There's a FCC meeting tomorrow focusing on telecom issues. For upcoming
media policy events, see http://www.benton.org/calendar.htm
TODAY'S QUESTION: What's next?
WASHINGTON AGENDA
Fat Cats Get Fatter
DTV Transition May Be on Tap for Dec. FCC Meeting
NAB Will Commit to DTV Deadline
GOP Wants News Organizations to Abandon Exit Polls
Intel Chief Barrett Lays Out U.S. Tech Policy Agenda
MEDIA
Belo Gave Time to 159 Candidates
Sweating Bush II at CBS
Kerry Finally Wins One
Sinclair Sits Pretty
Fox News, Media Elite
Drama on Horizon for Spanish Television
TELECOM
Showdown of the Giants
Cable Titans Discuss Offering Cellular Services, Intensifying Foray Into
Telecom's Turf
Verizon to Buy All of NextWave's Spectrum
QUICKLY
One Internet, Many Copyright Laws
See Wired
RSA Sees Looming Identity Crisis Online
WASHINGTON AGENDA
FAT CATS GET FATTER
B&C looks at five potential changes that could be the result of last week's
elections. 1) Fat Cats Get Fatter: Media giants Comcast, News Corp., Viacom
and other conglomerates will seek to strike new deals to grow their empires
in a more relaxed regulatory environment. A second Bush administration
will resurrect deregulation to make it so. Lifting restrictions will lead
to "fewer owners controlling even more assets," said Leonard Hill who
represents the independent TV production community. "They'll be able to
curry favor with entrenched Washington power in turn for relaxation of
regulations designed to protect the public interest." 2) Morality Police
Will See Red Over Blue TV. Conservative groups will turn up the pressure on
the FCC and Congress to scrub filth out of broadcast prime time. With as
many as four Supreme Court spots likely to open in the new Bush presidency,
some industry folk worry that the courts could support a la carte cable
pricing options or -- Jenna Jameson forbid -- outlawing cable porn. 3) FCC
Chief Polishes His Image, Then Quits. FCC Chairman Michael Powell may take
the time to work on his legacy: accelerating the transition to digital
television, rolling out Internet TV and backing other gee-whiz
technologies. He will have a temporary 3-1 Republican majority after
December. 4) GOP Stands Divided on Digital Deadline. Chairman Powell favors
2009 as the end date for analog TV, by House Commerce Committee Chairman
wants to see a return of the spectrum currently used for TV stations in
2006. Either deadline could require up to $1 billion in subsidies for
low-income, broadcast-only households. The Administration is not so keen on
that. 5) Congress Reopens the Telecom Act, Reaps a Windfall. Congress plans
to launch a rewrite of the laws governing media, phone and wireless
industries sometime next year. A big side benefit to House and Senate
members is that telecom companies, fearful of losing favor, will feel
obligated to donate millions over the next session. If past legislative
battles are any indication, Congress will milk the opportunity for campaign
cash rather than pass legislation quickly.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Bill McConnell]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA478554?display=Feature&referr...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
DTV TRANSITION MAY BE ON TAP FOR DEC FCC MEETING
The FCC is likely to vote on permanent phone competition rules at the
Commission's December 15 open meeting, but it is uncertain whether it will
vote on a plan to speed the transition to digital-only television
broadcasting. Chairman Michael Powell has expressed an interest in voting
in December, but there might be less urgency with President Bush's
reelection. The FCC has five weeks after this week's meeting to complete
orders for the Dec meeting. However, Thanksgiving and the need to complete
action on air-to-ground communications will both be distractions. The FCC
also hopes to issue recommendations to Congress this year on what to do
with the 15% of consumers whose TV sets would no longer work after the DTV
transition.
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Howard Buskirk]
(Not available online)
NAB WILL COMMIT TO DTV DEADLINE
The National Association of Broadcasters, Disney-owned and operated ABC TV
stations, associations representing CBS and NBC affiliates and 17 major TV
station groups including Belo, LIN, Emmis, Hearst-Argyle, Tribune Gannet
and Media General are lining up to commit to a hard deadline for completing
the switch to all-digital broadcasting. No date is actually being
suggested, the broadcasters said they will "work with Congress and
regulators to develop a specific DTV transition plan in the coming months
that will bring an orderly end to the transition." BUT -- there's always a
but -- broadcasters insist that the FCC drop the major tenet of the
so-called "Ferree plan," counting nearly all cable subscribers as receiving
local DTV stations, even if some of those viewers are receiving the
stations' digital programming after cable operators convert them to an
analog format. Other conditions broadcasters demand include cable carriage
rights for every digital multicast channel they offer free over the air and
the delay of an FCC plan to let Wi-Fi and other unlicensed communications
devices operate on vacant TV channels until after the DTV transition is
complete. The industry also asked that any hard DTV completion date exempt
broadcasters facing technical problems that prevent them from going digital.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Bill McConnell]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA478389.html?display=Breaking+...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
GOP WANTS NEWS ORGANIZATIONS TO ABANDON EXIT POLLS
After early exit polls in Tuesday's election inaccurately suggested that
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry would trounce President
Bush, Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie is recommending
that major news organizations pull the plug on the prognostications. "In
2000 the exit data was wrong on Election Day. In 2002, the exit returns
were wrong on Election Day. And in 2004, the exit data were wrong on
Election Day -- all three times, by the way, in a way that skewed against
Republicans and had a dispiriting effect on Republican voters across the
country."
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Doug Halonen]
http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=6674
INTEL CHIEF BARRETT LAYS OUT US TECH POLICY AGENDA
Speaking to an audience at the annual Semiconductor Industry Association
dinner, Intel CEO Craig Barrett deliver a stinging rebuke of Washington
politicians and offer a tech-policy agenda for the newly re-elected Bush
administration to consider. The United States, he said, must focus on
improving science and math education, spend more on research and
development and develop technology infrastructure such as broadband.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR:Dean Takahashi]
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/10109610.htm
MEDIA
BELO GAVE TIME TO 159 CANDIDATES
Belo-owned TV stations in 15 markets collectively produced over 20 hours of
programming in the "It's Your Time" campaign between September 21 and
election day. Each candidate was given five minutes, four to tell why they
should be elected and one to answer a question on an issue central to their
particular race. In addition to airing the segments on its TV stations,
Belo also ran them on its regional and local cable news channels and made
them available to noncommercial stations in the market.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA478196.html?display=Breaking+...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
SWEATING BUSH II AT CBS
Players involved in the notorious 60 Minutes-on-Wednesday segment, reported
by Dan Rather, that employed dubious documents regarding President Bush's
National Guard service may face stiffer internal punishment now that
President Bush has won reelection. Now the hammer could come down on
producer Mary Mapes, 60 Minutes II executive producer Josh Howard, Dan
Rather and all the way up to news division President Andrew Heyward.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA478551?display=The+Beat&refer...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
KERRY FINALLY WINS ONE
The evening broadcasts on ABC, CBS and NBC gave the Kerry campaign a bigger
chunk of their campaign coverage than they devoted to any other nominee of
either party in the past five presidential elections. But while Kerry
prospered on the network news, coverage of Senate and House races,
statewide contests and propositions withered in 2004. Through the end of
October, the total coverage of those subjects drew just 3% of the overall
election news-hole. That's a drop of more than half since 1992 and more
than two-thirds since 1996.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Andrew Tyndall ]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA478578.html?display=Feature&r...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
SINCLAIR SITS PRETTY
Sinclair Broadcasting said its controversial program on John Kerry's war
record was hugely profitable for the company, so much so that it intends to
produce more such shows from its centralized news operation near Baltimore.
"We made more revenue on that show than we would have otherwise across our
platform," said Sinclair CEO David Smith. "The lesson learned is that the
central news structure we've created has the capability of producing
relevant content and we are convinced we can make more money in other
dayparts."
[SOURCE: Variety, AUTHOR: Michael Learmonth]
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1951&ncid=762&e=8&u=/var...
Also see --
Sinclair Moves on From Stolen Spat
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA478552?display=The+Beat&refer...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
FOX NEWS, MEDIA ELITE
Cable news channel Fox News amassed an audience of 8.1 million viewers on
election night, clobbering other cable news networks. NBC, ABC and CBS, on
the other hand, lost millions of viewers this year, according to Nielsen
Media Research. And Fox News actually came closer to CBS in the ratings
than CNN did to Fox News. Fox News has now become popular enough -- with an
audience whose conservative political leanings track those of the voters
who re-elected President Bush -- to lay claim to its own place in the
establishment.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jacques Steinberg]
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/business/media/08fox.html
(requires registration)
DRAMA ON HORIZON FOR SPANISH TELEVISION
A change of government in Spain means a new ballgame for Spain's fiercely
politicized media companies. The 7-month-old Socialist government of Prime
Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero plans to award licenses for two new
television networks, much to the annoyance of Telecinco and Antena 3, the
TV networks that dominate Spain's 6-billion-euro ($7.7-billion) advertising
market. It is widely expected that one of the new TV licenses will be
awarded to Prisa, a pro-Socialist media group that owns the daily newspaper
El Pais, commercial radio broadcaster Cadena Ser and a 23% stake in
Sogecable, a pay TV company. With the political wind now blowing in its
favor, Prisa's shares are up 30% this year. Meanwhile, Vocento, a
cash-rich, privately owned group of regional newspapers, is openly lobbying
for the other TV license.
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Leslie Crawford]
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-ft-spain8nov08,1,4431556...
(requires registration)
TELECOM
SHOWDOWN OF THE GIANTS
With the nation's cable companies determined to offer Internet calling to
millions, the phone companies are responding by jumping into the TV
business. Both Verizon and SBC have launched multibillion-dollar efforts to
roll out high-capacity fiber lines that can deliver Internet service, voice
and video through a single connection. Services to consumers will rollout
in 2005 and Verizon is already lining up rights from content providers. But
offering conventional TV fare is likely to require the phone companies to
acquire franchise rights, just like cable companies must do. Winning the
necessary licenses from municipalities is a time-consuming process that
involves lobbying and, at times, legal wrangling at a local level that can
take months. This isn't the first time that the Bells have tried to make a
push into television. In 1993, Bell Atlantic tried to acquire cable giant
TCI, which was later sold to AT&T and today is part of Comcast. In the
mid-1990s, Bell Atlantic and Nynex (now both part of Verizon) and SBC
jointly formed TeleTV and hired a CBS executive to buy content that could
run over fiber. Meanwhile, the former Ameritech (now owned by SBC) and Walt
Disney formed Americast, a cable company that bought or established several
dozen cable TV systems and tried to line up programming. Both TeleTV and
Americast fizzled: Fiber technology back then turned out to be too
expensive for Bell Atlantic, and innovative content was hard to come by for
both ventures.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Drucker jesse.drucker( at )wsj.com, Berman
dennis.berman( at )wsj.com and Grant peter.grant( at )wsj.com ]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109987210662467137,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
See also --
Is Telecom Too Late to TV?
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Joe Flint
joe.flint( at )wsj.com and Brooks Barnes brooks.barnes( at )wsj.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109987236138067144,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
Fiber doesn't make it to big cities yet
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Leslie Cauley]
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20041108/1b_verizon08.art.htm
CABLE TITANS DISCUSS OFFERING CELLULAR SERVICES, INTENSIFYING FORAY INTO
TELECOM'S TURF
Competition between cable and telephone giants may be intensifying. The
nation's biggest cable providers are discussing the formation of a joint
venture to offer cellphone service, according to people familiar with the
talks. The members of the informal consortium include Comcast, Time Warner,
Cox Communications, Charter Communications and Advance/Newhouse
Communications. Either by purchasing a wireless operator outright or
reselling services of an existing network, a deal would allow cable
operators to offer a full bundle of services -- including video, high-speed
Internet access, landline telephone and cellular service -- to the
country's 74 million cable subscribers. The theory is that customers
getting all their services from one provider -- on a single bill, at a
discount -- are less likely to defect from any one of those services. The
success of this approach still is uncertain: a mere 1% of consumers use a
single provider to get local telephone, long distance, Internet access and
cellphone service.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Drucker jesse.drucker( at )wsj.com, Berman
dennis.berman( at )wsj.com and Grant peter.grant( at )wsj.com ]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109986585663666960,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
VERIZON TO BUY ALL OF NEXTWAVE'S SPECTRUM
Verizon Wireless agreed to buy all of NextWave's PCS licenses for $3
billion. A federal Bankruptcy Court will be asked to rule on the request at
a Nov. 30 hearing , since the sale represents NextWave's new reorganization
plan. Meanwhile, a top FCC official said the deal likely won't set off
regulatory red flags. If completed, the sale will essentially end the
multi-year NextWave saga, one of the telecom industry's most dramatic
ongoing stories.
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Howard Buskirk]
(Not available online)
Coverage also in --
WSJ:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109963817243165926,00.html?mod=todays...
QUICKLY
ONE INTERNET, MANY COPYRIGHT LAWS
The Elvis Presley hit "That's All Right" is due to become copyright-free
next year in Europe, but not for another 45 years in the US. The case is
one more example of the Internet's inherent lack of respect for national
borders or, from another view, the world's lack of reckoning for the
international nature of the Internet, and it is also an example of the
already complicated range of copyright laws.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Victoria Shannon]
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/technology/08newcon.html
(requires registration)
SEE WIRED
In the November issue of Wired there is a CD issued under a new type of
license called the Creative Commons, the brainchild of Stanford Law School
Professor Lawrence Lessig. The artists on the disc have agreed to give
music lovers the freedom to transfer the songs to their computers,
distribute them over Internet file-swapping networks like Kazaa, and even
sample the rhythms and hooks to create their own compositions. The only
thing you can't do is use them in commercials or, in a handful of
instances, a song you plan to release.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Dawn C. Chmielewski]
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/10126944.htm
RSA SEES LOOMING IDENTITY CRISIS ONLINE
Andrew Nash, the director of technology for RSA Security said businesses
need to move their online customers toward a federated identity policy or
security threats could bring people to lose confidence in trading. "You're
talking about hundreds of thousands of people who need to be
authenticated," Nash said at the RSA Conference in Barcelona. "If we can't
adopt quickly enough, the Internet will become known as a very unsafe
place. People won't have confidence in it and (companies) will bail out, if
not put their technology on hold."
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Dan Ilett]
http://news.com.com/RSA+sees+looming+identity+crisis+online/2100-7348_3-...
--------------------------------------------------------------
Communications-related Headlines is a free online news summary service
provided by the Benton Foundation (www.benton.org). Posted Monday through
Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments,
policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are
factually accurate, their often informal tone does not always represent the
tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang
(headlines( at )benton.org) -- we welcome your comments.
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