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Communications Lobbying Tops $100 Million
Political Groups Spend Millions to Take on Bush in Ad Campaign
CONTENT
Update: Committee Passes Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act
Viacom Signals It May Want To Buy a Cable System
SPECTRUM
FCC Considers Nextel Spectrum Swap
QUICK HITS
Hearing: Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act
CompTel/Ascent Alliance: Telecom Competition Creates Jobs
Tauzin Faces Surgery for Cancer
At the FCC, They Ought to Be in Pictures
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COMMUNICATIONS LOBBYING TOPS $100 MILLION
Warren Communications News analyzed 400 communications-related lobbying
disclosure forms filed with the Secretary of the Senate and has compiled
its findings in Paying to Play: $100 Million to Influence Communications
Policy, January-June 2003 [$695 retail, but just $495 for you fellow
CommDaily subscribers]. As this Congress was just gearing up work and money
spent in the second half 0f 2003 could be much higher. $53.5 million of the
$100 million was spent on wireline telecom issues and $39.8 million was
spent on wireless issues including spectrum management. The top spenders on
lobbying were: AT&T ($5.6 million), Microsoft ($5.5 million), the trade
group USTA ($4.62 million), USTA members BellSouth ($4.5 million) and
Verizon ($4.3 million).
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Patrick Ross]
(Not available online)
POLITICAL GROUPS SPEND MILLIONS TO TAKE ON BUSH IN AD CAMPAIGNS
A $5 million ad campaign starts today to counter President Bush's $11
million ad campaign which started last week. President Bush's campaign
lawyers said they had filed a complaint with the Federal Election
Commission saying some of these commercials are illegal because they
effectively oppose the President, and were paid for with unlimited or "soft
money" donations, which they say is a violation of campaign finance laws.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Glen Justice & Jim Rutenberg]
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/10/politics/campaign/10FINA.html?hp
(requires registration)
CONTENT
UPDATE: COMMITTEE PASSES BROADCAST DECENCY ENFORCEMENT ACT
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation today passed
unanimously by roll call vote S. 2056, the Broadcast Decency Enforcement
Act. The Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act would, as introduced, increase
tenfold the cap on fines the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) may
assess on television and radio broadcast licensees for obscene, indecent,
and profane broadcasts. The Committee also approved amendments to the bill:
1) permitting the FCC to count each utterance or showing of indecent
material as an individual violation, require the FCC to consider several
factors when assessing a fine and cap the total for all fines assessed on
any broadcast licensee in a given 24-hour period at $3 million, 2)
providing for escalating fines for violations so each subsequent violation
results in a larger fine, 3) authorizing the FCC to increase fines because
of the specifics of an audience, 4) directing the FCC to hold a mandatory
license revocation hearing after three indecency violations, 5) protecting
children from violent programming, 6) authorizing broadcast associations or
networks to enter into agreements to provide family programming during
certain hours in a broadcaster's prime time schedule, 7) authorizing fines
not to exceed $500,000 for individual non-licensees for any violation, 8)
allowing the FCC to consider the violator's ability to pay a fine when
assessing a fine and 8) requiring the General Accounting Office to conduct
a study on the relationship between the consolidation of media companies
and the increasing indecency violations, and instituting a moratorium of
the FCC's June 2, 2003 broadcast media ownership rules until the study is
complete. The House will vote on a similar bill on Thursday.
[SOURCE: US Senate]
http://commerce.senate.gov/newsroom/printable.cfm?id=218845
See Also:
IN SENATE, CABLE CLAIMS TWO WINS, ONE SETBACK
Multichannel News provides additional coverage on the Senate Commerce
Committee votes especially amendments related to cable and satellite
systems. The Committee rejected a proposal that would have imposed large
monetary fines on any cable operator caught breaking federal
broadcast-indecency regulations. The ranking members of the Committee
floated, but withdrew amendments that would have required cable operators
to offer a la carte channels. But the bill does contain provisions for
stiff fines on cable for transmitting violent programming during nonexempt
times if the FCC determines that blocking technology and content ratings
failed to protect children from exposure to "excessive or gratuitous" TV
violence.
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA402572?display=Breaking+News
(requires subscription)
CONGRESS ACTS TO CURB OFFENSIVE PROGRAMS
* A spokesman for Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI.), lead sponsor of the House bill,
said the congressman hopes that unrelated provisions, concerning media
ownership and violence, for example, will not be attached to a final bill
that would be sent to President Bush.
* Jack Myers, who publishes an independent newsletter about the media
industry, sees the recent moves in dark terms. "The danger we face is when
we are overly sensitive to the protective right guard. We've elevated Janet
Jackson to a position of glorification, and we're on the verge of making
Howard Stern a martyr. We're edging toward a McCarthyism that strikes fear
in the hearts of communications companies."
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Jonathan Krim]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44871-2004Mar9.html
(requires registration)
VIACOM SIGNALS IT MAY WANT TO BUY A CABLE SYSTEM
Viacom has long argued that its TV channels are so popular that the company
does not need to own distribution platforms in order to bring the
programing to customers. But Viacom's Chief Executive Sumner Redstone has
now indicated that his company may be interested in a purchase of a cable
system. Mr. Redstone said that while Viacom didn't "need distribution for
defensive purposes," the time might come "where we could decide ... for the
future growth of Viacom we could add more distribution, for example, cable
systems."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Joe Flint joe.flint( at )wsj.com, Martin
Peers martin.peers( at )wsj.com and Andy Pasztor andy.pasztor( at )wsj.com ]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107881873477750142,00.html?mod=home_w...
(requires subscription)
See Also:
DISH NETWORK DROPS VIACOM CHANNELS
1.6 million DISH subscribers are doing without CBS, but 9 million cannot
see "SpongeBob SquarePants" on Nickelodeon or any other Viacom programming.
"To me this is another example of the battle between content and
distribution, but with Ergen taking it to a more aggressive level" said
Daniel Zito, a managing director at Legg Mason. And what do consumers
think? Says DISH subscriber Mike Afflerbach from New Bern (NC). "This is
another one of those situations where you've got two large companies and
when they get involved in a dispute, the consumer ends up losing, with a
big 'L' on their forehead. . . . I only have sympathy for myself as a
consumer."
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Mike Musgrove]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44561-2004Mar9.html
(requires registration)
SPECTRUM
FCC CONSIDERS NEXTEL SPECTRUM SWAP
The FCC is considering giving Nextel a valuable, virgin slice of the
wireless spectrum to help clear up interference on police and fire
department communications channels. In 2002 Nextel offered to pay $850
million to reassign all of the users of airwave spectrum in the
800-megahertz range to solve the interference problem, but in return asked
for an unused swath of spectrum in a higher frequency range for its own
traffic. Some market analysts estimate the spectrum Nextel is requesting
would fetch between $2 billion and $5 billion if auctioned off among
wireless carriers. "In one form or another, my sense is that the [FCC] is
prepared to give Nextel spectrum outside of the 800-megahertz band, which
is very favorable to them," said Rebecca Arbogast, an analyst with Legg
Mason. The unused spectrum is considered valuable primarily because it
would give Nextel greater capacity for both data and voice transmission.
Sources said the FCC may require Nextel to pay more for the new spectrum
than Nextel has offered. No word yet on when FCC Commissioners will vote on
this proposal.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Yuki Noguchi]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44620-2004Mar9.html
(requires registration)
QUICK HITS
* The House Telecom Subcommittee hearing today on the Satellite Home Viewer
Improvement Act (SHVIA) will include: David Moskowitz, EchoStar; Robert
Lee, WDBJ-TV, Roanoke (VA) (on behalf of NAB); Matthew Polka, American
Cable Association; Gene Kimmelman, Consumers Union ; Martin Franks, CBS ;
Eddy Hartenstein, Hughes Electronics. The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m.,
2123 Rayburn Bldg.
http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/Hearings/03102004hearing1227/hearing...
* Telecom competition has added 150,000 jobs to the U.S. economy since
1996, when the Telecom Act was passed, CompTel/Ascent Alliance said in an
analysis released Tuesday. Competition created by the Act has brought more
than $150 billion in investments, with competitive carriers now generating
more than $50 billion per year in revenue, the analysis said. It said
consumers were saving about $10 billion a year and small businesses were
projected to save more than $6 billion on telecom expenses this year as
service providers cut prices to compete.
http://www.comptelascent.org/news/recent-news/030904.html
* Former House Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-LA) will undergo
surgery March 17 for cancer in his upper small intestine.
At the FCC, They Ought to Be in Pictures
A humorous "getting to know you" piece in the "In the Loop" column
discusses the great shots of FCC Chairman Powell with SpongeBob
SquarePants, the Nickelodeon character who lives in a pineapple under the
sea; another with Diana Ross; then with Aretha Franklin; and one with Donny
and Marie Osmond -- showing that no one's musical taste is perfect. And
there's one of his senior staff assistants, Dorothy Clingman, with Stevie
Wonder. Kamen writes, "Clearly too much time on their hands over there."
But how did Kamen get the time to peruse all the photo galleries of FCC
Commissioners -- and what, exactly, was he hoping to find? See the Powell
pics at
http://www.fcc.gov/commissioners/powell/mkp_photo_gallery.html
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Al Kamen]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44418-2004Mar9.html
(requires registration)
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