Four items on next week's media agenda: 1) on Wednesday the Kaiser Family
Foundation will issue a study on kids' use of the media 2) FCC Chairman
Powell will oversee his last open meeting on Thursday (see agenda items
below), 3) there's a conference on Internet Politics at the end of the week
and 4) a conference on Marketing to Children next weekend. For these and
other upcoming media policy events, see http://www.benton.org/calendar.htm
March 10 FCC Meeting Agenda
The Federal Communications Commission will hold an Open Meeting on the
subjects listed below on Thursday, March 10, 2005. The Commission will
consider: 1) truth-in-billing rules and 2) cognitive radio. In addition,
14 items will be voted on at once as part of a "consent agenda."
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-257183A1.doc
OWNERSHIP
Sinclair Files With U.S. Supreme Court on Ownership
The New Radio Revolution
Film and TV May Stream Out of the Industry's Control
Comcast and Time Warner Cable to Gobble Up Adelphia?
News Corp Raises Offer For Shares of Fox by 7.4%
JOURNALISM
Gonzo Gone, Rather Going, Watergate Still Here
Apple 1, Bloggers 0
QUICKLY -- 10 Steps to More Democratic Media; Powell: Cable Smut Regs
Unconstitutional; Broadcast TV Ad Revenues; Telco agrees to Stop Blocking
VoIP calls; Verizon Wireless Can Buy NextWave Airwaves
OWNERSHIP
SINCLAIR FILES WITH US SUPREME COURT ON OWNERSHIP
Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of the largest group of TV stations in the
United States, has asked the Supreme Court to review an appeals court
ruling on media ownership rules. Sinclair has petitioned the Court to
determine: 1) Whether the lower court in effect impermissibly overruled the
D.C. Circuit by ordering the FCC to continue to enforce the 8-voices test,
a rule that the D.C. Circuit found to be insufficiently deregulatory and
arbitrary and capricious and that the FCC on remand from the D.C. Circuit
concluded could not be justified. 2) Whether the lower court, in conflict
with the decisions of the D.C. Circuit, incorrectly applied the
deregulatory mandate of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and therefore
failed to set aside the restrictions retained by the FCC on local
television ownership, including the top four rule, which prohibits mergers
of the top four-ranked television stations in a market. 3) Whether the
lower court erred in upholding, against First Amendment challenges, the
local television ownership rule of the FCC that singles out and places
unique restrictions on television broadcasters, on the ground that a
rational basis supported the regulation; that is, did the Third Circuit
uphold an ownership restriction that targets television broadcasters and
limits their speech, but not the speech of other media companies, such as
cable operators, Internet service and content providers, and satellite
operators.
[SOURCE: Sinclair Broadcasting Press Release]
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=105&STORY=/www/story/0...
Coverage in --
B&C: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA508550?display=Breaking+News
Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7798693
THE NEW RADIO REVOLUTION
With no licenses, no frequencies, and no towers, ordinary people are busy
creating audio programming for thousands of others. These "Podcasters" are
bypassing the $21 billion radio industry. As radio shows are turned into
digital bits, they're being delivered many different ways, from Web to
satellite to cell phones. Listeners no longer have to tune in at a certain
time, and within range of a signal, to catch a show or a game. As the
business goes digital, the barriers to entry -- including precious airwaves
-- count for less and less. Whatever the reason, there's no denying a stark
reality: Listeners, increasingly bored by the homogeneous programming and
ever-more-intrusive advertising on commercial airwaves, are simply tuning
out and finding alternatives.
[SOURCE: Business Week, AUTHOR: Heather Green, Tom Lowry, and Catherine Yang]
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2005/tc2005033_0336_tc...
FILM AND TV MAY STREAM OUT OF INDUSTRY'S CONTROL
For years, the financial health of the world's leading media companies was
defined by one mantra: "Content is king." Technology is now threatening to
change that balance of power, and new digital systems are handing more
influence to distributors. The struggle has already wounded the music
industry, which is losing an estimated $2.4 billion a year in lost sales to
online piracy on top of $4.5 billion in losses to illegal CD copying. The
new generation of distributors, from Apple's iTunes business to Napster's
subscription business, are growing quickly: by contrast traditional content
providers, the music labels, have suffered years of sales decline.
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Tim Burt, Scott Morrison and Aline van Duyn]
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/643b682a-8b4e-11d9-ae03-00000e2511c8.html
COMCAST AND TIME WARNER CABLE TO GOBBLE UP ADELPHIA?
[Commentary] If Comcast and Time Warner Cable win the bidding contest for
looted and bankrupt Adelphia cable, cementing those companies' stranglehold
over cable access, diverse voices and independent viewpoints will suffer.
So will America's democracy and culture.
[SOURCE: Center for Creative Voices in Media]
http://www.creativevoices.us/php-bin/news/showArticle.php?id=114
NEWS CORP RAISES OFFER FOR SHARES OF FOX BY 7.4%
News Corp raised its offer for the shares it doesn't already own in its Fox
Entertainment Group unit by 7.4% to $6.2 billion, giving in to pressure
from investors who wanted a higher bid. Fox owns the 20th Century Fox movie
studio, the Fox broadcast network, TV stations and cable channels such as
Fox News. News Corp already owns 82% of Fox. Completion of the Fox buyout
will clear the way for News Corp to focus on negotiating a deal with
Liberty Media, which late last year raised its voting stake in News Corp to
18%. News Corp and Liberty are expected to negotiate a buyback of at least
part of Liberty's stake, possibly for cash and an asset. Owning all of Fox
will make it easier for News Corp to offer a Fox asset to Liberty. The two
companies are under time pressure to get a deal done. The Bush
Administration has proposed changes to tax laws that would reduce the tax
benefits of a cash-and-asset buyback. That means News Corp and Liberty need
to wrap up a deal within a few months to get the benefits of the existing law.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Martin Peers martin.peers( at )wsj.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110987152757069632,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
JOURNALISM
GONZO GONE, RATHER GOING, WATERGATE STILL HERE
Frank Rich marks the passing of Hunter S Thompson and stepping down of Dan
Rather by looking at the lack of News in the news. "The death of Thompson
represents the passing from the Age of Gonzo to the Age of Gannon," wrote
Russell Cobb in a column in The Daily Texan at the University of Texas. As
he argues, today's White House press corps is less likely to be invaded by
maverick talents like a drug-addled reporter from a renegade start-up
magazine than by a paid propagandist like Jeff Gannon, a fake reporter for
a fake news organization (Talon News) run by a bona fide Texas Republican
operative who was a delegate to the 2000 Bush convention.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Frank Rich]
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/arts/06rich.html
(requires registration)
APPLE 1, BLOGGERS 0
Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg tentatively ruled
Thursday that Apple Computer can force three online publishers to surrender
the names of confidential sources who disclosed information about the
company's upcoming products. The judge refused to extend to the Web sites a
protection that shields journalists from revealing the names of
unidentified sources or turning over unpublished material. He will hear
arguments today from Apple's attorneys and the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, a San Francisco digital rights group representing two of the
three Web sites Apple subpoenaed -- Apple Insider and PowerPage. Apple
maintains that disclosures about an unreleased product, code-named
``Asteroid,'' constituted a trade secret violation. The company asked the
court to force the Web sites to identify the source of the leaks. In its
court filings, Apple argued that neither the free speech protections of the
United States Constitution nor the California Shield Law, which protects
journalists from revealing their sources, applies to the Web sites. The
company said such protections apply only to "legitimate members of the press.''
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Dawn C. Chmielewski]
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/11049112.htm
* Hearing Friday Could Determine the Future of Online Journalists' Rights
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_03.php#003395
QUICKLY
10 STEPS TO MORE DEMOCRATIC MEDIA
[Commentary] The stakes have never been higher. Whether you care about the
state of journalism, access to information, diversity of media ownership,
privacy, innovation, or the health of noncommercial media -- all these and
more will be up for grabs as Congress begins re-writing the
Telecommunications Act of 1996 this year. But we the people can change
America's "digital destiny" by promoting positive change in these ten
areas: 1)Call for less, not more, media consolidation; 2) Build Community
Broadband; 3) Bring Back the Fairness Doctrine; 4) Open Up the Cable TV
Monopoly; 5) Restore Public Airwaves to the Public; 6) Claim Your Right to
Information and Culture; 7) Make Public Broadcasting Truly Public; 8)
Choose Open-Source Software Solutions; 9) Keep Broadband Open; and 10)
Support Alternative Media.
[SOURCE: Yes! magazine, AUTHOR: Jeffrey Chester and Gary O. Larson]
http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1186
POWELL: CABLE SMUT REGS UNCONSTITUTIONAL
Outgoing FCC Chairman Michael Powell thinks that extending indecency
regulation to pay TV and radio is a nonstarter. "It's very likely
unconstitutional," he said. "I personally do not support an extension."
Powell said a cable-indecency law would encounter trouble because the
Supreme Court is unwilling to allow regulation of programming that
consumers purchase and have the technical means to block. "The Supreme
Court affords much more significant First Amendment protection to [media]
other than broadcasting, like newspapers and cable and the Internet," he
added. Powell indicated that a close look at the legal issues would
dissuade Congress from passing a new law that applied to cable and other
pay media. "When the Congress takes a hard look at this, if they really
study the constitutionality, they'll find, as they have before, that it is
difficult and unwise to extend it," he said.
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA508546.html?display=Breaking+News&...
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA508543?display=Breaking+News&...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
BROADCAST TV AD REVENUES UP 12% FOR 2004
2004 was another banner year for the broadcast networks, with ad revenue up
12.1%, from $10.5 billion in 2003 to $11.7 billion last year.
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Claire Atkinson]
http://adage.com/news.cms?newsId=44448
TELCO AGREES TO STOP BLOCKING VOIP CALLS
The Enforcement Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission reached a
$15,000 consent decree with Madison River Communication that will ensure
uninterrupted Internet voice service on the company's network. According to
the terms of the consent decree, Madison River commits that it will refrain
from blocking VOIP traffic and ensure that such blocking will not
recur. The company will pay a contribution of $15,000 to the United
States Treasury to settle this matter.
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-257175A1.doc
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-05-543A1.doc
Coverage in --
News.com:
http://news.com.com/Telco+agrees+to+stop+blocking+VoIP+calls/2100-7352_3...
Multichannel News:
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA508547.html?display=Breaking+News
WashPost: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5428-2005Mar3.html
WSJ:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110989724590270216,00.html?mod=todays...
VERIZON WIRELESS CAN BUY NEXTWAVE AIRWAVES
The FCC has approved the $3-billion purchase of NextWave Telecom's spectrum
licenses in New York, Philadelphia and 21 other cities by Verizon Wireless.
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR:]
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-rup4.8mar04,1,269327....
(requires registration)
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...and we are outta here. Have a great weekend.
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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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