press release

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to examine the proposed merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable. The hearing came just a day after Comcast submitted its public interest filing to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), an important next step in the federal agency review process of the deal.

The following statement can be attributed to Sarah Morris, Senior Policy Counsel for the Open Technology Institute at New America: “The public interest pronouncements made in the hearing simply do not address the myriad harms that would result from this merger. Comcast's statements and public interest filing include many of the same promises that were made in 2010 during the review of its merger with NBC Universal, but consumers are not in a better place now than they were then.

"It’s especially concerning that Comcast has not adequately answered the threshold question as to how its merger with Time Warner Cable would actually benefit consumers. Indeed, the company has not indicated that any cost-savings from so-called ‘efficiencies’ gained from the merger would ultimately result in lower costs for its subscribers, nor has it explained how it would otherwise mitigate the effects of an already uncompetitive broadband market. […]

"What consumers need now is not merger approval, but rather strong regulatory oversight of this industry and a careful, critical review of what would be a tremendous consolidation effort in an already uncompetitive industry. Conditions and rhetorical promises of public interest benefits alone cannot fix these harms. We urge regulators to block this merger.”

Tablet Television, America’s first broadcast TV service for tablets, has revealed plans for its first beta market test in San Francisco and start of commercial operations in autumn 2014.

Utilizing existing ATSC distribution, viewers in the US will be able to receive direct, free over-the-air television transmissions to their portable devices. This first broadcast TV service for tablets will enable viewers to watch and record live broadcast content in HD in every market in the US and, in association with local broadcasting partners, will be able to provide on-demand packages. Additional features such as fully-integrated social television will be available to Internet connected viewers.

On April 9, 2014, Commissioner Ajit Pai of the FCC delivered remarks at the Spring Conference of WTA -- Advocates for Rural Broadband. During his address, he emphasized that the Federal Communications Commission must take seriously the promise of the Communications Act to “make available, so far as possible, to all the people of the United States . . . a rapid, efficient, Nation-wide, and world-wide wide and radio communication service with adequate facilities at reasonable charges.”

He then offered a number of proposals for doing just that:

• Rate Floor. Freeze the FCC-imposed rate floor indefinitely and reexamine the underlying policy.
• QRA Benchmarks. Strike the QRA benchmarks from the books.
• Helping Small Carriers Gain Scale. Streamline FCC review of transactions involving geographically adjacent rural carriers seeking to merge.
• Reducing Paperwork Burdens. Small carriers are facing death by 1,000 paper cuts.

The ten-year review of the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society will be the focus of the WSIS+10 High-Level Event in Geneva, 10-13 June 2014.

Policy-makers, including Government Ministers and leaders from civil society, academia, business, and international organizations will address the progress made in the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), held in Geneva in 2003 and in Tunis in 2005.

As part of the Obama Administration’s work to make our health care system more transparent, affordable, and accountable, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the release of new, privacy-protected data on services and procedures provided to Medicare beneficiaries by physicians and other health care professionals.

The new data also show payment and submitted charges, or bills, for those services and procedures by provider.

“Currently, consumers have limited information about how physicians and other health care professionals practice medicine,” said Secretary Sebelius “This data will help fill that gap by offering insight into the Medicare portion of a physician’s practice. The data afford researchers, policymakers and the public a new window into health care spending and physician practice patterns.”

The new data set has information for over 880,000 distinct health care providers who collectively received $77 billion in Medicare payments in 2012, under the Medicare Part B Fee-For-Service program. With this data, it will be possible to conduct a wide range of analyses that compare 6,000 different types of services and procedures provided, as well as payments received by individual health care providers.

The information also allows comparisons by physician, specialty, location, the types of medical service and procedures delivered, Medicare payment, and submitted charges. Physicians and other health care professionals determine what they will charge for services and procedures provided to patients and these “charges” are the amount the physician or health care professional generally bills for the service or procedure.

The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) announces the release of a new white paper, “The Importance of Diversity in Library Programs and Material Collections for Children” written for ALSC by Jamie Campbell Naidoo, PhD, and adopted by the ALSC Board of Directors on April 5,2014.

The white paper explores the critical role libraries play in helping children make cross-cultural connections and develop skills necessary to function in a culturally pluralistic society. The paper calls for libraries to include diversity in programming and materials for children as an important piece in meeting the informational and recreational needs of their community.

“It is more important than ever that our public libraries ensure access to high quality children’s materials and programming that reflects our plurality,” said Starr LaTronica, ALSC president. “This paper examines the need for children to grow up reading books that not only reflect a mirror to their own culture but also allow for a window into the cultures of others.”

At the end of the paper the reader will find a comprehensive list of diversity resources, online collection development resources, awards for culturally diverse children’s literature, multicultural children’s program resources and more.

Comcast filed documents at the Federal Communications Commission asking the agency to approve its proposed merger with Time Warner Cable.

If the deal is approved, Comcast will become the dominant cable company for two-thirds of the country and it will control over half of the nation’s next-generation broadband customers. More than 50 public interest groups submitted a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler calling a market takeover of this scale “unthinkable” and urging the agency to block the deal. The coalition delivered the same letter to Attorney General Eric Holder at the Department of Justice, which is also charged with reviewing the merger.

The groups signing the letter include leading consumer rights, arts, free speech, and open Internet organizations, including Consumers Union, CREDO, Demand Progress, Free Press, the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture, the National Organization for Women, the Parents Television Council, Public Knowledge and the Writers Guild of America East and West.

Given “the complete lack of any tangible benefits, it’s clear that the union of the nation’s No. 1 and No. 2 cable companies is not good for competition or in the public interest,” the letter reads.

Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron made the following statement: “The question before the FCC is whether this deal serves the public interest. The answer is clear: A bigger Comcast is bad for America. Merging the nation’s two biggest cable-Internet providers would turn Comcast into our communications gatekeeper, able to dictate the cost and content of news, information and entertainment. We need an Internet and video marketplace that offers people high-quality options at prices they can afford -- not a near-national monopoly determining what we can watch and download.”

The Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, chaired by Rep Greg Walden (R-OR) has scheduled a markup to consider H.R. 4342, the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters (DOTCOM) Act of 2014.

The subcommittee will convene for opening statements only on Wednesday, April 9, 2014. The subcommittee will reconvene the next day to vote. Authored by Rep John Shimkus (R-IL), the DOTCOM Act was drafted in response to the Obama Administration’s proposal regarding the future of the Internet. The proposal instructs the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to explore ways to remove the United States from its oversight role of the Domain Name System (DNS) and replace it with a different multistakeholder governance model. H.R. 4342 would direct the Government Accountability Office to study the proposed changes and present a non-partisan evaluation before the administration may take action to modify the current DNS.

Television Board Chair Marci Burdick has appointed Sinclair Broadcast Group's Rebecca Hanson, Senior Vice President for Strategy and Policy to the TV Board of Directors.

She fills the seat previously occupied by Dunia Shive and the appointment is effective immediately. Hanson joined Sinclair in January 2014 to develop and oversee the broadcaster's new Washington office dedicated to a broad range of policy and business matters. She joined Sinclair from the FCC, where she was a Senior Advisor, Broadcast Spectrum with the Media Bureau of the FCC and served on the Incentive Auction Task Force focusing on broadcast issues.

Prior to joining the FCC, Hanson was Vice President, Strategic Initiatives at Sprint Nextel, where she was responsible for the launch and long-term growth strategy for Sprint's 4G wireless broadband. She began her career as an attorney with Brownstein Zeidman and then ShawPittman (now Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman), where she specialized in the areas of technology, commercial finance and venture capital.

The Federal Communications Commission has launched a database designed to eliminate waste from duplicative subscriptions in the Lifeline phone service subsidy program nationwide.

The National Lifeline Accountability Database, a cornerstone of the FCC’s comprehensive efforts to combat waste fraud and abuse in the Lifeline program, already has identified $169 million in annualized savings by flagging existing duplicates for elimination while preventing enrollment of new duplicates.

“The National Lifeline Accountability Database makes smart use of technology to help prevent waste, fraud and abuse,” said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. “The database is preventing new duplicates and has rooted out remaining ones. I commend the industry for working with us to implement this effective solution to eliminating wasteful duplicates.”

Overall, the comprehensive reform package from 2012 is on track to save $2 billion through elimination of duplicates, tightened eligibility review, increased oversight of providers, elimination of unnecessary subsidies for initial phone connections, and more.