December 2012

Verizon CEO says no to Dish spectrum buy, big deals

Verizon Communications -- majority owner of Verizon Wireless, the biggest U.S. mobile service -- is not interested in buying spectrum from Dish Network and does not plan to make any big acquisitions. While investors have been speculating that Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen could make a lot of money if he sells Dish's wireless spectrum holdings to big U.S. mobile operators, Verizon Chief Executive Lowell McAdam told Reuters at an investor conference that his company would not be a buyer. McAdam also told the audience at the UBS Annual Global Media and Communications Conference that his company was not planning any acquisitions as big as its recent purchases of Terremark and Hughes Telematics. Verizon bought enterprise service provider Terremark last year for $1.4 billion and completed its purchase of Hughes for $612 million in July.

Group Asserts Nickelodeon Markets 'Junk Food'

A coalition of health groups is pressuring Viacom to implement stronger nutritional standards for the foods marketed on Nickelodeon.

The Food Marketing Workgroup -- led by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest and Berkeley Media Studies Group, and comprising the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, Jamie Oliver Food Foundation, Environmental Working Group and others – sent a letter to Viacom Inc. president/CEO Philippe Dauman and Nickelodeon president Cyma Zarghami. The letter urges the executives to “implement strong nutrition standards for all of the company’s food marketing to children,” including all television advertising on Nickelodeon channels, company sites and mobile platforms. It also urges the company to apply stricter nutrition standards for products that want to use licensed characters like Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants. The letter -- part of a larger campaign being launched by the Workgroup that includes social media, a letter-writing campaign to Nickelodeon’s CEO and other efforts -- is the latest volley in the ongoing controversy over food marketing to children.

Computerized Health Records Breed Digital Discontent For Some Doctors

Two years and $8.4 billion into the government's effort to get doctors to take their practices digital, some unintended consequences are starting to emerge. One is a lot of unhappy doctors.

In a big survey by Medscape, an online site for doctors, 38 percent of the doctors polled said they were unhappy with their electronic medical records system. But some doctors are discovering at least one unintended consequence that's positive for them: Electronic records flag every possible opportunity to send a bill. Doctors say digital systems are opening their eyes to how much they've been doing and not getting paid for. Medicare sees that differently and is now looking into whether physicians with computerized records systems might be charging too much. Doctors say it should be no surprise that systems designed to catch things like medication errors are also catching missed opportunities to get paid.

Les Moonves Says Cable Operators Should Pay Up For Popular Networks: UBS Confab

CBS chief Les Moonves flipped the argument that Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt made when he said that he may drop pricey cable channels that generate hash-mark ratings.

“That means for the channels that are getting viewers, he’s going to pay more,” Les Moonves told the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference. “He should pay the most for the guy who’s the No. 1 network.” Moonves milked the laughs: “We’re going in next year for $7″ per month per subscriber. Although he acknowledged that he’s joking, he added that “it’s bugged us that cable channels showing reruns of our shows were getting paid more” than CBS was for its first-run programming.

Google considers but drops plans to include phone service, too

Google considered offering phone services with its ultra-fast Internet and TV packages in Kansas City (Mo and KS), but the company took a pass once it started doing some digging into federal and state regulations. Google would’ve had to devote a fair amount of work on billing systems to support phone services because of the different state tax calculations involved in Kansas and Missouri.

FCC Moves Towards More Media Consolidation

A Q&A with Free Press CEO Craig Aaron.

The Federal Communications Commission is set to vote to relax a longstanding ban that prevents one company from owning radio and television stations and newspapers in the same city — a move that activists are calling a giant Christmas present to Rupert Murdoch. The media titan has floated the idea of buying The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times, the dominant papers in cities where he already owns TV stations. What’s worse, the FCC is operating behind closed doors, rather than inviting public comment on the issue. Aaron is asking people to speak out — by signing a petition, writing an editorial and calling congressmen. Aaron and his organization have been among those leading the charge against increased media monopolization. Similar attempts to change ownership rules were thwarted in 2003 and 2007.

New America Foundation Prescribes Social Technology to Raise Congress’ IQ

The New America Foundation is urging Congress to make up for its lack of internal expertise by opening up more data to outside groups and by creating a pipeline for those groups to share their insights with lawmakers.

The New America report, written by Research Fellow Lorelei Kelly, accuses Congress of gutting its large, expert and bipartisan staff during the 1990s in favor of acquiring facts and analysis from external and often ideologically-committed research groups. At the same time the amount of information available about proposed legislation increased dramatically with the development of the Internet as did the amount of constituent mail lawmakers were receiving. The result is that the best-funded and loudest advisors receive the most attention, Kelly said. Members of Congress rarely have a solid understanding of the broad implications of legislation they’re voting on or how it will affect their districts, she said. The report recommends that Congress make more data from the Congressional Research Service and other sources publicly available and that members and committees establish relationships with universities and other expert pools to provide nonpartisan analysis. The report also recommends restoring early-90s funding levels for Congressional staff and suggests the Republican and Democratic caucuses pool resource to pay for nonpartisan staffers.

CPB Honors Minow, Eaton, WNET and NYPR

The board of directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) awarded Newton N. Minow, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and one of the founding fathers of public broadcasting, with its Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes outstanding individual contributions to public media. Minow was honored for transforming the landscape of American television in the 1960s by putting the concepts of public interest and public service at the forefront of this emerging medium and by encouraging the spread of educational television, known today as public television, across the country.
CPB announced the first Community Lifeline Awards recognizing public media stations that provide exemplary service to their communities during local emergencies, such as natural disasters, major industrial accidents, acts of terrorism or other urgent situations. WNET and WNYC/NJPR each received the award for serving as important lifelines to the citizens of New York and New Jersey leading up to and in the weeks following Hurricane Sandy. The stations provided extensive live coverage on storm preparedness, weather and flood bulletins, status updates about restoration of power and other services, and in-depth information regarding emergency resources and recovery assistance across multiple platforms including television and radio broadcasts, social media and online.
Finally, the CPB board resented Rebecca Eaton, executive producer of Masterpiece, with the Ralph Lowell Award, the most prestigious public media award honoring an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to public television. Eaton, who has been executive producer of Masterpiece for more than 26 of its 41 years on the air, was recognized for ensuring the series upholds a high standard of excellence, not just for public media but for American television as a whole. She has produced some of the highest quality television dramas, including the break-out hit Downton Abbey, which was watched by more than 17 million people, and has increased the audience for the celebrated series through her collaborations with A-list talent and producers. Under Eaton’s leadership, Masterpiece has collected 65 Emmy Awards, 18 Peabody Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and dozens of industry awards.

National Endowment of the Arts Grants Aim to Reach Those With Limited Access to the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts announced $1.53 million in Challenge America Fast-Track grants. The money will be awarded to 153 organizations in 41 states, Washington and the United States Virgin Islands. The financing primarily supports projects that reach people whose access to the arts is limited by geography, ethnicity, economics or disability. The projects include festivals, exhibitions, performances, public murals and sculptures, each of which receives $10,000.

Court rejects Verizon's challenge to FCC's data roaming regulations

A federal court rejected Verizon's challenge to the Federal Communications Commission's data roaming rules, an important victory for the commission as it looks to fend off a series of lawsuits that would curb its regulatory power over Internet services.

In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said that the data roaming requirements fall under the FCC's "broad authority" to manage the airwaves. The FCC has long required that cellphone service providers offer reasonable voice roaming terms to their competitors. Roaming occurs when subscribers travel beyond their own carrier's network and use another company's cell towers to complete a call. The FCC adopted an order last year that expanded those roaming rules to cover wireless Internet service. Verizon sued, claiming that the FCC overstepped its authority under the Communications Act. Verizon said the rules represented an "unprecedented and unbounded theory of regulatory power over wireless Internet service." But the court ruled that Title III of the Communications Act "plainly empowers" the FCC to expand its roaming rules to cover data. The court also rejected Verizon's claim that the rules treat cellphone carriers as "common carriers," which is prohibited under the Communications Act.

Benton

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