October 2010

A lot of people think it's the public infrastructure issue of the 21st Century. Economic development authorities, especially outstate, will tell you their communities will die on the vine without it. The federal government is putting a couple hundred million dollars into it in Minnesota as we speak. You can get into some heated arguments around the state about the marketplace, competition and community action for the public good. Seems like a ready-made issue for serious policy discussion. In July, a Star Tribune editorial called for high-level campaign debate on the topic. After the Blandin Foundation's forum on broadband in Brainerd last week, Peters asked University of Minnesota-Crookston professor Jack Geller why that didn't happen. First he made the obvious point that in a race dominated by how to make the state's financial ends meet, it's tough for anybody to talk about new investments. But he also noted that not very many in the press have asked the candidates about it.

Cable subscribers should brace for ballooning Internet bills. A new report suggests that cable companies will have to double charges for Internet service if "cord cutting" -- opting to watch shows online instead of through traditional TV -- catches on with consumers.

According to Morgan Stanley media analyst Ben Swinburne, a plethora of Web-enabled TVs and other Internet viewing options are making it easier for consumers to cancel their cable. For instance, Internet-connected TV sets offer consumers the ability to access not only traditional TV but also movies on Apple's iTunes, Google's YouTube and TV networks' own Web sites. Already, programmers including Time Warner's TNT and TBS, are creating apps for Google TV, a new service that is incorporated into Sony's Web-connected TV set. If a "material" number of households cut the cord, Swinburne said cable and satellite-TV providers will have to make up for the lost profits -- most likely by jacking up the cost of the broadband services they provide alongside cable packages. Swinburne said the migration to the Web will also push cable and satellite operators to offer more flexible pricing based on broadband consumption.

Danny Sepulveda, an aide to Sen John Kerry (D-MA), said that unless the Federal Communications Commission, computer and wireless companies, and broadcasters can come to a meeting on the minds about freeing up mobile broadband, legislation giving the FCC the power to hold incentive auctions isn't going to happen.

He also said Congress would want to know how much they will be paying broadcasters. "If we are going to approve an incentive auction system and not know how much of the public's money is going to be transferred to private actors, that is going to be a real challenge for Congress," Sepulveda said, adding that there would have to be some kind of cap on the payment as well. Sen Kerry has co-sponsored a bill that would give the FCC the authority to hold an incentive auction, which would allow it to compensate broadcasters for giving over spectrum for wireless broadband. Sepulveda said not to look for any action on that bill in the lame duck session, and suggested that a lot more needed to be done before it could pass, including getting all the panelists on the same page, educating the public about the spectrum crunch and giving Congress and broadcasters a better idea of how much money it was going to be transferring from the government to private industry.

Nearly 70 percent of Americans still watch their favorite television shows at the time they are broadcast, and only 16 percent record them to watch at a later date, a Marist College poll found.

9% of respondents watched their shows online and seven percent do not watch TV at all. Nearly 80 percent of Americans over 45 years-old watch TV traditionally -- as it is broadcast over the air or on cable or satellite networks -- while that figure falls to 56 percent for people under 45, the poll found. More younger Americans watched TV online or record it through Digital Video Recorder (DVR) than older Americans. The poll's findings highlight the use of DVR technology and the Internet as alternative ways to watch TV and, in some cases, reduce exposure to TV advertisements.