1. Monthly archive
  2. November 2015

November 2015

Trump campaign to negotiate directly with TV networks on debate formats

Donald Trump and his advisers have decided to work directly with television executives and take a lead role in negotiating the format and content of primary debates, which have become highly watched and crucial events in the 2016 race, according to Republicans familiar with their plans. Trump will reject a joint letter to television network hosts regarding upcoming primary debates drafted Nov 1 at a private gathering of operatives from at least 11 presidential campaigns, the Republicans said. The move by Trump, coming just hours after a group of Republican strategists huddled in the Washington suburbs to craft a list of possible demands, thwarts an effort by the campaigns and the letter’s drafter, longtime GOP attorney Ben Ginsberg, to find consensus and work collectively to negotiate terms.

NHMC President: NHMC Negotiating MOU With Charter

The head of the National Hispanic Media Coalition said the group is close to striking a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Charter on jobs and other diversity issues and is also talking about expanding carriage of four English-language Hispanic-targeted networks. Charter wants to merge with Time Warner Cable and Bright House and every little diversity bit helps in Washington. Meeting with a variety of diversity groups and finding ways to make their deals more agreeable to them is common practice for companies looking to merge.

The Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department are currently vetting the deal Charter/TWC/Bright House deal, with the FCC focused on the public interest benefits of a merger, not simply whether or not it lessens competition, which is Justice's focus. NHMC president Alex Nogales said he was in Washington to talk about the Charter deal and "whether it's a good idea for it to Acquired Time Warner Cable." "We're talking with them [Charter] about an MOU to safeguard our interests," he said. Nogales said the MOU had yet to be set, but that they were in agreement on principle and NHMC was awaiting draft to see if it was something they could sign on to.

Public Interest Groups Ask Appeals Court to Consider Public Interest in Apple v. Samsung Case

Public Knowledge and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed an amicus curiae brief in the Apple v. Samsung litigation before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In that case, Samsung is asking the Federal Circuit to reconsider its decision authorizing an injunction prohibiting the sales of certain Samsung cell phones. In ordering the injunction, a three-judge panel of the Federal Circuit said that "the public interest strongly favors an injunction" because "the public interest nearly always weighs in favor of protecting property rights in the absence of countervailing factors." The amicus brief called for the full Federal Circuit to reconsider those statements.

Charles Duan, Director of the Patent Reform Project at Public Knowledge, said, "As defenders of the public interest, we were greatly concerned last month when we saw that the Federal Circuit panel had made the hasty assumption that the public interest 'nearly always' favors patent owners. While patents can certainly do public good by encouraging new inventions, we know all too well today that too much enforcement of patents can harm the public...We hope that the en banc Federal Circuit will carefully consider the importance of the public interest in deciding whether to rehear the Apple v. Samsung appeal."

FCC looks to 'nutritional labels' for Internet service shopping

Customers shopping for Internet service are a step closer to having access to nutritional label-like disclosures that will help them easily compare prices and speed offerings from different providers. A government-sanctioned committee unveiled a set of sample disclosure forms that Internet service providers like Comcast or Verizon will be encouraged to offer potential customers, which will outline prices for stand-alone Internet service, average speed measures, and any network management rules that apply.

The Federal Communications Commission Consumer Advisory Committee (CAC) developed two sample forms -- one for fixed broadband and one for mobile. The committee also encouraged the FCC to have a graphic designer make sure the disclosure forms -- to be featured on companies' main marketing web pages -- are easy to read for consumers. "We find that the Committee’s experience with consumer disclosure issues makes it an ideal body to recommend a disclosure format that should be clear and easy to read -- similar to a nutrition label -- to allow consumers to easily compare the services of different providers," the FCC wrote in its net neutrality rules, which set off the process.

Americans are paying more for broadband speed but getting less

[Commentary] It's one of the biggest rackets of the telecommunication world -- broadband Internet access touted as being "up to" a certain speed but that's really a whole lot slower. You think you're buying cyber-lightning. What you're likely getting instead is a gentle digital breeze. The New York attorney general's office said enough's enough. It sent letters to Time Warner Cable, Verizon Communications and Cablevision asking why some customers experience reduced download speeds. "Many of us may be paying for one thing and getting another," said New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman. He said many families in his state pay "a huge cost" for broadband service. "I will not tolerate a situation in which they aren't getting what they have been promised," NY Attorney General Schneiderman said. The problem is by no means limited to New York. Californians and denizens of most other states pay some of the highest broadband prices in the world for speeds that frequently eat the dust of faster services abroad.

What's needed is a requirement that broadband be marketed by each provider's average monthly speed in a particular region, with companies submitting test data to the Federal Communications Commission at regular intervals. This would provide consumers with a far better sense of what they're buying and would offer a much more accurate yardstick of each broadband service's performance. It also would boost competition and network investment by encouraging service providers with faster average speeds to promote their edge over rivals. Or we could just keep paying through the nose to stay in the slow lane. Take your choice.
​

© 1994-2025 Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. All Rights Reserved.