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  2. January 2016

January 2016

FCC Chairman Proposal to Unlock the Set-Top Box: Creating Choice and Innovation

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would tear down anti-competitive barriers and pave the way for software, devices and other innovative solutions to compete with the set-top boxes that a majority of consumers must lease today. The proposal will be voted by the full Commission on February 18, 2016. This proposal is about one thing: consumer choice. Consumers should have options created by competition. The Chairman’s proposal will let innovators create and then let consumers choose.

The Chairman’s proposal will create a framework for providing innovators, device manufacturers and app developers the information they need to develop new technologies. Consumers should be able to choose how they access the Multichannel Video Programming Distributor’s (MVPDs) – cable, satellite or telco companies – video services to which they subscribe. For example, consumers should be able to have the choice of accessing programming through the MVPD-provided interface on a pay-TV set-top box or app, or through devices such as a tablet or smart TV using a competitive app or software. MVPDs and competitors should be able to differentiate themselves and compete based on the experience they offer users, including the quality of the user interface and additional features like suggested content, integration with home entertainment systems, caller ID and future innovations. To ensure a competitive marketplace as required by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the proposal identifies three core information streams that must pass from MVPDs to the creators of competitive devices or apps:
Service discovery: Information about what programming is available to the consumer, such as the channel listing and video-on-demand lineup, and what is on those channels.
Entitlements: Information about what a device is allowed to do with content, such as recording.
Content delivery: The video programming itself.

Future of TV Coalition Formed to Fight 'AllVid'

While Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler was unveiling his proposal to "unlock" cable boxes, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, American Cable Association, Motion Picture Association of America and a host of others were unveilling the Future of TV Coalition to beat the FCC to the consumer video choice punch. The coalition, cochaired by Alfred Liggins of TV One and Nomi Bergman of Bright House, will celebrate and promote what its 47 members say is the already thriving innovation in video experience options to provide even more choices. Look for it to be making that point loudly to the FCC as the commission collects comments on Chairman Wheeler's proposal, which was premised on the assertion that the video access device market instead needed a competitive boost because choices were few and prices high, with consumers "chained to their set-top boxes because cable and satellite operators have locked up the market." "The ‘AllVid’ proposal is a brazen money grab by Big Tech companies that would do severe damage to the programming ecosystem, and in particular, niche and minority-focused networks," said Liggins. "Everyone who cares about quality, diverse television should let the FCC know that AllVid is a harmful non-starter.”

Separately, Public Knowledge's John Bergmayer said, "By moving forward with a rulemaking, the Commission has taken an important step to unleash competition among devices used to access television programming by making it easy for people to access the TV they pay for on devices and through apps of their choice."

Here’s the real reason Donald Trump and Fox News are feuding: It’s good for business.

[Commentary] The debate between Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Fox News has already gotten a huge amount of media coverage, and the prospect of the confrontation between Trump and Megyn Kelly will boost ratings even further. The network will make more money, and it won’t really lose anything. After all, everybody knew already that Trump isn’t afraid to stand up to them, and by keeping Kelly as one of the debate moderators they can look like principled journalists who don’t back down to bullying.

As I’ve noted before, Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes’ genius has always lay in his ability to simultaneously achieve two goals with Fox: generating huge profits, and serving the interests of the Republican Party (as those interests are understood by Roger Ailes). Everything that has happened with Trump in this campaign shows that Fox’s power to do the latter has its limits; Ailes might have liked to use Fox to destroy Trump and the threat he poses to the party, but that turned out not to be possible. In the end, Trump gets what he wants (lots of media attention, and a reinforcement of his persona as a guy who goes around pissing everyone off because he’s so brave and politically incorrect) and Fox get what it wants (viewers and ad revenue). Everybody wins.

Donald Trump, remade by reality TV

Before Donald Trump made great reality TV, before his campaign to make American reality great, he never watched any of the shows. He didn’t like the whole idea of reality TV. “That’s for the bottom feeders of society,” Trump told friends. Then, in 2002, “Survivor” creator Mark Burnett came to see him at Trump Tower. “The Apprentice” would star Trump as judge, jury and executioner in a weekly winnowing of young go-getters vying to run one of his businesses. Trump’s agent told him it was a terrible idea — business shows never work on TV, he said. Trump disagreed. Indeed, he fired the agent shortly thereafter. “If I would have listened to him,” Trump said, “I wouldn’t have done the show.”

"My jet’s going to be in every episode,” he told Jim Dowd, then NBC’s publicity director and now head of a PR firm, Dowd Ink. “Even if it doesn’t get ratings, it’s still going to be great for my brand.” The show’s instant success had a powerful impact on its star. “The Donald Trump I saw the day before ‘The Apprentice’ premiered was very different from the guy I walked to nine national interviews the first day after the show aired,” Dowd said. “People on the street embraced him. He was mobbed. All of a sudden, there was none of the old mocking, the old New York Post image of him with the wives and the parties. He was a hero, and he had not been one before. He told me, ‘I’ve got the name recognition, but I don’t have the love and respect of Middle America.’ Now he did. That was the bridge to the current campaign.”

Awaiting FCC Action, Special Access Data Generates Controversy

Just days after opponents said they expect special access data collected by the Federal Communications Commission to show that the special access market is not competitive, USTelecom said the data will show just the opposite. USTelecom represents incumbent carriers, including some of the nation’s largest companies such as AT&T and Verizon. "From our review it appears [there are] competitive facilities in the vast majority of census blocks in the US,” said Jon Banks, senior vice president of law and policy for USTelecom.

But what about the percentage of individual buildings within a census block? In big cities, Banks said, a census block is generally one block – and if a competitive carrier has extended its network to at least one location on that block, it shouldn’t be difficult to bring service to other buildings if needed. Overall, the special access data will show that the market is competitive – and it has become even more competitive since the data was gathered in 2013, Banks said. To promote its viewpoint, USTelecom has launched the “Innovate with Us” website, which according to a USTelecom spokesperson will be highlighted in a targeted digital campaign. “[W]e are asking the FCC to innovate with us and support businesses, consumers and the economy by continuing to champion pro-investment policies that look beyond yesterday’s technology toward networks of the future,” says USTelecom on the new website.

Look out, Cisco: Major telcos join Facebook's open hardware push

Big telecommunication companies including Verizon and AT&T have joined a Facebook-led project to build low-cost computing hardware, posing a fresh challenge for network vendors like Cisco and Juniper. The companies have signed onto the Open Compute Project (OCP), a non-profit set up by Facebook in which end-user companies get together and design their own, no-frills hardware including servers, network and storage gear.

The OCP members can include just the capabilities they need in a product, free of the "gratuitous differentiation" that bumps up prices in equipment from traditional vendors. They enlist low-cost manufacturers in Asia to produce the equipment. The OCP has focused so far on cloud providers and large enterprises, but telecommunication companies will now submit design specifications for the powerful switches and other gear they use to run the world's communications networks. Besides Verizon and AT&T, other new members include Deutsche Telekom, Korea's SK Telecom and Equinix.

Crowdfunding enables diverse new frontier for journalism projects

A new study by Pew Research Center examines one of these emerging tools: crowdfunded journalism, in which projects can be proposed and funded through online appeals to the public. The report examined the 658 journalism projects funded through Kickstarter, one of the largest single platforms for crowdfunding journalism, from April 28, 2009 (the day it launched) through Sept. 15, 2015. Though the revenue involved and amount of content produced are nowhere near what comes through the more mainstream media, crowdfunding can help bring to reality work that might otherwise not see the light of day. One striking characteristic of these projects is the wide range of initiatives that have received funding. Among the findings:

  • Many serious journalism projects received crowdfunding, but the form allows for projects about less weighty matters as well.
  • Both traditional and high-tech projects have found funding.
  • Seven-in-ten funded projects (71%) have been produced by individuals.

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