April 22, 2010 (Recap of oversight hearing, FCC meeting)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 2010
NEWS FROM THE HILL
Hearing Recap: Deploying Quality Broadband Services to the Last Mile
Rep. Stupak predicts no changes to Universal Service Fund will occur in 2010
Coburn blocks floor action on bipartisan spectrum bill
NEWS FROM THE FCC
Recap: FCC Open Meeting Launches National Broadband Implementation
See also:FCC Kicks Off Universal Service Reform
FCC Takes Steps to Promote Nationwide Mobile Connectivity
FCC Commences Inquiry on Survivability of America's Broadband Infrastructure
Video Innovation and Consumer Choice
Cyber Security Certification Program for Communications Service Providers
The Broadband Availability Gap
NEWS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE AND THE ADMINISTRATION
President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
WhiteHouse.gov Releases Open Source Code
Privacy policy and innovation in the Internet economy
BET Makes Submission of National Sustainable Broadband Adoption Project
Justice moves closer to secure sharing
US aims to switch millions of benefit recipients to electronic payments
NEWS FROM ABROAD
ACTA arrives (still bad, but a tiny bit better)
NEWS FROM THE STATES
North Carolina defends request for Amazon.com customer records
Virginia Gov McDonnell Signs Telemedicine Reimbursement Legislation
Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable Competition Status Report
Town Hall Meetings Find New Home, Broader Audience Online
BROADBAND REGULATION
Communications Law Is Outdated, Panelists Agree [Video]
Comcast owes P2P users $16; yes, they should take it
Groups: RCN Case Highlights Need For FCC Authority
MORE ON BROADBAND/INTERNET
AT&T Bets Big on the Internet of Things
Bell Labs Pushes DSL Speeds to 300 Mbps
Riders on the Storm
The 'Dumb Pipe' Video Model
Facebook Taps Consumer Card
Is Facebook creating a temptation generation?
TELEVISION
KCBS ads masquerade as news
Lane Bryant Says Fox, ABC Censored Spot
MSNBC Cancels Guest Anchor's Show After a Controversial Segment
OWNERSHIP
CenturyTel to Buy Qwest in Stock Swap to Add Services
Telenor and Alfa in Telecom Venture
Visa Buys CyberSource for $2 Billion
Google Loses China Market Share After Censorship Row
NEWS FROM THE HILL
HEARING RECAP: DEPLOYING QUALITY BROADBAND SERVICES TO THE LAST MILE
[SOURCE: House of Representatives Commerce Committee]
The House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet held a hearing entitled "The National Broadband Plan: Deploying Quality Broadband Services to the Last Mile" on Wednesday, April 21, 2010. The hearing examined assessments in the National Broadband Plan of the availability of broadband and how most effectively to deploy broadband to areas that are unserved and underserved, so all Americans can benefit from good quality broadband services.
Rick Boucher (D-VA), the chair of the subcommittee, commended the Federal Communications Commission for the broadband plan. He said the agency had done a "truly outstanding job" sifting through the comments and coming up with a plan. But he's worried it had not accurately reflected broadband deployment. The hearing focused on deployment to unserved and underserved areas, including rural areas like much of his district. He said he wanted to insure access at "meaningful speeds" and "truly affordable prices." The broadband plan found that 95% had access to at least 4 Mbsp download service, leaving only about 7 million without service. Boucher said he had "serious concerns" about the accuracy of that figure, echoing concerns raised by Free Press in prepared testimony for the hearing. Chairman Boucher said the broadband availability map for his own district overreports figures, and said he was sure it had happened elsewhere. "I can't consider those projections to be reliable," he said.
House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) voiced his support for a proposal to dig tunnels for broadband fiber while constructing new roads and highways. Chairman Waxman called the proposal, known as the "ditch-digging bill", an example of better coordination among government resources. [more at the URL below]
benton.org/node/34593 | House of Representatives Commerce Committee | Committee staff | Multichannel News | The Hill - Waxman
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NO USF REFORM IN 2010: STUPAK
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Tony Romm]
Speaking to the American Cable Association on Tuesday, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) predicted lawmakers would not follow through on their plans this year to create a fund that would expand broadband access nationwide. Why? Senate inaction. "[House Communications ] Chairman Boucher may disagree with me, but given the short legislative calendar, I do not believe we will enact USF reform this Congress, but that legislative action will be completed next year," concluded Rep Stupak, the chairman of the House Rural Caucus' task force on telecommunications. Despite Stupak's assertion, efforts remain underway -- notably at the Federal Communications Commission -- to transform the Universal Service Fund into something that permits that money to be used for broadband expansion.
benton.org/node/34592 | Hill, The
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SEN NO BLOCKS SPECTRUM BILL
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: David Hatch]
Sen Tom Coburn (R-OK) is blocking legislation that seeks to implement a key spectrum-related recommendation in the national broadband plan. The bill, sponsored by Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) requires the Federal Communications Commission and National Telecommunications and Information Administration to conduct an inventory of government-controlled airwaves to identify additional frequencies that could be devoted to wireless broadband service. Multiple efforts to "hotline" the legislation to gauge whether it could pass by unanimous consent -- including an attempt late last week -- were stymied by Sen Coburn, who is concerned that taxpayers would be forced to pick up the tab to conduct the inventory, estimated at roughly $22 million. The senator has a history of delaying measures he believes would increase the federal deficit because they lack offsetting funds. The offices of Sen Kerry and co-sponsor Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) have been reaching out to Sen Coburn with ideas for paying for the legislation and hope the delay won't last more than a few weeks. They're also emphasizing that the bill would benefit taxpayers by enabling the auction of unused and underutilized airwaves, with the proceeds going to the Treasury. "Dr. Coburn believes our budget crisis is more pressing than our bandwidth crisis. Congress should pay for this bill by reducing wasteful spending instead of borrowing more from future generations," said John Hart, the senator's communications director. The House passed -- on a 394-18 vote -- a similar bill on April 14.
benton.org/node/34582 | CongressDaily
Track the bill http://www.benton.org/node/26369
NEWS FROM THE FCC
RECAP: FCC OPEN MEETING
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
On April 21, the Federal Communications Commission started to put the National Broadband Plan into action. FCC Commissioners adopted six items that range from planting the seeds for the Connect America Fund to efforts to bolster cyber security. Giga Om described the meeting as the beginning of the "long process of building a regulatory regime for a broadband-centric — as opposed to telephone-centric — communications world."
Carol Mattey from the FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau introduced the Connect America Fund which would directly support broadband without increasing the cost of the existing Universal Service Fund. The proposed Notice of Inquiry considers replacing the "legacy high cost program" with "efficient, targeted funding of networks that can provide data and voice service." FCC Commissioners were overwhelmingly supportive. Reservations expressed arise from their recognition that this is a herculean undertaking. There's a reason it has taken such a long time to enact reform. Chairman Genachowski said, "[reforming Universal Service is a] multi-layered, complex, rubik's cube of a project. It will not be easy. But it is also what we're committed to do...There's no dispute that we need to do this. It's a big challenge."
The FCC also reversed a 2007 order that did not require cell phone carriers to offer roaming services to other carriers in areas where they owned spectrum but had not built out network coverage. Wednesday's vote to abolish home roaming rules for voice services and also opened an inquiry into whether automatic roaming rules should apply to mobile data services. Smaller carriers have argued the existing practice harms consumers since they need roaming agreements while they build out their networks.
The FCC launched an inquiry into a smart video device platform it says will help spur broadband adoption and promote the investment and competition that is something of a Hippocratic oath for broadband. At the same time, it issued a notice of proposed rulemaking on a number of changes to the CableCARD regime that separates channel-surfing and security functions in cable set-tops. The FCC's ultimate goal is to come up with a "gateway" platform that works with all multichannel video providers and that will "spur innovation, draw users to broadband, and change how people perceive and use broadband."
The FCC will study whether the country's broadband networks could handle "significant damage and severe overloads" that could result from terrorist attacks, massive security hacks or national disasters. Interested parties have 45 days to offer comments on the "survivability" of the country's broadband infrastructure, and the ways that federal regulators can boost the nation's cybersecurity. The Commission described the inquiry in a release this afternoon as the "first step in ensuring the FCC can take all necessary actions to ensure ongoing communications in times of disaster or crisis."
benton.org/node/34597 | Federal Communications Commission | GigaOm | Fierce | B&C | B&C - gateway device | The Hill | Washington Post
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BROADBAND AVAILABILITY GAP
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Rob Curtis]
The Federal Communications Commission has released a new staff technical paper detailing the methodology and model used to determine that 14 million Americans in 7 million homes do not have access to broadband service offering actual download speeds of 4 Mbps and actual upload speeds of 1 Mbps -- and estimating it will cost approximately $24 billion to provide broadband access to these homes. While complicated, the model essentially does two things. First, it estimates the areas of the country in which 4/1 Mbps is not likely to be available in the next several years. The approach uses public and commercial data and relies in part on a statistical model to estimate the availability of broadband in every census block in the country. This analysis focuses on the capabilities of the "last-mile" infrastructure (the access network), not on either subscribership or retail offerings. Second, it estimates the cost of bringing 4/1 Mbps to those unserved areas and the revenues that could be earned by doing so. In doing so, it is conservative and technology-neutral. The FCC only modeled technologies -- wireless, cable, satellite, and DSL -- that are commercially-deployed today or will be in the near future. We wanted the model to inform practical solutions, not rely on promises of future breakthroughs.
benton.org/node/34590 | Federal Communications Commission | read the FCC paper
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NEWS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE AND THE ADMINISTRATION
OBAMA RENEWS PCAST
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: President Barack Obama]
On April 21, 2010, president Barack Obama signed an executive Order establishing an advisory council on science, technology, and innovation for 2 years. The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) shall have 21 members including the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology who will co-chair. The council will advise the President, directly at its meetings with the President and also through the Science Advisor, on matters involving science, technology, and innovation policy. This advice shall include, but not be limited to, policy that affects science, technology, and innovation, as well as scientific and technical information that is needed to inform public policy relating to the economy, energy, environment, public health, national and homeland security, and other topics. PCAST will be staffed by the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
benton.org/node/34603 | White House, The
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WHITE HOUSE RELEASES SOURCE CODE
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Dave Cole]
As part of our ongoing effort to develop an open platform for WhiteHouse.gov, we're releasing some of the custom code we've developed. This code is available for anyone to review, use, or modify. We're excited to see how developers across the world put our work to good use in their own applications. By releasing some of our code, we get the benefit of more people reviewing and improving it. In fact, the majority of the code for WhiteHouse.gov is already open source as part of the Drupal project. The code we're releasing today adds to Drupal's functionality in three key ways: 1) Scalability, 2) Communication, 3) Accessibility.
benton.org/node/34602 | White House, The
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PRIVACY AND INTERNET INNOVATION
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration]
On April 21, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced the launch of an initiative designed to gather public input and review the nexus between privacy policy and innovation in the Internet economy. In addition, Sec Locke also announced the formation of a Department of Commerce-wide Internet Policy Task Force to identify leading public policy and operational issues impacting the U.S. private sector's ability to realize the potential for economic growth and job creation through the Internet. Through a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) published in the Federal Register, the Commerce Department is seeking public comment from all Internet stakeholders commercial, academic and civil society sectors and citizens on the impact of current privacy laws in the United States and around the world on the pace of innovation in the information economy. The Department seeks to understand whether current privacy laws serve consumer interests and fundamental democratic values. The Internet Policy Task Force is exploring current privacy frameworks, and ways to address the challenges of the new Internet economy and society in a manner that preserves and enhances personal privacy protection. The Task Force is comprised of staff members from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the International Trade Administration (ITA), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), and will be coordinated through the Commerce Department's Office of Policy and Strategic Planning, which reports to the Secretary. In addition to privacy and innovation, the Internet Policy Task Force will examine cyber security, online copyright protection and international barriers to moving data around the globe, and the ability of entrepreneurs, and small- and medium-sized businesses to expand their operations via the Internet. On May 7, 2010, the Department will hold a public meeting to discuss stakeholder views and to further facilitate public discussion on privacy policy in the United States. After analyzing public comments in response to this NOI, the Department will issue a report contributing to the administration's domestic policy and international engagement on privacy.
benton.org/node/34589 | National Telecommunications and Information Administration | Public Notice
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BET BTOP APPLICATION
[SOURCE: BroadbandBreakfast.com, AUTHOR: ]
BET Networks announced on Monday its submission of a proposal to the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) for a grant under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program. The BET program, called the National Sustainable Broadband Adoption Project would, if successful, increase broadband adoption among African Americans by providing compelling reasons for new households to adopt broadband, BET said in a release. The program will address three specific problems: Increase the awareness of "the promise" of broadband technology; Increase the relevance of broadband technology to marginalized African Americans; And increasing the digital literacy of those who have been "left behind" in as many targeted communities as possible.
benton.org/node/34586 | BroadbandBreakfast.com
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US TO SWITCH TO ELECTRONIC PAYMENTS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Michelle Singletary]
The Treasury Department is making a big push to go green -- and save a lot of green -- by switching millions of people who receive Social Security and other federal benefits from paper checks to electronic payments. The move is expected to save the government more than $300 million over the first five years and $125 million each following year. It costs about $1 to cut and mail a check but only 10 cents for a direct deposit. Each year, the Treasury issues more than $135 million benefit payments via paper checks. Beginning next March, new enrollees for Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, veterans, railroad retirement and federal civil servant retirement benefits will get their money through electronic transfers. People already receiving checks will be shifted to all-electronic payments beginning March 1, 2013. If someone doesn't have a banking relationship or doesn't want to receive payments by direct deposit, there's the option of the Treasury's Direct Express debit card. A million people already get their benefits though the debit card.
benton.org/node/34610 | Washington Post
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NEWS FROM ABROAD
ACTA REVEALED
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
The countries behind the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) finally released a consolidated draft text (PDF) of the agreement. Though billed as a "trade agreement" about "counterfeiting," ACTA is much more than that: it's an intellectual property treaty in disguise. Tucked inside the draft are provisions that will prevent people from bypassing digital locks on the items they buy, that will force ISPs to shoulder more of the burden in the fight against online piracy, and that bring US-style "notice-and-takedown" rules to the world. Well, not to the world, exactly. ACTA is more like a select club of countries: Australia, Canada, the European Union countries, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States of America. But the treaty it develops is really just the next rung on a ladder stretching back to 1886, and it will certainly be wielded like a weapon on the rest of the world in the future. The text is not final—that is due to happen later this year—so if you want to see changes made, the time to act is now. The agreement has already been improved under public pressure, so what's the broader reaction to its release? ars rounded up some of the most interesting reactions. If you want a sense of how the debate over ACTA will play out over the rest of this year, consider these talking points a sneak preview.
benton.org/node/34604 | Ars Technica | see the draft | ars technica - reaction | TechDailyDose | Public Knowledge
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NEWS FROM THE STATES
NC ANSWERS AMAZON
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Declan McCullagh]
The North Carolina Secretary of Revenue said Wednesday that it never demanded personal information such as book titles from Amazon.com, which filed a federal lawsuit against the state this week seeking to keep that information confidential. But CNET has obtained correspondence from the Department of Revenue that calls North Carolina's claim into question. In a letter to Amazon dated December 1, 2009, Romey McCoy, the Department of Revenue's audit manager, asked for "all information" relating to nearly 50 million purchases that customers in that state had made between 2003 and 2010. McCoy's letter did not exempt the titles of books or Blu-Ray movies, and did not address the privacy implications of the request. Amazon subsequently turned over limited, anonymous information: the amount of the purchase, the seller, and the postal code it was sent to. McCoy replied in a second letter on March 19, 2010 saying Amazon had until this Monday to divulge the full records of each transaction or North Carolina "will" take legal action. To punctuate his threat of litigation, McCoy's letter copied two assistant attorneys general from the North Carolina Department of Justice.
benton.org/node/34601 | C-Net|News.com
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VA TELEMEDICINE LEGISLATION
[SOURCE: BroadbandBreakfast.com, AUTHOR: ]
Last week Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-Virginia) signed SB 675, a health insurance bill that mandates coverage for telemedicine services. It requires insurers to cover all telemedicine services, making Virginia the 14th state to enact such legislation. According to the American Telemedicine Association, 23 states currently allow for Medicaid reimbursement, while California, Hawaii, New Hampshire, North Dakota, and Texas have telemedicine legislation pending.
benton.org/node/34600 | BroadbandBreakfast.com
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BROADBAND REGULATION
COMMUNICATIONS LAW IS OUTDATED
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
Congress needs to update telecommunications law to better address broadband issues. That's a single idea that united speakers with starkly different ideas on Federal Communications Commission authority at the Politics Online conference on Monday. Panelists disagreed on the merits of net neutrality regulation, arguing over whether the FCC should regulate traffic management practices by Internet access providers. But they all thought that Congress should clarify who regulates broadband issues. "Frankly, the law -- the Communications Act -- just doesn't fit the communications technologies we have today," said Link Hoewing, Verizon's vice president of Internet and technology policy. "We don't disagree that there may be a need for new legislation," said Staci Pies, director of government and regulatory affairs for Skype. But, she said, "Just knowing the way Congress works, it's not around the corner." That's something else the panelists agreed on: Congressional action is unlikely this year.
benton.org/node/34585 | CongressDaily
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COMCAST THROTTLING SETTLEMENT
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
Robb Topolski, the man who helped unearth Comcast's peer-to-peer (P2P) interference, wants Comcast customers to opt out of the $16 they have coming to them from a class action lawsuit. But Eric Somers, the lawyer leading the class-action case, just can't understand the sentiment. "This is a good settlement," he told Ars. "If you opt out, you're basically giving that money to Comcast." At issue is the settlement of the Hart v. Comcast class action, a resolution three years in the making. When John Hart noticed that his BitTorrent connections would "hang" -- sometimes for an entire night -- he called up Somers and asked if he knew anything about it. Comcast was still denying that P2P upload blocks were in place on its network, and it took the legal team time to figure out what was happening. Hart's case was the first one filed, and his lawyers were eventually certified as counsel for the entire class of affected Comcast users. Since 2008, Somers and his team have argued that Comcast violated the FCC's Internet Policy Statement (PDF); the FCC famously agreed. Comcast agreed to settle the class action suit rather than proceed to trial. The deal puts Comcast on the hook for $16 million, plus up to $3 million extra for the lawyers. That $16 million will be split up between every Comcast subscriber who was affected, with a cap of $16 per person -- but no one gets any money unless they sign onto the class at the official settlement website. Any unclaimed money goes right back into Comcast's coffers.
benton.org/node/34588 | Ars Technica
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RCN THROTTLING CASE
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
Public interest groups Free Press and Public Knowledge said Tuesday that recent reports that telecom provider RCN has settled a class action lawsuit alleging it interfered with the ability of some of its broadband subscribers to use peer-to-peer file-sharing services highlights the need for FCC authority to address such issues. In a notice of settlement posted on its Web site and dated Monday, RCN, "without admitting any wrongdoing or liability, has agreed to cease and desist all network management practices" for 18 months starting as of May 1, 2009. A hearing on whether to approve the settlement is set for June 4 in federal district court in New York, according to the notice. "This is yet another example showing why the Federal Communications Commission needs to be given the authority over Internet access service," Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn said in a statement. "As of now, there is no federal cop on the beat to protect consumers. Not every consumer will take a case to court, and not every cable company would be willing to settle what could be prolonged litigation." Free Press Research Director Derek Turner argued in a statement that "RCN appears to have been utilizing tactics that enabled the company to block or degrade its users' Internet experience. These suspicious 'network management' techniques appear to be occurring throughout the industry. ... This company's behavior provides further evidence that we need strong Net Neutrality rules and clear disclosure to protect consumers and to prevent these deceptive practices from becoming the norm among Internet providers."
benton.org/node/34587 | CongressDaily | Public Knowledge
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MORE ON BROADBAND/INTERNET
INTERNET OF THINGS
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
On April 21 AT&T reported first-quarter earnings of $2.5 billion and sales that were largely unchanged from the year before, at $30.6 billion — but the flat sales mask the gains made in its wireless business, which grew to account for 45 percent of revenues. In short, AT&T is betting big on wireless through the sale of phones with data plans (it added 1.9 million wireless subscribers), prepaid plans and an emphasis on providing wireless connectivity for the Internet of things. The irony here is that machine-to-machine connectivity in many ways represents the dumb pipe future that AT&T is so worried about -- it's not providing anything to its partners but the bits. AT&T executives explained that the number of bits sent via the network are high-margin bits and the machine-to-machine clients have very low churn. Total wireless operating margin rose for the carrier to 44.5 percent. AT&T also said it had improved its wireless network in New York and that dropped calls in the region declined by 6 percent. For everyone on the wireless network, AT&T said its HSPA network upgrades are boosting download speeds by 32-47 percent in places where AT&T has deployed fiber backhaul.
benton.org/node/34584 | GigaOm
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INCREASING DSL CAPACITY
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Om Malik]
In this era of fiber to the home, it's easy to dismiss copper-based DSL, the broadband connectivity technology commonly sold by phone companies worldwide. Looks like it's too soon to completely write off this technology, however. Alcatel-Lucent, a company whose lineage is as old as the phone itself, says its research arm, Bell Labs, has been able to achieve downstream speeds of about 300 Mbps (over a distance of 400 meters) or 100 Mbps over a distance of one kilometer. This is possible using a technology called DSL Phantom Mode which involves the creation of a virtual or "phantom" channel that supplements the two physical wires that are the standard configuration for copper transmission lines. The idea behind DSL Phantom Mode is that incumbent phone companies such as AT&T, which are heavily invested into the aging copper infrastructure, can keep using those pipes for a lot longer. However, phone companies such as Qwest will need to install new gear in the central office and in consumer homes.
benton.org/node/34583 | GigaOm | Fast Company
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RIDERS ON THE STORM
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Brooks]
[Commentary] Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse Shapiro, both of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, have measured ideological segregation on the Internet. This study suggests that Internet users are a bunch of ideological Jack Kerouacs. They're not burrowing down into comforting nests. They're cruising far and wide looking for adventure, information, combat and arousal. This does not mean they are not polarized. Looking at a site says nothing about how you process it or the character of attention you bring to it. It could be people spend a lot of time at their home sites and then go off on forays looking for things to hate. But it probably does mean they are not insecure and they are not sheltered. If this study is correct, the Internet will not produce a cocooned public square, but a free-wheeling multilayered Mad Max public square. The study also suggests that if there is increased polarization (and there is), it's probably not the Internet that's causing it. [more at the URL below]
benton.org/node/34591 | New York Times
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THE DUMB PIPE VIDEO MODEL
[SOURCE: Light Reading, AUTHOR: Steve Donohue]
Leaders of several small cable operators at the American Cable Association conference are OK with the cable industry evolving to provide access to a "dumb pipe" that delivers video from broadband-based over-the-top (OTT) firms or other outside providers. "That [OTT] business model is probably better than the economics of our current video business," Wave Broadband COO Steve Friedman said. Friedman and other executives pointed to the high cost of sports programming and contracts with programmers that offer little flexibility in explaining why it may be more profitable to sell access to programming distributed by another provider. Cable ONE Inc. CEO Tom Might warned that cable operators would also have to charge subscribers based on the amount of bandwidth they consume if the industry transformed into a dumb pipe business.
benton.org/node/34581 | Light Reading
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TELEVISION
ADS MASQUERADE AS NEWS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: James Rainey]
[Commentay] You would have to forgive viewers like the one who e-mailed Rainey last month for being a bit confused about a news segment he saw on KCBS Channel 2. The man referred Rainey to a 90-second segment he saw after the "CBS Evening News," wondering if it was legitimate news. It featured KCBS health reporter Lisa Sigell, interviewing the chief medical officer of City of Hope Medical Center about the promise of new cancer treatments. In a similar piece in March, Sigell talked to another of the hospital's doctors about the threat of colorectal cancer and the importance of screening to avoid the disease. Given that the "CBS Healthwatch" and CBS logos flashed on the screen, a viewer could be forgiven for thinking that they were watching a pair of news briefs. Both spots appeared at the end of the regular news. But viewer beware: Not all that appears to be news is news as we once knew it.
benton.org/node/34605 | Los Angeles Times
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NETWORKS NIX LINGERIE AD
[SOURCE: AdWeek, AUTHOR: Steve McClellan]
Lane Bryant is up in arms that two networks -- Fox and ABC -- have resisted airing a sexy lingerie ad from the company in time periods where the networks have broadcast other racy fare. In a post on LB's Inside Curve blog, the company complains that "ABC and Fox have made the decision to define beauty for you by denying our new, groundbreaking Cacique commercial from airing freely on their networks." The post also claims that ABC "restricted our airtime" and refused to air the spot during Dancing With the Stars, while Fox "demanded excessive re-edits and rebuffed it three times before relenting to air it during the final 10 minutes of American Idol, but only after we threatened to pull the ad buy."
benton.org/node/34576 | AdWeek
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OWNERSHIP
CENTURYTEL AND QWEST
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Jonathan Browning]
CenturyTel plans to acquire Qwest Communications International for about $10.5 billion to bolster its broadband business and create a new company with operations in 37 states. The transaction is expected to be "accretive to free cash flow per share, excluding integration costs, immediately following close of the transaction," the company said. The combination had pro-forma 2009 sales of $19.8 billion. The deal includes the assumption of $11.8 billion in Qwest debt. The deal would be the biggest between two U.S-based phone companies since the $28 billion purchase of Alltel Corp. by Verizon Wireless in 2008. CenturyTel has a market value of $10.8 billion while Qwest has a valuation of $9.07 billion. The boards of both companies approved the deal. The deal will "provide us greater scale, scope and expertise and will provide significant benefits for shareholders, customers and our communities," Glen Post, CenturyTel chief executive officer, said. Post will also be CEO of the new company. Qwest shareholders will get 0.1664 CenturyTel shares for each share of Qwest common stock they own at closing. Upon closing of the transaction, CenturyTel shareholders will own about 50.5 percent and Qwest shareholders will own the remainder.
benton.org/node/34606 | Bloomberg | Associated Press
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TELENOR AND ALFA
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Kramer]
Two large investors in the mobile phone industry in the former Soviet Union and former communist countries in Southeast Asia have consolidated their assets into a single sprawling company that is poised to become one of the largest emerging-market telecommunications operators. While well positioned in these markets, the company, VimpelCom, is also deeply entangled in their legal and political risks, having emerged as a settlement of a long-running suit in Russia. The Norwegian company Telenor and the telecommunications arm of the Russian financial and industrial conglomerate Alfa both held significant stakes in Russian and Ukrainian cellphone firms and had been sparring over matters of corporate governance. To settle their dispute, the companies agreed to combine their assets into the new company. Its shares are scheduled to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.
benton.org/node/34613 | New York Times
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VISA AND CYBERSOURCE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Martin]
Betting that electronic payments will increasingly replace cash, Visa announced on Wednesday that it would pay $2 billion to buy CyberSource, which facilitates payments for big online merchants. The acquisition is the largest in Visa's history and positions the credit card giant to increase its leading position in e-commerce. Currently, more than 40 percent of online payments are routed through Visa's network. At the same time, Visa hopes to use its vast global network to spread CyberSource's technology outside of the United States. CyberSource provides a payment gateway for online merchants, connecting them to networks like Visa and MasterCard. In essence, it is the online equivalent of the terminals used to swipe credit and debit cards at brick-and-mortar stores. The company provides additional services like fraud prevention and security for merchants. CyberSource, based in Mountain View, Calif., handles about 25 percent of online transactions in the United States. Its clients include Home Depot and Google.
benton.org/node/34612 | New York Times
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