BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FEBRUARY 6, 2010 (SUPER BOWL EDITION)
MEDIA AND ELECTIONS
Super Bowl Ads Vs. Political Campaigns
The Press After Citizens United
It's A Whole New Political Ad Ballgame
Borrell: $4.2 Billion In 2010 Political Spend
Newspapers Expected to Get Less than 10% of Political Ad Dollars this Year
BROADBAND/INTERNET
South Carolina and Rhode Island Win Broadband Stimulus Grants
TCC Offers Broadband Plan Goals
Fiber Broadband Subscribers to Total 106 Million Worldwide in 2014
MEDIA OWNERSHIP
If Comcast and NBC CEOs Will Fib to Congress, How Do You Trust Them About Broadband's Future?
See also:Senate Hearing Examines Comcast-NBC Deal
Comcast Pleased With Round One
BUDGET
Members of Congress like Obama's tech proposals to track health quality, fraud
Federal CIO begins selling huge IT consolidation plan
Impending storm highlights telework at agencies
THE STIMULUS
One-third of stimulus money is allocated
NIST Issues Expanded Draft of Smart Grid Cyber Security Strategy For Public Review and Comment
PRIVACY
What Do Behavioral Targeters Know About You?
Apple tells developers that location-based advertising is a no-no
HEALTH
Blumenthal: Meaningful use must stretch - not break - providers
More than half of Americans use Internet for health
Site Gives Examples of Health IT Successes
MORE ONLINE
A telecom veteran, Baker stands firm on network neutrality, spectrum plan | Tampa Pubcaster Nominated for International Broadcasting Bureau | RUS asks about Changes to Telephone Loan Program | PTC Is Bleeping Happy With CBS Grammy Coverage | FCC Levies Fines on Four Stations For Failing to Keep Proper Records | FCC Collecting VoIP Info | Pulitzers Decline National Enquirer's Entry, But That's Just Tip of the Iceberg | Cellular Signal Boosters Get FCC Look | Google attacks: A wake-up call or curtain call for agencies? | Will E-Ink Go the Way of Plasma? iPad Bets Yes
MEDIA AND ELECTIONS
SUPER BOWL ADS VS POLITICAL ADS
[SOURCE: National Public Radio, AUTHOR: Peter Overby]
The going rate for Super Bowl ads is about $2.5 million. That $2.5 million buys you just 30 seconds. Which raises the question: How far would $2.5 million go in politics? Evan Tracey, president of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, a firm that tracks political ads on TV, says that amount of money "could go a long way in a competitive congressional race this year. Tracey mentioned Arkansas, where Blanche Lincoln may be the most vulnerable Senate Democrat this year. "You could certainly get, you know, two or three months of a pretty consistent message out there," Tracey says, on how far $2.5 million would go in that market. This is hardly great news for Lincoln, who had $5 million on hand — on Jan. 1. That was pretty good, until 20 days later, when the Supreme Court opened the door for corporate spending. Now that $5 million is less likely to scare off challengers.
benton.org/node/31979 | National Public Radio
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THE PRESS AFTER CITIZENS UNITED
[SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Clint Hendler]
In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, what new stories or obligations present themselves to political reporters and editors working in this new era of money and politics? For the most part, campaign finance watchers say, the changes will mostly be related to scale. With more corporate money (and speech) poised to enter the fray, traditional watchdog reporting will become even more important. In the meanwhile, there remain plenty of open questions about the decision's full impact and legal attempts to stem it. Tracking their resolution will be fertile ground for stories. Congress and the President have floated various proposals—ranging from a constitutional amendment to more modest legislative patches—to undo the ruling's broadest effects. Eight justices (all but Thomas) agreed that government could continue to regulate disclosure of the newly allowed expenditures.
benton.org/node/31980 | Columbia Journalism Review
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IT'S A WHOLE NEW POLITICAL AD BALLGAME
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Steve Lanzano]
Rarely has the political landscape changed so dramatically virtually overnight. The twin events of the takeover of Ted Kennedy's Senate seat by Republican Scott Brown and the Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court have not just entranced Washington, but also Madison Avenue. Analysts of all persuasions, including TVB, are anticipating a cascade of political dollars during 2010. How should broadcasters be telling advertisers of all kinds to prepare for it? First, let's look at the changed political landscape. The Brown win has energized the Republican Party. It will be a great boost for fundraising and for fielding more competitive candidates. It is clear there will now be a record number of tight races in the House this fall — as many as 70 — as well as hot gubernatorial and Senate races. But the news that has the media community most excited is the 5-4 Supreme Court ruling overturning key elements of the McCain-Feingold Act. The ruling allows corporations, unions, trade associations, interest groups and individuals to advertise directly for or against the election of specific candidates. And there is no blackout period. Groups had previously been barred from advertising 60 days prior to Election Day. So what's our take-away? Clearly both the Brown victory and the new unrestricted class of candidate advertiser are going to put upward pressure on 2010 campaign spending. How much? Nobody knows. But estimates of plus $300 million to $500 million, reported in the press, seem to be appropriate.
benton.org/node/31978 | TVNewsCheck
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$4.2 BILLION IN POLITICAL ADS IN 2010
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: ]
Declaring the birth of "the endless campaign," Borrell Associates predicts that the growth of issue advertising and a recent Supreme Court ruling have changed the pattern of political ad spending in the U.S., erasing the peaks and valleys of the on- and off-year forecasts of the recent past and replacing them with a more even, continuous outlay. This year, candidates and issue advertisers will spend a record $4.2 billion on advertising, with TV stations commanding "the lion's share" and the Internet garnering only 1% of outlays, according to a new Borrell report. Almost three-fourths of the total will be spent locally, the report says.
benton.org/node/31977 | TVNewsCheck | Borrell
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NEWSPAPERS EXPECTED TO GET LESS THAN 10% OF POLITICAL ADS
[SOURCE: Editor&Publisher, AUTHOR: Jennifer Saba]
Political advertising spending is forecasted to reach $4.2 billion in 2010 -- but newspapers are only expected to get less than 8% of those dollars, according to a new report from Borrell Associates. Which is not to say that spending overall has subsided. The pickup in political advertising has only gathered strength since the 2000 elections, the authors of the report noted. Last year was relatively quiet on the political front, yet spending outpaced 2000 levels. The recent Supreme Court ruling that allows corporations to now spend on politics caused Borrell analysts to bump up its forecast 10%. Still, while the kitty grows, the way candidates and advocacy groups spend it hasn't changed at all. The lion's share of political advertising dollars will be spent on broadcast TV. According to the forecast, broadcast TV is anticipated to capture 63% of political ad dollars, followed by a very distant second cable TV with a 9.1% share. Expect candidates to rely more on social networking than online advertising, since only 1% or $45 million of political dollars are expected to flow to Internet ads. That's up 73% from 2008 levels.
benton.org/node/31981 | Editor&Publisher
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BROADBAND/INTERNET
SOUTH CAROLINA AND RHODE ISLAND WIN BROADBAND STIMULUS GRANTS
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration]
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced a $5.9 million Recovery Act grant that will expand broadband Internet access at the South Carolina Technical College System's 16 member colleges across the state. The investment will help bridge the technological divide, improve education, and help more South Carolinians gain the skills needed to compete in the 21st century workforce. The grant was awarded to the South Carolina State Board for Technical and Comprehensive Education. Its S.C. "Reach for Success" project proposes to expand the capacity of 51 public computer centers and create 19 new computer labs at the South Carolina Technical College System's 16 member colleges. The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration also announced a $1.2 million Recovery Act that will expand broadband Internet access at Rhode Island's 71 public libraries across the state. The grant will go to OSHEAN Inc., a consortium of not-for-profit organizations, which will use the funding to replace 327 existing computers and add more than 403 new workstations in Rhode Island libraries. The expanded capacity is expected to allow the libraries to serve more than 6,900 additional users per week.
benton.org/node/31993 | National Telecommunications and Information Administration | NTIA | BroadbandBreakfast.com
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TCC OFFERS BROADBAND PLAN GOALS
[SOURCE: Technology CEO Council, AUTHOR: Ann Morton]
Technology CEO Council, a lobbying group for the information technology industry, is making the rounds at the Federal Communications Commission, trying to impact the National Broadband Plan. TCC suggests the FCC establish metrics and clear goals; increase broadband adoption and investment; make more spectrum available for broadband; and use broadband to achieve national policy priorities in the areas of health IT, education and public safety. The TCC also highlighted the importance of tax, trade and research policies to complement infrastructure efforts and maximize investment, jobs and growth in the U.S. TCC suggests the following goals:
Year 5: increase household adoption rate from 65% to 85% by 2015.
Year 10: increase household adoption rate from 85% to 90% by 2020.
benton.org/node/31992 | Technology CEO Council | Recommendations
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FIBER BROADBAND SUBSCRIBERS TO TOTAL 106 MILLION WORLDWIDE IN 2014
[SOURCE: ABI Research, AUTHOR: Press release]
The number of fixed broadband subscribers will rise to 501 million at the end of 2014, according to new market data released by ABI Research. Of those, about 106 million will subscribe to services delivered via fiber. Fiber broadband subscribers totaled 44 million at the end of 2009. The number of fixed broadband subscribers totaled more than 422 million at the end of 2009, a 9% increase from 2008. ABI Research industry analyst Serene Fong notes that, "Broadband penetration continues to increase since more service providers are offering triple-play services and driving down access prices." Among the three broadband technologies, 65% of worldwide fixed broadband consumers subscribe to DSL, 25% to cable and 11% to fiber broadband services. The number of fiber broadband subscribers is increasing fastest, showing a compound annual growth rate of 20% from 2008 to 2014. The Asia-Pacific region has the highest fiber broadband penetration, followed by North America. Asia-Pacific represents nearly 84% of worldwide fiber broadband subscribers. South Korea and Japan have the highest fiber broadband penetration. NTT is the largest fiber broadband operator with approximately 12 million subscribers. In 2009, Western Europe had only about two million fiber broadband subscribers — a very low penetration compared to North America and Asia Pacific, although Western European countries are planning to accelerate fiber broadband penetration.
benton.org/node/31991 | ABI Research
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MEDIA OWNERSHIP
COMCAST, NBC EXECS CAUGHT FIBBING
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
[Commentary] Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and NBC CEO Jeff Zucker went in front of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust and Competition and the House Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications to defend their proposed merger. And while "Say Anything" was actually produced by competitor 20th Century Fox, that seemed to be the mantra of both CEO, as both got caught out in some creative truth stretching -- if not outright lies. [more at the url below]
benton.org/node/31987 | Huffington Post, The
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COMCAST PLEASED WITH ROUND ONE
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
Following two congressional hearings Thursday on Comcast's proposed acquisition of NBC Universal, Comcast Executive Vice President David L. Cohen said in a blog post Friday that "we feel that we took an important step forward" in the firms' efforts to gain approval of their deal from federal regulators. In his blog post, Cohen offered a point-by-point recap of the hearings, saying that "we think that Brian [Roberts] and Jeff [Zucker] were able to articulate why this transaction is pro-consumer and strongly in the public interest."
benton.org/node/31964 | CongressDaily | Comcast | The Deal | WashPost
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BUDGET
CONGRESS LIKES TECH PROPOSALS
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Aliya Sternstein]
Former House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) praised a proposal in President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget request that would make it possible to cull data from claims in systems at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to measure quality of health care and to link payments to performance. The fiscal 2011 budget released on Monday recommends $110 million go toward transforming the CMS data collection system from an infrastructure that merely processes claims to one that can analyze and share health care performance data. The goal is to use the resulting assessments, in part, to promote value-based purchasing, a contracting approach that ties provider and plan payments to the quality of care provided. At Thursday's hearing on the president's budget, Rep Dingell pressed Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to make sure the department commits to sustaining the project and holds contractors accountable to avoid the numerous system modernization failures he has witnessed during his five decades-long career.
benton.org/node/31986 | nextgov
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FEDERAL IT CONSOLIDATION
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Bob Brewin]
The federal government's top technology executive has developed a grand plan to centralize information technology services for all non-Defense Department agencies, as detailed deep in President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget and briefed to IT industry officials this week. The consolidation plan, as outlined in the budget in a section titled "Special Topics," envisions the selection of central IT service providers in civilian agencies, strongly backs remote or cloud computing, calls for consolidation of the 1,100 data centers throughout government and pushes the use of so-called federal eMalls to purchase computer hardware. The plan, devised under the supervision of Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, is "brilliant" because it will relieve federal CIOs of the burden of being chief computer officers and allow them to focus on using IT to deliver services to citizens, said Jeff Koch, an associate partner in IBM's strategy and change practice who worked on electronic government initiatives in the Office of Management and Budget during the Bush administration.
benton.org/node/31973 | nextgov
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TELEWORK
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Alyssa Rosenberg]
A massive winter storm bearing down on the Washington area and the release of President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget recommendation this week have drawn attention to the administration's efforts to increase telework in federal agencies. "This severe weather forecast presents a key opportunity for agencies to test their telework plans in the context of emergency preparedness," Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry wrote to the government's chief human capital officers in a Feb. 4 memo encouraging them to allow agency employees with existing telework agreements to work remotely on Friday. The metropolitan region's second major snowstorm of the season -- which could dump more than a foot of snow -- is scheduled to begin in late morning or early afternoon on Friday. As of Thursday afternoon, the federal government in Washington was operating under an unscheduled leave policy. Employees who are unable to make it into the office on Friday can take leave, but they must inform their supervisors that they plan to do so. Emergency employees are expected to report to work.
benton.org/node/31972 | nextgov
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THE STIMULUS
ON-THIRD OF STIMULUS ALLOCATED
[SOURCE: FederalTimes, AUTHOR: Gregg Carlstrom]
The federal government has allocated more than a third of the $787 billion in economic stimulus funds, and stimulus programs created roughly 600,000 jobs in the quarter that ended Dec. 31, according to new data posted on Recovery.gov, the stimulus oversight Web site. The spending includes roughly $199 billion in contracts, grants and loans, and about $93 billion in tax cuts. Most of the spending came in the form of grants — and nearly half of those came from the Education Department, which has awarded roughly $71.5 billion so far. Critics say the jobs numbers are still imprecise. Craig Jennings, a fiscal policy analyst with the nonprofit OMB Watch, says the data should present the number of hours worked, rather than the number of full-time jobs created, since the definition of full-time job varies from state to state; the data should also try to include qualitative measures, like whether jobs provide benefits, Jennings said. One new report, from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, concluded the job numbers might be too low: The report found that 84 percent of stimulus spending to date — tax relief, entitlement spending and direct payments to states — is not covered by Recovery reporting. "There is substantial reason to believe that this 84 percent includes some of the most effective job-creation and job-protection measures," the report said.
benton.org/node/31969 | FederalTimes
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PRIVACY
WHAT DO BEHAVIORAL TARGETERS KNOW ABOUT YOU?
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Liz Gannes]
While relevant advertising is the only kind that's useful, it's creepy to see behavioral ads following you around the web, advertising that trip to Hawaii you'd researched last week when you're just trying to read the news. But perhaps it would be a lot less creepy if you knew when and where you were sharing your data, and when and why you're being targeted by ads. To that end, you can find out exactly what cookies BlueKai has on you. BlueKai says it is the largest U.S. behavioral data provider, and just raised a third round of $21 million while kicking off its third year of existence Head over to BlueKai's registry and you can see, item by item, recent categories you've been slotted into based on your browsing history.
benton.org/node/31975 | GigaOm
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APPLE TELLS DEVS THAT LOCATION-BASED ADVERTISING IS A NO-NO
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Chris Foresman]
In a recent post to its iPhone Developers news site, Apple warned developers not to use location data to serve location-specific ads in their apps. The move comes shortly after Apple acquired its own mobile advertising firm, Quattro Wireless. Apple wants developers to use CoreLocation, the API that allows developers to find your location based on GPS coordinates and other data, to give users "beneficial information." This concept is at work when Yelp shows you nearby restaurants, or when RunKeeper tracks your jogging progress on a map. However, the company warns, "[i]f your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user's location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store."
benton.org/node/31989 | Ars Technica | ReadWriteWeb
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HEALTH
MEANINGFUL USE TO STRETCH PROVIDERS
[SOURCE: GovernemntHealthIT, AUTHOR: Mary Mosquera]
Dr. David Blumenthal, the national health IT coordinator, said that he wants to "stretch" the healthcare community but not "break" it in setting the conditions under which providers can qualify for financial incentives to use health IT. That's how he described how his office will determine how high to set the bar for physicians and hospitals to become "meaningful users" of electronic health records. Blumenthal spoke at a joint presentation of the Health IT Government Leaders, Health Information Ex change and HIPAA summits Feb. 4. The proposed rule uses an escalator concept, which guides providers toward increasingly sophisticated uses of EHRs with the help of financial incentives and support from health IT technical training centers and state health information exchanges. The administration wants to encourage the participation of physicians and hospitals in the program and prevent their dropping out once they've started, Blumenthal said.
benton.org/node/31974 | GovernemntHealthIT
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