December 2001

COMPETITION
Competition in the Multi-Channel Video Programming Distribution
Marketplace (HOUSE)
9 States to Ask for More Limits on Microsoft (NYT)

MEDIA & SOCIETY
Ftc Review: Hollywood Is Doing Better (USA)

DIGITAL DIVIDE
HP Digital Village to Stimulate Economic Growth (AA)

BROADBAND
Bill Gates: Broadband Woes Hobble Net Advertising (WP)

COMPETITION

COMPETITION IN THE MULTI-CHANNEL VIDEO PROGRAMMING DISTRIBUTION MARKETPLACE
Issue: Competition
On December 4, the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet held
a hearing to examine important changes taking place in the multi-channel
video programming (MVPD) marketplace. The major issue addressed was the
proposed merger of Echostar and DIRECTV, which combine the nation's two DBS
providers. An audio archive of the hearing and prepared testimony from all
witnesses are available at the URL below.
[SOURCE: House of Representatives]
(http://energycommerce.house.gov/107/hearings/12042001Hearing433/hearing.htm
)

9 STATES TO ASK FOR MORE LIMITS ON MICROSOFT
Issue: Antitrust
The nine states that have refused to sign the Bush administration's proposed
antitrust settlement with Microsoft will ask a Federal judge to impose
tougher enforcement sanctions and eliminate a long list of loopholes from
the agreement, state officials involved in the case said today. The states
say such loopholes would give the company latitude to discriminate and
retaliate against computer makers and software rivals. But in their proposed
remedies, to be filed with a Federal District Court here on Friday, the
states will not ask the judge to limit the architecture of Microsoft's
software. In particular, they will not seek barriers to keep the company
from integrating software applications into its Windows operating system or
force the company to license its software source code to rivals.
[SOURCE: New York Times , AUTHOR: Stephen Labaton]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/06/technology/06SOFT.html)
(requires registration)

MEDIA & SOCIETY

FTC REVIEW: HOLLYWOOD IS DOING BETTER
Issue: Media & Society
The Federal Trade Commission, which criticized the entertainment industry
last year for marketing adult-oriented and violent products to children,
heaped praise Wednesday on Hollywood and the video-game industry for
changing their policies -- but the panel renewed its criticism of the
recording industry, as well as video-game and record stores. The commission
conducted what it called an ''undercover mystery shopper survey'' in which
13- to 16-year-olds attempted to buy tickets to R-rated movies as well as
explicit-content recordings and ''Mature''-rated video games. Nearly half of
the theaters (48%) sold tickets to R-rated movies to the underage
moviegoers, while a whopping 90% of the music retailers sold
explicit-content recordings to underage shoppers. While representatives of
the owners of movie theaters and video-game stores pledged continued
cooperation, recording industry and record store representatives were less
moved by the FTC's accusations. Rap impresario Russell Simmons and Rep.
Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., blasted the report for focusing primarily on hip-hop
artists. Said Towns: ''This music reveals many truths about the social and
political realities facing the African-American community today.''
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Andy Seiler]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20011206/3677960s.htm)

DIGITAL DIVIDE

HP DIGITAL VILLAGE TO STIMULATE ECONOMIC GROWTH
Issue: Digital Divide
A state of the art digital village project led by Hewlett Packard (HP) and
Computer Information Systems (CIS) in Ghana to help students, teachers and
the population as a whole to harness Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) has been launched in Kumasi. The initiative centers on
building a comprehensive IT infrastructure for Kwame Nkrumah University of
Science and Technology (KNUST) to enable Ghana's foremost science and
technology institution to increase the general levels of IT education in the
country. A network infrastructure, which will include technology solutions
and services from HP and high speed digital subscriber line communication
links from Ghana Telecom, will be deployed at KNUST by the end of December
this year. The HP Regional Sales Manager for English-Speaking African
countries, Mr. Thierry Boulanger said, "Ghana faces some serious
socio-economic challenges. Using the digital village we aim to help build a
workforce that is skilled in the critical areas of ICT." A series of
computer resource centers providing Internet access and equipping Ghanaians
with IT education and skills will be established and linked to the
infrastructure over the next two years.
[SOURCE: allAfrica.Com, AUTHOR: Kent Mensah]
(http://allafrica.com/stories/200112020088.html)

BROADBAND

BILL GATES: BROADBAND WOES HOBBLE NET ADVERTISING
Issue: Broadband
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said on Thursday the Internet's role as an
important mass medium for advertisers was hobbled by the slow rollout of
high-speed broadband service and was still years away. Gates said broadband
Internet is important to the growth of online advertising in that it allows
for near-television quality streamed media, the kind of ad formats that many
major advertisers prefer to promote their brands. Internet advertising
revenues have fallen precipitously since the second half of 2000 just as the
technology bubble began to burst and a number of dotcoms went bust. Gates
added it should become a priority for political and corporate leaders to
make broadband access products more available to home users. On the fourth
day of a European tour addressing technology and business leaders, Gates has
made the broadband topic one of the principal points on his agenda.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Bernhard Warner (Reuters)]
(http://www.washtech.com/news/software/14058-1.html)

--------------------------------------------------------------

OWNERSHIP
Cable Companies Sign On for Excite( at )Home Service (NYT)
Three Giants Square Off in the Bidding for AT&T Broadband (NYT)
EchoStar Takes to Capitol Hill To Defend DirecTV Purchase (WSJ)

MEDIA & KIDS
Give children own domain? (USA)

OWNERSHIP

CABLE COMPANIES SIGN ON FOR EXCITE( at )HOME SERVICE
Issue: Cable
Excite( at )Home signed an agreement yesterday afternoon with a group of cable
companies, including the Comcast Corporation and Cox Communications, to
maintain high-speed Internet access for their customers. The deal, which the
companies have been working on since Friday, will provide approximately $355
million to tide Excite over for the next three months, while the two major
companies create replacement networks. Excite has filed for bankruptcy
protection, and a federal judge in San Francisco gave it permission on
Friday to cancel its contracts with a number of cable companies, through
which it provided high-speed service to 3.7 million people in North America.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Saul Hansell]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/04/technology/04NET.html)
(requires registration)

THREE GIANTS SQUARE OFF IN THE BIDDING FOR AT&T BROADBAND
Issue: Broadband
Three of the nation's biggest cable companies lined up yesterday in hopes of
taking over the largest one, AT&T Broadband, submitting complex bids that
AT&T will begin reviewing in the coming days. And Microsoft, which is
already a minority stakeholder in AT&T, has indicated that it will
financially support competing bids for AT&T Broadband from both the Comcast
Corporation and Cox Communications in an effort to keep it out of the hands
of AOL Time Warner. Executives close to AOL Time Warner said the company's
main motive might not be to acquire AT&T Broadband, but to open the door to
negotiating a deal to buy AT&T's 25% stake in Time Warner Entertainment. The
sheer size of a cable company combining AOL Time Warner's properties with
AT&T Broadband might raise regulatory questions. But such a combination is
not unthinkable.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Ross Sorkin]
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/04/business/04PLAC.html
(requires registration)

ECHOSTAR TAKES TO CAPITOL HILL TO DEFEND DIRECTV PURCHASE
Issue: Meger
Facing mounting skepticism that their $26 billion deal will be approved by
regulators, EchoStar Communications and DirecTV Tuesday will begin a flurry
of congressional hearings and filings that could help make or break the
merger. The companies must convince lawmakers and regulators to bless a deal
that would create a satellite-television company whose size would rival that
of the biggest cable companies. Critics, including many antitrust experts,
have attacked the deal as essentially eliminating any competition in the
satellite-television market in the U.S. and leaving many rural customers,
who aren't wired for cable, with only one choice for multichannel
television. Several powerful lawmakers, including Sen. Ernest Hollings (D.,
S.C.), the head of the Senate Commerce Committee, already have said they
oppose the deal. In a white paper circulated on Capitol Hill and in a filing
to the FCC last night, the companies argue that the deal would allow the
merged entity to carry more channels and quickly deploy high-speed Internet
services to underserved rural areas while providing more effective
competition to cable. "The proposed merger may provide the only opportunity
for rural consumers to have an affordable high-speed Internet access option
in the foreseeable future," they say in their letter to lawmakers.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Yochi J. Dreazen]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB1007420038717560320.htm)
(requires subscription)

MEDIA & KIDS

GIVE CHILDREN OWN DOMAIN?
Issue: Media & Kids
One idea for keeping kids away from Net porn is creating an official
kids-only ''neighborhood'' on the Web. The original proposal was for ICANN,
the international group that approves Net names, to create a kid-friendly
alternative to .com called .kids, similar to other top-level domains such as
.org, .edu, .net. That way, parents could set their computers so children
could access only sites in the kids area. The proposal has launched a debate
about whose values would determine guidelines for such a domain. ICANN
refused to approve the .kids proposal because of concerns, especially among
Europeans, about whose standards should determine what is ''appropriate''
for kids. ). So the House of Representatives has created a bill last that
call for a domain ending in .kids.us, the top-level domain code for the USA.
The bill would create an independent board to monitor sites registering with
a ''.kids.us'' suffix; participation would be voluntary.
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Karen Thomas]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20011204/3670349s.htm)

--------------------------------------------------------------