December 2012

Rising sports programming costs could have consumers crying foul

The new owners of the Dodgers are expected to get $6-billion-plus for the TV rights to their team's games. That may be a big win for the home team, but consumers won't be doing high-fives once they see their pay-TV bills.

The average household already spends about $90 a month for cable or satellite TV, and nearly half of that amount pays for the sports channels packaged into most services. Massive deals for marquee sports franchises are driving those costs even higher. Over the next three years, monthly cable and satellite bills are expected to rise an average of nearly 40%, to $125, according to the market research company NPD Group. So far, people seem willing to pay. But the escalating costs are triggering worries that, at some point, consumers will begin ditching their cable and satellite subscriptions.

DVR Use One Factor in Networks’ Low Ratings

If you ask several of the top programmers in network television what is going wrong with their ratings this season, they offer a litany of answers: jarring schedule disruptions from debates, election night and Hurricane Sandy, for instance, as well as the ever-increasing defections toward delayed viewing and away from the nightly schedules that have defined network prime time since the days of radio. The numbers tell the tale. With seven days of delayed viewing factored in, ABC is down 7 percent in the audience preferred by most advertisers, viewers between the ages of 18 and 49; CBS is down 18 percent; and Fox Broadcasting is down an eye-popping 26 percent. NBC is the only network bucking the trend, with its audience up 23 percent in that category.

“We are definitely in a transition period,” said Paul Lee, president of ABC’s entertainment group, citing the heavy shift toward reliance on DVRs and video on demand to create personalized viewing schedules. Another factor also seems to have been at work this fall: disappointing new shows.

“The point the networks make is that the DVR is revolutionizing viewing,” said Brad Adgate, director of research for Horizon Media, a media buying company. “But that is masking the fact that the new shows they put on this fall just aren’t that good. There are better shows on cable.”

FTC nominee Joshua Wright to skip Google cases

Joshua Wright, the Obama administration’s nominee to fill a Republican spot on the Federal Trade Commission, has informed congressional aides he will recuse himself from cases involving Google for two years to avoid any perceived conflict of interest.

Wright is expected to make that vow publicly during his Senate Commerce Committee confirmation hearing Dec 4, sources said. Wright, a professor at George Mason University, has never been paid directly by Google. But he has faced scrutiny because some of his academic research has been funded indirectly by the search company, and the nominee previously has defended the company against the FTC’s ongoing antitrust probe. To allay those concerns, Wright told the Senate Commerce Committee staff that he’s not going to take part in agency enforcement decisions — antitrust or otherwise — regarding Google for two years.

EU Nations Aim to Boost Web Firms' Tax Payouts

Europe's biggest economies are teaming up to try to wring more taxes out of the world's biggest Internet companies. Ministers from the U.K., Germany and France have begun meeting in recent weeks to discuss how to stop big multinational companies from using legal loopholes to shift European profits to low-tax countries, government officials say.

The talks are taking place as Europe tries to plug budget deficits amid a spreading recession. Caught in the crosshairs: firms like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook. The companies rack up tens of billions of euros in yearly sales in Europe but pay comparatively little tax in many countries because of arrangements that they and many tax experts say are legal. The tax talks are likely to stoke debate over the role of national borders in an increasingly virtual world. They could also challenge some of the underpinnings of the current European tax system as it is used by businesses.

The misdeeds of the press were criminal

[Commentary] It was sickening to read the catalogue of professional malpractices which have been routinely indulged, especially at News International, but in some degree by other newspaper groups, too, in the UK. But I recoil from Lord Justice Leveson’s conclusions.

He acquits every other party in society’s devilish bargains with the media – politicians, policemen, public figures and readers – attributing all ills to newspapers. He acknowledges the difficulty of policing the internet but proposes a draconian new regulatory regime for a dying industry, without a hint of a remedy for the odious lies and breaches of taste and privacy that occur hourly on the web. His recommendation that politicians should be required to log all meetings with journalists; that “representative groups” as well as individuals should be able to complain to the new regulator, who should also enforce compliance with equality legislation; his demand for a new right to privacy, all seem seriously mistaken. I would prefer to see laws on data protection, stalking, harassment and intrusion strengthened for the protection of all citizens against all offenders, rather than legislative sanctions imposed on journalists alone.

Lord Justice Leveson entirely neglects a key question: how would his proposed regulator address rogue proprietors who refuse to sign up?

Press vow to beef up self-regulation plan

Backers of the leading industry proposal for self-regulation of the press in the UK have pledged to revamp their plan after release of the report by Lord Justice Leveson.

The move is an attempt by Lord Hunt and Lord Black, who are pushing a beefed-up version of the current self-regulatory regime, to heal divisions within the newspaper industry over what sort of watchdog should oversee the press. It precedes a meeting of editors and publishers called for Dec 4 by Maria Miller, the culture secretary, at which she will urge the industry to act swiftly to create a viable alternative to Lord Justice Leveson’s blueprint for press regulation. His report followed a year-long inquiry into press standards triggered by the scandal over phone-hacking and other abuses by newspapers.

Internet, phone services back online for much of Syria

Internet and cell phone coverage were restored Dec 1 to most Syrian provinces, according to the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, two days after a blackout shut down virtually all Internet service in the country. Residents in the capital, Damascus, told CNN via Skype that their Internet and cell phone services were working again.

For Syria’s Rebel Movement, Skype Is a Useful and Increasingly Dangerous Tool

In a demonstration of their growing sophistication and organization, Syrian rebels responded to a nationwide shutdown of the Internet by turning to satellite technology to coordinate within the country and to communicate with outside activists. Using the connection, the activists in Saqba talked to rebel fighters on Skype and relayed to overseas activists details about clashes with government forces. A video showed the rebels’ bare-bones room, four battery backups that could power a laptop for eight hours and a generator set up on a balcony.

Disruptions: Silencing the Voices of Militants on Twitter

Twitter, perhaps more than any other social media outlet, has become one of the most powerful tools to promote democracy in the Middle East. The service, which helped Arab Spring protesters in their drive for a new order in the region, is now under attack over aiding and abetting terrorist organizations. Along with six other Republican lawmakers, Rep Ted Poe (R-TX), a judge turned Congressman, sent a letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, demanding that Twitter ban two militant groups, Hamas and Hezbollah, that are on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. “Failure to block access arms them with the ability to freely spread their violent propaganda and mobilize in their war on Israel,” he said in a statement to news outlets, adding: “The FBI and Twitter must recognize sooner rather than later that social media is a tool for the terrorists.” The demand is based on laws saying that any person or group offering material support — contributing cash, weapons and other tangible aid, including “service” and “expert advice or assistance” — to terrorist organizations is essentially working with them. But some might argue that running AK-47s and rocket launchers to terrorists, and using Twitter, which allows groups to post 140-character missives online, are two very different things.

Left media has 'issues' with Obama

For the better part of four years, progressive media has had President Barack Obama’s back. Now that he’s won re-election, it is faced with a choice: Should the left continue always to play the loyal attack dog against the GOP, blaming the opposition at all hours of the news cycle for intransigence? Or, should it redirect some of that energy on the President, holding him to his promises and encouraging him to be a more outspoken champion of liberal causes? Already, there are rumblings of change.

In the days and weeks following Obama’s victory, progressive voices, primarily in print media, have made efforts to push the President on key parts of the unfinished liberal agenda - including climate change, drone strikes, troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, the closing of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, civil liberties and gun control. In conversations with POLITICO, some of the left’s most influential voices in media said that, with the concerns of re-election over, they intend to be more critical of the President’s performance and more aggressive in urging him to pursue a progressive agenda as the clock ticks on his last four years in office.

Benton

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