May 2014

[Commentary] Forget fast lanes and slow lanes. Viacom has headed straight for the off-ramp from Phoenix-based cable operator Cable One’s broadband platform. The MTV and Comedy Central parent confirmed that it is blocking online access to its content by Cable One broadband subscribers as part of a pay-TV carriage dispute with the operator that has led to Viacom channels going dark on the system.

“Cable One has chosen to no longer carry Viacom programming and, as a result, it is no longer available to Cable One customers in any form,” Viacom said.

Fear of fast lanes (FOFL) comes in two primary flavors. Some fear that allowing paid prioritization will enable the biggest content providers -- Netflix, YouTube, the NFL ---- to pay for exclusive fast lanes, relegating everyone else inevitably to slow internet lanes. The other type of FOFL, expressed primarily by large content providers like Netflix and YouTube but echoed by others, is that permitting paid prioritization, particularly if coupled with unregulated peering policies, will leave them vulnerable to extortion by last mile ISPs. That is the essence of Netflix’s complaints about Comcast and Verizon: They shook us down for “interconnection” fees because they could. Given legal cover by the FCC, they fear, the shake downs will only become more common and more onerous. Those two propositions are not quite mutually exclusive. But they strongly suggest we’re not all talking about the same thing when we talk about fast lanes and slow lanes. In the former, it is Netflix we the rest of us need to fear; in the latter, Netflix is imagined to be powerless against ISPs.

But to see the danger of premature rule-setting you need look no further than the broadcast retransmission regime, which, as established by Congress and given full regulatory heft by the FCC. Those rules, as currently written, heavily favor broadcasters over pay-TV provider, leading to absurdly one-sided “negotiations” over retransmission fees that lead to ever-higher prices for consumers. As CBS made plain with its blackout of TWC broadband subscribers, in fact, broadcasters are more than happy to try to stretch their legally sanctified leverage in the pay-TV market into the nominally unregulated online market.

[Sweeting is Principal, Concurrent Media Strategies]

As Netflix prepares to invade six more countries in Europe, Bernstein Research analyst Carlos Kirjner attempted to size up the streaming giant’s global opportunities in a report.

The “opportunity is more limited than many realize,” the analyst wrote, noting that infrastructure and affordability issues will limit Netflix in markets such as Latin America. But the forecast still seems to present some pretty big numbers.

“Assuming generously that Netflix deploys aggressively in 17 new countries over the next 2-3 years, we believe that by 2023 the number of broadband households in these markets with fixed connections capable of supporting SVOD will reach 243 [million],” Kirjner suggested. He also sees Netflix reaching about 65 million international subs, or roughly a 50% share of the research firm’s estimated international SVOD market, but only “if it deploys service very aggressively across all 17 incremental countries in our assumptions.”

That’s a sizable jump from where Netflix is today internationally, with 10.9 million subs. While 14% of that total comes from the UK and Ireland, and 25% from Canada, Netflix, to Kirjner’s earlier point, has only been able to scratch together about 1.5 million customers in Latin America (1% of total households), despite having launched there more than two and a half years ago.

[Commentary] From sexting to cyberbullying, a momentary lapse in judgment on a smart phone or through social media can have lifelong consequences. Here are five digital trends that every educator should know about.

1. Privacy: Teens cannot assume any of their online or cell phone activity will remain private. One of the most common problems occurs when someone shares a photograph or other private information through texting or social media and expects complete privacy. Too often, either accidentally or on purpose, it spreads beyond the recipient or group of friends.
2. Anonymity: Educators, students and parents should never assume they can remain anonymous online. A large percentage of cases our attorneys handle involve another party harming our client anonymously, without using the party’s name or other identifying information. Almost every time, a person’s true identity can be tracked.
3. Cyberbullying: In the most extreme examples, harassment among students can lead to suicide. In 2008, a student in my hometown of Cincinnati hung herself after her ex-boyfriend shared her nude photos with other students. Sadly, this was not an isolated incident; bullying has led many students to take their own lives.
4. Sexting: The increased popularity and pressure to send racy photos amongst teens has caused many problems -- both for the subject of the photos and, to a lesser extent, the distributor of these photos.
5. Educate Students, Staff and Parents: Teens may be breaking the law using their smart phones without even realizing it. While an arrest for possessing or distributing child pornography is an extreme case, it serves to illustrate that a lapse in judgment -- theoretically as easy as sharing a photo or making a social media post -- can have serious long-term consequences.

[Gibson leads the Vorys Internet defamation group]

People in any part of the country covered by AT&T’s wireless network can now get a wireless-based home phone and Internet offering from the company, said an AT&T executive.

As the executive explained, customers signing on for the service, dubbed AT&T Wireless Home Phone & Internet, get a device that acts as a Wi-Fi hotspot using AT&T’s cellular network for connectivity to the Internet -- and customers also can plug a traditional landline phone into the same device, enabling the phone to also work over the cellular network.

The nationwide launch of AT&T Wireless Home Phone & Internet comes at a time when the company is gearing up for trials in which all landline voice customers in an area will have their service replaced with a cellular alternative or, where available, with a voice offering running over the company’s fiber-fed U-verse infrastructure.

The company’s ultimate goal is to phase out traditional landline voice service – and when it does that, it may want to also phase-out lower-speed DSL service, which runs over the same copper connection as the voice service. Eliminating DSL as well as landline voice in areas not targeted for U-verse upgrades would let AT&T abandon the copper connection between the customer and the central office, thereby eliminating the cost of maintaining that infrastructure.