January 2014

Rep Waxman’s Retirement: Though He Never ‘Went Hollywood,’ the Industry Loses a Strong Liberal Backer

Rep Henry Waxman’s pending retirement from Congress will not only leave Hollywood without its steady liberal lion in Washington, but also removes a strong proponent on a range of issues that affect the industry, from net neutrality to media ownership consolidation.

Rep Waxman (D-CA) worked to delay the switch to digital television when problems cropped up, helped provide another avenue for wireless providers to buy more time and in recent weeks expressed concerns about plans of the Tribune Co. to spin off its newspapers including the Los Angeles Times. Diminutive in size, the 74-year-old Rep Waxman never exactly “went Hollywood” in his nearly 40 years in Congress -- many of his more public battles were on liberal or consumer issues -- though his constituents included the denizens of Beverly Hills and the West side. But he was a fierce fighter and a “public powerhouse” who would go down as “one of the greatest legislators” in US history, said Sen Ed Markey (D-MA), who, as a House member, regularly co-sponsored legislation with Rep Waxman. “Henry is fearless and fair, a phenomenal fighter for consumers across our country. I am proud to call him my friend for four decades,” Sen Markey said.

Revenue and Profit Rise at Google, but Mobile Is a Persistent Challenge

There is no denying that Google has become a mobile company. Now, Google -- along with shareholders, industry partners and advertisers -- is trying to figure out what that means.

In mobile advertising, Google is wrestling with how to make as much money on phones as it has on the ads that appear on desktop computers. Its fourth-quarter earnings report showed that it is continuing to struggle with lower ad prices on phones. Yet some of the new types of ads it has introduced have paid off handsomely, as have mobile businesses like the Play store for Android devices. But in other areas, like manufacturing smartphones, Google has decided that the business is better left to someone else. Motorola’s $384 million loss in the fourth quarter contributed to Google’s failure to meet analysts’ earnings expectations for the quarter.

How Google's Costly Motorola Maneuver May Pay Off

[Commentary] Google suffered some expensive bruises in its two-year foray into making smartphones. But the expense wasn't as big as it appears, and Google may have achieved some strategic ends.

Google's primary goal in smartphones is to undercut the competition and get them into as many hands as possible. This generates more traffic to its search engine and the ads that surround it. By unloading its Motorola Mobility handset business to China's Lenovo Group, Google gains a partner that may inflict damage on rival Apple, while balancing the dominant market power held by partner Samsung. It could also resolve some nagging conflicts in its sprawling Android ecosystem. In Lenovo, Google gains another partner with grand ambitions to penetrate the global smartphone market with low-cost phones, a segment Apple has ignored. This strategy helped Google's Android software grow to power the majority of the world's smartphones -- four of every five smartphones shipped in 2013 ran Android, estimates Strategy Analytics. By flooding the market with Android phones, Google wards off Apple's threat to bypass Google services on its own phones. The deal also helps Google bring more balance to the Android ecosystem. Today, Samsung dominates the Android world, selling more than six times as many phones as its nearest rival. A combined Lenovo and Motorola can help offset Samsung's strength, reducing the risk that the Android world is dominated by a single hardware maker.

Is Google-Samsung becoming the new Microsoft-Intel?

[Commentary] Are we seeing the emergence of a grand alliance between Google and Samsung for Android mobile devices, similar to the Microsoft-Intel alliance for Windows personal computers? It looks like that from recent events.

Re/code reports that Samsung has backed down under pressure from Google on the way it varies the Android interface on its devices. It will downplay or possibly drop its new Magazine UX interface and give more weight to Google’s own apps. It appears that Google is asserting greater control over the Android operating system and the apps loaded on to devices while reducing its own hardware ambitions. In other words, it is conceding Samsung’s dominance over hardware in return for Samsung promoting its software. The two will work together to reinforce the strength of Android software and hardware against competitors including Apple.

Another Super Bowl Ad Fest, This Time on the Cellphone

The Super Bowl remains the biggest mass-market advertising event in the country. But this year, a new kind of advertising -- personalized and based on physical location down to a matter of feet -- will greet fans in Times Square and MetLife Stadium, where the championship game will be played.

At both locations, the National Football League has sprinkled tiny wireless transmitters that can send finely tuned messages to smartphones. It is the boldest test yet for a months-old technology that could change how brands of all sorts market to their customers.

CSEC used airport Wi-Fi to track Canadian travelers: Edward Snowden documents

A top secret document retrieved by US whistleblower Edward Snowden shows that Canada's electronic spy agency used information from the free Internet service at a major Canadian airport to track the wireless devices of thousands of ordinary airline passengers for days after they left the terminal.

Ronald Deibert, one of Canada's foremost authorities on cyber-security, says the clandestine operation by the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) was almost certainly illegal. The spy agency is supposed to be collecting primarily foreign intelligence by intercepting overseas phone and internet traffic, and is prohibited by law from targeting Canadians or anyone in Canada without a judicial warrant.

More Than 1 Million People Call on FCC to Save Net Neutrality

Free Press led a coalition of organizations -- including the American Civil Liberties Union, Avaaz, Common Cause, ColorOfChange, CREDO, DailyKos, Demand Progress, Fight for the Future, the Harry Potter Alliance, MoveOn, RootsAction and the Sierra Club -- that delivered more than 1 million petitions to the Federal Communications Commission urging the agency to restore network neutrality.

“Just two weeks after a federal court threw out the FCC’s Net Neutrality rules, we delivered petitions from more than 1 million people who support the freedom to connect and communicate online,” said Free Press Internet Campaign Director Josh Levy. “It’s time for the agency to correct its past mistakes, reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service, and restore Net Neutrality for good. Net Neutrality is the reason all of these petitions even exist, and it's so important to protect everyone’s ability to say what they want and go where they want online without an Internet service provider interfering.” The groups also delivered a letter signed by more than 80 organizations echoing the need for the FCC to take swift action.

Latino Groups to Deliver Tens of Thousands of Petition Signatures Urging FCC to Restore the Open Internet

Presente.org and the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) join a broad national coalition in delivering tens of thousands of petition signatures urging Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler to take immediate action to protect the open internet after a federal appeals court struck down a large portion of the FCC’s network neutrality rules.

The petitions will be included with the hundreds of thousands of signatures gathered collectively by a wide variety of groups set to be delivered at the nation’s capital. “We demand that the Obama Administration stop corporate control of the Internet,” said Arturo Carmona, Executive Director of Presente.org, which will contribute 16,000 signatures from its members. “Latinos are among the fastest-growing group of internet users. Latinos cannot afford to allow Verizon, AT&T and other telecommunications companies to either slow or block content and services they don’t like or speed up those they like. At a time when communications technology is ubiquitous, Internet freedom is fundamental to basic freedom.”

Closed Captioning and Wireless E911 Location Accuracy on FCC’s February Agenda

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced that the following items will be on the tentative agenda for the next open meeting scheduled for Thursday, February 20, 2014:

Promoting Quality Closed Captioning to Make Television Programming Accessible to All: The Commission will consider a Report and Order, Declaratory Ruling, and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that addresses the quality and technical compliance of closed captioning on television programming to ensure that video programming is fully accessible to individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing.
Improving Wireless E911 Location Accuracy: The Commission will consider a Third Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to ensure that accurate caller location information is automatically provided to public safety officials for all wireless calls to 911, including indoor calls, to meet consumer and public safety needs and expectations, and to take advantage of new technological developments.

A Case for Cheaper Broadband in Schools

EducationSuperHighway, a nonprofit organization with its roots in the high-tech industry has gathered some 40 executives to demand that the Federal Communications Commission change how it is wiring America’s schools.

EducationSuperHighway wants the FCC to add transparency and competition to the E-Rate program, which spends billions of dollars annually to bring broadband to schools. Schools are paying too much to get connected, the group said, and the pace of development is too slow. “This is about preparing a new work force,” said Evan C. Marwell, the chief executive of EducationSuperHighway. “The CEOs get that; both sides of the aisle in Congress get that.” Among the companies signing the letter are the chief executives of American Express, Dell, eBay, Facebook, Google, Hewlett-Packard and Yahoo. Most of the companies represented are in high tech. The signatories also include several well-known venture capitalists. Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Facebook, is, along with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, one of the nonprofit’s backers.

Benton Foundation board member Jim Kohlenberger works with EducationSuperHighway]

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