Communications-related Headlines for 11/03/97

Television
NYT: Advertising: GM Sponsors Documentary Maker to Reach PBS Viewers
NYT: Could NBC Live Without "E.R."?
NYT: Satellite TV Provider Waits for World to Catch Up
B&C: Tauzin ponders program-access "fine-tune"

Internet
WSJ: Senate Internet Panel to Probe Microsoft's Power
NYT: Publication Date Open to Dispute In Internet Age
NYT: No Card Necessary at Net Libraries
NYT: Going From a Crawl to a Run
NYT: B-schools are gearing up for electronic commerce
WSJ: Looney Tunes Will Soon Star in Web Ads

FCC
B&C: It's the Kennard FCC now

Mergers
TelecomAM: Merger Mania Rages On
TelecomAM: Justice Seeks Additional Info from Worldcom on MCI Deal
TelecomAM: Worldcom and BT Chiefs Differ On Outcome of MCI Deal
WSJ: MCI Brass Set Out to Rally Dispirited Troops
WP: The Region and the Revolution

InfoTech
WSJ: Diamond Multimedia's New Modem Uses 2 Phone Lines to Double Speed

** Television **

Title: Advertising: GM Sponsors Documentary Maker to Reach PBS Viewers
Source: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/gm-burns-ad-column.html
Author: Robyn Meredith
Issue: Advertising
Description: The latest Ken Burns documentary, Lewis and Clark, begins
Tuesday on PBS. Before and after each two-part program, General Motors will
run a 15-second commercial promoting its sponsorship of the film (and
slipping in a reference to the cars it sells). The automaker has spent
$15-20 million over the last ten years sponsoring Mr. Burns' films. "These
are my Medicis; these are my patrons," says the film maker. GM values the
spots because of the demographics of the PBS audience: they have higher
incomes and education levels than the average commercial television viewer.
The best part according to Mr. Burns: "They don't tell me how to make films
and I don't tell them how to make cars."

Title: Could NBC Live Without "E.R."?
Source: New York Times (D1)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/tv-bidding-media.html
Author: Bill Carter
Issue: Television Economics
Description: Warner Brothers is preparing to demand $10 million per episode
for highly-rated show NBC. Most hour-long dramas get about $1 million per
episode and ER probably gets $2 million per right now. All four major
networks appear eager to land the prized show in this "NFL-type deal." The
show appears central to any network's plan on becoming #1.

Title: Satellite TV Provider Waits for World to Catch Up
Source: New York Times (D1)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/ussb-stock.html
Author: Geraldine Fabrikant
Issue: Satellite
Description: Stanley S. Hubbard, founder of the United States Satellite
Broadcasting Company, has stayed true to a vision of providing satellite TV
for 16 years. USSB now delivers DirecTV which includes Time Warner and
Viacom programming like HBO, the Movie Channle, MTV, and Nickelodeon.
Because of the unwieldy agreements between the two companies, many analysts
believe that the two companies should merge, but Mr. Hubbard does not appear
keen on the idea. DirecTV/USSB is the industry leader now, but #3 player
Echo Star is approaching the one-million customer mark and is growing at a
rate faster than DirecTV.

Title: Tauzin ponders program-access "fine-tune"
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.22)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: Paige Albiniak
Issue: Cable
Description: After receiving complaints that cable programming does not come
cheap or easy, Rep Billy Tauzin (R-LA) may fine-tune cable program-access
rules. Cable programmers are supposed to provide their services to cable
competitors (like DBS and Baby Bell Ameritech which is building new cable
systems in the Midwest) on the same terms as they do to cable operators. But
vertically integrated programmers are not complying, competitors say.

** Internet **

Title: Senate Internet Panel to Probe Microsoft's Power
Source: Wall Street Journal (B2)
http://www.wsj.com/
Author: John R. Wilke
Issue: Internet Regulation
Description: "Microsoft now has the ability to virtually annihilate any
competitive product it wants by bringing it into the next version of
Windows," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch. He
continued, "there's evidence that they are aggressively seeking to extend
that monopoly to the Internet, and policy makers have to be concerned about
it." Hatch's rising alarm about this issue has given bipartisan political
support to the new antitrust chief, Joel Klein. Kevin Arquit, a former FTC
official, has agreed to testify that Microsoft is poised to dominate
information and commerce on the 'Net. "If they control content on the
Internet, they can control the information people get, and that is a serious
public policy concern." Microsoft has continued to deny the allegations in
their entirety, with a spokesman saying recently, "We don't believe anyone
is going to be the gatekeeper of the Internet."

Title: Publication Date Open to Dispute In Internet Age
Source: New York Times (D1)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/110397libel.html
Author: Robin Pogrebin
Issue: Publishing
Description: Online publishing has raised a number of questions like 1) who
is the publisher -- the electronic carrier or the magazine company; 2) where
is the publishing location -- where the work is uploaded or downloaded; and
3) when is the publication date -- when a work is available online or in
paper. The latter question came before the courts last week when Business
Week contended that New York's one-year statute of limitations for libel
claims expired one year after an issue of the magazine was made available
online.

Title: No Card Necessary at Net Libraries
Source: New York Times (D4)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/sites/110397sites.html
Author: John Dvorak
Issue: Libraries
Description: The proliferation of library websites is a lesser-known story
of the Internet. Many university and public libraries are making their card
catalogs available on the Web -- and, coupled with interlibrary loans, this
is making research a lot easier. But some sites are also making the full
text of some works available online, too: "in essence creating a virtual
research library reading room." Library Webmasters also provide some of the
best lists of favorite sites -- often a useful alternative to search engines
like Yahoo. Story includes a number of useful links like Public Libraries
with online services
http://sjcpl.lib.in.us/homepage/PublicLibraries/PubLibSrvsGpherWWW.html#www
srv, the Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/, and New York Public
Library http://www.nypl.org/. [For more on libraries in the digital age
see Local Places, Global Connections: Libraries in the Digital Age
http://www.benton.org/Library/Libraries/ and Buildings, books, and bytes:
Libraries and communities in the digital age
http://www.benton.org/Library/Kellogg/buildings.html]

Title: Going From a Crawl to a Run
Source: New York Times (D5)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/110397web.html
Author: Sreenath Sreenivasan
Issue: Internet Content
Description: A look at Eliot Christian and the Global Information Locator
Service (GILS) http://www.fedworld.gov/gils. The project started as a way
to make global environmental data more accessible and is now a far-reaching
collaboration between government agencies, industry, and academia in the US
and elsewhere to make standardize government data access. Says the
University of Pittsburgh's Toni Carbo, "The US Government is the world's
largest producer and user of information. For business executives,
researchers and individual citizens to have access to that information is
essential. GILS helps in that process because it serves as an atlas that
combines all the maps to the territory in one place."

Title: B-schools are gearing up for electronic commerce
Source: New York Times (D5)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/digicom/110397digicom.html
Author: Peter Lewis
Issue: Electronic Commerce
Description: Business schools are beginning to graduate a new breed of MBAs
that are "degree-carrying specialists in electronic commerce." Vanderbilt's
Professor Donna Hoffman says, "It sells management short to say that the
Internet is just another tool. What we teach here is that this is a
revolution. And it's very important to understand how the unique elements of
this interactive medium can be used to devise new ways of competing and new
strategies. See Vandy's Project 2000 http://www2000.ogsm.vanderbilt.edu/
as well as the Center for Research and Electronic Commerce at UT Austin
http://cism.bus.utexas.edu.

Title: Looney Tunes Will Soon Star in Web Ads
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://www.wsj.com/
Author: Jared Sandberg
Issue: Advertising On-Line
Description: Today, Warner Bros. will announce a technology-licensing
accord that will make characters like Bugs Bunny and Wile E. Coyote become a
new breed of "Web spokes-characters". The hope is that these characters will
win over consumers who usually balk at interactive advertising, encouraging
corporate advertisers to sign up to sponsor the characters' Web wanderings.
Aaron Sugarman, VP and creative director of Agency.com Ltd., said, "Right
now the Net is all too quiet...it's an unusual and uncomfortable brand
space, because you're used to marketing communications singing and dancing.
You don't see that on the Web."

** FCC **

Title: It's the Kennard FCC now
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.6)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: Paige Albiniak & Chris McConnell
Issue: FCC
Description: After confirmation of William Kennard, Gloria Tristani, Michael
Powell and Harold Furchtgott-Roth last week, the new commissioners are
expected to sworn in today in a private ceremony. Vice President Gore plans
an open "formal" swearing in by weeks end. (Mr. Powell and Mr.
Furchtgott-Roth are not expected to attend that ceremony).

** Mergers **

Title: Merger Mania Rages On
Source: Telecom A.M.---Nov. 3, 1997
http://www.capitol( at )cappubs.com
Issue: Mergers
Description: The scale of merger and acquisition activity in the U.S. has
hit a record with transactions valued at $749 billion so far this year. The
worldwide record is $1,305 billion worth of takeovers announced so far this
year. After the U.S., Europe ranks second with $335 billion in deals, and
Asia ranks third with $69 billion in takeovers. Gary Parr, co-head of global
mergers and acquisitions at Morgan Stanley, said the boom had been driven by
"certain industries undergoing dramatic consolidation due to deregulation
and globalization." He also said, "The bulk of merger activity is strategic
and a number of industries are still very fragmented. There is a lot more to
be done."

Title: Justice Seeks Additional Info from Worldcom on MCI Deal
Source: Telecom A.M---Nov. 3, 1997
http://www.capitol( at )cappubs.com
Issue: Mergers
Description: The Dept. of Justice has asked Worldcom for additional info
on its bid for MCI in order to satisfy the stipulations of the
Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1967. Worldcom "fully
expected" the request, and used the chance to build its case in print in a
release on the issue. It said that a Worldcom/MCI deal would "accelerate
competition--especially in the local markets--by creating a company with the
capital, marketing abilities and a state-of-the-art network."

Title: Worldcom and BT Chiefs Differ On Outcome of MCI Deal
Source: Telecom A.M.---Nov. 3, 1997
http://www.capitol( at )cappubs.com
Issue: Merger
Description: Where the MCI deal is headed next amidst all of the
massive bids for its shares is now the subject of rising controversy.
Investors expressed concern about the impact of turbulence in the U.S. stock
market on Worldcom's all-stock bid for MCI. Worldcom's stock, as it stands
now, is valued less than what they offered for each of MCI's $40 shares. Sir
Peter Bonfield, a BT chief exec, said BT believes that its 20% stake in MCI
and it 75% ownership of their joint venture, Concert Communications, gives
it "significant rights" that could influence the outcome of the merger
battle. He refused to elaborate.

Title: MCI Brass Set Out to Rally Dispirited Troops
Source: Wall Street Journal (B1)
http://www.wsj.com/
Author: John Helyar
Issue: Mergers
Description: MCI spotted a disturbing trend following the three
record-breaking bids: sales slumped. In an effort to "rally the troops" at
MCI, a new campaign code-named "Rainmaker" was designed to reassure and
reaffirm faith in the company in employees, customers, and even competitors.
The campaign's running theme is "MCI: Our star is rising. Rise with it." Its
message to competitors is slightly different, however: "Our prime motive is as
always: crushing you in the marketplace with better products, prices, and
service." MCI officials insist that this isn't an effort to counter
demoralization, sales actually perked up after each downturn. They merely
want to get in front of a problem that could only get worse as the bidding
war rages on. "We probably overreacted, but it puts us in an offensive
position," says Brian Brewer, a business-markets senior VP who heads the
campaign. "That's vintage MCI."

Title: The Region and the Revolution
Source: Washington Business (WashTech, p.21)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-11/03/0111-110397-idx.html
Author: Mike Mills
Issue: Mergers
Description: The Washington region has been central to the era of
competitive telecommunications ever since William McGowan moved MCI Corp. to
the District 25 years ago this fall. Communications technology companies
have employed at 86,000 people and have a combined revenue of $26 billion,
according to the Potomac Knowledgeway Project. On Oct. 21 nearly a thousand
people came to N. Virginia to hear from Nextel's founder Morgan O'Brien;
Orion Network Systems Chairman John Puente; LCI Internat'l Corp. Chairman
Brian Thompson; cellular financier Mark Warner; and Mario Marino, a software
millionaire. Marino said, "The region possesses a remarkable concentration
in the communications sector...it is arguably the hub of the
telecommunications industry..." The region's strength as a technology center
is focused on telecommunications and information, rather than computing.
"But," Marino continued, "we are now beginning to usher in a new era of the
convergence of communication, computing and content."

** Info Tech **

Title: Diamond Multimedia's New Modem Uses 2 Phone Lines to Double Speed
Source: Wall Street Journal (B8)
http://www.wsj.com
Author: Lee Gomes
Issue: Info Tech
Description: Diamond Multimedia Systems is to unveil today a modem that
connects to two phone lines and runs 112 kilobits, twice as fast as the
current top speed for one phone line. These "bonded modems" are expected to
cost under $200 and will ship out early next year. Nearly on quarter of
U.S. homes have more than one phone line. This new modem is likely to be
only "stopgap technology", with even faster systems like the cable modem and
"subscriber digital link" technology that promises connection speeds in the
millions of bits per second.
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