For Moscow's Ambitious Mayor, a New Way to Network
F.C.C. Head Opposes Proposal For Ads on Public TV Stations
A Changing Cast Of Media Players
The Next Act for Microsoft
The question is: What is the role of the Ad Council? The answer is: It is
under debate
Megadeals Bolster the Embattled Cable Industry
Readin', Writin', and the Internet
Hundt has not left the building
Getting Better All The Time
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Title: For Moscow's Ambitious Mayor, a New Way to Network
Source: New York Times (A3)
Author: Alessandra Stanley
Issue: International/Television
Description: Center TV debuted in Russia yesterday. The station is owned and
operated by the city of Moscow and its main goal is to spread the image of
Mayor Yuri Luzhkov across the nation. Luzhkov may be running for President
in 2000. "There is no independent television," says Center TV's director.
"It is a politicized business."
Title: F.C.C. Head Opposes Proposal For Ads on Public TV Stations
Source: New York Times (A20)
Author: Lawrie Mifflin
Issue: Public Television
Description: Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt said
yesterday that public television stations should reject the proposal from
Lawrence Grossman to air commercials during primetime on Friday and Saturday
nights. "'Commercial noncommercial TV' is an oxymoron that shouldn't be
tolerated," Hundt said. The Chairman admits that the funding of PBS needs to
be "depoliticized," perhaps by setting up a trust with monies raised in
spectrum auctions.
Title: A Changing Cast Of Media Players
Source: New York Times (D1)
Author: Mark Landler
Issue: Media Mergers
Description: Just four years ago many thought the main media mergers would
be between cable operators and phone companies. In the TCI/Bell Atlantic
deal (which later fell apart) and the USWest/Time Warner deal (which still
may fall apart), the TV screen was seen as the "windshield" through which
the public would get their view of the information superhighway. Cable
companies would act as large video vaults for on demand movies and the
interactivity of the phone network would allow for shopping. With the
announced Microsoft/Comcast deal, we're seeing a shift -- cable systems are
the delivery pipeline and the Internet will provide the interactivity.
Title: The Next Act for Microsoft
Source: New York Times (D1)
Author: Steve Lohr
Issue: Mergers
Description: "microsoft is building a very large, powerful media company,"
says research firm Technology Partners. "What has motivated this push into
media is the search for future growth. And what has attracted Microsoft is
that the media business is going through a transition toward the digital
technology of computers." In addition to the Comcast investment, Microsoft
has teamed with NBC to operate MSNBC, purchased WebTV, and started the
online magazine Slate.
Title: The question is: What is the role of the Ad Council? The answer is:
It is under debate
Source: New York Times (D9)
Author: Stuart Elliott
Issue: Public Service Media
Description: The debate over the ad council center around whether public
service announcements ought to be redefined to reflect market changes.
Television networks have been asked by FCC Chairman Reed Hundt and the Ad
Council to devote one minute of primetime for public service announcements.
The networks believe that they are doing a fine job with PSAs with
celebrities that say Know When to Say When or Stay in School. The Ad Council
counters that although these messages are great, "it's not the same as
speaking in the voice of a nonprofit."
Title: Megadeals Bolster the Embattled Cable Industry
Source: Wall Street Journal (B1)
Author: Mark Robichaux
Issue: Cable/Media Mergers
Description: A few deals made yesterday may significantly help the
not-so-healthy cable industry. Microsoft is going to invest $1 billion in
Comcast Corporation, the nation's fourth largest cable company, and
Tele-Communications and Cablevision Systems are going to swap some assets
so that TCI's big debt is cut and Cablevision gets a part of the lucrative
NYC market. These deals could allow the cable industry to commence
providing digital services.
Title: IBM's Electronic Mall to Close Up Shop
Source: Wall Street Journal (B1)
Author: Thomas E. Weber
Issue: Corporate Retrenchment
Description: IBM's World Avenue cybermall is shutting down after a year
of business. World Avenue did not successfully attract shoppers.
Title: Microsoft Casts a Wider Communications Net
Source: Wall Street Journal (B5)
Author: David Bank
Issue: Media Mergers
Description: "Microsoft Corp.'s first attempt to jump-start interactive
television failed. Now the software giant is trying to create an updated
version by investing heavily in a broad array of communications companies."
Microsoft is going to obtain 11.5% of Comcast, the nation's fourth largest
cable company, for $1 billion. Microsoft is going to use its relationship
with Comcast to speed up the delivery of high-speed networks to homes so
more people will be able to get set-top Internet boxes like those from Web
TV Networks, which Microsoft bought two months ago. Microsoft does not
support the digital TV standard proposed by the broadcast industry and now
will be more able to affect the development of those standards.
Title: TV Channel in Germany Partly Owned by Time Warner Takes Bankruptcy Step
Source: Wall Street Journal (B9)
Author: Cacilie Rohwedder
Issue: Corporate Retrenchment/International
Description: Puls TV initiated bankruptcy proceedings yesterday "dealing an
embarrassing defeat to its owners, which include Time Warner, George Soros
and Central Media Enterprises."
Title: U.S. Households With PCs Exceed 40% for First Time
Source: Wall Street Journal (B9)
Author: WSJ Staff Reporter
Issue: Info tech/low-income
Description: A survey done at the end of last year by Computer
Intelligence indicated that the percentage of US homes with PCs rose to
40.7%. Growth, however, has been slowing overall. Education and income
are strongly linked to ownership. "About 60% of households with annual
income about $40,000 said they have a PC, compared with about 24% of
households with incomes below $35,000...But the lower income buyers made
up 54% of first-timer PC buyers last year."
Title: Database Firms Set Privacy Plan
Source: Washington Post (A1)
Author: Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Issue: Privacy
Description: Eight of the country's biggest consumer database companies,
including Lexis-Nexis, agreed to "limit the kinds of information they
assemble about ordinary people and more closely monitor who uses that data."
The companies will not add information from private marketing databases,
such as shopping preferences and magazine subscriptions, to their records.
Privacy advocates believe that this is a step in the right direction but
point out that the smaller database companies will continue to gather this
type of information. The Center for Democracy and Technology
in Washington
is working with a coalition of companies to create a common protocol so that
users can indicate how much personal information they want made available.
Title: Spam Attack
Source: Washington Post (A16)
Author: WP Editorial Staff
Issue: Internet Regulation
Description: There are two bills under discussion to regulate bulk junk
e-mail, aka SPAM. The bills have very different approaches to regulating
the Internet and are proposed days before the Supreme Court is expected to
rule on the Communications Decency Act. One measure proposed by Rep. Chris
Smith (R-NJ) compares spam to environmental pollution and is similar to a
1991 law that banned junk fax. Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska -- a state
so new no one seems to remember its abbreviation) is sponsoring a measure to
limit commercial email with a v-chip like device (this is also confusing
since few of us could actually tell you what a V-Chip is like) --
"Commercial e-mail would have to be 'tagged' and service providers would
have to supply blocking software that filtered it out on request." It
would be better to wait and see what the Supreme Court says about the
protections for speech on the Internet before Congress goes too much farther
with
either of these bills.
Title: From Satellite TV Matrimony to Acrimony
Source: Washington Post (C1)
Author: Paul Farhi
Issue: Cable
Description: Charlie Ergen of EchoStar was planning to produce a satellite
TV network with Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. Now, however, Ergen and
Murdoch have split and Murdoch is partnering with EchoStar's arch-enemy,
PrimeStar -- owned by several big cable companies. Ergen thinks Murdoch
switched to PrimeStar because Murdoch can't make it without the support of
the cable industry. Murdoch needs cable networks to carry his Fox News
Network and FX movie channel. Murdoch is also competing with Disney to buy
Pat Robertson's International Family Entertainment, Inc and must have TCI's
backing (TCI is one of the owners of Primestar, which in turn owns Tubersol,
the maker of Tuberculin Skin Test Gauges -- ok that last part is not true).
Ergen has filed suit against News Corp for breach-of-contract and may join
in another merger soon because his company is having financial difficulties.
Title: Cablevisions Systems (Digest)
Source: Washington Post (C1)
Author: WP Staff
Issue: Cable
Description: Cablevision Systems is going to buy 10 New York City cable
systems from TCI. The deal eases TCI's debt problems and helps Cablevision
increase its hold in the New York market.
Title: Microsoft to Invest $1 Billion in Comcast
Source: Washington Post C1)
Author: Elizabeth Corcoran
Issue: Media Mergers
Description: Microsoft announced that it would invest $1 billion in Comcast,
the nation's fourth largest pantyhose manufacturer which fronts as a cable
company. This deal is Microsoft's largest investment in another company and
Microsoft hopes to hurry the development of interactive fiber-optic networks
that can carry video and audio to and from the home. Comcast has 4.3
million customers and owns half of home-shopping network QVC and 2/3s of
Philadelphia's basketball and hockey teams. The Comcast investment and the
earlier purchase of Web TV are part of Microsoft's effort to become just as
powerful in digital TV as it is in software, sayeth analysts. Because of
Comcast's sports investments, the NBA and the NHL must approve the deal.
Title: Readin', Writin', and the Internet
Source: Business Week (June, 9 1997)
Author: Stephen H. Wildstrom
Issue: Education Technology
Description: Congress and the Clinton Administration have made
substantial commitments to connect the nation's schools to the Internet.
"The trouble is no one seems to know which of the myriad problems facing
American education Internet access can solve...Student access to the
World Wide Web is useful, but probably less so than access to a good
library." One reason for the confusion is that not enough is being
invested to train teachers and administrators to use these new tools. "A
recent study by the Educational Testing Service found that only 15% of
teachers had received even nine hours of training in educational
technology." There are a couple of initiatives and examples, however, that
can help schools make the most of these ed-tech opportunities, including
Co-Nect schools (http://co-nect.bbn.com), the Global SchoolNet Foundation
(http://www.gsn.org), the Dalton School (http://www.dalton.org), and Netschools
(http://www.netschools.net). Wildstrom invites readers to send examples of
schools doing exceptionally good or bad job with ed tech.
Title: Hundt has not left the building
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.16)
Author: Chris McConnell
Issue: Television
Description: FCC Chairman Reed Hundt still has an agenda for television.
Hundt wants the FCC to address TV journalism, free airtime for candidates,
and broadcast liquor advertising. Hundt's comments are available at
.
At the FCC
Chairman Hundt's 6/9/97 Speech "Getting Better All The Time" to the
Annenberg Public Policy Center's 2nd Annual Conference on Children and
Television
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