software to block them from their PCs and mobile devices. Ad-blocking firms and communities of developers arose to create and share often-free versions of ad-blocking software. But the ad-blocking deprives publishers and other ad sellers of a chunk of revenue. Research company eMarketer forecasts online-ad spending will reach $171 billion this year in the 22 big markets it tracks. That is up 18% from the year before and represents 30% of all ad spending for those countries.

The National Journal to End Print Edition

The National Journal, the political magazine owned by Atlantic Media, will cease publishing a print edition at the end of the year. The pace of news in Washington has increased, the company said in a statement, and the publication has evolved to encompass tools and services, and a membership plan that has grown to account for half its revenue. It will now focus its efforts online — producing daily news, in-depth reporting, and tools for those core readers — and on live events. An updated digital platform will have its debut in September.

BBC, a Target of Conservatives, Faces a Review of Its Mission

The Conservative government in Britain has set its sights on remaking the BBC, the broadcaster supported by a national license fee, after a political campaign in which the Conservatives complained that the BBC’s news coverage has a left-wing bias. The UK’s secretary of state for culture, media and sport, John Whittingdale, presented a “green paper” to Parliament, the opening of a comprehensive study of the BBC’s future, suggesting that the corporation could become smaller, less costly and less competitive with British newspapers and private television channels.

The BBC, which is currently financed by an annual payment of 145.50 pounds, or $227.50, from nearly every household that owns a color television or that can watch television in real time, is up for its 10-year charter review in 2016. Whittingdale, a known critic of the corporation, said he wanted to examine the nature, funding, reach and governance of the corporation, considered one of the finest, if not necessarily the most efficient, broadcasting networks in the world.

Ofcom probes options to improve UK telecoms market

BT could be broken up under plans being considered in a once-in-a-decade review of the UK communications market to improve services for businesses and consumers.

Ofcom, the telecoms watchdog, is assessing whether current regulations need reforming to improve infrastructure and increase competition. Ofcom signalled that the future of BT would be a major focus of the review, given concerns from rivals about the structure of Openreach, the separate business unit that manages its national broadband network. BT must give competing providers access to its fixed line network on equal terms, but Ofcom said the current situation needed further review. Options include making BT split off its national telecoms network to maintaining the status quo or tightening regulations. Ofcom said the existing approach of regulating Openreach as a separate unit “delivered many benefits to consumers and businesses but also meant that BT still had the incentive to discriminate against competing providers”.

Weekly Digest

U.S. Addresses the Digital Divide Where it Lives

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