Aug 6, 2009 (Broadband Workshops Kick-off Today)
Today's FCC National Broadband Plan workshop will focus on E-Government and Civic Engagement
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY AUGUST 6, 2009
INTERNET/BROADBAND
FCC Workshops to Cast Wide Net for Broadband Data, Use Cases
Time to move broadband discussion to front burner
Europe Says It Leads US in Broadband Use
Obama Speech Touts US Innovation
In broadband stimulus, cart races horse
Libraries and the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program
One Economy/New America Group Wins Oregon Mapping Bid
Fiber gets nimble: small telcos weaving fiber web
Fairpoint Still Has Enough Cash For Anticompetitive Lobbying
Britons keep connected despite recession
Agriculture Appropriations Bill Includes Rural Telecom and Broadband Loans
RESEARCH
Report urges separation of science and state
Measuring the Results of an Ad, Right Down to the City Block
Consumers Spend More Time With Paid Content
For Today's Graduate, Just One Word: Statistics
NEWS FROM THE HILL
Senate Commerce Committee Approves Prison Cell Bill
Senate Commerce Committee Approves Cahill Nomination for CPB
Hightower Nomination Hearing Summary
Senators Hear Plea For Radio Performance Royalties
HEALTH AND MEDIA
White House Using Internet Campaigns to Try to Influence Health Care Debate
Newspaper websites offer no cure on health care reform
TELEVISION/RADIO
Converter Box Coupon Program Ends With Spike in Applications
Reflecting on the DTV transition
The DTV Transition Puts Corporate Profits Ahead of the Public Interest
Obama, throw a lifeline to black and Hispanic radio
Google sells Radio Automation business
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
The Message Is the Message
Chopra Talks To Silicon Valley [Video]
Vendors worry posting of contracts will expose proprietary data
Recent Comments on:
Prof Tests AP 'Copyfraud'
MORE ONLINE...
Coffee Shops Pull the Plug on Laptop Users
Tribune bonus plan gets flak from bankruptcy trustee, unions
Top-Tier Publishers to Launch More Intrusive Web Ads
One in Three Internet Users Visited a Newspaper Site in June
Department of Education accelerates $11.37 billion stimulus schedule
Net attacks triple in 2 years
CDT Releases Updated Report on Privacy Controls for Web Browsers
INTERNET/BROADBAND
FCC WORKSHOPS TO CAST WIDE NET FOR BROADBAND DATA, USE CASES
[SOURCE: BroadbandCensus.com, AUTHOR: Tina Nguyen]
The Federal Communications Commission will cast a wide net in crafting a national broadband plan, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski told staff Wednesday during an "all-hands" open meeting in preparation for the first of several workshops on use cases for crafting the plan. The Commission is "looking for everyone's ideas," Chairman Genachowski said -- and that the agency would seek input not only from within, but from as diverse a range of opinion as to include users of the Second Life online community. The FCC "town hall" meetings will be simulcast in Second Life, he confirmed. But with the Commission facing a deadline of February of next year, Chairman Genachowski acknowledged he is well aware that time is short, and with seven months to go there remains much to do, "The plan is unwritten," he admitted in an interview following the meeting. But he is confident the FCC can meet its commitments by looking for "opportunities to move the plan forward" by any means. Blair Levin, who joined the Commission as a "broadband czar," compared the national strategy to the E-Rate program established under the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
http://benton.org/node/26942
For more on the workshops see
http://www.benton.org/node/26834
Today's workshop on E-Government
http://www.benton.org/node/26292
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TIME TO MOVE BROADBAND DISCUSSION TO FRONT BURNER
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Chris O'Brien]
[Commentary] Given the seemingly infinite number of issues that President Barack Obama has tried to take on since January, the push for a national broadband policy has understandably flown well below most people's radar. But it's past time to give the effort to adopt a national broadband policy the focus it deserves. It's not on par with health care reform, but putting the nation on a path to something near universal broadband adoption has the potential to be our generation's version of building the national highway system. And the Federal Communications Commission wants to hear from you. Because the FCC was distracted with the digital TV transition this spring, and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski didn't get confirmed until late June, the FCC has only just fully engaged on this. While an official commenting period has ended, Genachowski has made it clear he will continue to monitor feedback and is also still having a series of town hall meetings on this subject. "We're considering every big idea," Genachowski said. "I don't believe we've identified the biggest ideas yet. This is the moment for people to speak up." What's Silicon Valley waiting for?
http://benton.org/node/26927
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EUROPE SAYS IT LEADS US IN BROADBAND USE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: James Kanter]
The European Union has re-established its lead over the United States in the use of high-speed computer connections, making the Continent "the world leader in broadband Internet," the European Commission said on Tuesday. Viviane Reding, the commissioner who oversees the Internet, said that the spread of the technology could help power the European economic recovery and that continuing the development of high-speed Internet could create two million jobs by 2015. But she also warned that obstacles needed to be overcome to maximize the economic benefits from digital networks. In particular, Commissioner Reding said, European Union member countries should make it easier for new entrants in telecommunications markets. "Governments must show leadership by adopting coordinated policies that dismantle existing barriers to new services," she said. Despite Europe's leading position, a third of European Union citizens have never used the Internet, and only 7 percent have bought goods or services online from a vendor based in a neighboring country, Commissioner Reding said. She acknowledged that many young Internet users were reluctant to pay to download or view digital content like music and movies — a factor that could blunt the economic gains from increased network access.
http://benton.org/node/26926
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OBAMA SPEECH TOUTS US INNOVATION
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
President Obama on Wednesday traveled to Elkhart (IN) to unveil $2.4 billion in competitive grants to spur manufacturing and deployment of next-generation batteries and electric vehicles. During his remarks, he emphasized the historic commitment to innovation made as part of the $787 billion stimulus package. He said the stimulus creates jobs by "doubling [the nation's] capacity to generate renewable energy; building a new smart grid that carry electricity from coast to coast; laying down broadband lines and high-speed rail lines; and providing the largest boost in basic research in history." His goal is to ensure the continuation of America's leadership position in the breakthrough discoveries of the 21st century.
http://benton.org/node/26925
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IN BROADBAND STIMULUS, CART RACES HORSE
[SOURCE: TelephonyOnline, AUTHOR: Ed Gubbins]
Though the application deadline for the first round of broadband stimulus funds is the end of next week, some of the first winners are already being named. ICF International, a professional services firm, has already been awarded up to $27 million to help implement stimulus fund distribution. Others are being hired to map existing broadband coverage: ESRI, which makes geographic information system software, has been hired by the Texas Department of Agriculture, along with controversial nonprofit Connected Nation, to help map that state's broadband availability. While the pace of the overall broadband stimulus process has overwhelmed many would-be applicants (to the point where many of them are skipping the first round and focusing on the second), the broadband mapping component of the plan has been regarded as especially confusing. While it's true that this rushed pace is likely to result in some sloppiness in the way that broadband is funded and deployed, the immediate goal of the stimulus program is more about feeding employment than it is about achieving universal broadband. Critics of the stimulus plan sometimes confuse the plan's long-term stimulus ambitions — which come from more widespread use of broadband — with its short-term job-creation imperatives. For now, whether the cart goes before the horse or vice versa is less important than whether or not they are both put to work.
http://benton.org/node/26924
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LIBRARIES AND BTOP
[SOURCE: American Library Association, AUTHOR: ]
The purpose of this note is to help librarians think about how they can demonstrate that library services, including robust broadband, are essential to the important work of economic recovery. This is not a step-by-step guide to complete an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act application. Instead, it is a compilation of resources that will help the applicant demonstrate that library services make an economic difference in their communities. As other guidance from ALA explains, library applicants should not assume that grant reviewers will know much about the modern role of libraries. In particular, linking the role and activities of libraries to the purposes of the ARRA -- such as creating and preserving jobs and stimulating local economies is highly desirable. This paper is intended to help applicants make that link.
http://benton.org/node/26923
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ONE ECONOMY/NEW AMERICA GROUP WINS OREGON MAPPING BID
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Art Brodsky]
[Commentary] The state of Oregon earlier this week awarded its contract for broadband mapping under the stimulus law. The news in the announcement is that the winner was not Connected Nation. Instead, the winner was a consortium headed by One Economy, including New America Foundation, BroadMap, Navteq, and BCT Partners. It doesn't appear as if Connected Nation even bid on this one. The One Economy's $1.6 million bid won out over six other competitors. So far, the One Economy group has won in Hawaii, Guam and Samoa, in addition to Oregon. The bid will combine New America's new crowd-sourcing technology with One Economy's Digital Connectors youth corps while aiming to be more transparent than Connected Nation. The group promised a heavy emphasis on demand-side mapping, along with a live and updateable data base. Meanwhile, Kentucky is about ready to issue a Request for Proposals for stimulus-funded broadband mapping. The new RFP will not be a gift to Connect Kentucky, the original organization from which Connected Nation developed.
http://benton.org/node/26934
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FIBER GETS NIMBLE: SMALL TELCOS WEAVING FIBER WEB
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
While Verizon gets most of the US press for its fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) FiOS rollout, small operators like the Paul Bunyan Telephone cooperative have quietly been laying fiber of their own for years. According to quarterly trade journal FTTH Prism, half of all rural telcos are now deploying fiber of some kind, and many are choosing to run it all the way to customer homes. David Chaffee, who edits the journal, says that he has "been disturbed by some of the attitudes exhibited towards our rural communities by people that should know better." One common attitude: rural residents may need broadband, but they surely don't need (or expect) good service. As Chaffee notes, this short-sighted attitude means five or ten years from now, rural residents with their slow broadband connections will face the same connection issues that dial-up users do today. Smaller operators like Paul Bunyan are trying to change that.
http://benton.org/node/26922
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FAIRPOINT STILL HAS ENOUGH CASH FOR ANTICOMPETITIVE LOBBYING
[SOURCE: dslreports.com, AUTHOR: Karl Bode]
Fairpoint Communications has all-but imploded from the acquisition of Verizon's Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont DSL networks. The carrier has skirted close to bankruptcy, faces state investigations for incompetence, and is now looking at a possible delisting by the NYSE. In recent months, users tell us the carrier has barely been able to answer the phone, much less deal with massive work order backlogs. The company has been busy trying to avoid paying competitors compensation for disrupted service. So it's interesting the company still has the cash on hand to lobby (scare) Maine away from other organizations in the running for Federal broadband stimulus funds. According to the Bangor Daily News, Fairpoint lobbyists are upset because the University of Maine is also in the running to get funding, something that's desperately needed after Verizon left a significant portion of the state with rusted DSL infrastructure.
http://benton.org/node/26921
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BRITONS KEEP CONNECTED DESPITE RECESSION
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Maija Palmer]
Broadband Internet connections, pay-TV subscriptions and mobile phones are among the last items consumers are prepared to forgo during the recession. About half of British people would rather give up eating out, holidays and DIY than do without communications services, according to research by Ofcom. About 47 per cent of consumers said they were likely to economize on restaurant meals, compared with just 10 per cent who would give up their high-speed Internet connection. Take-up of broadband has continued to grow strongly, reaching 68 per cent at the end of the first quarter this year, compared with 58 per cent a year earlier. About 12 per cent of households have mobile broadband, and people spend on average 25 minutes online each day, compared with nine minutes in 2004. Radio is the only communications sector in decline. During the past five years listening hours among children aged between four and 15 have fallen by 21 per cent; and among 15 to 24-year-olds by 12 per cent.
http://benton.org/node/26936
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AGRICULTURE APPROPRIATIONS BILL INCLUDES RURAL TELECOM LAWS
[SOURCE: Washington Watch, AUTHOR: ]
The Senate voted to pass the fiscal year 2010 appropriations bill for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and related agencies. The bill includes $145 million for 5 percent rural telecommunications loans; $250 million for cost of money rural telecommunications loans; and $295 million for rural telecommunications loans. The bill also includes $40 million for administrative expenses necessary to carry out direct and guaranteed rural electrification and telecom loan programs; $532 million for the for broadband telecommunication loans; $38 million for grants for telemedicine and distance learning services in rural areas; $38 million for the cost of broadband loans; and $13 million for financing broadband transmission in rural areas eligible for Distance Learning and Telemedicine Program benefits. The Senate bill will now move to conference committee. The House passed a similar bill last month.
http://benton.org/node/26908
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RESEARCH
REPORT URGES SEPARATION OF SCIENCE AND STATE
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Dan Vergano]
Science and politics mix badly, a bipartisan report said Wednesday. It called for changes to federal agencies and expert panels to keep the subjects apart. The "Science for Policy Project," headed by the former House Science Committee chief Sherwood Boehlert, a retired Republican from New York, and Don Kennedy, former editor of Science, suggests conflict over stem cells, climate and other science "has left the US with a system that is plagued by charges that science is being 'politicized.'" The new bipartisan report's recommendations call for changes at agencies and the roughly 1,000 committees that provide science advice to the federal government, which can exert tremendous influence on government decisions.
http://benton.org/node/26938
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MEASURING THE RESULTS OF AN AD, RIGHT DOWN TO THE CITY BLOCK
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Stephanie Clifford]
The people who buy media have found their jobs more complicated lately, what with all the new ways of measuring response — how many people clicked, clipped a coupon or made a purchase after seeing an ad. Buying local media adds another layer of complication. There are newspapers, billboards, Sunday circulars (those coupon-laden pages stuffed in the weekend paper), Yellow Pages and mail-based coupons. And they exist in hundreds of towns coast to coast where a marketer might have stores or products. Mediabrands, an ad-buying and planning division of the Interpublic Group, plans to introduce a unit on Thursday, Geomentum, that will focus on this problem. Geomentum will be large, handling about $2 billion a year in local advertising for companies like Coldwell Banker and Nestlé Waters. It will figure out how to divide ad dollars among the almost 40,000 ZIP codes in the United States, sometimes zeroing in on even smaller areas, like a city block.
http://benton.org/node/26940
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CONSUMERS SPEND MORE TIME WITH PAID CONTENT
[SOURCE: MediaWeek, AUTHOR: Georg Szalai]
US consumers last year -- for the first time -- spent more time with media that they paid for than with advertising-supported media, according to the annual Communications Industry Forecast from private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson. In fact, advertising became the smallest of the four major sectors tracked by VSS in 2008 -- a first since it began tracking the industry in 1986. VSS also projects that advertising will only return to growth mode in 2011. Total spending on communications, including advertising, consumer spending and other, rose 2.3 percent in 2008 to $882.6 billion, VSS found -- the sector's slowest growth rate since 2001. The report projects communications spending to decline 1 percent this year—the first drop since the 2001 recession. Overall, for the 2009-2013 forecast period, communications spending will grow 3.6 percent per year to over $1 trillion, making communications the third fastest-growing sector of the U.S. economy over that period, up from the fourth, VSS said.
http://benton.org/node/26928
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FOR TODAY'S GRADUATE, JUST ONE WORD: STATISTICS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Steve Lohr]
The rising stature of statisticians, who can earn $125,000 at top companies in their first year after getting a doctorate, is a byproduct of the recent explosion of digital data. In field after field, computing and the Web are creating new realms of data to explore — sensor signals, surveillance tapes, social network chatter, public records and more. And the digital data surge only promises to accelerate, rising fivefold by 2012, according to a projection by IDC, a research firm. Yet data is merely the raw material of knowledge. "We're rapidly entering a world where everything can be monitored and measured," said Erik Brynjolfsson, an economist and director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Digital Business. "But the big problem is going to be the ability of humans to use, analyze and make sense of the data." The new breed of statisticians tackle that problem. They use powerful computers and sophisticated mathematical models to hunt for meaningful patterns and insights in vast troves of data. The applications are as diverse as improving Internet search and online advertising, culling gene sequencing information for cancer research and analyzing sensor and location data to optimize the handling of food shipments.
http://benton.org/node/26941
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NEWS FROM THE HILL
SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE APPROVES PRISON CELL BILL
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
On Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee approved the Safe Prisons Communications Act of 2009 (S. 251), a bill that would ban inmates in some prisons from using smuggled cellular phones. The bill would allow the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a governor or a governor's designee to petition the Federal Communications Commission for a wireless jamming device for a correctional facility. The bill includes safeguards to ensure that jamming does not impair the ability of public safety officials or legitimate commercial mobile radio services outside a prison's walls. The Committee also considered the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009 (S. 30), which would make it unlawful for any person in the United States, in connection with any telecommunications service or Internet protocol (IP)-enabled voice service, to cause any caller identification (ID) service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller ID information, unless such transmission is exempted in connection with: 1) authorized activities of law enforcement agencies; or 2) a court order specifically authorizing the use of caller ID manipulation.
http://benton.org/node/26933
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SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE APPROVES CAHILL NOMINATION FOR CPB
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday approved the nomination of Patricia Cahill to be a board member of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Cahill is the general manager of noncom KCUR-FM Kansas City as well as an assistant professor of communications at the University of Missouri, which runs the station. She is also a former board member of National Public Radio.
http://benton.org/node/26932
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HIGHTOWER NOMINATION HEARING SUMMARY
[SOURCE: US Senate Commerce Committee]
On Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on the nomination of Dennis Hightower to be Deputy Secretary of the Department of Commerce, the Department's chief operations officer responsible for the day-to-day management of the Department's $17 billion budget and more than 38,000 employees. Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) noted Hightower's record at Walt Disney and Europe Online Networks -- and teaching at the Harvard Business School. "[Y]our ability to think strategically will undoubtedly help to shape the long-term policy direction of the Department," Chairman Rockefeller said. Mr Hightower said, "America must now act with a renewed sense of urgency. Our global competitors are neither standing still nor shy about taking action to exert their global economic ambitions. America must demonstrate not only a willingness to take action, but we must put in place the appropriate metrics to help us know when we have achieved the intended results. As I look at the challenges facing America and the Department of Commerce, I am reminded of a saying that defined the mission of one of the elite fighting forces I was a member of, and that is: 'Rangers lead the way!'"
http://benton.org/node/26930
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SENATORS HEAR PLEA FOR RADIO PERFORMANCE ROYALTIES
[SOURCE: Dow Jones, AUTHOR: Fawn Johnson]
Pop percussionist and one-time Prince protege Sheila E was the latest artist to come to Capitol Hill Tuesday to plead with lawmakers for legislation requiring radio stations to pay royalties to performers. Sheryl Crow, Herbie Hancock, will.i.am and Dionne Warwick were among the other A-list musicians who have come to Washington seeking performance royalties from broadcast radio. "Radio is the only part of the music business where our work is used without permission or compensation," Sheila E told the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing. After the hearing, Sheila E said musicians who perform, but don't compose, the music have "made the songs come to life. I don't do it by myself." Broadcast radio stations now pay song royalties to songwriters and producers, but they don't pay performance fees for playing the artists' music. In contrast, cable, satellite, and Internet radio pay performance royalties. Both the House and the Senate have bills pending that would compel performance payments, but the legislation is a long way from becoming law. The House bill passed the House Judiciary Committee in May, but it is unclear when it will see a floor vote. Senate sponsors warned Tuesday that the bill will see further action and urged the National Association of Broadcasters to engage in negotiations.
http://benton.org/node/26915
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HEALTH AND MEDIA
WHITE HOUSE USING INTERNET CAMPAIGNS TO TRY TO INFLUENCE HEALTH CARE DEBATE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ceci Connolly]
As public skepticism mounts about President Obama's plans to overhaul the nation's health-care system, the political team that got him elected is returning to the online world of grass-roots activism in an attempt to reclaim control of the debate. White House officials have begun a two-pronged Internet campaign, geared toward reenergizing Web-savvy allies who backed Obama last year and whose support will be critical in getting the health-care initiative through Congress. Meanwhile, the president tried to rally Senate Democrats over a seafood lunch Tuesday in the State Dining Room. The new engagement by the White House comes at a time when Democratic lawmakers are fielding attacks on talk radio, in cyberspace and at appearances in their home districts.
http://benton.org/node/26920
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NEWSPAPER WEBSITES OFFER NO CURE ON HEALTH CARE REFORM
[SOURCE: Online Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Tom Grubisich]
Helpless to stop their print world from being pulped, newspapers are blowing a golden opportunity to use the Web to recapture relevance and audience. The occasion is a story that affects every man, woman and child in America health care and how to universalize quality without busting the entire US economy. News about health-care reform is, obviously, all over the media, including newspaper websites, 24/7, but too much of it has a Washington dateline when, in fact, the issue is basically local. People seek care where they live, not on either end of Pennsylvania Avenue NW or on K Street NW in Washington. Most of the $2.2 trillion-plus in health spending is rung up within mostly compact triangles of doctor offices, hospitals and outpatient centers in thousands of communities. In June and July, when Congress was grappling with five reform bills at the committee level, attention had to be on what was happening in Washington. But with Congress going on summer recess, the focus is shiftingto kitchen tables and town halls all over America. Newspapers, with their still formidable local resources, should own this story as the locus shifts to their backyards. At a time when 63 percent of Americans say the overall health care issue is "hard to understand," newspapers could make their websites the authoritative place for people to go for the A-B-C's.
http://benton.org/node/26919
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TELEVISION/RADIO
CONVERTER BOX COUPON PROGRAM ENDS WITH SPIKE IN APPLICATIONS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The government's DTV-to-analog converter box coupon program ended with a spike, according to just-released figures from the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, which administered the program. On the final day that coupon applications could be applied for, 169,000 requests came in, more than double the previous day's 78,000 and more than three times the average for the previous 30 days. As of August 5, 33,962,696 coupons had been redeemed, or almost 500,000 more coupons than could have been covered by the original funding for the program, at least per the accounting rules applied to those funds. The government still has a little over $300 million in funding for the program.
http://benton.org/node/26935
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REFLECTING ON THE DTV TRANSITION
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Erica Ogg]
[Commentary] A Q&A with Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro. He likens the DTV transition effort recently to "putting a man on the moon." "We first started this in the early 1980s as the next generation of television. (The CEA) along with broadcasters got together and talked about ways to (move to digital). We agreed on a joint effort and a whole bunch of things over time: It was going to be over a large geographic area, both urban and rural, and would meet the needs of over-the-air broadcasters. There were 20 proposals from companies, and eventually we created the Advanced Television (eventually called "digital TV") testing centers. Then General Instruments came in the late '80s/early '90s and had a digital way of doing it. That stopped everything. We said, "This is such a revolutionary thing. We have to look at this again." Eventually everything came around from that."
http://benton.org/node/26917
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THE DTV TRANSITION PUTS CORPORATE PROFITS AHEAD OF THE PUBLIC INTEREST
[SOURCE: The Skanner, AUTHOR: Steve Macek, Scott Sanders]
[Commentary] The Clinton-era 1996 Telecommunications Act which mandated the change to digital television also stripped away most media ownership concentration limits and gave away huge swathes -- up to $90 billion worth -- of publicly owned digital broadcast spectrum to incumbent TV license holders. In return for giving up a single analog channel, each of these broadcasters received up to 10 digital channels in return. For free. Only one new public service requirement was added -- a modest increase in children's programming. To make matters worse, most digital subchannels run by the big network-affiliated stations air duplicative services such as sitcom reruns, old movies, weather, home shopping programs or cooking shows. That is, if they run anything at all. Despite recent failures such as their flawed coverage leading up to the invasion of Iraq, none of the commercial broadcasters have announced plans we're aware of to use the new channels to expand or improve their public affairs or news programming. Where are the digital channels for women and people of color, and the set asides to support independent programming by and for youth and other less advantaged groups, local C-SPANs and other experimental services? Where are the new public affairs programs designed to showcase the perspectives normally marginalized on commercial TV? Such diversity on the airwaves is needed now more than ever. People of color make up 34 percent of the U.S. population, but only around 3 percent of commercial full power TV license holders, with women holding just 5 percent. Glen Ford, editor of the online Black Agenda Report calls the DTV transition "the biggest squandering of public broadcast resources in the history of the United States." Steps should be taken to ensure that corporations are not the sole beneficiaries of the digital broadcasting age. The value of the broadcast spectrum that Congress simply handed over to the big corporate media ought to be recovered through appropriate means (taxes, license fees, etc.) and used to subsidize a democratically run, decentralized public media system, the sort of media that will provide a forum for the minority and dissident viewpoints sorely missing on mainstream TV.
http://benton.org/node/26916
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OBAMA, THROW A LIFELINE TO BLACK AND HISPANIC RADIO
[SOURCE: New York Daily News, AUTHOR: Pierre Sutton]
[Commentary] Minority-owned and oriented radio stations are fast becoming an endangered species, with dire consequences for our diverse democracy. Radio stations -- which serve a vital and underappreciated role -- have been suffering economic body blow after body blow in the current financial crisis. First, banks and other lenders are becoming de facto owners of the nation's airwaves, driving out diversity of all kinds. Second, Arbitron, whose ratings determine where advertisers buy airtime, has initiated a new method of measuring audiences that we believe dramatically undercounts minority stations' listeners. Third, advertisers across the board are cutting back their buys on minority radio. That's especially true of the troubled auto industry, long a leading advertiser on black stations. Black and Hispanic radio stations must not be allowed to go extinct - but today, that's looking like a very real possibility. Minority radio stations aren't failing businesses begging for handouts; they're healthy enterprises, beset by a perfect storm of bad circumstances, that are in need of a lifeline. At a time when millions of African-Americans and Latinos need information and opportunities to get jobs and build businesses, let's not pull the plug on black and Hispanic radio.
http://benton.org/node/26914
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GOOGLE SELLS RADIO AUTOMATION BUSINESS
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Lance Whitney]
Google has sold its Radio Automation business to WideOrbit, a provider of business management software for media companies, the search giant announced Wednesday. Included in the sale were all the assets of Google's radio automation business, including Google Radio Automation, Maestro, and SS32. Radio automation helps broadcasters manage and program music, ads, and other content through customizable software. Maestro and SS32 are two specific automation systems used by many radio stations.
http://benton.org/node/26913
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
THE MESSAGE IS THE MESSAGE
[SOURCE: New York Magazine, AUTHOR: Jennifer Senior]
It's gotten to the point where one expects to see and hear from President Barack Obama every day. He's in the information business almost as much as the policy business. "This is president as content provider," says Ed Gillespie, the former Republican National Committee chairman and adviser to George W. Bush. "It's like when Rosie O'Donnell had a show and a magazine and a blog." The president has taken a fair amount of heat for this full-saturation approach. Friends and critics alike have complained it cheapens his words, erodes his mystique, and, worst of all, smacks of desperation. Yet it's also clear that the public has a near-insatiable appetite for Obama-related content, from the trivial to the serious.
http://benton.org/node/26918
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CHOPRA TALKS TO SILICON VALLEY
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
President Obama's Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra was on the West Coast on Tuesday speaking to the Churchill Club, Silicon Valley's premier business and technology forum. The event was hosted by the Center for Democracy and Technology and TechNet.
http://benton.org/node/26906
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VENDORS WORRY POSTING OF CONTRACTS WILL EXPOSE PROPRIETARY DATA
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Aliya Sternstein]
Some vendors are concerned that the recent online publication of a contract proposal to overhaul the Recovery.gov Web site could set a precedent to publish other proposals, and they are urging the government to be cautious about disclosing corporate or national security information. The General Services Administration released on Friday what is typically un-published pricing information, and technical and management proposals for the winning bid to renovate the Web site that monitors Recovery Act spending.
http://benton.org/node/26910
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