For upcoming media policy events, see http://www.benton.org/calendar.htm
CABLE
US Cable Ruling Stay Sought While High Court Mulls
Cable Companies Seek A Boost From Services
PUBLIC BROADCASTING
Beyond Sesame Street
QUICK HITS
Broadcasters' Obligations to Their Communities: Is the Public Interest
Standard Still Relevant?
Declarations of Media Independence Summit
NYC Will Have to Wait for "People Meters"
Fixed-Mobile 'Intermodal' Competition in Telecommunications: Fact or Fiction?
Reaching Critical Mass: The US Broadband Market
CABLE
US CABLE RULING STAY SOUGHT WHILE HIGH COURT MULLS
On Tuesday, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and several
cable operators asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in
San Francisco to stay its decision that the FCC should have classified
cable broadband as a telecommunications service instead of an information
service. The decision was due to go into effect Wednesday. The cable
lobbying group wants the appeals court to stay the decision until the
Supreme Court decides if it will hear the appeal. If the FCC labeled cable
broadband as a telecommunications service, cable companies would likely
have to offer consumers the ability to have a rival Internet service
provider unless the FCC decided otherwise. The FCC has decided to join the
cable industry in seeking to suspend the ruling.
[SOURCE: Reuters]
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=DBDEPXR54MO2QCRBAEOC...
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=4767598
See NCTA's Press Release
http://www.ncta.com/press/press.cfm?PRid=472&showArticles=ok
CABLE COMPANIES SEEK A BOOST FROM NEW SERVICES
Although residential consumers remain their bread and butter, many cable
operators are beginning to compete with telephone companies to provide
businesses with telecommunications services. "Cable companies need to add
revenue streams, and video is a mature business," said Mike Goodman, an
analyst at the Yankee Group. Increasing competition from cable has landed
the Baby Bells on Standard & Poor Ratings Service watch list for possible
downgrade. The industry spent about $85 billion on network upgrades to
offer additional services such as HDTV, broadband Internet, phone service
and video on demand. Serving businesses is a great way for cable companies
to use this upgraded infrastructure.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Ellen Sheng ellen.sheng( at )dowjones.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108129721135776199,00.html?mod=teleco...
(requires subscription)
PUBLIC BROADCASTING
BEYOND SESAME STREET
A look at the history, politics and structure that has and is shaping
public television. Important to remember that public TV is actually an
"ecosystem of three separate entities:" the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting which receives and disburses funding from Congress, the Public
Broadcasting Service which helps member stations with programming, programs
and structure and the 347 broadcast licensees in communities around the
country. Localism can be seen as both a weakness and a strength of public
TV. Only 16 of these stations can afford to produce and broadcast local
news, but all stations are connected to their communities through fund
raising. Public TV remains relevant in the face of attacks from some in
Congress and the onslaught of commercial alternatives in part because of
local roots and the home it provides for independent producers through
P.O.V., Independent Lens and Frontline.
[SOURCE: The Independent, AUTHOR: Deirdre Day-MacLeod]
http://www.aivf.org/independent/index.html
QUICK HITS
* The Webcast of Syracuse University's symposium, "Broadcasters'
Obligations to Their Communities: Is the Public Interest Standard Still
Relevant?" is online at http://i2sports.com/events/396/ and will be
available through May 23. The symposium, held April 1, was sponsored by
SU's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and featured FCC
Commissioner Michael Copps.
* "Declarations of Media Independence Summit", a national media conference
will take place in San Francisco on 7/1-7/4. Sponsored by Action Coalition
for Media Education (ACME) and co-sponsored by the University of San
Francisco and Media Alliance. Additional information available online at
www.acmecoalition.org by email at brenda( at )acmecoalition.org or over the
phone at 415/546-6334 ext 310. Early Bird Registration Deadline is May 14, 2004
* Nielsen Media Research has delayed implementation of its local New York
"People Meter" system until June 3.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Steve McClellan]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA408499?display=Breaking+News
(requires subscription)
NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/07/business/media/07adco.html
* Wireless phone service is not a substitute for wireline service for most
people, so does not offer enough competition to restrain monopolies from
raising prices. "There has been far too much reliance on 'techno-rhetoric'
and not enough serious analysis of the core economic problems facing
telecommunications policy-makers," said the Phoenix Center for Advanced
Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies. "The correct inquiry is not whether
two different products can do a similar task for some consumers some of the
time, but rather whether the use of one product will restrain adequately
the exercise of market power for the other."
"Fixed-Mobile 'Intermodal' Competition in Telecommunications: Fact or
Fiction?" is flying off the shelves at
http://www.phoenix-center.org/PolicyBulletin/PCPB10Final.pdf (sorry to give
away the ending) [SOURCE: Communications Daily]
* If you have $3,000 to spare and an intense desire to know what the
broadband market looks like, see "Reaching Critical Mass: The US Broadband
Market" (http://www.instat.com/r/nrep/2004/IN0401334TX.htm). Key findings:
1) nearly 27 million U.S. business and residential customers subscribed to
broadband at the end of 2003, 2) 20% of US homes subscribe to broadband, 3)
cable modem is the most common broadband service in the U.S., but DSL
dominates worldwide "due to lack of cable data service and greater housing
density outside of the U.S," 4) six cable operators have 91% of the U.S.
cable modem market, Comcast and Time Warner account for the majority of
subscribers while five providers have 94% of the U.S. DSL market, SBC and
Verizon accounting for the majority. [SOURCE: Communications Daily]
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