December 2012

If Roger Ailes does it, it isn't a scandal

Imagine waking up to this breaking news alert: "In spring 2011, Phil Griffin, president of MSNBC, advised Sec. of State Hillary Clinton to abandon her plans for life outside the public sector and run for president against Barack Obama in 2012." The next breaking news alert you'd be likely to receive is this one: "Phil Griffin, president of MSNBC, to step down." That would likely be true if it were the president of CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, NPR, The New York Times or any other news organization. But Roger Ailes, the president of Fox News, makes his own rules.

Last night, The Washington Post's Bob Woodward reported that in spring 2011, Ailes tried to enlist then-Gen. David Petraeus to run for president. Yet since news broke, Ailes has received no substantial criticism and the reputation of Fox News remains intact. "If the President of ABC News did this, it would be a scandal, not least for the journalists at ABC News. At Fox it's just part of the culture," Jay Rosen, a professor of journalism at New York University, told POLITICO. "It's hilarious to recall the handwringing over Keith Olbermann making some donations in light of Ailes' presidential king-making," John Cook, a reporter at Gawker and a constant thorn in the side of Fox News, said, referencing the old MSNBC host. "But part of it is that MSNBC was conceived of as a news organization. Fox News was always a political operation." In the 18 hours since news broke, Ailes overture to Gen. Petraeus has been greeted as little more than a juicy bit of Washington intrigue.

State Broadband Index 2012

States are actively pursuing ways to use broadband to promote economic development, build strong communities, improve delivery of government services, and upgrade educational systems. The ingredients for meeting those goals are fast and ubiquitous broadband networks, a population of online users, and an economic structure that helps drive broadband innovation and investment in new broadband uses. Not all states have these ingredients in equal measure. In this report, the TechNet State Broadband Index rates the states on indicators of broadband adoption, network quality, and economic structure as a way of taking stock of where states stand. The ratings show that the top five states are: Washington, Massachusetts, Delaware, Maryland, and California.

Half of all app store revenue goes to just 25 developers

Apple's App Store and the Google Play store each claim to offer over 700,000 apps to choose from, but only a tiny fraction of them bring in significant revenue for their developers, according to research from analyst firm Canalys. In fact, the company says, of the $120 million in total revenue generated from paid app downloads and in-app purchases in the US during the first 20 days of November 2012, fully half was split between just 25 developers.

All but one of those top 25 earners were game developers, including Disney, Electronic Arts, Gameloft, Glu, Kabam, Rovio, Storm8, and Zynga, among others. On average, Canalys found that 145 of the top 300 apps in the Apple App Store were games during its sample period, while the format accounted for 116 of the top 300 apps on Google Play. The one exception on the top-earners list was Pandora, which markets the popular Pandora Radio app for its personalized music service.

Eric Schmidt: EC and FTC should make a decision on Google lawsuit

Antitrust regulators at the European Commission and the US Federal Trade Commission should either sue Google or drop their cases against the search giant, its executive chairman Eric Schmidt suggests.

He also says that the company's relationship with Apple – which has booted Google's Maps and YouTube app off the newest version of its iPhone software released in September – is less like teenagers with guns, and "more like a country - they have disputes, but they've actually been able to have huge trade with each other." Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Schmidt said that he doesn't know how the competition regulators on both sides of the Atlantic – who have each been investigating the company for more than 18 months over claims that it manipulates search results and limits advertising flexibility – will decide. But he added: "We have been in quite continuous communication with [them] … it's time for them to sort of move to one resolution or another. It's not like they don't have a million documents and so forth." He adds that he remains "optimistic" about the outcome.

AT&T Seeks a Lifeline on Land Lines

[Commentary] AT&T has proposed phasing out the old telephone network in favor of one using IP, or Internet protocol.

Not widely appreciated, AT&T, Verizon and other regulated operators are obliged to maintain the old phone service as long as customers want it, and to stand ready to provide a connection to anyone in their service territory who asks. These days that's not many: mostly the elderly and rural dwellers whose service has long been sustained by hidden subsidies possible only under a system of regulated monopolies. Coming soon: the death spiral, as fewer and fewer of these customers are left to bear the cost of maintaining the network. That's why AT&T has put before the Federal Communications Commission a plan to wean the country off POTS, or plain old telephone service, and retire the regulatory obligations that go with it. To this end, the company announced last month that it was willing to extend its fixed broadband network to several million customers in its service territory who don't yet have access. That would still leave millions of customers within the footprint of AT&T's existing phone system where the business case (i.e., absence of profits) wouldn't justify extending the broadband network.

Verizon to Upgrade Sandy-Damaged Wireline Network

Verizon Communications is replacing copper wire damaged by superstorm Sandy with fiber-optic cable, a move that allows the company to sell more services to customers.

The accelerated installation of fiber cable in storm-damaged areas lowers the maintenance costs for the company while providing an almost instant increase in revenue from customers, Verizon Chief Executive Lowell McAdam said. Verizon is aiming to transfer as many services as possible off of older, slower copper lines and onto its faster FiOS network, where it wants to improve its scale. "When we convert someone over, they almost always take the double play off the bat," he said, referring to a bundling of two of the companies services that include phone, TV and Internet.

How “Verizon Selects” from Verizon Wireless Works

In the increasingly internet and mobile data driven society we live in today, there are times we all share personal information with others in exchange for something that benefits us; perhaps it is a coupon, or access to a website that contains details about a product or service in which we are interested. Beginning this week, Verizon Wireless plans to reach out to some of its consumer customers asking them to opt-in to participate in a new initiative called Verizon Selects, which is part of the company’s Precision Marketing portfolio.

Verizon Wireless will offer customers who opt-in to Verizon Selects a coupon or some other form of reward, most likely from a popular retailer, in exchange for their participation. If a customer chooses not to opt-in, absolutely nothing about their relationship with us changes. Customers are not part of Verizon Selects unless and until they opt-in. Simply put, Verizon Selects will use location, web browsing and mobile application usage data, as well as other information including customer demographic and interest data, to create specific insights. Verizon Selects analyzes this information about customers to see whether they fit into certain audiences Verizon or third party marketers are trying to reach. Depending on the results, participating customers will receive marketing messages or offers that may be of more interest to them than what they see or receive today. These messages could be delivered in various ways such as email, text, postal mail or online or mobile advertising. We are asking customers to opt-in to Verizon Selects because of the types of information being used and because the capabilities provided to third-party marketers gives them the ability to reach customers directly. It’s important to remember that Verizon DOES NOT share information that identifies customers personally outside of Verizon.

Lobbyists cashing in on ties to new House committee chairmen

The post-election shake-up on House committees has enhanced the brands of lobbyists who are considered close to the new leaders.

Several House committees that are closely watched by industry will see changes at the top, most notably the Financial Services, Judiciary and Transportation panels. The chairmen of those three committees all have a network of support on K Street to which they turn for advice and counsel — and that can mean more clients and more fees for the lobbyists who are known to be in the inner circle.

BT cuts cost of ‘ultra-fast’ broadband

BT has cut the monthly wholesale costs of its “ultra-fast” broadband service aimed at small to medium-sized businesses by more than a third, although the initial one-off costs to install the fiber network will be higher than expected for broadband providers. BT will say that Openreach, its functionally separated business that builds wholesale fiber networks across the UK, will next summer charge broadband providers £38 a month for its 330Mbps fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) service, down from £60 a month currently.

British Editors Urged to Set Up Regulator

Under heavy pressure from the victims of Britain’s phone hacking scandal, Prime Minister David Cameron met with the country’s top newspaper editors and told them “the clock is ticking” on their pledge to adopt a tough new system of press regulation of their own devising if they are to avoid demands by the hacking victims and many lawmakers for a new regulatory system backed by parliamentary statute. After the meeting at 10 Downing Street, a Twitter post in Mr. Cameron’s name said he had told the editors, representing most of Britain’s main national newspapers, that “they need to set up an independent regulator urgently,” with the implication that the government might otherwise have to bow to demands for a law to put teeth into a new system of accountability.

Benton

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