BROADCASTING/CABLE
First LPFM Stations launch! (MAP)
AOL Gains Cable Rights in China by Omitting News, Sex and Violence
(NYT)
INTERNET
Most Schools Are Wired (NYT)
Net-porn Law Applies Deadline Pressure (CNET)
After Billion-Dollar Build-Up, Broadband Plans Are Put Off (WSJ)
Wayback Goes Way Back on Web (Wired)
MERGER/ANTITRUST
GM Agrees on Sale of Hughes, DirecTV Units to EchoStar (WP)
Leading Consumer Watchdogs Urge Strong Remedy in Antitrust Case
(CFA)
BROADCASTING/CABLE
FIRST LPFM STATIONS LAUNCH!
Issue: Radio
Low Power Radio, community-based radio on the FM dial, is on the air. After
years of effort at the FCC by a coalition of public interest groups
including the Media Access Project, the Low Power Radio Coalition and
others, Low Power FM has launched.
Formats are as varied as the community imagination itself. Churches, social
service
agency, and interested community groups that have successfully made it
through the
FCC's application process and are now beginning to use this part of the
public airwaves.
[SOURCE: Media Access Project]
(http://www.mediaaccess.org/programs/lpfm/Update.PDF)
See Also:
NO POWER TO THE PEOPLE
[SOURCE: Scientific American, AUTHOR: Mariama Orange]
(http://www.sciam.com/2001/1101issue/1101scicit4.html)
AOL GAINS CABLE RIGHTS IN CHINA BY OMITTING NEWS, SEX AND VIOLENCE
Issue:
Acquiring an unlikely mantra of "no sex, no violence, no news," AOL Time
Warner Inc. has gained a foothold in the world's most populous country. Last
Monday, the company AOL signed a deal with the Chinese government allowing
it to broadcast one of its cable channels in southern China. The agreement,
under which AOL will expand its Mandarin-language channel, China
Entertainment Television (CETV), into the mainland, is the first time a
foreign broadcaster has won the right to distribute programming on cable
television systems in China. CETV is already available in some Chinese homes
from cable operators who distribute it illegally. It has survived this
nebulous status by steering a cautious course through China's political
shoals - avoiding sex, violence, and, most of all, news coverage. There are
also signs that, even as Beijing opens up its market, it is seeking to
tighten its control in other ways. The government has asked all foreign
cable channels to transmit their signals through a single, Chinese-owned
satellite, rather than through private satellites.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Mark Landler]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/29/business/media/29CHIN.html)
(requires registration)
INTERNET
MOST SCHOOLS ARE WIRED
Issue: ED Tech
New statistics compiled by Quality Education Data, a market research firm,
indicate that 97 percent of America's public schools are now connected to
the Internet, while 84 percent of public school classrooms are online.
Jeanne Hayes, president of the research company, attributed the high
connection rates to the federal E-rate program, which provides money to wire
schools in part through fees assessed on consumers' phone bills. ''An
infusion of $2.25 billion has had a tremendous impact, especially in the
poorer schools,'' she said. The data also indicated that the average ratio
of students-per-computer was 5-to-1 in the 2000-2001 school year. Ms. Hayes
said 22 percent of the districts surveyed said they were supplying hand-held
computers to staff members, most frequently to technology coordinators or
principals. But she said she also expected those devices to become more
common in classrooms.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Susan Stellin]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/28/technology/29DRILL.html)
(requires registration)
NET-PORN LAW APPLIES DEADLINE PRESSURE
Issue: Internet
Sunday, October 28 was the deadline for schools and libraries to show proof
of adequate steps taken to block access to online pornography on public
computers. At risk was thousands of dollars in federal E-Rate funding. An
element of the law known as the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA),
the requirement had already met with resistance earlier this year. Signed
into law by President Bill Clinton, CIPA requires schools and libraries to
block visual depictions of pornography, obscenity or other material deemed
offensive to children in order to qualify for funds set aside by the
government to help pay for computers and Internet access. CIPA is being
challenged in the courts by the ACLU and the American Library Association
(ALA) on the grounds of First Amendment violations and the ineffectiveness
of filtering software. The hearing is scheduled for February. The schools'
and libraries' deadline for complying to the law was yesterday.
[SOURCE: CNET News.com, AUTHOR: Gwendolyn Mariano]
(http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7671482.html)
AFTER BILLION-DOLLAR BUILD-UP, BROADBAND PLANS ARE PUT OFF
Issue: Broadband
Having sunk billions into efforts to offer fast Internet connections, some
big phone companies are putting the brakes on such broadband lines. In
recent days, both Sprint and SBC announced retrenchments in their flagship
high-speed offerings for consumers and small businesses. AT&T Wireless
Services is shutting down its wireless broadband service. And Excite At Home
Corp., which delivers fast Internet connections to 3.6 million
cable-television subscribers, has filed for bankruptcy. After hitting
quarterly growth rates as high as 50% last year, digital subscriber line
customer growth lowed to 14% in the second quarter of this year. There is
even evidence that as broadband begins to go mainstream, some customers are
canceling. Some mainstream customers realize they aren't taking advantage of
the service. "They're saying, 'I really don't think I need to pay $50 a
month to check my e-mail,' " says Imran Khan, a Yankee Group analyst. To
increase the mass appeal of the service, carriers will need to cut prices.
"But then you're digging the ditches deeper in terms of making your money
back," he says.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Dennis K. Berman and Shawn Young]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB1004305242345271600.htm)
(requires subscription)
WAYBACK GOES WAY BACK ON WEB
Issue: Internet
The Internet Archive (www.archive.org) and Alexa Internet have built a tool
that can bring Web users backwards in time. Sort of. The Wayback Machine is
an archive of Web pages reaching back to 1996. A free service, the Wayback
Machine (http://web.archive.org) is a record of how the Web has evolved over
time. "It's preserving a record of something that otherwise literally
vanishes," said Paul Grabowicz, Assistant dean at University of California
in Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. "That is one of the
frustrations about the Web." Researchers at Xerox PARC are reportedly using
the archive to study new user interfaces and languages on the Web. The tool
also has potential uses for Web designers (finally your resum