BROADBAND
Kick the Internet into High Speed
Muni Nets Step Forward in Louisiana, step Back in Congress
Court Ruling May Shape Municipal Broadband Debate
Expect a Net Phone Evolution, not Revolution
CABLE
Phone Industry Outlobbied, Outspent Cable Rivals in Legislative Fight
FTC Eyeing Adelphia Deal's Local Program Impact, Sources Say
TELEVISION
To Beat Up Rivals, TV Networks Do The Lineup Shuffle
Summer's Flops Spur Movie Studios To Reassess TV Ads
Movies, Shmovies -- TV's Taking Over L.A.
Canadian Broadcasting Without the Canadians?
All Chavez, All the Time
MEDIA
Media's Quest for Diversity Fades
What's next? Web map tracks demand for major news
Free Speech: Going, Going ...
QUICKLY -- Students Connect Online With Colleges; India Brings Wi-Fi to its
Remote Residents; Nashville Public TV Tests MetroCast; Smell-O-Vision!
BROADBAND
KICK THE INTERNET INTO HIGH SPEED
[Commentary] The Internet is becoming everyone's eyes and ears on the
world. That's why the issue of who controls the pipeline that delivers
Internet service is so important. Clearly, when consumers are free to
choose among many competitors, prices drop and quality rises. The decision
by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) earlier this month to allow
phone companies the right to deny other Internet service providers (ISPs)
such as AOL and Earthlink the use of their phone lines did create
regulatory parity for cable and teleco broadband providers. But when
independent ISPs are only "renting" bandwidth at terms favorable to the
cable or phone company, how competitive can they really be? The FCC also
put forth a kind of "declaration of rights" for Internet users. It said
anyone should be able to run any legal Internet application, and anyone
should have access to any legal Internet site. That means, in essence, that
those who own the pipes don't get to decide what information goes through
them. It's an especially important right if consumers have only two choices
of service providers. But the FCC has no authority to enforce its
declaration. Congress should pass legislation to put teeth into the
sentiment. President Bush has urged that high-speed Internet service be
made available to all Americans by 2007. To help do that, the FCC and
Congress must think beyond the cable and phone industries and clear the way
for broad Internet competition.
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0819/p08s02-comv.html
See also --
* What would Joe Consumer say?
Even the most Panglossian optimist would find it hard to speak well of the
Federal Communications Commission's sellout to the regional phone monopolies.
http://news.com.com/What+would+Joe+Consumer+say/2010-1071_3-5838835.html...
MUNI NETS STEP FORWARD IN LOUISIANA, STEP BACK IN CONGRESS
There is little doubt that the issue of publicly owned broadband networks
will only get more controversial, now that both cable companies -- and
within the next year, telephone companies -- can choose not to sell access
to their broadband networks. All the local squabbling could be laid to rest
by definitive national legislation, but even at the federal level, division
remains. Sen Ensign's (R-NV) bill doesn't prohibit municipally owned
networks -- an earlier measure introduced by Rep. Pete Sessions (D-Texas)
does. But Ensign's bill requires that cities and towns allow private
entities to bid on any network they wish to build and to share in the
benefits of related municipal bonds and tax benefits. The measure also
would require cities that build their own networks to allow other service
providers access to that infrastructure to install their own facilities.
Such a requirement essentially dooms any city's chance of financing a
network buildout, said attorney Jim Baller of The Baller Herbst Law Group,
who has represented many municipalities fighting against incumbent service
providers. Baller also questions the legality of transferring the tax
breaks and bond-issuing rights of a public entity to a private company.
[SOURCE: Telephony Online, AUTHOR: Carol Wilson]
http://www.telephonyonline.com/mag/telecom_muni_nets_step/index.html
COURT RULING MAY SHAPE MUNICIPAL BROADBAND DEBATE
Can the Federal government decide if cities can build municipal broadband
networks? Or override state laws ban those networks? Some observers said
Congress may not interfere in the relationship between states and
municipalities. They cite the Supreme Court's 2004 ruling in Nixon v.
Missouri Municipal League, which upheld a Missouri statute forbidding the
state's political subdivisions from offering telecommunications or Internet
services. The court's vote was 8-1. In Nixon, the High Court considered
language that pre-empts state and local laws against "any entity" providing
telecom services. State utilities said "any entity" applied to them, but
the opinion written by Justice David Souter disagreed. "The liberating
pre-emption would come only by interposing federal authority between a
state and its municipal subdivisions," the majority wrote. Sens. Frank
Lautenberg, D-N.J., and John McCain, R-Ariz., have introduced a bill, S.
1294, to bar states from opposing municipal networks as long as they do not
discriminate against private competitors. Two rival bills, H.R. 2726 and S.
1504, would bar states from allowing municipal broadband where communities
already are served by the private sector.
[SOURCE: Technology Daily, AUTHOR: Drew Clark]
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-EPZX1124309966916.html
* Lawmakers, Experts Clash Over Municipal Networks
The discussion on municipal broadband networks made its way to the National
Conference of State Legislatures this week.
[SOURCE: Technology Daily, AUTHOR: Chloe Albanesius]
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-TIXZ1124397402634.html
EXPECT A NET PHONE EVOLUTION, NOT REVOLUTION
[Commentary] Common wisdom suggested that you could save boatloads of money
by stuffing long distance voice traffic onto the Internet and that
exploding Internet growth would simply roll over the traditional Pubic
Switched Telephone Network. Yup, voice traffic was moving to packets,
simple as that. However, in spite of the ongoing hype, Net telephony, also
known as voice over Internet Protocol, remains an early work in progress.
Yes, VoIP is growing significantly, justifying the zillions of pundit
forecasts and platitudes--but if IP telephony were a book, we'd probably be
at Chapter 4 in the telecom equivalent of "War and Peace."
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Jon Oltsik, Enterprise Strategy Group]
http://news.com.com/Expect+a+Net+phone+evolution%2C+not+revolution/2010-...
CABLE
PHONE INDUSTRY OUTLOBBIED, OUTSPENT CABLE RIVALS IN LEGISLATIVE FIGHT
How do you win a legislative battle creating statewide video franchises?
You spend a hell of a lot of money, obviously. Texans for Public Justice
has released a report that shows, for example, that SBC Communications
spent $6.8 million on lobbying during this year's Texas state legislature
term -- more than three times as much as the entire cable industry spent.
Overall, the major phone interests spent up to $10.2 million on lobbying,
compared with a maximum of $1.7 million for cable. SBC will now be
competing with cable for a Texas market that analysts say could be worth
between $2.5 billion and $3.3 billion a year in revenue. Phone industry
political action committees also gave far more in campaign contributions in
the election cycle leading up to the session to politicians who could
influence the legislation, including Gov. Rick Perry and key committee
chairs, according to the report. Major phone companies and industry
associations gave $156,000 to Perry, for example, while cable interests
gave only $25,000, based on filings with the Texas Ethics Commission.
"Nobody is shocked to learn that moneyed interests call the shots in
Austin," said Andrew Wheat, research director for Texans for Public
Justice. "Yet it is truly boggling that a single special interest has the
stroke" to push its legislation through the special session, even as school
finance efforts failed. "The only way to adequately recognize this feat is
to rename the Capitol 'SBC Arena.' " (what was that about ethics?)
[SOURCE: Austin American-Statesman, AUTHOR: Claudia Grisales]
http://www.wacotrib.com/news/content/shared/tx/legislature/stories/08/18...
* I Can't Get No Satisfaction
Bunnie Riedel wonders if maybe the hundreds of thousands Time Warner spent
[on lobbying in Texas] were just for show, they certainly stand to gain
from the franchise eliminating legislation even if they are stuck in their
current franchises in the meantime.
http://www.riedelcommunications.blogspot.com/
FTC EYEING ADELPHIA DEAL'S LOCAL PROGRAM IMPACT, SOURCES SAY
The Federal Trade Commission is asking if the acquisition of Adelphia cable
assets by Comcast and Time Warner could effect competition for regional
programming -- especially sports programming. Could the two cable giants
use their market clout to win exclusive distribution deals with
programmers? Pay-TV rivals and municipalities fear the transaction will
stifle regional competition for TV shows. DirecTV has warned of "regional
monopolies" where anticompetitive behavior is likely. It asked the FCC to
impose conditions barring exclusive carriage accords between regional
sports networks affiliated with Comcast and Time Warner and those cable
operators.
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Jonathan Make]
(Not available online)
TELEVISION
TO BEAT UP RIVALS, TV NETWORKS DO THE LINEUP SHUFFLE
How modern audiences find TV programs to watch is a debate roiling the
broadcast networks as they struggle to adapt to a rapidly changing
entertainment landscape. One camp says that shows attract audiences the
same way they did when TV was in its infancy -- by habit. It's why Viacom
Inc.'s CBS has aired "Survivor" in the same spot for the past five seasons,
and why General Electric Co.'s NBC is trying to break its recent history of
serial schedule-shuffling. But Fox and Time Warner Inc.'s WB network, among
others, say habit isn't as crucial as it used to be. Digital video
recorders and on-demand services give viewers the power to watch a show
whenever they want. Schedulers -- whose high-stakes decisions can make or
break a star, show or corporate boss -- are also experimenting with such
drastic departures from tradition as limiting repeats and abandoning the
September-to-May season. Fox's strategy: aggressively shuffle shows, even
ones that are working where they are, to achieve ratings advantages and to
inflict damage on rivals' lineups. It's a technique that risks alienating
viewers, not to mention annoying producers and studios. But Fox says using
the schedule to block and tackle has gained a new urgency as the network
ratings race has grown tighter. Indeed, the ratings gaps between the Big
Four networks shrunk to just tenths of a point at the end of the 2004-2005
season, or about 250,000 viewers. This season, says a Fox executive,
"hundredths of ratings points will matter."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Brooks Barnes brooks.barnes( at )wsj.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112440880283317244,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
SUMMER'S FLOPS SPUR MOVIE STUDIOS TO REASSESS TV ADS
As a long and disappointing summer movie season comes to an end, Hollywood
marketers are realizing that network-television advertising, long the
lifeblood of their movie campaigns, may not pack the punch it once did.
Network TV has been part of Hollywood's sales formula for many years, as
studios desperate to launch expensive blockbusters blitzed the national
airwaves in an effort to reach the broadest possible audience. But many
studio executives now are calling that formula into question, having
watched this summer as it failed to pay off amid a string of box-office
laggards. The diminishing effectiveness of such ads is to some symptomatic
of a broader problem in Hollywood. Audiences have caught on to the studios'
tactics for making an "event" out of every new movie and so can't be
counted on to turn out in droves just because they were confronted with a
hail of come-ons during Thursday night prime time.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Kate Kelly kate.kelly( at )wsj.com and
Brian Steinberg brian.steinberg( at )wsj.com ]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112440894618617254,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
See also --
* Theater Owners Fired Up Over Iger's Comments
Already faced with dwindling summer ticket sales, the nation's theater
owners took a swipe at Walt Disney Co.'s incoming chief executive Thursday
for suggesting that the health of the film industry may require the
simultaneous release of movies in theaters and on DVDs. John Fithian,
president of the National Assn. of Theatre Owners, said this scenario --
raised by new Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger during a call with
analysts last week -- would only further damage theater owners, who have
been confronting one of their toughest summers in years.
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Claudia Eller]
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-iger19aug19,1,4000313...
(requires registration)
MOVIES, SHMOVIES -- TV's TAKING OVER LA
Some 132,000 workers are riding the biggest boom ever in Los Angeles
television production, one that is rapidly turning Tinseltown into a TV
town. While Hollywood's nomadic film business has gravitated toward cheaper
U.S. and foreign locales, television production has become the bedrock of
the Los Angeles entertainment economy. Producers are responding to a
demand for original programs from broadcast networks and a mushrooming
number of cable channels. Reruns are being shunned in favor of fresh shows
that continue to earn money for years when shown again or sold on DVD. With
its production infrastructure and proximity to talent, Los Angeles is the
location of choice. Stars working on a regular series prefer to stay close
to home, and producers want to be near writers who may be needed for quick
rewrites. Television's role as the driving job creator in Hollywood will be
underscored today when local film officials release a study showing a
near-tripling in onlocation TV activity over the last decade. According to
the Entertainment Industry Development Corp., roughly 100 of the 134
scripted and reality series in prime time are shot in Los Angeles.
Thirty-one of 71 prime-time cable programs surveyed are shot here as well.
By contrast, film shooting in Los Angeles peaked in 1996, falling 38% since
then.
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Richard Verrier]
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fi-tvjobs19aug19,1,743...
(requires registration)
CANADIAN BROADCASTING WITHOUT THE CANADIANS?
About 5,300 members of the Canadian Media Guild have been locked out by the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in a dispute over the number of jobs that
can be filled by contract employees, rather than permanent workers. Since
the lockout began Monday, the CBC has replaced all its English-language
services, including two radio networks, a television network, cable
channels, Web sites and local stations with a mix of reruns, elegiac
classical music and sometimes less-than-relevant foreign programming.
Unlike public broadcasting in the United States, the government-owned CBC
has many programs that attract significant, sometimes market-leading,
audiences. News and sports programming, particularly hockey, on CBC
Television are important advertising outlets for many leading companies
that are now reassessing where to spend their money.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Ian Austen]
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/19/business/media/19tele.html
(requires registration)
ALL CHAVEZ, ALL THE TIME
[Commentary] The best hope for success for Telesur, the new satellite TV
network funded by the Venezuelan government, may be for some official
opposition from the United States. It is a hope the U.S. appears ready to
fulfill. The stated goal of Telesur, which also receives support from Cuba,
Uruguay and Argentina, is to provide audiences in Latin America an
alternative to U.S. and European networks such as CNN, Univision, Telemundo
and the state-sponsored Spanish Television Network. Telesur executives say
the network will broadcast news, opinion, features and investigative
reports from a Latin American perspective. A more enigmatic goal of the
news operation, according to its mission statement, is to promote "the
political and economic integration of the region." But whether Telesur
emerges as a credible news organization or becomes a propaganda outfit, it
has already generated a childish reaction in Congress. Last month, Rep.
Connie Mack (R-Fla.) proposed an amendment to the Foreign Relations
Authorization Act of 2005 to "carry out broadcasting to Venezuela for at
least 30 minutes per day of balanced, objective and comprehensive
television news programming." The House passed it by a voice vote. There is
still a chance the Senate could kill it. It is true that freedom of the
press is under pressure in Venezuela after the passage of two ominous laws
against free speech. Journalists are concerned about a censorship law that
contains 78 vague provisions to sanction TV stations for broadcasting
indecent content. There's even more worry about a new law that increases
prison sentences and fines for people who offend the president or other
government officials "by word or in writing." Yet the Venezuelan media is
vibrant. There are three major daily newspapers and four TV networks in
Caracas, all of which report the news and criticize government decisions as
they see fit. So far, no journalist has been jailed for violating the new
laws. Congress shouldn't respond to this latest provocation from Chavez.
Instead, it should let market forces work to counter any propaganda.
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-telesur19aug19,1,...
(requires registration)
MEDIA
MEDIA'S QUEST FOR DIVERSITY FADES
[Commentary] A report this year by the American Society of Newspaper
Editors found a total of 34 more journalists of color working at U.S.
newspapers than five years ago. A study released in June by the John and
James L. Knight Foundation found that 73 percent of the nation's 200
largest newspapers employ fewer minorities than they did at some year
between 1990 and 2004, suggesting the industry's diversity initiatives have
peaked. Whether you blame "diversity fatigue" or simple inattention, it is
obvious that modern media are slipping in their quest to reflect the
diversity of America's population. Why does any of this matter? Because TV
anchors and other journalists are more than the face of any given news
division. They directly affect what gets on the air.
[SOURCE: St Petersburg Times Floridian , AUTHOR: Eric Deggans]
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/08/18/Floridian/Media_s_quest_for_div.shtml
* Study: Diverse Newsroom Better Indicator of Coverage Than Diverse Population
A recent study commissioned by an organization of minority journalists
concluded that newsrooms with larger numbers of Asian American staffers did
a better job of covering Asian American communities and issues than
less-diverse newsrooms.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_con...
WHAT'S NEXT? WEB MAP TRACKS DEMAND FOR MAJOR NEWS
A news mapping service introduced on Thursday by Akamai Technologies
promises to give unprecedented insight into the relative hunger that
millions of Internet users have to learn of breaking events
minute-by-minute. Akamai, which helps speed delivery of 15 percent of the
world's Internet traffic over its network, is looking to count the sum of
page requests across 100 major news sites it serves to rank interest in
major events on a scale never seen before. The Akamai Net News Index
provides a map of six global regions and measures the current appetite for
news relative to average daily demand in terms of millions of visitors to
news sites per minute, per week, within each geographic region. Spikes in
traffic can reveal the next wave of news demand.
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Eric Auchard]
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID...
FREE SPEECH GOING, GOING ...
A look at corporate efforts to curb free speech. SLAPP suits (for
"strategic lawsuits against public participation") are a serious menace to
free speech. The latest example is a real prize: The Consumers Union,
publisher of Consumer Reports, has already spent $10 million defending
itself against a lawsuit filed by Isuzu Motors Ltd. because, eight years
earlier, Consumer Reports rated the Isuzu Trooper "not acceptable" for
safety reasons. And the case has not yet reached trial. And that is the
real menace of SLAPP suits. It's not that corporations win them, but that
they cost critics so much money that the critics are silenced -- and so is
everyone else who even thinks about raising some question about a corporate
product or practice.
[SOURCE: AlterNet, AUTHOR: Molly Ivins]
http://www.alternet.org/story/24293/
QUICKLY
GIFTED STUDENTS CONNECT ONLINE WITH COLLEGES
For many of today's gifted students, honors programs at their own schools
aren't challenging enough anymore. They are signing up for online courses
offered by such colleges as Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University
and the University of Missouri. These online courses offer classes mainly
in advanced math and English, but subjects such as history, philosophy and
anatomy also are offered. Programs are available for students of all ages,
kindergarten through 12th grade, and some courses for high-school students
follow college freshmen curricula. Not only do these classes bring in extra
revenue, but for universities competing for the nation's brightest
students, online programs are a useful tool for identifying and attracting
them. Colleges keep track of students in their online programs and later
mail them brochures highlighting their undergraduate programs.
Participating may even give students a leg up in gaining admission to
popular colleges. Increasingly, high school counselors, especially in rural
schools where resources for gifted students often are limited, have begun
combing through student records and encouraging top performers to apply for
online courses. Some counselors go so far as to submit grades directly to
universities, which regularly host regional "talent searches" where
students are invited to take standardized tests to see if they qualify for
the courses.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Neil Parmar neil.parmar( at )wsj.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112441510387517433,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
INDIA BYPASSES THE WIRES TO BRING WI-FI TO ITS REMOTE RESIDENTS
Relying on a signal transmitted from a tower in the center of the district,
the Indian village of Palakkode is at the forefront of efforts to use
wireless technology to cover the last mile -- or in many cases, the last
several miles -- separating rural villages from landline networks. The
technology is making universal Internet access an attainable goal in
several developing countries, including India. The country aims to spread
"village knowledge centers" to the country's 600,000 villages within two years.
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Jacob Leibenluft]
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0819/p07s01-wosc.html
NASHVILLE PUBLIC TV TESTS METROCAST
Nashville Public Television will test a new emergency alert system dubbed
NPT MetroCast with Nashville's Office of Emergency Management (OEM) next
month. The public broadcaster will set aside part of its spectrum for the
exercise and the OEM will use the spectrum to deliver video, audio and text
alerts, and information to first-responders in the field.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Ken Kerschbaumer]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA635938?display=Breaking+News&...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
PROJECT AIMS TO CREATE 3D TELEVISION BY 2020
Here's another great reason for US broadcasters to hold on to valuable
analog TV spectrum: smell-o-vision. Japan (who else?) is bringing together
researchers from the government, technology companies and academia to
create a television that would allow people to view high-definition images
in 3D from any angle, in addition to being able to touch and smell the
objects being projected upwards from a screen parallel to the floor. The
future TV is part of a larger national project under which Japan aims to
promote "universal communication," a concept whereby information is shared
smoothly and intelligently regardless of location or language. Imagine
watching a football match on a TV that not only shows the players in three
dimensions but also lets you experience the smells of the stadium and maybe
even pat a goalscorer on the back. Imagine how this'll change the nature of
indecency complaints!
[SOURCE: Reuters]
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&story...
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...and we are outta here. Enjoy these last days of summer... we'll be back
Monday August 29.
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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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