BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 2014
Headlines will return to your In Box on Monday, June 23. In the meantime, find updates online at http://benton.org/headlines or follow us on Titter @benton_fdn
… and don’t forget that FCC meeting today http://benton.org/calendar/2014-06-13/ and next week’s agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2014-06-15--P1W/
INTERNET/BROADBAND
AT&T accuses Netflix of ‘double-talk’ when it comes to Comcast and Verizon deals
Why Verizon won’t solve its Netflix problem as soon as Comcast
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
Sen Rubio Outlines Broad Wireless Broadband Plan
FCC Rejects an Unlicensed Spectrum Etiquette – Again - analysis
The Sprint/T-Mobile tie-up will probably be rejected. But if it’s approved… - analysis
Comcast is turning your Xfinity router into a public Wi-Fi hotspot
San Francisco Becomes First US City to Offer Encrypted Wi-Fi [links to web]
Mini cell towers: The end of crappy phone service [links to web]
Claims That Wireless Service Is Too Expensive Don’t Hold Up - AEI op-ed [links to web]
CONTENT
Fencing Out Knowledge: Impacts of the Children’s Internet Protection Act 10 Years Later - research
What Mr. Show and HBO Go Can Teach us About the Importance of Digital Ownership - analysis
Growth stalls in readers paying for online news
Streaming the World Cup: Preventing Piracy on the Global Playing Field - op-ed
US Media Getting Ready for World Cup
Amazon launches free streaming music service just for Prime members [links to web]
Dish’s upcoming Internet TV service to target cord cutters and “cord haters”
SECURITY/PRIVACY
Why Online Tracking Is Getting Creepier
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Rep Rogers lashes out at tech firms on surveillance stance
Verizon files amicus brief in support of Microsoft - press release [links to web]
JOURNALISM
Media seeks Senate vote on shield law [links to web]
LABOR
FCC Continues 2014 EEO Audits - public notice [links to web]
POLICYMAKERS
Cantor's shocking loss will be felt in Silicon Valley - editorial [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
European Firms Turn Privacy Into Sales Pitch [links to web]
MORE ONLINE
Replacement TV Purchase Decisions Driven by Picture and Sound Quality Despite Introduction of New Features - press release [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
NETFLIX AND AT&T
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
Jim Cicconi, AT&T's senior executive vice president for external and legislative affairs, said Netflix probably has a lot more leverage in its relationship with broadband companies than it's letting on. "They've been able to get agreements that they obviously like with both Comcast and Verizon," said Cicconi. When a reporter pointed out that Netflix keeps complaining about the deals, Cicconi brushed the objections aside. "Then why on Earth would they have agreed to them? I think that's double-talk," he added. "No company that's in a for-profit business is going to act against its economic interests. Sure, any company would like to pay zero for services they need to deliver their business, but that's not a practical approach." The implication is that Netflix is at least breaking even if not coming out ahead in its negotiations with ISPs.
benton.org/node/186071 | Washington Post
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NETFLIX AND VERIZON
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
When Netflix agreed to pay Verizon in “paid peering” deal, it seemed natural to assume that Verizon subscribers would start getting better quality videos within days or weeks. But Netflix performance got worse on Verizon in the month after the paid peering deal was announced. The reason is that the technical teams at Comcast and Netflix spent months working together to lay the groundwork for direct network connections even before the companies' lawyers were done arguing over money. As a result, the engineering teams were able to set the connections up almost immediately after the deal was signed. Verizon, on the other hand, seems not to have done any major technical work until after signing its deal with Netflix.
benton.org/node/186069 | Ars Technica | Broadcasting&Cable
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
SEN RUBIO OUTLINES BROAD WIRELESS BROADBAND PLAN
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Sen Marco Rubio (R-FL) outlined an ambitious agenda for spectrum reform, which includes plans to introduce three bills: The Wireless Innovation Act to free up government spectrum; a bill directing the Federal Communications Commission to conduct tests in the upper 5 GHz band and modify the rules to allow Wi-Fi so long as it doesn’t create harmful interference to vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications; and a bill to promote wireless infrastructure. Sen Rubio, a member of the Senate Communications Subcommittee, said that there were a lot of serious policy questions about advancements in high-speed wireless, but what was not debatable was that more spectrum was needed. He said the government should not wait until the current FCC spectrum auctions are over before taking steps to free up more. His Wireless Innovation Act:
Reallocates 200 MHz of government spectrum for commercial use;
Establishes an auction pipeline with staggered auctions starting in 2018;
Incentivizes federal agencies to reallocate spectrum by allowing portions of the proceeds to be used or conducting research and development, as well as cost and technical assessments on reallocating future spectrum bands;
Requires an analysis of requests for new or modified frequency assignments to determine whether a commercial service could be used, whether federal users can share; and
Requires the National Telecommunications & Information Administration to develop a framework to determine the commercial value of Federal spectrum.
benton.org/node/186102 | Broadcasting&Cable
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UNLICENSED SPECTRUM ETIQUETTE
[SOURCE: CommLawBlog, AUTHOR: Mitchell Lazarus]
[Commentary] It has been almost 30 years since the FCC first allowed unlicensed devices to operate at relatively high power in the 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, and 5.8 GHz “unlicensed bands.” The initiative, although widely opposed at first, proved to be a great success, ultimately giving rise to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, U-NII, ZigBee, and untold millions of devices in other, less-known categories. Over the decades the FCC has repeatedly tinkered with the rules for these bands, mostly in the direction of affording manufacturers and users greater flexibility. When it proposed one such set of technical adjustments in 2003, the FCC in passing asked if it should consider adopting a “spectrum etiquette” to improve sharing among unlicensed users. The term “etiquette” here is roughly synonymous with “protocol,” and generally addresses how devices would interact with one another to promote fair access to the spectrum. The FCC did not suggest any specifics. The ensuing 2004 Report and Order adopted most of the proposed technical tweaks, but noted opposition to a spectrum etiquette and announced the FCC was dropping the idea. In a recent Order and Second Memorandum Opinion and Order the FCC finally rejected the idea yet again.
benton.org/node/186046 | CommLawBlog
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SPRINT/T-MOBILE WHAT IF
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Colin Gibbs]
[Commentary] To gain approval, Sprint and T-Mobile will almost surely have to make some substantial concessions to appease regulators. And those concessions may change the landscape of the mobile industry in some substantial ways. Some of the most intriguing possibilities include:
The FCC has long demanded spectrum divestitures in exchange for approval of mobile telecom tie-ups in an effort to maintain a competitive balance, and the FCC’s recent revisions to its “spectrum screen” rules all but ensure Sprint will have to dump some of its holdings of 2.5 GHz airwaves. While there’s no telling how those holdings would be distributed, they could end up in the hands of Dish Network, which is sitting on its own pile of spectrum as it waits for an opening into the mobile market. The spectrum screen could pave the way for a tie-up between Dish and Verizon Wireless.
Sprint Chairman and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son has promised to start a “massive price war” if the proposed merger goes through, and the increased scale should eventually lower the combined carrier’s costs.
Perhaps the most interesting possibility is that regulators require Sprint and T-Mobile to take on a major partner, essentially maintaining a field of four major mobile network operators. MarketWatch’s Miriam Gottfried has written that Dish is a potential candidate in this scenario, which is certainly true, and Kevin Smithen of Macquerie Securities speculated last week that Amazon – which is reportedly preparing to launch its own smartphone – might make a good MVNO partner. Additionally, both Comcast and Google are looking to deliver disruptive wireless services primarily via Wi-Fi, and both will need a cellular partner to offer truly mobile services.
benton.org/node/186064 | GigaOm
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COMCAST HOTSPOTS
[SOURCE: Houston Chronicle, AUTHOR: Dwight Silverman]
About 50,000 Comcast Internet customers in Houston became part of a massive public Wi-Fi hotspot network, a number that will swell to 150,000 by the end of June. Comcast began activating a feature in its Arris Touchstone Telephony Wireless Gateway Modems that sets up a public Wi-Fi hotspot alongside a residential Internet customer’s private home network. Other Comcast customers will be able to log in to the hotspots for free using a computer, smartphone or other mobile device. And once they log into one, they’ll be automatically logged in to others when their devices “see” them. Comcast says the hotspot -- which appears as “xfinitywifi” to those searching for a Wi-Fi connection -- is completely separate from the home network. Someone accessing the Net through the hotspot can’t get to the computers, printers, mobile devices, streaming boxes and more sitting on the host network. Comcast officials also say that people using the Internet via the hotspot won’t slow down Internet access on the home network. Additional capacity is allotted to handle the bandwidth.
benton.org/node/186051 | Houston Chronicle
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CONTENT
FILTERING THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: American Library Association, AUTHOR: Kristen Batch]
Schools and libraries nationwide are routinely filtering Internet content far more than what the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) requires. “Over-filtering blocks access to legitimate educational resources, and consequently reduces access to information and learning opportunities for students,” said Barbara Stripling, ALA president. For example, some school districts block access to websites containing information about foreign countries, such as China and Iran, even as those websites are required online reading for the Advanced Placement curriculum. “Today’s over-implementation of internet filtering requirements have not evolved in the past decade to account for the proliferation of online collaborative tools and social networks that allow online students to both consume and produce content,” said Courtney Young, ALA president-elect. “Filtering hurts poor children the most,” said Young. “These children are the most likely to depend on school and library provided internet access. Other children are likely to have unfiltered internet access at home or through their own mobile devices.” There are 60 million Americans without access to either a home broadband connection or a smartphone. Finally, schools that over-filter restrict students from learning key digital readiness skills that are vital for the rest of their lives. Over-blocking in schools hampers students from developing their online presence and fully understanding the extent and permanence of their digital footprint.
benton.org/node/186048 | American Library Association
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DIGITAL OWNERSHIP
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Michael Weinberg]
[Commentary] Digital ownership is important because increasingly when you “buy” a digital thing online you don’t really own it. Instead, you click through some long terms of service agreement and “license” it. That distinction matters -- if you are licensing something you are not really buying it, and if you are not really buying it you don’t really own it. Non-ownership plays itself out in all sorts of ways. Because you don’t own those digital goods, you may not be able to lend them to someone else, or resell them, or even pass them on to your heirs when you die. Similarly, because you are only leasing them, rightsholders can reach out after the “sale” and simply make the files disappear. When you are only renting something, the rightsholder can take it away and make it disappear at any time for any reason. That gives them the power to alter their own history.
benton.org/node/186060 | Public Knowledge
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DISH’S INTERNET TV
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Janko Roettgers]
Dish wants to make inroads with people who are fed up with traditional pay TV with its upcoming internet-based TV service, said the company’s GM of Interactive and Advanced TV Adam Lowy. “Cord cutters, cord nevers and what we call cord haters” will be the target audience of the new service, said Lowy. Lowy said that his company is talking to all the networks that it also carries over its traditional satellite service about licensing their content for the new venture. Dish is currently working on setting up technical infrastructure to launch the service, which will initially be based on Dish’s existing infrastructure, but eventually be moved over to an all-IP infrastructure, Lowy said. “All this is being moved very fast,” he added.
benton.org/node/186066 | GigaOm
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PAYING FOR ONLINE NEWS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Robert Cookson]
The media industry failed in 2013 to persuade more customers to pay for its online news services, in spite of experimenting with new ways of charging for content, new research has found. According to a survey of 19,000 people in 10 countries, conducted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, only one internet user in 10 was willing to pay for digital news -- exactly the same proportion as in 2012. However, the study did contain some encouraging news for media groups as, even though paying customer numbers remained flat, the proportion willing to commit to subscriptions -- as opposed to one-off payments, day passes or app downloads -- increased. Of all those paying for online news, 59 percent now have a subscription, compared with 43 percent in 2012. As subscribers generally pay more than occasional customers, they are likely to have boosted the online revenues for many publishers. This phenomenon is consistent with the findings of another report by US research group Pew that concluded “more revenue is being squeezed out of a smaller, or at least flat, number of paying consumers.”
benton.org/node/186077 | Financial Times
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STREAMING THE WORLD CUP: PREVENTING PIRACY ON THE GLOBAL PLAYING FIELD
[SOURCE: Revere Digital, AUTHOR: Eddy Vivas, Paul Ragland]
[Commentary] With the 2014 World Cup kicking off, there is significant opportunity to engage fútbol aficionados by putting access to the games in their hands -- both literally and figuratively. Univision’s Spanish-language coverage is disrupting the sports streaming model by eliminating all barriers and providing live, around-the-clock coverage for 56 matches on multiple screens, including TV, online and several mobile platforms, including Unimás and Univision Deportes. During 2010’s World Cup, Univision reached more than 32 million viewers, and that number is expected to grow across all platforms. We are focused on broadcasting the games to as many viewers as possible and in as many platforms as possible. As new products and providers emerge every day, live-streaming piracy is on the rise and is a challenge that requires serious attention -- yet it also represents a significant opportunity to learn from business intelligence and to deliver on unmet consumer demand. Here, we explore three key steps to help content owners and distributors disrupt piracy, reengage consumers, and uncover business intelligence from piracy.
Good defense: Disrupting piracy and protecting your rights isn’t just about setting up barriers and thinking, “my content is secure now.”
Reengage your fans: Give them the stadium experience anywhere and everywhere. People of all ages watch the World Cup.
Use data to predict the next move and come up with a better game plan: This step is possibly the most important, because content owners and distributors can’t move ahead unless they know what pirate activity happened during a broadcast. [Viva is Vice President, Univision; Ragland is Vice President, Irdeto]
benton.org/node/186098 | Revere Digital
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US MEDIA GETTING READY FOR WORLD CUP
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: David Bauder]
The World Cup kicks off in Sao Paulo with home team Brazil going up against Croatia in the opener of the world's most popular sporting event. All 64 soccer matches will air in English in the United States on ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC. Univision and its associated networks -- UniMas, Galavision and Univision Deportes -- will broadcast the games in Spanish. Here are some media questions heading into the World Cup:
Will the World Cup be profitable for ESPN?
Who will turn into TV combatants?
Is social media ready for the World Cup?
benton.org/node/186079 | Associated Press
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SECURITY/PRIVACY
WHY ONLINE TRACKING IS GETTING CREEPIER
[SOURCE: ProPublica, AUTHOR: Julia Angwin]
Online marketers are increasingly seeking to track users offline, as well, by collecting data about people's offline habits -- such as recent purchases, where you live, how many kids you have, and what kind of car you drive. Here's how it works, according to some revealing marketing literature we came across from digital marketing firm LiveRamp:
A retailer -- let's call it The Pricey Store -- collects the e-mail addresses of its high-spending customers.
The Pricey Store brings the list to LiveRamp, which locates the customers online when the customers use their email address to log into a website that has a relationship with LiveRamp. (The identity of these websites is a closely guarded secret.) The website that has a relationship with LiveRamp then allows LiveRamp to "tag" the customers' computer with a tracker.
When those high-spending customers arrive at PriceyStore.com, they see a version of the site customized to "show more expensive offerings to them." (Yes, the marketing documents really say that.)
Tracking people using their real names -- often called "onboarding" -- is a hot trend in Silicon Valley. "The marriage of online and offline is the ad targeting of the last 10 years on steroids," said Scott Howe, chief executive of broker firm Acxiom. The Direct Marketing Association, which represents the data broker industry, doesn't offer a specific opt-out for onboarding. It does offer a global opt-out from all of its members' direct mail databases, but it only requires members to remove people's data for three years after they opt-out.
benton.org/node/186106 | ProPublica
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
REP ROGERS LASHES OUT AT TECH FIRMS ON SURVEILLANCE STANCE
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Josh Gerstein]
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) tore into major US tech firms for their opposition to a House surveillance reform bill that many Internet industry leaders have denounced as too weak. "We should be very mad at Google, Facebook and Microsoft, because they're doing a very dangerous thing," Rep Rogers said. The House intelligence chairman charged that by opposing the House version of the USA Freedom Act and calling for more limits on surveillance the American firms are putting their profits ahead of their loyalty to the United States. "They say, 'Well, we have to do this because we're trying to make sure we don’t lose our European business.' I don't know about the rest of you but that offends me form the words 'European business,'" Rep Rogers said. "Everyone on those boards should be embarrassed and their CEOs should be embarrassed and their stockholders should be embarrassed.....That one quarter [of European market profits] cannot be worth the national security of the United States for the next ten generations."
benton.org/node/186104 | Politico
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