July 2014

Digital to Pass 25% of Global Media Spend for First Time

According to a new report from eMarketer, spending on digital advertising globally will swell 16.7 percent in 2014 to $140.15 billion, marking the first time digital will make up more than one-quarter of media spend.

Unsurprisingly, mobile is driving that growth. Marketing spend on smartphones and tablets will jump 84.7 percent in 2014 to $32.71 billion.

Due to the ramp-up of mobile-centric ad products from social media players like Facebook and Twitter, smartphones and tablets will account for one-quarter of all digital spending in 2014. Overall global ad expenditures will reach $545 billion in 2014, up 5.7 percent year over year. That percentage doubled from 2013’s 2.6 percent uptick.

One Surprising Statistic That Influences Gender Equality in Technology Jobs

Can the key to getting more American women into tech jobs be in the hands of mayors across the country? It’s an interesting proposition that Anita Garimella Andrews, vice president of client analytics services at RJMetrics recently uncovered when digging into the data surrounding the persistently low percentage of female tech workers.

It turns out that in cities with a concentration of technology companies that also have female mayors, there’s more equality among tech workers. Case in point: Las Vegas, the city leads the country with women making up the majority (over 64%) of its tech workforce. Its mayor is Carolyn Goodman, who’s held the position since 2011, and incidentally has a daughter who graduated from Stanford and worked in IT.

The US average is only 29% according to the RJMetrics survey of the top 50 cities in tech as determined through Meetup data. That’s a bit higher than the 26% of women in computer or mathematical occupations that the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported for 2013. Other cities with female mayors didn’t have the scale tip so dramatically toward women employed in tech, but were still higher than the national average. Among them: Oakland 46.8%, Houston 34.25%, Palo Alto 30.19%, Baltimore 29.65%.

Facebook's World Cup traffic breaks 2014 record

Around 66 million people created more than 200 million Facebook interactions during the World Cup match between Brazil and Germany -- totals that crushed the social media giant's previous 2014 records, the World Cup opening match featuring Brazil and Croatia and the 2014 Super Bowl.

Facebook users in Brazil, the tournament's host country, were responsible for about one quarter of the total traffic, with 16 million people creating more than 52 million interactions, which include posts, comments and likes.

The United States drew the second-highest total of Facebook interactions, with 6.3 million users creating more than 14 million interactions. Facebook users in Mexico provided the third-most interactions, followed by users in Indonesia and the United Kingdom.

NTCA Unveils New Ad Campaign Touting Rural Broadband Providers’ Community-Based Solutions

NTCA -- The Rural Broadband Association has unveiled a new advertising campaign touting rural telecommunications providers’ long and successful history of solving the challenges of distance and density in deploying networks and delivering quality, affordable services to the country’s most rural and remote communities.

The Washington, DC-focused advertising campaign includes digital, print and radio ads and extends through the end of 2014. Ad placements have begun with digital ads in the Technology Policy section of Politico.com and a print placement in Politico. Additional ads will appear in TheHill.com throughout the months of July and September.

For a look at the first ad in the series, visit the NTCA website. NTCA is launching the campaign to build awareness of rural broadband providers’ extraordinary efforts to deploy advanced networks that make rural markets vibrant places to live, work, raise a family and educate rural children.

As solution providers and entrepreneurs serving areas long ago left behind by larger providers, rural broadband providers have been and remain singularly focused on ensuring that millions of households and businesses in the most sparsely populated pockets of the country benefit and share in the prosperity that comes with modern telecommunications technology.

TV Watching and Computer Use in US Youth Aged 12 -- 15, 2012

Key findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and the NHANES National Youth Fitness Survey, 2012:
Nearly all (98.5%) youth aged 12 -- 15 reported watching TV daily.

More than 9 in 10 (91.1%) youth aged 12 -- 15 reported using the computer daily outside of school.
In 2012, 27.0% of youth aged 12 -- 15 had 2 hours or less of TV plus computer use daily.
Among youth aged 12 -- 15, girls (80.4%) were more likely to use the computer 2 hours or less daily when compared with boys (69.4%).
Fewer non-Hispanic black youth aged 12 -- 15 (53.4%) reported watching 2 hours or less of TV daily than non-Hispanic white (65.8%) and Hispanic (68.7%) youth.

Excessive screen-time behaviors, such as using a computer and watching TV, for more than 2 hours daily have been linked with elevated blood pressure, elevated serum cholesterol, and being overweight or obese among youth. Additionally, screen-time behavior established in adolescence has been shown to track into adulthood. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-supported Expert Panel and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend that children limit leisure screen time to 2 hours or less daily. This report presents national estimates of TV watching and computer use outside of the school day.

comScore Reports May 2014 US Smartphone Subscriber Market Share

Key trends in the US smartphone industry for May 2014: Apple ranked as the top smartphone manufacturer with 41.9 percent original equipment manufacturer (OEM) market share, while Google Android led as the #1 smartphone platform with 52.1 percent platform market share. Facebook ranked as the top individual smartphone app.

169 million people in the US owned smartphones (70 percent mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in May, up 4 percent since February. Apple ranked as the top OEM with 41.9 percent of US smartphone subscribers (up 0.6 percentage points from February). Samsung ranked second with 27.8 percent market share (up 0.8 percentage points), followed by LG with 6.5 percent, Motorola with 6.3 percent and HTC with 5.1 percent.

Android ranked as the top smartphone platform in May with 52.1 percent market share, followed by Apple with 41.9 percent (up 0.6 percentage points from February), Microsoft with 3.4 percent, BlackBerry with 2.3 percent and Symbian with 0.1 percent.

Nielsen Exec: Don't Expect to Be Impressed by Impact of Mobile TV Ratings

Nielsen Media Research has declared itself "open for business" in terms of tracking TV viewing on smartphones, tablets and other electronic gadgets. But don’t expect those numbers, which will be available for the first time with the new fall broadcast season, to be impressive, statistically speaking.

"It will start small and build gradually," Cheryl Idell, Nielsen’s executive vice president of US media, said. “We won’t see dramatic changes in ratings with this data added in.”

That may not be the big splash the advertising community has been hoping for. Claire Browne, vice president and director of media research at ad agency RPA in Los Angeles, described Nielsen as "behind the curve" and "playing catch-up" on measuring mobile viewing, a project that’s been in the works for years.

"They have to do this to remain relevant," she said. "Consumer behavior is running so far ahead of the research."

The mobile data will come via software meters that have been embedded into media companies’ "watch anywhere" apps, Internet browsers and mobile devices themselves, Idell said. Those meters will identify pieces of content and report back on when and how those were watched, whether through a smartphone, iPad video app or other device.

Privacy encryption will reveal demographic but not personal tidbits about the viewer, who may opt out of the research. Nielsen will add the mobile viewing data to a TV show’s overall ratings to give a more accurate picture of how many people across the US watched an episode of The Walking Dead or a season of CSI.

FCC Identifies Tentative Selectees in 79 Groups of Mutually Exclusive Applications Filed in the LPFM Window

In this Public Notice, the Federal Communications Commission considers 79 groups of mutually exclusive (MX) applications filed in the recent low power FM (LPFM) window and uses a point system to tentatively select applications for grant.

The tentative selectees, i.e., the single applicant with the highest point total or the applicants tied for the highest point total from each MX group, are identified.

The FCC has initiated a 30-day period for filing petitions to deny against the applicants tentatively selected and a 90-day period for the filing of voluntary time-share proposals (point-aggregation requests) and major change amendments.

The LPFM point system awards a maximum of six merit points, based on six criteria, with one point awarded under each criterion: (1) established community presence of at least two years; (2) commitment to originate local programming; (3) commitment to maintain a main studio; (4) commitment to originate local programming and to maintain a main studio; (5) diversity of ownership; and (6) tribal applicants serving tribal lands.

Once the petition to deny period has run, FCC staff are directed to conduct a final study of each tentatively selected application in accordance with the FCC Media Bureau’s routine processing procedures. In the case of tied applications, the final study will not be conducted until the tie has been eliminated through amendment, settlement and/or time-share procedures.

Sprint to help bring rural LTE partners into the 2.5 GHz ecosystem

Sprint will work with its rural LTE roaming partners to get them access to LTE devices and network infrastructure for the 2.5 GHz band. Technology alignment is a part of the agreements that Sprint announced with 12 operators in mid-June.

The 12 agreements, which included a previously announced deal with nTelos Wireless, cover about 34 million POPs in 23 states.

Sprint also inked deals with SouthernLINC Wireless, C Spire Wireless, Nex-Tech Wireless, Flat Wireless, SI Wireless, which does business as MobileNation, Inland Cellular, Illinois Valley Cellular, Carolina West Wireless, James Valley Telecommunications, Phoenix Wireless and VTel Wireless.

The Rural Roaming Preferred Program, which Sprint developed in conjunction with the Competitive Carriers Association, is intended to expand LTE roaming and was announced last March. As part of its deal with the CCA, Sprint will use the CCA's data hub and allow CCA members to ink reciprocal roaming agreements with Sprint.

Sprint's deal with VTel provides a window into how the deals will work. VTel is running an LTE-only network using the 700 MHz C Block, AWS and 2.5 GHz spectrum. Sprint's deployment of 2.5 GHz LTE, especially using its new 8T9R radio heads, is a key factor in how it plans to set itself apart from the competition. The radios, combined with carrier aggregation technology, are expected to provide significant speed boosts compared to Sprint's current LTE deployment. If Sprint can get rural LTE partners to deploy such technology, it will extend its LTE network footprint and increase the size of the device and network ecosystem for 2.5 GHz LTE in the US market, which could lower costs.

Microsoft Puts Data Privacy on Its Branding Agenda

As some of its competitors have been battered over their policies for protecting student data, Microsoft has sought to make sure that the issue -- and what it regards as its strong record on privacy -- remain firmly in the public eye.

But as the company moves aggressively to position itself as a protector of student-data privacy, some say it also runs the risk of a backlash if it doesn't back up its talk with the kind of vigilance the technology giant promises to deliver.

Benton

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