September 2009

The Federal Communications Commission has reasserted its power to regulate fleeting nudity and says it wants to further investigate "whether CBS' indecency violation [in the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake Super Bowl reveal] was willful." "The evidence in this case strongly suggests that CBS had access to video delay technology at the time of the 2004 Super Bowl," the commission said Tuesday in a brief to the Third Circuit Appeals Court in the Janet Jackson Super Bowl reveal case. The FCC asked the court to remand the decision back to the FCC so it could investigate further its assertion that the violation was "willful." The Third Circuit, in reversing the FCC's fine against the broadcast, said the evidence that delay technology was available at the time was "scant." The FCC disagrees and wants the chance to determine "whether CBS was reckless not to use video delay technology for this broadcast." The commission also reasserted that the reveal was off limits for broadcast TV between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

The House Judiciary Committee has drafted the Satellite Home Viewer Digital Television Act which ties local-into-local service to all 210 DMAs to a short-market fix and does not create an opt-out of the compulsory license for stations with single-source licenses. A new draft of the House version of the bill reauthorizing satellite operators' compulsory license to deliver distant network signals still contains language that would allow Dish Network back into the distant-signal business in exchange for delivering local TV station signals in all 210 Nielsen markets. The new draft also no longer contains a provision that would allow stations to opt out of the compulsory license if they secured a single-source license for all the programming on their air.

Just as we need a strong interstate highway system and viable mass transit, we require accessible and affordable broadband so that businesses and consumers can reap the benefits of wireless technology. This report focused on a key part of broadband policy, i.e., how consumers feel about cell phones and other mobile devices. Consumer sentiments are crucial for telecommunications. The way in which cell phone users see their devices affects how they employ them and what future possibilities they are willing to entertain. Specifically, the report looks at what people like and don't like regarding their current communications experiences. West presents data on how many people use smart phones and download applications to their mobile devices, what applications they see as important, what frustrations they feel regarding telecommunications access, and what changes they would like to see in the future.

Among the specific findings of this analysis are the following key points:

1) the United States has the highest utilization rates of the four nations studied for smart phones and PDAs

2) American consumers have a strong desire to choose and control their own cell phone applications

3) in each of the four countries, being able to chat and make cheap international calls on cell phones are the most popular features

4) the most frequent reasons for not downloading new cell phone applications are lack of interest, cost, or not being able to do so on their cell phones

5) the most common frustrations with cell phones in the United States are the length of service contracts, roaming charges, cost of domestic calls, and lack of desired features

6) Americans believe that innovation is driven by new devices made by Apple, Nokia, and Motorola, and new Internet features pioneered by Google

7) The most popular new cell phone features are games (named by 61.6 percent of Americans), local directories to locate businesses and restaurants (52.9 percent), music (49.8 percent), and chat and instant messaging (39.8 percent)

8) nearly half of Americans (48.9 percent) say they are likely to switch from phone landlines to cell phones and 48.1 percent say when that they are taking a short trip, they are more likely to take their cell phone than a laptop computer

9) 69.3 percent of Americans aged 18 to 29 years are willing to switch from landlines to cell phones as are 53.9 percent of those aged 30 to 49 years. This demonstrates how receptive the "leading generation" of young people are to mobile communications

10) nearly half of Americans earning over $25,000 say they are willing to switch from landlines to cell phones

11) the desire to choose their own cell phone applications is strong across all age, income, and racial categories.

12) the groups most willing to pay more to control their cell phone applications are young people, African-Americans, and Asian-Americans.

[Commentary] In a more sensible world, media firestorms would be doused by the cold water of common sense. Fresh from successfully targeting then-White House green-jobs adviser Van Jones, right-wing talk show host Glenn Beck Twittered his followers to "find everything you can on Cass Sunstein (the regulatory czar), Mark Lloyd (Federal Communications Commission diversity czar) and Carol Browner (energy czar)." He later added White House science adviser John Holdren to the lengthening list of Obama administration staffers whom he calls "radical" or "revolutionary." Far from being bomb throwers, Browner was the longest-serving Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Sunstein is a professor at Harvard Law School, Holdren has taught at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Lloyd was an attorney at a leading communications law firm and Jones authored a best-selling book about how to create high-skill, high-wage jobs in environmentally friendly industries. Perhaps the most incendiary action that all five of these leading academics, attorneys and career public servants could take would be to burn their lengthy résumés. "Personnel is policy," Beck has declared to defend demonizing obscure officeholders. Well, policy really is policy. So let's debate health care, energy, economics and education, not some broadcaster's boogeymen.