August 2015

Univision Faces Bigger Rival Than Trump: Shifting TV Habits

Univision is facing questions about its business prospects ahead of its planned initial public offering this fall.

The shares of major media companies have recently taken a hit because of worries over sharp declines in ratings and weak advertising sales — and the fact that consumers are abandoning cable and satellite TV subscriptions. Univision also faces increased competition from its rival Telemundo and English-language network programming aimed at Hispanic viewers. These issues, combined with the recent stock market convulsions, now have some industry executives and Wall Street analysts questioning the timing and the prospects of Univision’s IPO. “The challenges facing TV-based media companies are growing by the day, with the lack of visibility increasingly concerning investors and making valuations difficult,” said Rich Greenfield, an analyst with BTIG Research. “The question is: Can anybody flourish as the media tide goes out?”

Researchers unveil tool for dodging countries with Internet surveillance

Currently, Internet users have little control over diverting their Web traffic to avoid countries they deem untrustworthy. But a team from University of Maryland, University of Pennsylvania, and NEC Labs recently announced a possible fix – an Internet traffic routing system designed to give users the ability to determine where information flows as it moves from network to network.

Their project, called "Alibi routing" is a promising development for activists, dissident groups, journalists, or anyone else who has a vested interest in protecting sensitive information from prying eyes. "Encryption and anonymous networks are still important, but they don’t solve the problem of how available the information is to a country that could tamper with it," said Dave Levin, an assistant research scientist in the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies at the University of Maryland. “I can try to trick a censoring country into thinking I'm communicate with someone else, but rather than sneak through a bad neighborhood, just avoid it," he said. "Just go around it altogether.”

US developing sanctions against China over cyberthefts

The Obama Administration is developing a package of unprecedented economic sanctions against Chinese companies and individuals who have benefited from their government’s cybertheft of valuable US trade secrets. The US government has not yet decided whether to issue these sanctions, but a final call is expected soon — perhaps even within the next two weeks, according to several administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The White House declined to comment on specific sanctions, but a senior administration official, speaking generally, said: “As the president said when signing the executive order enabling the use of economic sanctions against malicious cyber actors, the administration is pursuing a comprehensive strategy to confront such actors. That strategy includes diplomatic engagement, trade policy tools, law enforcement mechanisms, and imposing sanctions on individuals or entities that engage in certain significant, malicious cyber-enabled activities. The administration has taken and continues to introduce steps to protect our networks and our citizens in cyberspace, and we are assessing all of our options to respond to these threats in a manner and timeframe of our choosing.”

A Milestone in Expanding Broadband to Rural America

On Aug 27, the Federal Communications Commission reached a major milestone in its mission to connect rural America to robust broadband. Aug 27 was the deadline for some of the nation's largest phone companies to decide whether to accept "Phase II" funds from the FCC's Connect America Fund to expand broadband to their rural customers. All told, ten carriers accepted over $1.5 billion in annual support to provide broadband to nearly 7.3 million consumers in 45 states and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

In exchange for receiving funding for all eligible areas that they serve in a given state, these providers have committed to expanding and maintaining broadband service with defined milestones and obligations over a six-year period. This is great news for these rural communities, where broadband can spark economic development, support education, and provide residents with access to the news, information and cutting-edge Internet applications that are a fact of life in most other parts of the country. The funding that will flow to these areas will go a long way toward closing the digital divide isolating rural America. And it builds on past FCC decisions that used "Phase I" Connect America funding to expand broadband to over 637,000 homes and businesses.

Wi-Fi blocking debate far from over

The months after the Federal Communications Commission warned that it would no longer tolerate the Marriotts of the world blocking visitors’ Wi-Fi hotspots. Xirrus CEO Shane Buckley said, “Our feedback to the FCC has been please, please, please look at this very carefully. There are lots of good reasons why Wi-Fi blocking is a requirement in certain markets and a distinct benefit from a security perspective in others.”

Buckley suggests that the FCC should allow Wi-Fi blocking at least in the interim, and then “re-open the discussion on the use of this technology and clarify when its use is practical and acceptable. Wi-Fi vendors also need to collaborate to come up with better security mechanisms in public Wi-Fi networks.” He acknowledges that the topic is complicated given that we're talking about unlicensed spectrum that's free for anyone to use.

NAB, NATOA Sue FCC Over Effective Competition Decision

The National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) have filed suit in federal court to block the Federal Communications Commission's decision that cable operators are subject to effective competition unless proved otherwise. The groups—along with a local franchise authority in Minnesota—filed the suit, saying the FCC decision was "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion."

The suit was filed in the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, which has primary jurisdiction over FCC decisions. NAB told the court that in markets deemed to be competitive, "cable operators are likely to deny any obligation to carry broadcasters who have negotiated retransmission consent agreements on the basic service tier that must be offered to every subscriber." Cable operators have pointed out that has not happened in the hundreds of markets deemed to be competitive in recent years.

Twitter sets employee diversity targets

Twitter announced several diversity objectives. The company’s workforce is 34% female. By next year, the social media site wants to boost that number to 35%. [we did write modest] Here’s the other goals:

Women in 16% of tech roles, up from 13%.
Women in 25% of leadership roles, up from 22%.
Underrepresented minorities in 11% of its US jobs, up from 10% for ethnicities other than white and Asian.
Underrepresented minorities in 9% of its US tech roles, up from 7% for ethnicities other than white and Asian.
Underrepresented minorities in 6% of its US leadership roles, which are currently 72% white and 28% Asian.

How the FCC is Bringing Broadband to Rural America

Earlier in 2015, the Federal Communications Commission found that broadband deployment in the United States -- especially in rural areas -- is failing to keep pace with today’s advanced, high-quality voice, data, graphics and video offerings. Over half of all rural Americans lack access to broadband service with 25 megabits per second (Mbps) for downloads and 3 Mbps for uploads. Moreover, rural America continues to be underserved at all speeds, the FCC found: 20 percent lack access even to service at 4 Mbps/1 Mbps, down only 1 percent from 2011, and 31 percent lack access to 10 Mbps/1 Mbps, down only 4 percent from 2011.

The FCC’s 2015 Broadband Progress Report pointed to future efforts to bring robust broadband to rural America, noting Phase II of the Connect America Fund which would provide nearly $9 billion to expand broadband to five million Americans living in rural areas within the next five years. [The creation of the Connect America Fund, you may recall, was a key recommendation of the National Broadband Plan.] In April, carriers were offered $1.6 billion in support from the Connect America Fund. August 27, 2015 was the final day for these carriers to decide whether to accept the offer of support from Phase II of the Connect America Fund.

FCC Authorizes Additional Price Cap Carriers to Receive Almost $950 Million in Phase II Connect America Support

By this Public Notice, the Wireline Competition Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission authorizes AT&T Services, CenturyLink, Inc, Cincinnati Bell Telephone Company LLC, and Consolidated Communications Holdings, Inc. to receive Connect America Phase II modelbased support for the states identified below. On April 29, 2015, the Bureau released a public notice announcing the offers of model-based Phase II support to each price cap carrier to fund the deployment of voice and broadband-capable networks in their service territories. AT&T, CenturyLink, CBT, and Consolidated submitted letters to the FCC accepting model-based support for the states identified below and committing to satisfy the service obligations for Phase II. Accordingly, the FCC authorizes and directs the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) to obligate and disburse from the Universal Service Fund the Phase II support amounts identified below for AT&T, CenturyLink, CBT, and Consolidated.

Benton

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