May 2014

What a Comcast wireless service could mean

[Commentary] Comcast is expanding its network of Wi-Fi hotspots in an effort to “kneecap wireless providers” such as AT&T and Verizon.

While Comcast has yet to announce any specific plans, it recently wrote in a Federal Communications Commission filing that it could build “a ubiquitous Wi-Fi network” that could connect users via Wi-Fi whenever possible, falling back to a cellular network only when necessary. The strategy could enable Comcast to deliver wireless services at a fraction of the price of traditional cellular network operators.

A huge looming question, then, is how Comcast would launch a mobile service: Would it partner with an existing carrier to launch a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), or would it buy its way into the market via acquisition?

What Google Search Algorithm Changes Do To The Internet

Matt Cutts, a senior member of Google's webspam team, announced in early 2014 that Google is working on a new version of their algorithm designed to help small businesses by pushing spammers and content mills into far less prominent search results.

But because algorithms aren't perfect and lack human editors, Google may have accidentally made search results from many small websites less prominent over time.

Viewers' TV Time Affects How Advertisers Dish Dollars

While advertisers are looking for primetime ad space, they shouldn’t forget where the real opportunities lie -- with the viewers, who continue to access and engage with TV content in a variety of ways.

Knowing when and where to find consumers is crucial to reach them and ensure ads break through the clutter and catch attention.

TGI…Sunday? When it comes to primetime television programming, gone are the days where the Friday night line up or must-see-TV Thursdays ruled our content consumption. Now people TV viewing takes place on Sundays.
Time (Spent) Is Money. TV still dominates viewers’ time. In the US, people watched an average of 155 hours of traditional TV a month during the fourth quarter of 2013. But it’s no secret that audiences are viewing more content across screens. Americans watched an average of 14 hours of time-shifted TV per month and spent an average of 34 hours and 27 hours using smartphone apps and the Internet, respectively, during the same period. And when it comes to online video consumption, Americans now average 7.5 hours per month streaming video on their computers.
Extending The TV Screen. With social media now a routine element of the TV-viewing experience, audiences are moving seamlessly across platforms to view and talk about their favorite shows. According to Nielsen, a whopping 86 percent of US smartphone owners say they use their devices while watching TV, and nearly half do it every single day.

With audio recognition, Facebook can help automatically check in to your favorite music, movies and TV

Since the dawning of its Open Graph back in 2011, Facebook has been encouraging users to not only provide status updates but to check in to locations, activities, entertainment and even feelings.

Now an update to Facebook’s apps, rolling out soon, enables users to take advantage of their microphones and automatically check in to TV shows, movies and music. The optional feature, when enabled, will listen to noise around the user -- meaning that it can actually identify media while statuses are written -- and detect media from a catalog of movies, TV and music.

When shared, friends can access a 30-second preview for music, a link to the Facebook page for movies and a listing of the episode name and number for television shows. A representative from Facebook said that the company has partnered with media companies to provide the information for 150 live TV channels as well as up-to-date listings on new movies and music.

The Secret Science of Retweets

What makes somebody retweet information from a stranger? That’s the question addressed by Kyumin Lee from Utah State University in Logan and a few pals from IBM’s Almaden research center in San Jose.

These guys say that by studying the characteristics of Twitter users, it is possible to identify strangers who are more likely to pass on your message than others. And in doing this, the researchers say they’ve been able to improve the retweet rate of messages sent strangers by up to 680 percent. So how did they do it?

Fine Line Seen in US Spying on Companies

American officials insist, when speaking off the record, that the United States was never acting on behalf of specific American companies. But the government does not deny it routinely spies to advance American economic advantage, which is part of its broad definition of how it protects American national security. In short, the officials say, while the National Security Agency cannot spy on Airbus and give the results to Boeing, it is free to spy on European or Asian trade negotiators and use the results to help American trade officials -- and, by extension, the American industries and workers they are trying to bolster.

Now, every one of the examples of NSA spying on corporations around the world is becoming Exhibit A in China’s argument that by indicting five members of the People’s Liberation Army, the Obama Administration is giving new meaning to capitalistic hypocrisy.

In the Chinese view, the United States has designed its own system of rules about what constitutes “legal” spying and what is illegal. That definition, the Chinese contend, is intended to benefit an American economy built around the sanctity of intellectual property belonging to private firms. And, in their mind, it is also designed to give the NSA the broadest possible rights to intercept phone calls or email messages of state-owned companies from China to Saudi Arabia, or even private firms that are involved in activities the United States considers vital to its national security, with no regard to local laws. The NSA says it observes American law around the globe, but admits that local laws are no obstacle to its operations.

California Urges Websites to Disclose Online Tracking

Every major Internet browser has a feature that lets you tell a website that you don’t want it to collect personal information about you when you visit. And virtually every website ignores those requests. Tracking your online activities -- and using that data to tailor marketing pitches -- is central to how Internet companies make money.

Now California’s attorney general, Kamala Harris, wants every site to tell you -- in clear language -- if and how it is respecting your privacy preferences.

The guidelines, published on Wednesday, are intended to help companies comply with a new state privacy law that went into effect on Jan. 1. That law requires sites to prominently disclose all their privacy practices, including how they respond to “do not track” requests.

Latest stats show Comcast/TWC merger will cap 79% of broadband subscribers

As the government discusses the pending Comcast acquisition of Time Warner Cable, the latest broadband adoption stats from Leichtman Research Group show that if the deal goes through, 79 percent of US broadband subscribers will find themselves under a data cap.

Because Time Warner Cable, the third largest broadband provider in the US, didn’t have a cap, the acquisition by Comcast would notably change the number of people who will go from unlimited broadband to those who have a cap or pay more the more they download.

AT&T-DirecTV merger: Heavy regulatory scrutiny ahead

Congressional lawmakers promised to hold hearings for AT&T's proposed $48.6 billion acquisition of DirecTV, mere months after Comcast's $45 billion proposal to acquire Time Warner Cable.

Analysts monitoring the proceedings say the quick succession of mega-deals in the telecommunications industry could pave the way for other deals between telecom companies and cable and satellite providers, forcing regulators to quickly set a course that will sustain them through a period of predicted consolidation.

"We have seen waves of mergers transform industries, time and time again," said Jeff Kagan, a longtime independent analyst covering the wireless and telecom industries. "They seem to come in waves. There are quite a number of mergers, then nothing for several years. Then it starts again. Comcast with Time Warner Cable and AT&T with DirecTV look like they are trying to start this next wave of mergers."

The two recent mega-deals have certainly caught the eye of the nation's lawmakers.

The AT&T -- DirecTV merger: Dynamic competition at work

[Commentary] With its proposed acquisition of DirecTV, AT&T is making a stake to be the nation’s premier pay TV provider on every screen -- TV, laptop, mobile phone and tablet. Its dream is seamless connectivity and streaming video from home to car to office and even to airplanes.

AT&T recognizes that most consumers don’t know, much less care, whether their connection is fiber, xDSL, LTE, or satellite. They just want a good service, preferably at a low price as possible.

Coming on the heels of another mega merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable, the AT&T/DirecTV development is a textbook example of dynamic competition, characterized by high capital costs, technological change, and network effects. In dynamic markets, competition is created not by the number of providers but by the level of technology.

Only two players, albeit with different technologies, are needed to create dynamic competition. AT&T and Comcast have to go through increasingly burdensome and obligatory merger review from not only the Federal Communications Commission, but also the Department of Justice and the Senate Judiciary Committee.

If we care about innovation and investment, we should encourage these players to grow as big as possible for the simple reason that the larger they are and the larger their revenues, the larger the incentives for upstarts to disrupt them. The best outcome would be to approve both mergers as soon as possible and let the companies duke it out in the marketplace. The battle of superpowers is America’s forte. Let it flourish.

[Layton studies Internet economics at the Center for Communication, Media, and Information Technologies (CMI) at Aalborg University in Copenhagen, Denmark]

Benton

Search