For upcoming media policy events, see http://www.benton.org/calendar.htm
LEGISLATION
Telecom Bill Passage Said Unlikely This Year
MEDIA OWNERSHIP
Television and Radio Artists Discuss Media Consolidation
Is Comcast Too Big?
Groups Call for Adelphia Conditions
BROADCASTING
Newspapers and TV Stations Try Cross-Pollination
Satellite Radio's New Local Content Riles Broadcasters
A Spanish-TV Upstart Nips at Heels of No. 2 Telemundo
Sony BMG to Pay Fine In Settlement of Airplay Probe
TELECOM
FCC Eyes Recasting DSL as Information Service
Chip Start-Ups Battle to Provide Network Flexibility for Cellphones
QUICKLY -- Scrubbing the Airwaves; White House Warming to CBS; Why is it so
Hard to Cover the Supreme Court?; American Make DTVs, CEA Tells Senate;
Digital TV and E-Waste; Television Advertising Vs. Radio Advertising; NARUC
Considers Telecom Resolutions; Bush creates new post to fight global
piracy; Online News Consumers Become Own Editors; The hunt is on for
ed-tech visionaries; France Telecom Nears Purchase Of Spanish Wireless
Operator; Hong Kong to issue unified broadband licenses
LEGISLATION
TELECOM BILL PASSAGE SAID UNLIKELY THIS YEAR
U.S. lawmakers have been promising to begin overhauling the nation's
telecommunications laws to keep up with advancing technologies, but
analysts say the odds of passing a bill this year are slim. Although there
were predictions that legislation would be completed in the House by
August, only the first public drafts of reform bills are expected to be
unveiled this week. Telephone companies such as Verizon Communications and
SBC Communications are pushing Congress to ease regulations so they can
quickly deploy high-speed Internet services such as video, voice and data.
Lawmakers may also consider curbing some states' oversight of the industry
and are likely to consider revamping the program that offers subsidies for
telephone service to low-income homes and rural areas. Yet, higher on the
priority list for Congress is a bill to finish the transition to digital
television airwaves. The old analog airwaves will be sold for wireless
services and could bring billions to plug the federal budget deficit.
[SOURCE: Reuters]
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-preview25jul25,1,2998...
(requires registration)
MEDIA OWNERSHIP
TELEVISION AND RADIO ARTISTS DISCUSS MEDIA CONSOLIDATION
The 60th Convention of the American Federation of Television and Radio
Artists was held in Los Angeles last week. Keynote speaker FCC Commissioner
Michael J. Copps addressed the conference Friday morning, emphasizing the
need to prevent media consolidation and vertical integration between a
handful of powerful media companies. He called the FCC's June 2003 ruling
to relax restrictions on media ownership a "spectacular failure" and agreed
with the federal appeals court in Philadelphia, which rejected the new
regulations, and the Supreme Court, which refused to hear an appeal by the
media companies involved in the Philadelphia decision. Copps promised to
unveil a new process the FCC will use to interact with Congress and the
public "in a month or two." He called upon AFTRA to help the FCC understand
the effects of media consolidation on the entertainment industry. When
asked how the FCC's stronger policy against moral indecency in the media
may affect actors, he said "Our job is not to go after performers. But we
deal with broadcast licensing. It's their responsibility to deal with their
performers in a mutually satisfactory fashion." Actor and AFTRA delegate
Morgan Fairchild, who is also active on several SAG boards, spoke on media
consolidation from an actor's perspective before Thursday's voting session.
"Everything seems to come down to the same five or six companies now," she
said. "It's a very different economic culture that we're in. There seem to
be lists of people that they will hire, and if you're not on that list --
whether you're a writer, producer, or actor -- you don't get hired. It
marginalizes a lot of people, especially older people, people trying to get
started, and middle-class actors trying to make a living." Fairchild
encouraged actors to participate more in the unions and emphasized the need
for unity among AFTRA, Screen Actors Guild, and Actors' Equity Association.
She also commented on another point Copps made regarding the need to stay
on top of emerging media that could employ actors. "As soon as you start to
deal with one technology, there's another one emerging," she said. "There
are all of these different ways that we as performers can be used to a good
advantage but also possibly not paid for that work." AFTRA recently
accepted a controversial contract with Electronic Arts, Activision, and
other videogame companies, which calls for a 36 percent wage increase. SAG,
however, rejected the contract on the grounds that it does not allow
residual payments for voiceover and other performers.
[SOURCE: Backstage.com, AUTHOR: Lauren Horwitch]
http://www.backstage.com/backstage/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_...
* FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Address
the AFTRA Convention in Los Angeles
http://www.aftra.org/press/pr_20050717_fccVill.htm
IS COMCAST TOO BIG?
There's a growing chorus among programmers and competitors decrying cable
giant Comcast's market power. Many in Congress and at the Federal
Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission are exploring a
thorny question: Is Comcast too big? What they decide could have an adverse
impact on Comcast that could affect the larger cable industry at a time
when Washington is seriously considering rewriting broad swaths of
telecommunications policy. Comcast is already expected to be one target in
a new round of Senate hearings on media consolidation that antitrust
staffers are quietly planning. Programmers and competitors will likely
testify soon on the company's market power -- and questions of abuse. DBS
rivals DirecTV and EchoStar are making forceful new arguments to the FCC
about Comcast's national scale and its strategy of clustering cable
systems. Comcast's local strength could thwart their access to important
regional sports networks -- or at least could increase their cost. Comcast
has long exploited a legal loophole and refused to sell its Philadelphia
sports channel to satellite companies. One result: Just 8% of metro-Philly
homes subscribe to DBS, the fourth-lowest penetration rate of the 212
Nielsen TV markets and half the average rate of the 10 largest. Although
the government is hardly likely to force Comcast to sell systems, the FCC
or FTC could impose new rules on how the company deals with programmers.
The new scrutiny stems in large part from the planned $17.6 billion sale of
Adelphia Communications. Comcast and Time Warner have teamed to buy the 5.2
million-subscriber operator out of Chapter 11. They plan to divide the
systems, swap ones they already own, and extinguish Comcast's 21% stake in
Time Warner Entertainment. Comcast will walk away with 2.2 million new
subscribers; Time Warner with 3 million. Time Warner will face scrutiny as
well, in part because it, too, is tough on programmers. One company
advisor, seeking to distance the two operators, notes that Time Warner
Cable will be half Comcast's size. Even Comcast acknowledges that its size
has made it an inevitable target.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Higgins]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA628786?display=Feature&referr...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
* Report: Cable Bills To Top $100 by 2008
A new report from Kagan Research says cable subscribers should expect the
average cable bill to jump from $80 a month in 2005 to the $100 mark in
2008 as they sign on for new services like voice, improved data and even
wireless.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA628704?display=Breaking+News&...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
* Kagan: Cable Revenue to Double by 2015
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA628711.html?display=Breaking+News
(requires subscription)
GROUPS CALL FOR ADELPHIA CONDITIONS
Media Access Project, a public-interest law firm, filed, on behalf of many
organizations, a petition to deny the sale of Adelphia cable system assets
to Comcast and Time Warner. To the extent the FCC approves the merger, the
groups called for major conditions including application of federal
program-access rules to cable video-on-demand content and a requirement
that Comcast and Time warner provide consumers with multiple
Internet-access providers or adhere to network-neutrality rules with regard
to Internet-content providers. MAP's clients challenging the deal were:
Free Press, Center for Creative Voices in Media, Office of Communication of
the United Church of Christ Inc., U.S. Public Interest Research Group,
Center for Digital Democracy, CCTV, Center for Media & Democracy, Media
Alliance, National Hispanic Media Coalition, the Benton Foundation and
Reclaim the Media.
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA628816.html?display=Breaking+News
(requires subscription)
* FCC asked to put limits on deal for Adelphia
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20050725/1b_adelphia_25.art.htm
BROADCASTING
NEWSPAPERS AND TV STATIONS TRY CROSS-POLLINATION
More than 100 stations have newspaper partners, according to a new survey
by Ball State University. At a time when newspapers and TV stations are
seeing their audiences decline, industry executives believe that local
media need to find ways to grow their share. Tapping into each other's
audience, they say, can create new consumers. The timing is crucial: Daily
newspaper readership fell from 58.6% of adults in 1998 to 52.8% in 2004,
according to the Newspaper Association of America. From May 1997 to May
2004, the average audience share for TV stations' early-evening news
dropped 18%, while late news slipped 16%, according to the Project for
Excellence in Journalism and BIA Financial. Banding together, news
directors say, strengthens both products. Although these alliances look
good on paper, they can be difficult to execute. A major obstacle, news
directors say, is the culture clash between newsrooms. Newspaper reporters
often see their TV colleagues as lacking depth, an attitude that makes TV
reporters resentful.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Allison Romano]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA628790?display=News&referral=...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
* Singin' the News Blues
[Commentary] I don't believe I've ever heard more folks in the industry
bemoaning the state of television news. Almost everyone in the game
operates in a state of uncertainty.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA628823.html?display=News&refe...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
SATELLITE RADIO'S NEW LOCAL CONTENT RILES BROADCASTERS
Local traffic and weather reports are among the most basic services radio
can provide. Now, these features are the latest front in a widening battle
between broadcasters and their upstart satellite radio competitors. XM
Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio are moving quickly to add local
features to their services, hoping to make a dent in a stronghold of
traditional broadcasters. Both XM and Sirius already offer traffic and
weather channels in certain major markets and both companies show signs of
wanting a bigger local presence. Longtime radio broadcasters say that is a
betrayal of satellite's formal mandate. They argue that, when the Federal
Communications Commission agreed to award satellite radio licenses in 1997,
it acted with the understanding that satellite would be a national service
only. Satellite providers say they never made such a promise, and there is
nothing in their licensing agreements forbidding local programming. The
National Association of Broadcasters, the TV and radio industry's main
trade group, has seized on a recent XM spectrum acquisition as a chance to
rally forces against satellite's advances into local content. The FCC just
opened a comment period for the acquisition, a routine procedure for any
license transfer. But the NAB isn't waiting on the FCC. The day after XM
announced its plans, NAB President Eddie Fritts sent a letter to every
member of the House of Representatives, calling XM's pending acquisition
"part of a longstanding pattern of deception by the satellite radio
industry." He asked members to support a bill introduced this year by Chip
Pickering (R., Miss.) and Gene Green (D., Texas) that would prevent
satellite services from using their on-the-ground repeaters, which
strengthen the national satellite signal in certain areas, to deliver
content to some locations and not others. The bill also would mandate the
FCC to examine the legality of delivering local content on nationally
distributed channels and would forbid satellite radio from using any
technology created in the future to deliver local content. So far, the bill
is stuck at the subcommittee level with little chance of seeing action
before the autumn at earliest.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sarah McBride sarah.mcbride( at )wsj.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112225495906094590,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
A SPANISH-TV UPSTART NIPS AT HEELS OF NO. 2 TELEMUNDO
TeleFutura is the nation's third Spanish-language television network and it
is making waves in the business. While the industry long has watched the
rivalry between top-rated Univision and perennial No. 2 Telemundo, the most
interesting fight these days is TeleFutura's quest to unseat Telemundo in
the second slot. Unless the programming lineup of Telemundo, a unit of
General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal, strikes a chord with more U.S.
Hispanics in the upcoming season, Univision Communications soon may boast
the top two positions in Spanish-language television. When General Electric
acquired Telemundo three years ago, it was betting on the growth of the
Hispanic population in the U.S. Spanish-language television is adding
viewers and advertisers faster than mainstream English-language television.
Thus, regardless of what network occupies the No. 2 spot in the coming
season, all three players are likely to keep expanding. Hispanics are the
largest minority in the U.S., numbering about 41 million. The steady stream
of immigrants from Latin America provides an ever-growing audience for
Spanish-language TV. Broader programming is drawing bilingual viewers, too.
Advertisers are taking note. Ad spending on Spanish-language television
jumped 19.6% in the first quarter of 2005 compared with the same quarter a
year earlier, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Overall U.S. media ad
spending rose a paltry 2.4% in the first quarter from a year earlier.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Miriam Jordan miriam.jordan( at )wsj.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112225742216794624,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
SONY BMG TO PAY FINE IN SETTLEMENT OF AIRPLAY PROBE
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is expected to announce today a
settlement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment as part of an 11-month
investigation into how music companies influence which songs get played on
radio stations including providing gifts, trips and tickets to executives.
The settlement is to include a fine of at least $10 million, as well as
changes in Sony BMG's radio-promotion practices and an acknowledgment that
some of those practices have been improper. The investigation focuses on
the use of so-called independent promoters: middlemen who are paid to plug
new songs to radio stations, and who pay the stations for the right to do
so, which is legal. The latter practice often has been likened to payola --
direct payment, either to executives or stations themselves, in exchange
for airplay of specific songs -- which is illegal under U.S. federal law.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Ethan Smith ethan.smith( at )wsj.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112207550570593873,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
TELECOM
FCC EYES RECASTING DSL AS INFORMATION SERVICE
A plan by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to reclassify teleco's high-speed
Internet service, DSL, as an information service is circulating among the
other commissioners's offices, seeking approval. The new classification
would lessen regulation of Internet access service provided by incumbent
phone companies. The move was expected after the US Supreme Court's Brand X
ruling, which upheld similar FCC handling of cable modem service. Chairman
Martin reportedly had hoped to gain enough backing to land the item on the
Aug. 4 Commission agenda, but sources voiced doubts. The item wasn't on an
internal list of agenda items circulated 3 weeks before each meeting.
Sources said that means Martin is still negotiating with the Commission's
two Democrats for their support. With Commission membership down to four,
the Chairman needs at least one Democrat to pass anything. The item
possibly could be placed on the agenda this week, a source said, but that
would have to occur before Thursday, when the official list of agenda items
will be released to the public.
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Edie Herman]
(Not available online)
CHIP START-UPS BATTLE TO PROVIDE NETWORK FLEXIBILITY FOR CELLPHONES
A new breed of startups is closing in on a high-tech holy grail: chips that
could help cellphones jump between different communications networks to
give users the best service. Backers of such "software-defined" chips
believe they will hasten the arrival of multi-function phones and other
portable devices that can do tricks like watching broadcast TV and surfing
the Web at the speeds of home broadband connections. They hope to grab a
chunk of a cellular chip market that totaled $22.4 billion in 2004,
according to Forward Concepts, a market-research firm. But the basic idea
of multifunction phones face a chicken-and-egg problem. Though cellphone
users now can roam among some networks when they travel, carriers are not
exactly eager to let users jump among services in their home market.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Don Clark don.clark( at )wsj.com ]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112224041698594289,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
QUICKLY
THE MEDIA INDUSTRY AND INDECENCY: SCRUBBING THE AIRWAVES
More than any other industry, America's multi-billion-dollar entertainment
business is caught in the crossfire of the country's culture war. Media
firms have always had to walk a fine line between giving adults realistic
shows and shielding children from sex and bad language. But thanks to the
current political clout of social conservatives, TV and radio firms are
under more attack than ever for allegedly corrupting America's youth.
Congress is threatening to increase sharply fines for airing indecent
material, and some politicians want to regulate cable and satellite TV for
indecency for the first time. Over 80% of American homes subscribe either
to cable or satellite TV, but only broadcast television, which is
technically free, is subject to indecency regulation. The media industry
fears that new rules could damage its business model.
[SOURCE: The Economist]
http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4199162
CBS CHAIRMAN MOONVES TOUTS WHITE HOUSE WARMING TO NETWORK WITH SCHIEFFER AT
HELM
In the July 21 edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer, columnist Gail Shister
quoted CBS chairman Les Moonves: "That's not the end-all, be-all, but
obviously the White House doesn't hate CBS anymore with [Bob] Schieffer in
the anchor chair." But far from hating CBS, the White House has reason to
embrace the network and its selection of Schieffer to serve as interim
anchor following Dan Rather's departure as anchor of the CBS Evening News.
Schieffer has previously described his "golfing friendship" with President
Bush "during the 1990s" and has said, "It's always difficult to cover
someone you know personally."
[SOURCE: Media Matter for America]
http://mediamatters.org/items/200507220005
THE SUPREME CHALLENGE: ZERO VISUALS TIMES 9
For a visual medium, the lack of pictures is crucial. The amount of airtime
devoted to untangling Supreme Court decisions is dwarfed by the cases
involving Martha Stewart, Michael Jackson and Kobe Bryant. By contrast,
major court rulings on medical marijuana, racially influenced jury
selection and government seizure of private property tend to be one- or
two-day stories at best. Television reports on these high-court rulings are
also eclipsed by all those speculative stories about William Rehnquist
stepping down (he isn't) and whether President Bush would pick Edith
Clement or some other judge besides Roberts for the Sandra Day O'Connor
vacancy (he didn't). Just as political reporters cover campaigns far more
than governing, the Roberts selection provides the media with a clear story
line -- whether the Senate will confirm the appeals court judge. But with
no Clarence Thomas-style controversy to feast upon, the networks could
quickly tire of examining the details of Roberts's record and judicial
philosophy. How likely is it that the Roberts confirmation hearings -- the
first such Senate showdown in the era of three cable news networks -- will
draw gavel-to-gavel coverage for long disquisitions on "originalist" and
"strict constructionist" philosophies? If the battle turns bloody, which
seems less likely than if Bush had picked a more incendiary nominee, the
coverage will heat up. But when the first Monday in October rolls around,
the justices will again be bit players on television news.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/24/AR200507...
(requires registration)
US ROLE IN DTV PRODUCTS 'QUITE SIGNIFICANT,' SHAPIRO TELLS SENATE
"Contrary to what you may have heard otherwise," the role of U.S. companies
in the development and production of digital television products "is quite
significant," Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro told
the Senate Commerce Committee in a letter Friday. Shapiro said the ATSC
system was invented in the U.S. by a "Grand Alliance" of firms. Moreover,
Shapiro said, "today's DTV products use highly sophisticated chips made by
leading U.S. technology firms, including Texas Instruments, Liberate
Technologies, Rockwell, Intel, Broadcom, Zoran and Zarlink." He said about
$10 billion worth of U.S.-produced components are used annually in TV sets
assembled here and abroad. CEA estimates 1.8 million Americans owe their
jobs to the U.S. CE industry, "which spans not just manufacturing, but
content development, retail sales, broadcasting, mobile communications, and
cable and satellite,"
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Paul Gluckman]
(Not available online)
DIGITAL TRANSITION WON'T TRIGGER WASTE ANALOG SETS, SAYS CE INDUSTRY
As Congress mulls fixes for burgeoning electronics waste (e-waste),
industry is seeking to convince people that the digital television
transition won't dump mountains of analog sets into the waste stream.
Analog sets linked to cable or DBS still will work after the transition,
says Parker Brugge, CEA senior dir. & environmental counsel. Only TVs
relying wholly on over-the-air signals -- about 12% of households -- will
go dark, he said, and even those can be fitted with DTV converters.
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Dinesh Kumar]
(Not available online)
A BOASTING MATCH PITS TELEVISION ADVERTISING AGAINST RADIO
Oddly enough, the Radio Advertising Effectiveness Laboratory and the
Television Bureau of Advertising have different opinions about which medium
offers a more effective platform for advertisers. The two groups are
playing dueling press releases, if you haven't caught up on your faxes, you
can now at the URL below.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Alex Mindlin]
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/25/business/media/25ratings.html?
(requires registration)
NARUC PANELS FACE STACK OF TELECOM RESOLUTIONS AT SUMMER MEETING
The National Association of Regulatory Commissioners (NARUC) is meeting is
Austin (TX) this week and the agenda includes proposals on telecom mergers,
federal legislative reform, Lifeline/universal service and cost recovery.
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Herb Kirchhoff]
(Not available online)
For a closer look at the telecom agenda, see
http://summer.narucmeetings.org/telecom0705.pdf
* Commissioner Tony Clark of the North Dakota Public Service Commission to
serve as Chair of the Telecommunications Committee for NARUC
http://www.naruc.org/displayindustryarticle.cfm?articlenbr=26923
BUSH CREATES NEW POST TO FIGHT GLOBAL PIRACY
President Bush has created a new senior-level position to fight the global
piracy and counterfeiting of American products ranging from Hollywood
movies to Detroit auto parts, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said on
Friday.
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: ]
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID...
ONLINE NEWS CONSUMERS BECOME OWN EDITORS
Online news consumers are increasingly taking charge, getting their news a
la carte from a variety of outlets. Rarely do they depend on a single news
organization's vision of the day's top stories. "The old idea of surfers
coming to your Web site and coming to your front door, that's going away,"
said Lasica, a former editor at The Sacramento Bee. "People are going to
come in through the side window, through the basement, through the attic,
anyway they want to."
[SOURCE: Associated Press]
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_con...
THE HUNT IS ON FOR ED-TECH VISIONARIES
The search is on for the nation's top education visionaries. Dell, the
nation's leading provider of computers to schools, and the world's leading
software maker, Microsoft, have announced the creation of a Visionary
Award. The program seeks to empower forward-thinking educators by providing
the tools and resources to help them upgrade the nation's classroom for the
21st century.
[SOURCE: eSchool News, AUTHOR: Corey Murray]
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=5790
FRANCE TELECOM NEARS PURCHASE OF SPANISH WIRELESS OPERATOR
France Telecom has apparently emerged as the likely winner of an auction
for Amena, tentatively agreeing to a deal for the Spanish wireless
operator. The offer under discussion values Amena at about $12.79 billion
and would include a mix of cash and shares as well as debt that the French
company would assume. A detailed breakdown of the payment terms were still
being worked out. Amena is part of Spanish telecommunications and cable
operator Grupo Auna SA, which has been for sale for months. As part of the
deal, Auna's shareholders may retain a minority stake in Amena.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Cassell Bryan-Low
cassell.bryan-low( at )wsj.com and Brian Lagrotteria
brian.lagrotteria( at )dowjones.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112221122488094203,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
HONG KONG TO ISSUE UNIFIED BROADBAND LICENSES NEXT YEAR
Hong Kong will issue licenses next year to allow both fixed and mobile
phone firms to offer broadband wireless services, newspapers said on
Saturday, bringing "anytime, anywhere" Internet access closer to reality.
[SOURCE: Reuters]
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&story...
--------------------------------------------------------------
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.
--------------------------------------------------------------