BROADCASTING
Static Over Low-Powered Radio (NYT)
Markup Session: LPFM/Rural Television (House)
Cable ahead of Networks in Minority Programming (USA)
Coalition of Marketers Push for 'Family Friendly' Prime-Time TV
(NYT)
INTERNET
Pirated Copies of King E-Book are Distributed (WSJ)
Web Tax Panel Falls Short of Goal (WP)
Judge Says Old Rule on Libel Suits Applies Online (NYT)
Yahoo! Says FTC Asked For Information on How Firm Collects
Consumer Data (WSJ)
WIRELESS
FCC Approves Creation Of Mobile-Phone Giants (WP)
BT and Microsoft Include AT&T in Wireless Pact (WSJ)
BROADCASTING
STATIC OVER LOW-POWERED RADIO
Issue: Radio
A House committee has passed legislation this week that could undermine
the Federal Communications Commission's plan to allow schools, churches
and other community groups to set up low-powered FM radio stations.
With a new class of non-commercial licenses, the FCC has given
nonprofit groups a chance to communicate with audiences living within a few
miles of the radio station. Broadcasters have charged that the low-
powered stations will interfere with existing broadcast signals.
However, the commission says that exhaustive engineering studies prove
that there will be, at worst, minimal interference. If wrong, Chairman
Kennard has said he is prepared to move quickly if existing radio stations
are degraded. "To fulfill that promise, the commission needs to require
low-powered stations that interfere with existing broadcasters to
eliminate the interference or shut down," say the authors. "Then
the broadcasters would have nothing to fear from the commission's
plan other than healthy competition from local groups who think
they have something neighbors want to hear."
[SOURCE: New York Times (A28), AUTHOR: New York Times ]
(http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/editorial/31fri2.html)
MARKUP SESSION: LPFM/RURAL TELEVISION
Issue: Legislation
Markup actions and amendments to H.R. 3615, The Rural Local Broadcast
Signal Act and H.R. 3439, The Radio Broadcasting Preservation Act.
[SOURCE: House of Representatives]
(http://com-
notes.house.gov/cchear/hearings106.nsf/12b6a0781fa86e88852567e50
07558f4/a307cd824841bb16852568b1006d8a81?OpenDocument)
See Also:
BLILEY STATEMENT ON LOW POWER FM RADIO, AND RURAL LOCAL BROADCAST
SIGNAL BILLS
(http://com-
notes.house.gov/cchear/hearings106.nsf/12b6a0781fa86e88852567e50
07558f4/eadde0fa3359c86b852568b10065da27?OpenDocument)
CABLE AHEAD OF NETWORKS IN MINORITY PROGRAMMING
Issue: Television/Cable
In the wake of recent NAACP protests and the Brownout of last year,
movie studios have found ways to appeal to the Latino audience, but
television has done far less. Similarly, cable networks are ahead of
broadcast television networks in their number of shows with black cast
members. While the current landscape is bleak, change is in the
air: CBS has a pilot, called American Family, which stars Edward James
Olmos as a community lawyer, and featuring Esai Morales. HBO began shooting
The Arturo Sandoval Story, the biography of the Cuban jazz trumpeter.
It stars and is produced by Andy Garcia. HBO also has a documentary in
the works called Americanos: Latino Life in the United States. Showtime
is working on a family movie and a series called Resurrection Blvd,
about an East Los Angeles Latino family with a legacy
of professional boxing. Most Latinos (75%) already watch the Spanish-
language networks Univision and Telemundo, making it difficult for
broadcasters to attract them as an audience without similar quality
programming. Combined, the six broadcast networks bring in only half of
the prime-time audience brought in by the two Spanish channels, according
to TN Media analyst Stacey Lynn Koerner.
[SOURCE: USA Today AUTHOR: Gary Levin]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000331/2093415s.htm)
COALITION OF MARKETERS PUSH FOR 'FAMILY FRIENDLY' PRIME-TIME TV
Issue: Advertising
A coalition of marketers known as the Family Friendly Programming
Forum is attempting to generate more "family friendly" programming
during prime-time on television said representatives of the companies
involved. The coalition include such advertising
giants as AT&T, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Coca-Cola, Ford Motor, General
Motors, Gillette, I.B.M., Kellogg, McDonald's, and Procter & Gamble.
"We're not saying everything should be sweet all the time," said J.
Andrea Alstrup, vice president for advertising at Johnson & Johnson.
"We're saying that in the early hours of prime-time, up to 10 o'clock,
there's a need for entertainment that people can enjoy together,
intergenerationally." Some, however, question whether the programs
produced under the collation's auspices may be more suitable for
viewers of the 20th century than the 21st.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C6), AUTHOR: New York Times Staff]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/columns/033100tv-adcol.html)
INTERNET
WEB TAX PANEL FALLS SHORT OF GOAL
Issue: Internet Taxes
(In a shocking surprise)The Advisory Commission on Internet Commerce,
the group formed to study the problem of taxes on online sales, was
unable to come up with a resolution to the problem as it held its final
meeting yesterday. The best the group could do was recommend extending
the existing moratorium on new Internet taxes for another five years
and that states simplify their tax structures. The 19 member commission
required a super-majority of 13 of its members to approve any real
recommendations. However, the committee was so divided
that this was not a possibility. Instead, a simple majority of the
group voted yesterday to approve the report. Virginia Gov. James S.
Gilmore III (R), the commission's chairman, will deliver the report to
Congress on April 12.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E3), AUTHOR: John Schwartz]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48719-2000Mar30.html)
See Also:
INTERNET TAX PANEL TO ASK CONGRESS TO EXTEND BAN FOR 5 YEARS
[SOURCE: New York Times (C5), AUTHOR: Bloomberg News]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/03/biztech/articles/31tax.htm)
JUDGE SAYS OLD RULE ON LIBEL SUITS APPLIES ONLINE
Issue: Law Online
In most states, if an individual wants to bring a libel suit against
someone it must be done within a year of the publication date of the
alleged libelous material. However, the age of the World Wide Web has
caused some to question the validity of this statute of limitations.
Material posted to the Web stays there for a very long time, if not
forever. Does this negate the idea of the one-year limit? A suit in New
York State forced Judge Francis T. Collins of the state's Court of
Claims to examine the question. Collins ruled that Web publications are
not exempt from the one-year rule. The plaintiff in the case argued
that since a Web site can be changed every day, it is actually
published anew each day. The court found that there was no difference
between something published and left on the Web and a print publication
that is kept on file in a library.
[SOURCE: New York Times (Cyber Times), AUTHOR: Carl S. Kaplan]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/03/cyber/cyberlaw/31law.html)
YAHOO! SAYS FTC ASKED FOR INFORMATION ON HOW FIRM COLLECTS CONSUMER
DATA
Issue: Privacy
Yahoo has been asked by the Federal Trade Commission to explain how it
collects consumer information. "We've been contacted by the FTC and
asked to help them understand certain of our data-collection
practices," said Diane Hunt, a Yahoo spokeswoman. Yahoo's GeoCities,
the online "community" it bought in May, is subject to a consent decree
reached with the FTC that prohibits it from collecting certain types of
data from consumers. The FTC's inquires were sparked by a January
report from the California Heathcare Foundation that singled out a
number of health-related sites for poor privacy policies. While Yahoo
played down the impact of the federal inquiry, they did warn, in a
government filing, that efforts by regulators to curb its business
practices could affect its operations.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A4), AUTHOR: Jerry Guidera]
(ttp://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB954445744238838529.htm)
PIRATED COPIES OF KING E-BOOK ARE DISTRIBUTED
Issue: Internet
Two hackers downloaded software used to read Stephen King's new
exclusive e-book and managed to break the encryption code, distributing
pirated copies to about six Web sites and chat groups. The encryption
software was designed to stop more than one customer from having access
to each electronic copy sold. The incident confirms publisher's fears
about the ability to distribute books on the Web. "All the publishers
are well aware there is no perfect technical solution to this problem,"
said Len Kawell of Glassbook. Adam Rothberg, a spokesman for Simon &
Schuster, played down security concerns, "This was limited to a handful
of people from what we understand." Most of the sites distributing the
pirated copy of the book have been shut down.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B7), AUTHOR: Matthew Rose]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB954465411569087773.htm)
WIRELESS
FCC APPROVES CREATION OF MOBILE-PHONE GIANTS
Issue: Mergers
A really big wireless company was created yesterday as the Federal
Communications Commission approved the merger of Bell Atlantic's
wireless division and Vodafone AirTouch. The new company will have 20
million customers and a possibility of 3 million more if regulators
approve Bell Atlantic's merger with GTE. Scott Cleland, an analyst with
Legg Mason Precursor Group, described the new company in no uncertain
terms: "We now have a bona fide Bigfoot in the wireless industry," he
said. The FCC yesterday also approved VoiceStream Wireless' takeover of
Aerial Communications. The announcement comes as SBC Communications and
BellSouth are engaged in talks that are expected to be finalized soon.
The wireless companies are merging at a frantic rate, in efforts to
increase their scope so that they can offer the possibility of reduced
"roaming" rates for calls outside of a customer's home network, and
also so that the companies can offer reliable data services such as
email, and instant text messages, over their phones.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E3), AUTHOR: Peter S. Goodman]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48759-2000Mar30.html)
See Also:
FCC CLEARS MERGER OF WIRELESS FOR 2 MAJOR DEALS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B6), AUTHOR: Kathy Chen and Nicole
Harris]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB954465877372787351.htm)
BT AND MICROSOFT INCLUDE AT&T IN WIRELESS PACT
Issue: Wireless
British Telecomm (BT) and Microsoft have brought AT&T into an alliance
that is focused on new high-speed mobile Internet technologies.
According to a Yankee Group report, one billion mobile Internet access
devices will be in use around the world by 2003. The alliance's
proposed offering would allow subscribers to access their e-mail,
calendar and address books, in addition to playing games, listening to
music and reading electronic books - all via their cell phone.
Microsoft will provide the software to run the services and build
wireless applications in cooperation with the carriers. The addition of
AT&T to the alliance will more than double the alliance's base of
subscribers, to 48 million in 15 countries.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B6), AUTHOR: Kevin Delaney]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB954411093913707743.htm)
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Service is posted Monday through Friday. The Headlines are highlights
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