BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 2011
What progress has been made on the National Broadband Plan? See http://benton.org/initiatives/national_broadband_plan
News from April 7 includes recap of the FCC's monthly open meeting http://benton.org/node/55485
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
Everything You Need to Know About the Fight for TV Spectrum - analysis
Chairman Genachowski 'hopeful' Congress will pass auction legislation
FCC Open Docket for Proposed Acquisition of T-Mobile by AT&T
AT&T's $39 Billion T-Mobile Deal Faces Coordinated Review
Verizon now has seven rural LTE partners, vindicating McAdams’ vision
Mobile App Talent Pool Is Shallow
Google Faces Antitrust Complaints in South Korea on Android Popularity
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Broadband: You'll Be Crippled Without It - op-ed
End of the Web as we know it? - analysis
PRIVACY
New rules to let Europe web users turn off cookies
ISPs Monitoring For Illegal Downloads Breaches Privacy, EU Official Says
CYBERSECURITY
ISPs Team Up On Cybersecurity Proposal
In cyberspy vs. cyberspy, China has the edge [links to web]
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION
FCC Commissioner Clyburn on Women in Public Safety Communications
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Congress trims State’s Internet freedom funds
US Groups Helped Nurture Arab Uprisings
India eyes cap on imported telecoms equipment [links to web]
COMMUNITY MEDIA
Apps for Communities Challenge - press release
TELECOM REGULATION REFORM
NCTA's Assey: Time to Rethink Regulations
NEWS FROM THE FCC
FCC Reorganizes Bureaus - press release
Acting FCC Press Secretary Exiting [links to web]
TELEVISION/RADIO
Comcast Moves Goal Posts for NBC Sports
CPB Funding Survives
FCC's Lloyd Escapes Czar Purge
MORE ONLINE
Ed tech stakeholders protest budget cuts [links to web]
Bamboom takes over-the-air TV over the top - analysis [links to web]
States debate Internet cafe gambling [links to web]
Bloggers Follow Japan - research [links to web]
E-books overtake US paperbacks [links to web]
House Judiciary passes patent-reform bill [links to web]
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
SPECTRUM FIGHT
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
A $33 billion fight is brewing — or maybe it’s only a $27.8 billion fight, depending on whose numbers we use. The fight is nothing short of an entertainment battle royale, with TV on one side and the iPhone on the other. Actually, mobile phones, tablets and any other device we want to connect to the cellular network are on the iPhone side, but in a battle royale, it helps to have one protagonist and one antagonist. The issue is who will have access to the 133 MHz of spectrum currently used by broadcasters to deliver TV programming, and how that transfer of airwaves will take place if the broadcast industry can't stop Congress and the Federal Communications Commission from its spectrum land grab. It’s a contentious issue over a wonky subject, and so like all debates that require some technical knowledge, both sides are flat-out misleading people. So here are five questions (and answers) about this issue, for those who want to separate the truth from the spin.
1) What’s the Issue Again? The wireless industry has become a victim of its own success, and now people can't make calls. The industry argues it needs more spectrum to handle increased mobile traffic.
2) Are We Really Running out of Spectrum? Short answer: No.
3) Who Owns This Spectrum Anyway? Technically -- you do... well, the US government does. It granted broadcasters access to use this spectrum because it viewed broadcasting as a public good and theoretically could take it away at any point in time, but that’s not going to happen since broadcasters have built out a huge industry that many Americans still rely on for their entertainment and news.
4) What Is an Incentive Auction? The Federal Communications Commission's attempt to offer broadcasters a peace offering: basically an auction whereby the broadcasters who give up spectrum will get to share in the proceeds of the auction.
5) Won't This Take PBS Stations for Rural Viewers so People in Cities Can Play Angry Birds? [What are you smoking? Angry Birds is so last week] Spectrum is geographically constrained. So having a lot of spectrum in New York means New York broadcasters will have to give up their airwaves, not the folks in Rochester. [Not that anyone's calling Rochester rural... Oh, Rochester... ]
benton.org/node/55506 | GigaOm
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AUCTION LEGISLATION
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski remains hopeful that Congress will pass spectrum auction legislation as the number of remaining legislative days shrinks. House members have yet to draft and rally around a spectrum auction proposal, and some Commerce Committee Republicans are at odds with Senate Democrats on how spectrum policy should look. But Chairman Genachowski said that the economic benefits of the auctions have resonated with members and that the proposal — a central aspect of his tenure — is gaining bipartisan support. He did not say how auction legislation should look and said there are various "good models" in play. Many auction proponents hope the FCC will get a broad mandate to shape the auctions as it wishes.
benton.org/node/55535 | Hill, The
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FCC OPENS AT&T DOCKET
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
On March 21, 2011, AT&T and Deutsche Telekom announced an agreement under which AT&T will acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom in a cash-and-stock transaction currently valued at approximately $39 billion. Applications seeking Federal Communications Commission consent to the transfer of control of T-Mobile USA and its wholly-owned and controlled subsidiaries (“Applications”) are expected. The purpose of this public notice is to announce the opening of a docket, WT Docket No. 11-65, and articulate the ex parte status of discussions related to the proposed transaction. Until the Applications are filed, discussions with FCC staff regarding this proposed transaction will continue to be exempt from any ex parte limitations or requirements. When applications are filed, this proceeding will be governed by permit-but disclose ex parte procedures that are applicable to non-restricted proceedings. Parties making oral ex parte presentations after the Applications are filed are directed to the FCC’s statement reemphasizing the public’s responsibility in permit-but-disclose proceedings and are reminded that memoranda summarizing the presentation must contain the presentation’s substance and not merely list the subjects discussed. More than a one- or two-sentence description of the views and arguments presented is generally required. At the time any Applications are filed with the FCC, the Commission will release a public notice to announce that fact. That public notice will also provide procedures for requesting ex parte meetings with staff regarding the proposed transaction.
benton.org/node/55520 | Federal Communications Commission | Fierce | WashPost | The Hill | National Journal
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COORDINATED REVIEW OF AT&T DEAL
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Todd Shields]
Apparently, the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice will coordinate their reviews of AT&T's proposed acquisition of T-Mobile. The deal needs approval from the FCC and Justice Department, and is to face hearings in Congress. The FCC and Justice Department will work on parallel tracks, and coordinate with one another, an anonymous FCC source says. AT&T intends to file its application at the FCC around April 21, said AT&T spokesperson Michael Balmoris.
benton.org/node/55524 | Bloomberg
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VERIZON'S RURAL PARTNERS
[SOURCE: Connected Planet, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
When Verizon Wireless launched its rural LTE program early last year, the company’s then-CEO Lowell McAdam appeared to be closely involved in the program, potentially putting his own reputation on the line depending on the program’s success. McAdam has since moved into the Verizon COO position, where he is being groomed to replace Ivan Seidenberg as CEO of all of Verizon and where he undoubtedly has larger fish to fry than the rural LTE program. McAdam’s vision for the rural LTE program seems to be holding up to market realities. The latest company to join the Verizon Wireless LTE in Rural America program is S and R Communications, a joint venture of two rural Indiana wireline telcos. That brings the total number of participants in the program to seven. That’s a respectable attainment in the five months since the first program participant was announced, especially considering that Verizon is only seeking partners in areas where it does not have its own 3G infrastructure.
benton.org/node/55515 | Connected Planet
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MOBILE APP TALENT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Joe Light]
The intense competition for mobile engineers, which affects large companies and fast-growing start-ups alike, is emerging as a key bottleneck as companies scramble to capitalize on the fast growth of smartphones and other mobile devices. Mobile applications have boomed, working their way deeply into fields like retail, media, videogames and marketing. Market research firm Gartner Inc. expects revenue from Apple Inc.'s App Store, Google Inc.'s Android Market and other stores where mobile applications are sold to nearly triple to $15 billion this year. The technologies are so new -- Apple's app store launched in 2008 -- that few software engineers have mobile development experience, which requires new coding skills compared to a desktop computer. That's forcing companies to increase wages, retrain software engineers, outsource work to third-party developers and set up offshore development labs to meet demand. In the last year, the number of online job listings with the keyword "iPhone" in the text has nearly tripled, while the number with "Android" has more than quadrupled, according to listings search engine Indeed Inc. The number of mobile development jobs offered on Elance.com, a freelancer website, doubled between the first quarters of last year and this year, twice as fast as growth on the site as a whole.
benton.org/node/55551 | Wall Street Journal
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ANDROID COMPLAINTS IN SOUTH KOREA
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Jun Yang]
Google is facing antitrust complaints in South Korea as mobile phones using its Android software gain dominance. NHN Corp. and Daum Communications Corp., operators of South Korea’s two largest Internet search sites, filed complaints against Google with the country’s Fair Trade Commission for blocking local phone carriers and manufacturers from embedding their search applications in devices using the Android operating system. Google has banned South Korean phone manufacturers from including Web search applications made by other companies under its marketing contracts, Seongnam-based NHN said. Google has delayed certifying the use of its software for handset makers that violated the condition, the South Korean company said. Daum learned about Google’s practices while trying to have its applications installed and has evidence to prove its claims, the Seoul-based company said. About 70 percent of the more than 10 million smartphones sold in South Korea were Android-based devices as of March 31, according to an estimate by Park Jong Soo, an analyst at Hanwha Securities Co. in Seoul. NHN and Daum together control about 90 percent of Web searches on personal computers in South Korea, according to Lee Chang Young, an analyst at Tong Yang Securities Inc. in Seoul. Google’s share is between 1 percent and 2 percent, Lee said.
benton.org/node/55541 | Bloomberg
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
YOU'LL BE CRIPPLED WITHOUT IT
[SOURCE: Daily Yonder, AUTHOR: Sharon Strover]
[Commentary] Communications technologies have enormous consequences even though most of them go unrealized when those technologies are young. No one would have anticipated that Facebook or Twitter might one day figure in revolutions, just as no one could have anticipated that the telegraph would catalyze both the standardization of time keeping in the U.S. as well as the creation of national economic markets. We are now in the midst of a national debate — indeed, an international debate — around the impact of broadband networks. The current administration is intent on expanding access to broadband, especially in rural regions that have lacked fast access to the Internet. Critics ask exactly what broadband yields, and whether jolts of investment found in the stimulus are justified. What does it provide to rural regions that justify such large-scale investments? The simple answer is that rural communities will be economically crippled without broadband access. That’s the long and the short of it.
benton.org/node/55517 | Daily Yonder
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THE END OF THE WEB AS WE KNOW IT?
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Rhonda Abrams]
[Commentary] Last week, while the media was focused on whether the U.S. government would shut down, another piece of legislation passed the House of Representatives with critical implications for small business. The bill would end the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) ability to insure what’s called “net neutrality.” It was a pure “David versus Goliath” bill, and the House voted to protect Goliath. If the House bill becomes law – or the Supreme Court eventually decides the FCC doesn't have the authority to enforce network neutrality – the game changes radically. Without network neutrality, telecommunication and cable companies can tilt the playing field. And it won't be in small businesses and start-ups favor. What are the possible effects for small businesses and entrepreneurs?
Fewer innovative new businesses. Virtually every company today depends on the Internet. When new companies are shunted to a slower Internet than established large corporations, they'll have a harder time starting or succeeding.
Higher costs. Since the Internet companies will be able to create “tiered” services, they'll charge for them. If you want to be sure you get faster Internet service for your business, you'll pay for it.
Worse service. If you don't pay for higher tiers. Over time, Internet companies will spend their resources developing the infrastructure for the higher tiers, neglecting enhancements in lower tiers. You'll be in the “economy” cabin while others are in business or first class. At best, you'll get peanuts.
Dramatically inhibit the growth of cloud based services. Right now, we are in the infancy of what is certain to be an explosion of “cloud-based” or Internet-based services. I'm a huge fan of these services as they provide small businesses with far greater power and capabilities at low, predictable costs. But the diversity and cost of these cloud-based services depend on lots of scrappy new companies starting. Without net neutrality, there will be far fewer innovative cloud companies created.
benton.org/node/55549 | USAToday
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PRIVACY
NEW EU PRIVACY DEAL
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Eva Dou]
People surfing European websites will be able to turn off the cookies used to spy on their Internet habits under rules hammered out by the region's online advertisers, the Brussels-based Internet Advertising Bureau Europe announced. "It will change significantly how the Internet will look and how people interact with ads," said Kimon Zorbas, vice president of the industry group that developed the new rules. Under the agreement, web ads will carry a clickable icon labeled "AdChoices" that will let users change their privacy settings so they are no longer profiled for advertising purposes.
benton.org/node/55532 | Reuters
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PRIVACY AND COPYRIGHT MONITORING
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Robert Andrews]
A European Court of Justice official is finding against a verdict which said a Belgian ISP should filter out copyright-infringing content from its network. In a case dating back to 2007, the ISP, Scarlet had been ordered to strip from its transmissions unauthorized transfers of music whose rights are held by the Belgian Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers (SABAM). But Pedro Cruz Villalón, who, as an advocate-general to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), advises the continent’s highest court, has declared: “The installation of the filtering and blocking system is a restriction on the right to respect for the privacy of communications and the right to protection of personal data, both of which are rights protected under the Charter of Fundamental Rights.” The UK government must take heed of Villalón’s advice since, out of the embers of its Digital Economy Act, it is working with British ISPs and content rightsholders to table proposals under which ISPs must block access to websites deemed to be hosting content without authorization. Villalón says: “A restriction on the rights and freedoms of Internet users ... would be permissible only if it were adopted on a national legal basis which was accessible, clear and predictable.”
benton.org/node/55504 | paidContent.org
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CYBERSECURITY
CYBERSECURITY PROPOSAL
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The National Cable & Telecommunications Association has joined with the chief telecom and wireless associations to propose a cybersecurity legislative framework, including collecting "better data" on problems, partnering with industry and consumer and business education. In a letter to White House cybersecurity coordinator Howard Schmidt, with copies to key lawmakers, the trio presented a "consolidated" ISP position that included considering consolidating responsibility over federal networks in a single entity, providing incentives to the private sector in the form of tax breaks, liability protection and other benefits for government-industry partnerships. And they argue that the government needs to include industry experts from the beginning and not "wait until the last minute to bring industry into the planning cycle."
benton.org/node/55509 | Multichannel News
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EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION
WOMEN IN PUBLIC SAFETY COMMUNICATIONS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn]
Speaking at the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International's Women in Public Safety Communications Leadership Conference, Federal Communications Commission member Mignon Clyburn addressed two of her passions: promoting public safety and empowering women. She said: "Women face unique challenges in the workplace, but as I'm sure you've been told throughout the conference and during your personal and professional experiences, the ability to overcome those challenges is the trademark of a truly effective leader. It is important to understand and embrace the fact that there is more than one path to becoming a leader in this industry. Each of you brings diverse styles, interests, backgrounds, experiences, approaches, skill-sets, and answers to the table. This diversity is a strength; not a weakness. Some may have concluded that because you work in a male dominated environment, you should try to blend in; be like one of the guys. There is a time and a place for collaboration, and a time and a place for fitting in. But there is also a time and a place for standing out. There is a place for diversity in the communications industry - and as a matter of fact, there's a need.
The more a local public safety agency reflects the diversity of its local community, the better prepared that agency is to serve the public safety needs of its citizens. Such an agency can better react to situations, and be better equipped to calm an individual who is desperate for help. There are circumstances in which a woman may not be comfortable opening up to a male 9-1-1 operator. Or, there may be callers who are less proficient in the English language. Your ability to relate to them in some way may actually mean the difference between life and death."
benton.org/node/55526 | Federal Communications Commission
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
CONGRESS TRIM'S STATES FUNDS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Mary Beth Sheridan]
In a rebuke to the State Department, Congress has cut its budget for promoting Internet freedom and directed the government’s international broadcasting arm to take over some of the job of helping people in repressive societies reach censored Web sites. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has made Internet freedom a signature issue. But State Department officials have battled with lawmakers and others over how to spend tens of millions of dollars intended to promote the “freedom to connect.” The issue has taken on added urgency as demonstrators in Egypt, Tunisia and other countries have used social media sites such as Facebook to organize uprisings. The 2011 budget bill that Congress is expected to pass Thursday gives the State Department $20?million for Internet freedom projects, a one-third decrease from last year. It awards $10?million in Internet freedom funds to the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and other government-funded media outlets.
benton.org/node/55518 | Washington Post
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HELPING ARAB UPRISING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Ron Nixon]
Even as the United States poured billions of dollars into foreign military programs and anti-terrorism campaigns, a small core of American government-financed organizations were promoting democracy in authoritarian Arab states. The money spent on these programs was minute compared with efforts led by the Pentagon. But as American officials and others look back at the uprisings of the Arab Spring, they are seeing that the United States’ democracy-building campaigns played a bigger role in fomenting protests than was previously known, with key leaders of the movements having been trained by the Americans in campaigning, organizing through new media tools and monitoring elections. A number of the groups and individuals directly involved in the revolts and reforms sweeping the region, including the April 6 Youth Movement in Egypt, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and grass-roots activists like Entsar Qadhi, a youth leader in Yemen, received training and financing from groups like the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House, a nonprofit human rights organization based in Washington. Some Egyptian youth leaders attended a 2008 technology meeting in New York, where they were taught to use social networking and mobile technologies to promote democracy. Among those sponsoring the meeting were Facebook, Google, MTV, Columbia Law School and the State Department.
benton.org/node/55554 | New York Times
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COMMUNITY MEDIA
APPS FOR COMMUNITY
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
In a new, nationwide contest, communities and software developers will compete to develop software applications ("apps") that get personalized, actionable information to people least likely to take advantage of the digital revolution. The Apps for Communities Challenge is part of the FCC's and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's efforts to foster digital inclusion and promote broadband adoption. Details are posted at Appsforcommunities.challenge.gov. The Apps for Communities Challenge seeks to take advantage of the local, public information coming online - on topics from education to health care, child care, government services and jobs - and make it easily accessible to the public. Contestants will be asked to turn that information into content, apps and services that expand people's choices on critical issues. These apps could, for example, give people valuable information about their communities in an easily digestible graphic on their mobile devices; help seniors, immigrants, and others use tools such as Skype to communicate; allow consumers to choose a health care provider; or deliver contract and seasonal job post alerts in English and Spanish via text message. Knight Foundation is offering $100,000 dollars in prizes, with additional prizes awarded to the best apps that reach and engage traditionally underserved communities-people with disabilities, seniors, and those whose first language is not English.
benton.org/node/55528 | Federal Communications Commission | Chairman Genachowski
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TELECOM REGULATION REFORM
TIME TO RETHINK REGULATIONS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
At a Free State Foundation discussion on Federal Communications Commission reform, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association's James Assey said regulatory reform can be tough, but that the government needs to "disenthrall itself" from the way things have always been done. A call for reform, he said, is not a criticism of the FCC, but instead is an opportunity to recognize that the world has changes since statutes were enacted and regulations adopted. He called it a celebration of the marketplace having become able to maximize consumer benefits. [All hail the marketplace!] Assey said it was important to have a "strong regulatory screen" that counsels against intervention, particularly where the marketplace is developing rapidly. In the lumpiness and bumpiness of progress and innovation," he said, "there is tremendous consumer benefits."
FCC Chief of Staff Edward Lazarus said it is certainly not status quo at the FCC and that it is not "remotely focused" on the things it was focused on in 1999 when then FCC Chairman Bill Kennard proposed FCC reforms. He said its agenda is forward-looking and "relentlessly focused" on broadband deployment and adoption. but he conceded the FCC's organizational chart is antiquated and does not "recognize fully" the conversion taking place. He said within the FCC, however, and in the way it operates, a lot has changed notwithstanding the categories visible from the outside.
benton.org/node/55512 | Broadcasting&Cable
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NEWS FROM THE FCC
FCC BUREAU REORGANIZATION
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
On April 14, the Federal Communications Commission released Orders reorganizing the Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau and the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau. The Orders were adopted in early February. The Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau is creating a Web and Print Publishing Division which will be responsible for researching, writing, designing and developing electronic and print materials to communicate information on the policies, rulemakings, programs and plans of the FCC. Materials developed by the new division will provide consumers with significant information concerning telecommunications services and how those services are regulated, as well as information consumers need to make choices in a competitive marketplace. This Bureau "develops and administers the Commission's consumer and governmental affairs policies and initiatives to enhance the public's understanding of the Commission's work and to facilitate the Agency's relations with other governmental agencies and organizations." The Bureau's performed functions include: (i) advising and making recommendations to the Commission in matters regarding consumers and governmental affairs, including but not limited to policy development and coordination; and (ii) collaborating with, advising and assisting, the public, state, local and tribal governments, and other governmental agencies on consumer matters.
The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau reorganization will convert the Emergency Response and Interoperability Center (ERIC) into a division-level office within the Bureau and will rename the Bureau's current Policy Division, Communications Systems Analysis Division, and Public Communications Outreach and Operations Division to, respectively, the Policy and Licensing Division, the Cybersecurity and Communications Reliability Division, and the Operations and Emergency Management Division. This Bureau "develops, recommends, and administers policy goals, objectives, rules, regulations, programs and plans for the Commission to promote effective and reliable communications for public safety, homeland security, national security, emergency management and preparedness, disaster management and related activities." The Bureau's functions include: (i) advising and making recommendations to the Commission in matters pertaining to public safety and homeland security communications; and (ii) collaborating with, advising and assisting state, local and tribal governments as well as other governmental agencies and industry groups on emergency management and disaster management issues.
benton.org/node/55510 | Federal Communications Commission | Public Safety and Homeland Security order
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TELEVISION/RADIO
COMCAST SPORTS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jessica Vascellaro, Matthew Futterman]
Less than three months after Comcast Corp. took control of NBCUniversal, NBCU's new CEO, Steve Burke, is angling for sports deals and pushing a big shift in how the entertainment company would use them. Burke, who had been chief operating officer of Comcast, has long been interested in building a more viable competitor to Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN. Comcast's own Versus sports network hasn't been much of a contender. Now, he's scouting out new deals in college sports and with the International Olympic Committee and the National Hockey League. NBC is accustomed to digging deep into its pockets for sports programming. The difference now, though, under Mr. Burke, is that the days of NBC hoarding marquee coverage for the broadcast network are over. Instead, in a move that signals just how far the major media companies will go to push major sports events onto pay-TV, NBCU will bid for deals only when coverage of popular sporting events can be split across the combined company's cable-TV and broadcast assets.
benton.org/node/55552 | Wall Street Journal
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CPB FUNDING SURVIVES
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
After threats and legislative attempts by Republicans to zero out Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding, the continuing resolution that passed the House and Senate April 14 keeps the dollars flowing to noncommercial radio and television stations. The CR, which funds the government through September, forward funds CPB through 2013 at the annual 2012 figure of $445 million, preserving the two-year forward funding mechanism Republicans had targeted. Also preserved was a $27.2 million Ready To Learn program funded through the Department of Education, though the final decision on that funding remains at the discretion at DOE. But CPB did not emerge unscathed. The legislation cuts funding in other areas, including: $30 million of $36 million for expanding digital technologies; $20 million by zeroing out the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program, a Commerce grant that funds noncommercial TV and radio equipment; and $50 million by zeroing out public radio interconnection and station fiscal stabilization funds.
benton.org/node/55544 | Broadcasting&Cable
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MARK LLOYD SURVIVES
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Mark Lloyd, the Federal Communications Commission's chief diversity officer, was not among the four so-called White House czars whose positions were defunded in the just-passed continuing resolution to fund the government through September. Lloyd had been among a handful of posts targeted by Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) in a previous CR that did not pass. His reintroduced amendment did make it onto the latest CR. The posts that were axed, according to Rep Scalise, are the "Health Care Czar" (White House Office of Health Reform), the "Car Czar" (Senior Advisory to the Secretary of the Treasury Assigned to the presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry), the "Urban Affairs Czar (White House Director of Urban Affairs)" and the Climate Change Czar (Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change). Along with Lloyd, also spared was the green jobs czar (special advisor for green jobs, enterprise and innovation, Council on Environmental Quality).
benton.org/node/55543 | Broadcasting&Cable
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