October 2012

Sony to close Tokyo tech center to trim costs

Sony Corp plans to shut operations in a Tokyo office building that houses 8 percent of its Japan staff, one of the first concrete moves by the electronics and entertainment company to pave the way for 4,000 job cuts.

The move, part of a still-unfolding restructuring under Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai, had not been previously disclosed. Sony will shut down the Shinagawa Technology Center, a 31-storey building it has occupied since it was built in 1998, a company spokesman told Reuters. The 4,800 staff in the center will be relocated. The move, expected to be completed by September, is intended to cut costs and make it easier for Sony to move ahead with a realignment of its business and a retreat from its money-losing TV manufacturing operations, the spokesman said. Sony plans to reduce its global workforce by 10,000 people by March 31, including almost 4,000 in Japan.

Encouraging Growth in Enterprise Mobility in Brazil, China and India

A growing worldwide mobile worker population creates opportunities for providing mobile solutions across geographic regions, vertical markets, and mobile worker types, according to Strategy Analytics, who examined more than 750 business respondents in Brazil, China and India.

According to the Strategy Analytics report, investments in wireless services and mobile devices are very promising. "Companies in emerging markets are facing increasingly mobile workforces with between 70-80 percent of workers spending at least some portion of their time working out of the office. These companies are also investing in mobile devices that will enable the growing numbers of mobile workers to interact with customers, employees, and other businesses in real time, anytime, and from any location. Brazil, China and India have vast numbers of SMBs that are willing to spend to better leverage the capabilities of new devices and solutions" said Andrew Brown, Director of Enterprise Research at Strategy Analytics.

Dilemma for DC stations: So many political ads, so little airtime

So many political ads. So little time. What’s a TV station to do? Faced with an unprecedented flood of commercials for candidates and causes, Washington’s TV stations have had to get creative to fit them all in. Some are trimming their regular programming to squeeze in a few more ads, and some are adding more news at other hours.

WTTG (Channel 5), the District’s Fox affiliate, for example, began bumping daily reruns of “The Simpsons” on Monday to add an extra half-hour to its 6 p.m. newscast. The expanded “News Edge” program will focus on political news — the kind of programming political advertisers demand most.
WJLA (Channel 7), the area’s ABC affiliate, has temporarily added two weekend newscasts to its schedule for the same reason. On Saturday, the station preempted network programming and aired a two-hour movie in prime time in order to create more local ad slots. The station has occasionally shaved time from some of its weekday programming to accommodate an extra political ad or two, said Bill Lord, WJLA’s general manager.

Fox News and the Associated Press: What’s next?

Viewers of Fox News may well get the sense that the cable-news outlet doesn’t like the Associated Press.

Earlier this month, for instance, Fox eminence Bill O’Reilly complained about the AP after one of its photographers snapped a controversial photo of Mitt Romney crouching in front of a child with a gaping expression on her face. The photo, argued O’Reilly, wasn’t just an aberrational lapse in judgment by the AP: “The AP is one of the largest newswire services in the world. And it’s biased against Mitt Romney. I think that’s true, beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Google pours millions into lobbying as decision on antitrust case looms

Google has spent a record $13.1 million on lobbying so far in 2012 as it looks to dissuade federal regulators from suing the company over antitrust allegations.

According to disclosure forms, Google spent $4.2 million over the previous three months, in addition to the $8.9 million it had already spent this year. The company set its record for lobbying spending in the first quarter of 2012, when it spent $5 million. Google spent only $9.7 million in all of 2011, and much less in previous years.

Facebook continues record lobbying spending

Facebook spent just short of $1 million dollars on lobbying from July to September this year, more than double the amount it spent during the same period a year ago, public records show.

The social network spent $980,000 on lobbying in the third quarter, a giant leap from the $360,000 it spent during the third quarter of 2011. Facebook's record lobbying spending is sign of the social network continuing to flex its muscle in Washington as it faces concerns from lawmakers on online privacy and the policies it has in place to protect its wealth of user data. Facebook's total lobbying spending for the first nine months of this year tallied in at nearly $2.6 million, almost double the $1.3 million the social network spent in all of 2011. It also marks the second quarter in a row that Facebook has spent nearly $1 million on lobbying.

Rep Cantor slams network neutrality as example of 'imperial presidency'

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) cited network neutrality regulations as evidence of what he called President Obama's disregard for the legislative process in a report, titled the "Imperial Presidency," which claims that President Barack Obama has eroded the rule of law by imposing regulations without congressional authorization.

"When there is a breakdown in the rule of law, increased uncertainty leads to reduced investment and less growth," Rep Cantor wrote. In his report, Rep Cantor notes that then-chairman of the House Commerce Committee Henry Waxman (D-CA) introduced legislation to provide the Federal Communications Commission with the authority to set network neutrality rules, but the bill was never enacted. "Despite the fact that the legislation was not enacted, the FCC proceeded anyway with new net neutrality rules," Rep Cantor wrote in his report. "Businesses negatively impacted by these new regulations have been forced to go to court once again to defend against regulations that the agency has no authority to issue." He noted that in April, the House passed a resolution to repeal the FCC's order. Rep Cantor said the resolution would overturn "controversial internet rules that stifle small business growth and investment in order to promote freedom and innovation." The measure was defeated in the Senate on a party-line vote.

PBS Leads September Ratings With Kids 2-5

Continuing ratings struggles at Nickelodeon opened the door for PBS and Disney Channel to snag more spots in the top 10 programs among kids 2-5 in September, according to Nielsen NPower national program ratings for the month.

Last month, PBS held six of the top 10 programs, Disney Channel had three and Nickelodeon had two. In September 2011, Nickelodeon held five of the top 10 shows while PBS had four and Disney Channel had one. Two of the top 10 preschool programs in September of this year were new shows -- PBS' Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, which premiered in September, and Disney's Doc McStuffins, which launched in March. It was PBS' strongest ratings with kids 2-5 in 10 years, with the public broadcaster owning the top six spots for Curious George, Thomas & Friends, Cat in the Hat, Super Why!, Daniel Tiger's and Dinosaur Train.

Deutsche Telekom CEO Said to Hand Off Oversight of US Unit

Deutsche Telekom AG Chief Executive Officer Rene Obermann plans to hand off responsibility for the US unit so he can focus on boosting sales outside traditional phone services, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Chief Financial Officer Timotheus Hoettges will assume oversight of T-Mobile USA on the executive board to allow Obermann to concentrate on new services, including online offerings and telemedicine, said the person, who asked not to be named because the plan isn’t public. The reorganization may be ratified by the supervisory board of the Bonn-based company in December, the person said.

The Internet is Like the Old Soviet Union, Except it Works

The internet is a pretty communist institution: when you sent a packet over the web, it may go through a dozen different networks, but in most cases no money changes hands. Somebody at each connection point has simply given their okay to exchange the traffic with your ISP or any one of the other links in the chain. Kind of like when you spot your friends a beer knowing they’ll cover your drink in the next round. And that’s how 99.5 percent of the interconnections take place between global networks work.

According to a study from the OECD covering peering arrangements between providers of bandwidth around the world, most interconnections take place “on a handshake basis, with no written contract and the exchange of data happening with no money changing hands.” This new OECD report notes that the benefits of this approach to peering have brought prices for data down to 100,000 times less than that of a voice minute. Thanks to a survey of 4,300 networks, representing 140,000 direct exchanges of traffic on the internet, the study offers up evidence that less regulation on the internet is a good thing, even if it doesn’t seem initially to protect the consumer interest.

Benton

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