November 2005

For upcoming media policy events, see http://www.benton.org

LEGISLATION
Barton Eyes December Action On Telecom Reform Measure
Barton Mulls Shift In Tactics To Pass DTV Transition Bill
House Considers Digital Rights and Wrongs

INTERNET
U.S. Retains Its Grip On Internet Domain Names
Hands off the Net

TELEVISION
PBS and Us
Has hidden advertising gone too far?
Por Un Amor
Yo, Critic, Time To Pick Up The Remote?
Kids Fine for Louisiana TV
The Set-Top Sage Knows All, Sees All

QUICKLY -- Internet still young, faster access to spur growth; Tribune to
Cut Staff At Papers;

LEGISLATION

BARTON EYES DECEMBER ACTION ON TELECOM REFORM MEASURE
[SOURCE: Technology Daily, AUTHOR: Drew Clark]
House Commerce Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) said he was still seeking a date
in December for a subcommittee vote on draft legislation that would make
broad revisions in the nation's telecommunications laws. That would lead to
a full committee vote next year "as soon as possible -- which would be in
March," Rep Barton told a telecommunications policy forum sponsored by
Congressional Quarterly . He added, "We do want to get a bill that we can
send to the President in this Congress." Speaking at the same event, Rep Ed
Markey (D-MA) said he believed a bipartisan bill is possible, but noted 30
policy changes and 2,100 word changes between the first draft of the
telecom overhaul bill -- which he supported -- and the second, which he
opposes. Rep Markey wants changes tightening the definition of "network
neutrality" to require that cable TV and Bell telecommunications companies
not discriminate against the content of competing communications providers
using their networks. He also wants to restore language from the first
draft to ban telephone companies from buying cable operators.
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-GQCL1132181785907.html

BARTON MULLS SHIFT IN TACTICS TO PASS DTV TRANSITION BILL
[SOURCE: Congress Daily, AUTHOR: Drew Clark]
House Commerce Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) said that he and other committee
leaders are contemplating alternate ways to pass digital television
transition legislation if the so-called budget reconciliation bill to which
it is attached falters. "We could split it out and move it as a stand-alone
bill," Barton said of the DTV measure. "I think that is allowed." In a
brief interview following a speech to a telecommunications policy forum,
Chairman Barton added, "We could yet get an agreement in the broader budget
reform package; that would be what more [lawmakers] would hope for."
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-GDJA1132182062614.html

HOUSE CONSIDERS DIGITAL RIGHTS AND WRONGS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
A House Subcommittee began a series of hearings Wednesday to try and come
up with a scheme for balancing fair use and copyright protection in the
digital age. It is one of the key issues for content providers going
forward, and one that the industry has been unable to come to agreement on.
Central to the hearing was H.R. 1201, a bill that would amend the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act to allow content protections to be bypassed for
fair use copying. Currently it is illegal to do so, which means that a DVD
cannot be copied for personal use at, say a beach house, or for downloading
to a video iPod. Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) called that
fair use "lockout" a perversion of the law.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6284330?display=Breaking+News...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

INTERNET

US RETAINS ITS GRIP ON INTERNET DOMAIN NAMES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jessica E. Vascellaro
jessica.vascellaro( at )wsj.com]
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) will
continue to approve all proposals for new domain-name extensions, even
international ones like .eu for the European Union. While Icann's board
includes more than a dozen international members, the U.S. retains the
power to veto the board's final decision. Members of the European Union, as
well as countries like China and Brazil, had been hoping to wrest oversight
of the process from Icann and place it in the hands of an international
body. A host of recently approved extensions are hitting the Web and more
will follow soon. In December 2003, Icann invited a second round of
domain-name applications and activity on the front has been intense. But
like the organization that approved them, these extensions have become a
lightening rod for criticism. Henry Harteveldt, an analyst at Forrester
Research, a market-research firm in Cambridge Mass., says the domains end
up lining the pockets of the organizations chartered to administer them,
which release new extensions that companies must buy to protect their brands.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113218665459899569.html?mod=todays_us_pe...
(requires subscription)
* US to keep control of domain names
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID...

HANDS OFF THE NET
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] Just before the United Nations-sponsored World Summit on the
Information Society opened in Tunis, Tunisia, negotiators from around the
globe agreed to create a new international forum to discuss such issues as
spam, privacy and hacking. The Internet Governance Forum will have no power
over the Net, however, and U.S. oversight over some technical issues will
continue. Not that the federal government wields much power over the Net.
Its influence is essentially confined to the mundane but important issue of
how domain names are assigned. Since 1998, however, the department has
entrusted all the work on Internet addresses to a contractor, the nonprofit
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. ICANN oversees the
technical aspects of the system and sets rules for resolving disputes over
domain names. As flawed as the current system is, at least it allows
technical innovation to flourish online without interference by
governments. That's a quality that has to be preserved for the sake of not
just U.S. policy but for an increasingly interconnected world. Having kept
its hands off the inner workings of the Net, the federal government needs
to persuade the rest of the world that it can be trusted to keep doing just
that.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-icann17nov17,1,80...
(requires registration)

TELEVISION

PBS AND US
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] The WSJ defends itself in the CPB storm by attacking PBS and
CPB Inspector General Kenneth Konz (who is compared unfavorably to
Inspector Clouseau). Former CPB Chairman Ken Tomlinson had no influence
over the format and content of "The Journal Editorial Report" -- and played
only a small role in creating the show. The original CPB grant was for $4.1
million for the pilot, startup costs and 26 weeks on the air. We stretched
that to cover at least 35 weeks, not to mention putting enormous amounts of
our own management time and advertising space, as well as no small amount
of money, into the project. "We are supposed to believe that the vast
bureaucracy that is PBS, with all of its inbred policies and interests, was
somehow cowed by a single conservative board member who lacked any real
management power. Any regular PBS viewer knows the opposite is true." The
real story, the WSJ writes, is that Mr. Tomlinson was a rare political
appointee who took seriously CPB's mandate to pursue balanced programming.
As even Mr. Konz concedes in his report, under federal law CPB is required
to review "national broadcasting programming for quality, diversity,
creativity, excellence, innovation, objectivity and balance." And he also
concludes that "CPB's actions were consistent with their responsibilities
under the Public Telecommunications Act of 1992." The paper concludes: "If
there ever was a need for PBS, there isn't now in a world of hundreds of TV
channels. But as long as PBS exists, we don't see any reason that its prime
time public-affairs programming should be a satrapy of Bill Moyers and a
single point of view. If Mr. Tomlinson made a mistake, it was in believing
that "public broadcasting" is supposed to represent all of the public."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113219093088899675.html?mod=todays_us_op...
(requires subscription)

HAS HIDDEN ADVERTISING GONE TOO FAR?
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor , AUTHOR: Daniel B. Wood]
This week the WGA and the SGA released a report showing revenues from
advertising within TV shows and movies exceeded $1 billion in the past
year. The report described that product use had increased in films by 44
percent and in television programming by 84 percent in that period. It
singled out the NBC primetime hit show, "The Apprentice" for its use of
advertising. In the program's third season, Burger King, Dove Body Wash,
Sony PlayStation, Verizon Wireless, and Visa paid more than $2 million per
episode to have their products incorporated into plotlines. "High-tech
tools have pushed out the commercials, and the commercials are pushing
back," says Matthew Felling, media director at the Center for Media and
Public Affairs based in Washington. He notes that several high-tech devices
- DVDs, TiVo, VCRs, and webcasts - now allow viewers to bypass or delete
the string of ads on TV. "TV is having to create alternative revenue
models. That's the price we pay for paying no price," he says. To better
handle how the entertainment industry engages in advertising, WGA and SAG
have proposed a code of conduct with four main guidelines. It would
require: a full, clear disclosure when viewers see commercial products or
hear them mentioned in the program; a strict limit on integrating products
into children's programming; a voice for storytellers, actors and directors
"arrived at through collective bargaining" about how a product or brand is
incorporated into the content; and an adherence to these regulations by
cable TV, where "some of the most egregious abuse" of this integration
happens, they say.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1117/p03s01-ussc.html
* Networks Say TV Ads Still Matter
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-tv17nov17,1,679802.st...
* Nets Urge Advertisers to Embrace DVR
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=10015...

POR UN AMOR
[SOURCE: Riedel Communications]
[Commentary] Why is the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
supporting the Baby Bells as they enter the pay-TV market? Is it because of
Verizon's Spanish language package, their "En Espanol" tier, which includes
channels such as Canal Sur, Discovery en Espanol, TV E International, MTV
Espanol, CNN en Espanol and Toon Disney en Espanol, among other listings?
Could be, but cable operators offer similar tiers. Is it because Verizon
gives $35k/year to LULAC? Or is it the $1 million SBC Communications
recently donated for a LULAC project called "Empower Hispanic America With
Technology Project Centers?" Shame that what's being lost in this
discussion is the complete destruction of local Spanish language
programming found thriving on public access channels. The kind of Spanish
language programming that doesn't just reheat English language programming
but digs down deep into what's going on in Hispanic lives, real lives. The
kind of Spanish language programming that gives a voice to the Hispanic
community and doesn't just see them as consumers and target markets. This
support for the national video franchising legislation has pitted LULAC
against the NAACP and the National Conference of Black Mayors who
understand that obliterating local franchising will impact minority
communities adversely, not just because of the redlining or the loss of
PEG, but from the loss of revenue to local communities those franchise fees
provide. I don't know if there is any way to change LULAC's mind on this
one. Too bad cable didn't step up to the plate with a million, but at least
they should squash Verizon's PR that they are offering something unique to
the Spanish language viewers. And I don't say that because I just love the
cable guys, I don't. I say that because I would hate to lose localism
because one side or another was a better liar.
www.riedelcommunications.blogspot.com

YO, CRITIC, TIME TO PICK UP THE REMOTE?
[SOURCE: Public Eye, AUTHOR: Brian Montopoli]
[Commentary] People who call themselves media critics, for the most part,
think of themselves first and foremost as print media critics. They don't
seem to have much interest in TV news or radio, at least from a
journalistic perspective. Here are four possible reasons: 1) Most media
criticism is done in print, so media critics have a bias towards print
journalism. 2) Many media critics look at TV News and just think it's not
very good. 3) Newspapers embraced self-criticism more quickly than other
media. 4. Reporters can be lazy. It's a lot easier to find the link to a
newspaper story online than it is to find a video clip of last night's
"Evening News," and it's safe to assume media critics are drawn to the
topics that are at their fingertips, not the ones that require heavy lifting.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2005/11/15/publiceye/entry1046499.shtml

KIDS FINE FOR LOUISIANA TV
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The FCC has proposed fining KPLC-TV Lake Charles, La., $10,000 for "willful
and repeated" violations of its rules requiring stations to make public
their records concerning compliance with kids TV programming limits. But
the FCC approved its license renewal anyway.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6284735?display=Breaking+News...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

THE SET-TOP SAGE KNOWS ALL, SEES ALL
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Ken Belson]
Most people don't give the set-top boxes on their televisions a second
thought. After all, for years, the boxes did little more than decode the
encrypted TV programs the cable provider sends. These days, though, set-top
boxes have become a gateway to a far wider array of programs and
interactive services, like video-on-demand, games and home shopping. They
are also being combined with DVD players, digital video recorders and other
electronics that were previously sold separately. Set-top boxes are odd
creatures, though. Consumers must lease them from their cable providers;
they are not available for purchase at retail stores like Radio Shack or
Best Buy. For the most part, the device you get is determined largely by
the services you order from your cable company.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/17/technology/circuits/17basics.html
(requires registration)

QUICKLY

INTERNET STILL YOUNG, FASTER ACCESS TO SPUR GROWTH
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Duncan Martell]
The Internet has given rise to profitable companies such as Yahoo, Google,
eBay and others, but the industry is still in the early days and will be
further fueled as even faster Internet access proliferates through the
United States and other countries, executives said on Wednesday.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID...

TRIBUNE TO CUT STAFF AT LOS ANGELES, CHICAGO PAPERS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Joseph T. Hallinan
joe.hallinan( at )wsj.com]
Two of Tribune Co.'s largest newspapers -- Los Angeles Times and Chicago
Tribune -- said they would cut roughly 185 jobs as the company struggles
with weakness in circulation and advertising that is hurting the entire
newspaper industry. In a memo to the editorial staff, Los Angeles Times
Editor Dean Baquet said about 85 newsroom jobs, or about 8% of the total,
would be cut by the end of the year at that newspaper, the nation's
fourth-largest daily.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113218704793299578.html?mod=todays_us_ma...
(requires subscription)
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See ya Monday.
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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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