BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2012
A look at this week’s agenda including an FCC meeting http://benton.org/calendar/2012-10-14--P1W/
OWNERSHIP
Drafting Antitrust Case, FTC Raises Pressure on Google
How the FTC Could Address Its Concerns About Google Without a Lawsuit - analysis
Sprint Agrees to Sell Majority Stake to SoftBank
Reports: Japan's Softbank eyeing MetroPCS as well as Sprint [links to web]
TELEVISION/RADIO
FCC OKs Basic Service Tier Encryption - public notice
Cumulus Media to add ESPN rival CBS Sports Radio to 47 stations [links to web]
Unique Morning Show on NPR Thrives as Others Slip [links to web]
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
“I’m Sorry Jim” - analysis
Stations Doing Their Bit For Electoral Politics - editorial
Campaigns Mine Personal Lives to Get Out Vote
Candidates turn to geo-targeting in ads [links to web]
TV Debates That Sell More Than Just Drama
Vice-Presidential Debate Draws More Than 50 Million Viewers [links to web]
Peter Berg to Mitt Romney: 'Stop Using 'Friday Night Lights' Line' [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
US ambassador: Internet fee proposal gaining momentum
US Suspects Iranians Were Behind a Wave of Cyberattacks [links to web]
Sen Reid vows fresh effort to pass stalled cybersecurity bill in November [links to web]
Sen Rockefeller Urges Senate Action on Cybersecurity - press release [links to web]
Turning Old Phone Booths Into Digital Information Hubs [links to web]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Sprint Agrees to Sell Majority Stake to SoftBank
How the T-Mobile/MetroPCS merger affects you, the consumer - analysis [links to web]
Spectrum sharing opens a potential attack route [links to web]
FCC Outlines Incentive Auction Workshop [links to web]
A Spectral Incentive Auction? - analysis [links to web]
Three Weeks In, and the iPhone 5 Is Already Dominating the Mobile Web [links to web]
4G on the Baby-Monitor Frequency [links to web]
CONTENT
Kindle Users to Get Refunds and Lower Prices on E-Books After Settlement [links to web]
Paywalls Giving Newspapers Chance at a Comeback [links to web]
No more games: Amazon admits it needs content sales for Kindles to fly [links to web]
Court Hands Huge Victory to Universities' Digitization Efforts - analysis [links to web]
Dark Social: We Have the Whole History of the Web Wrong - analysis [links to web]
When the Most Personal Secrets Get Outed on Facebook [links to web]
PRIVACY
Do Not Track? Advertisers Say ‘Don’t Tread on Us’
Campaigns Mine Personal Lives to Get Out Vote
Candidates turn to geo-targeting in ads [links to web]
Reading someone's G-mail doesn't violate federal statute, court finds [links to web]
HEALTH
Mobile Health IT Proponents Must Address Security Issues [links to web]
Two Innovation Challenge winners announced - press release [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
'Netizen': Why Is This Goofy-Sounding Word So Important in China?
Huawei hits back at Cisco allegations [links to web]
LIFESTYLES
Google Wants to Join the Party, Not Crash It
MORE ONLINE
New Gadgets Assist the Blind [links to web]
China in Hollywood, Hailed and Investigated [links to web]
OWNERSHIP
FTC DRAFTING ANTITRUST CASE AGAINST GOOGLE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Steve Lohr]
The Federal Trade Commission is raising the ante in its antitrust confrontation with Google with the commission staff preparing a recommendation that the government sue the search giant. The government’s escalating pursuit of Google is the most far-reaching antitrust investigation of a corporation since the landmark federal case against Microsoft in the late 1990s. The agency’s central focus is whether Google manipulates search results to favor its own products, and makes it harder for competitors and their products to appear prominently on a results page. The staff recommendation is in a detailed draft memo of more than 100 pages that is being shared with the five FTC commissioners, said two people briefed on the inquiry. The memo is still being edited and changes could be made, but these are mostly fine-tuning and will not alter the broad conclusions reached after an inquiry that began more than a year ago, said these people, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified. The commission is also building a team to take Google to court, if it comes to that. Last spring, it hired a seasoned litigator to help with the case, Beth A. Wilkinson, a partner in the firm Paul, Weiss in Washington. In a further sign that it means business, last week it brought on a well-known economist as a consultant: Richard Gilbert of the University of California, Berkeley.
benton.org/node/137049 | New York Times | Bloomberg | Reuters | The Hill |
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ALTERNATIVE APPROACH FOR FTC
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Arik Hesseldahl]
If the Federal Trade Commission brings an antitrust case against Google, the company has two fundamental courses of action: Settle or fight. If it settles, the result will be a negotiated order that applies to Google, and Google only. The same will happen at the end of a lawsuit, assuming the FTC wins, which isn’t exactly certain. There is another course of action the FTC could take, and has been known to take before: Issue guidelines. David Balto, a former FTC litigator during the Clinton Administration, says enforcement actions can be messy, and even when they’re successful they only apply to the target, not to anyone else. “Antitrust law is a really narrow tool,” he told me. “It doesn’t really fit in a lot of situations.” Guidelines would apply to everyone and would set ground rules for every participant in the market, including Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and whoever else might be affected. And all parties would benefit from participating in the dialogue leading up to the crafting of the guidelines: In the end, there would be a more informed consensus, and everyone involved will know the rules of the road. It would be more complex and would take longer than it did 10 years ago, Balto says, but in the end, the FTC’s mission is to protect consumer welfare, not bring big and costly lawsuits.
benton.org/node/137045 | Wall Street Journal
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TELEVISION/RADIO
FCC OKs BASIC SERVICE TIER ENCRYPTION
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
The Federal Communications Commission amended its rules to allow cable operators to encrypt the basic service tier in all-digital cable systems if they comply with certain consumer-protection measures. The FCC believes this rule change will benefit consumers who can have their cable service activated and deactivated from a remote location. By allowing remote activation and deactivation, the FCC expects the rules will result in benefits to both cable operators and consumers by significantly reducing the number of truck rolls associated with provisioning service and significantly reducing the need for subscribers to wait for service calls to activate or deactivate cable service. At the same time, the recognizes that this rule change will adversely affect a small number of cable subscribers who currently view the digital basic service tier without using a set-top box or other equipment. If a cable operator decides to encrypt the digital basic tier, then these subscribers will need equipment to continue viewing the channels on this tier. To give those consumers time to resolve the incompatibility between consumer electronics equipment (such as digital television sets) and newly encrypted cable service, the FCC requires operators of cable systems that choose to encrypt the basic service tier to comply with certain consumer protection measures for a period of time. In addition, the FCC notes that this rule change may impact the ability of a small number of subscribers that use certain third-party equipment that is not CableCARD compatible to access channels on the basic service tier. To address this issue, the FCC requires the six largest incumbent cable operators to comply with additional requirements that are intended to ensure compatibility with certain third-party-provided equipment used to access the basic tier.
benton.org/node/137051 | Federal Communications Commission
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
ROMNEY AND PBS
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] "I'm sorry Jim, I'm going to stop the subsidy to PBS," GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney told PBS anchor Jim Lehrer, during the first presidential debate. "I like PBS. I love Big Bird," Romney said, referring to the popular ‘Sesame Street’ character. "I actually like you, too. But I’m not gonna keep spending money on things and have to borrow money to pay for it.” With these words, Big Bird became an unwitting and unwilling prop in campaign 2012. Within moments “Big Bird” and “PBS” were each earning 17,000 tweets per minute -- more than Romney earned during his nomination acceptance speech at the GOP Convention, which hit a high of 14,289 tweets per minute. Of course, none of these numbers indicate whether the tweeters were for or against Romney on the "Big Bird" subsidies, but it does indicate a lot of interest in an issue that does not often rise to the level of presidential debate when every sentence, every gesture, every expression of the candidates comes under heavy scrutiny.
http://benton.org/node/136986
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STATIONS AND ELECTIONS
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
[Commentary] Jack Messmer looked into the files of stations in three swing markets to see if he could ascertain the differences between what super PACs and other non-candidates are paying and what candidates are paying. The candidates should be paying less. The law says that qualified candidates are entitled to buy spots in the run-up to elections at the lowest unit rate — that is, at the rate stations would charge their most-favored advertisers. Stations may charge non-candidates as much as the market will bear. Our look at the files confirmed that they are, but I was surprised by how big the disparity was. The candidate price was, in a couple of cases, 75% less than that of the non-candidate. Broadcasters are getting a lot in political advertising (up to $3 billion this year), they are getting considerably less than they could — and should — in a free and unregulated market. So, broadcasters should get some credit for selling time on the cheap. Keep in mind the ad time only has value to any advertiser because of the enormous investment broadcasters make in the news and entertainment programming that surround it.
benton.org/node/137037 | TVNewsCheck
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CAMPAIGNS GETTING TO KNOW YOU
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Charles Duhigg]
Strategists affiliated with the Obama and Romney campaigns say they have access to information about the personal lives of voters at a scale never before imagined. And they are using that data to try to influence voting habits — in effect, to train voters to go to the polls through subtle cues, rewards and threats in a manner akin to the marketing efforts of credit card companies and big-box retailers. In the weeks before Election Day, millions of voters will hear from callers with surprisingly detailed knowledge of their lives. These callers — friends of friends or long-lost work colleagues — will identify themselves as volunteers for the campaigns or independent political groups. The callers will be guided by scripts and call lists compiled by people — or computers — with access to details like whether voters may have visited pornography Web sites, have homes in foreclosure, are more prone to drink Michelob Ultra than Corona or have gay friends or enjoy expensive vacations. The callers are likely to ask detailed questions about how the voters plan to spend Election Day, according to professionals with both presidential campaigns. What time will they vote? What route will they drive to the polls? Simply asking such questions, experiments show, is likely to increase turnout.
benton.org/node/137074 | New York Times
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PEOPLE WATCHING TV DEBATES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Carr]
[Commentary] Televised debates remain relevant, but the ritual is up against an always-on informational stream that surges with political messages. Television is packed full of political ads from the $2.5 billion being spent on the presidential election, coverage is up-to-the-second on cable news, and social media followings on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have surged tenfold since 2008. Against this backdrop, a traditional debate would seem far less consequential. By this point, voters have already been targeted, persuaded and tallied. Except for this: 67.2 million viewers tuned into the first debate, according to Nielsen, making it second only to the Super Bowl so far this year. That’s a mind-blowing level of tune-in. More to the point, Mitt Romney clobbered President Obama and in the sort of shift that political operatives dream about, moved four to six points in the polls. Ratings sometimes go up in the second and third rounds of the debate cycle, and given the kind of Frazier-Ali hype surrounding this matchup, there is no telling how many people will watch Round 2 at Hofstra University on Tuesday night. How is it that a ritual as old as Lincoln-Douglas — or Socrates versus Gorgias if you want to go all the way back to the Greeks — was able to move the needle at a time when audiences are so fragmented?
benton.org/node/137071 | New York Times
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
ITU INTERNET PROPOSAL GAINING MOMENTUM
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
US Ambassador Terry Kramer warned on Friday that a proposal to give a United Nations agency more control over the Internet is gaining momentum in other countries. The proposal by the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association could force websites like Google, Facebook and Netflix to pay fees to network operators around the world. Ambassador Kramer said the idea of an international Internet fee is "gaining more interest in the African states and also in the Arab states." He said the United States delegation to the conference will have to redouble its efforts to convince other countries that the proposal would only stifle innovation and economic growth.
benton.org/node/137043 | Hill, The
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
SPRINT-SOFTBANK IS OFFICIAL
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Michael De La Merced, Neil Gough]
The struggling cellphone service provider Sprint Nextel has agreed to sell 70 percent of itself to SoftBank of Japan for $20.1 billion. SoftBank, a big Japanese telecommunications company, said it would pay $8 billion to buy newly issued Sprint stock worth about $5.25 a share. It will then pay $12.1 billion to buy existing stock from other investors at $7.30 a share, a premium to current levels. The deal remains subject to approval by regulators and Sprint’s shareholders, but has been approved by the boards of both companies. The transaction is expected to close in the middle of 2013. Sprint is also working to gain more control over Clearwire, a wireless broadband company in which it owns a large stake.
benton.org/node/137079 | New York Times | FT | Bloomberg
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PRIVACY
ADVERTISERS VS DO NOT TRACK
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Natasha Singer]
The advent of Do Not Track threatens the barter system wherein consumers allow sites and third-party ad networks to collect information about their online activities in exchange for open access to maps, e-mail, games, music, social networks and whatnot. Marketers have been fighting to preserve this arrangement, saying that collecting consumer data powers effective advertising tailored to a user’s tastes. In turn, according to this argument, those tailored ads enable smaller sites to thrive and provide rich content. “If we do away with this relevant advertising, we are going to make the Internet less diverse, less economically successful, and frankly, less interesting,” says Mike Zaneis, the general counsel for the Interactive Advertising Bureau, an industry group. But privacy advocates argue that in a digital ecosystem where there may be dozens of third-party entities on an individual Web page, compiling and storing information about what a user reads, searches for, clicks on or buys, consumers should understand data mining’s potential costs to them and have the ability to opt out. Now regulators are warning that opposition to Do Not Track could backfire on advertisers, by giving browsers more incentive to empower frustrated users.
benton.org/node/137076 | New York Times
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
NETIZENS IN CHINA
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
If there's a story to be told about the Internet's trajectory over the last few years, it's the diminishing distinction between on- and offline reality. At least in the West, our digital and physical lives are growing increasingly interconnected. Every song we listen to, every restaurant we visit, every photo we take can be logged and propagated automatically on Facebook via "frictionless sharing" without our input. More than 80 percent of Americans, meanwhile, enjoy broadband access to the Web. As the saying might go, We have met the Internet -- and it is us. The Internet market in China is fast approaching a similar state. A set of buzzwords has grown up to describe this specialized cohort. Among the most popular terms? Netizen, or in Chinese, wangmin -- a portmanteau that literally means "a citizen of the Internet." Although Web users in China naturally prefer the non-English phrase to refer to themselves, the terms are synonymous and each is a direct translation of the other. Although the word has gradually fallen out of use around the rest of the world, China -- along with people outside China writing about it -- appear to be the exception. Netizen is more than a cute, trendy label. It speaks to the way Chinese Internet users have organized themselves as inhabitants of the same digital nation, one that's distinct from the physical nation in which they live. Citizenship in that digital state confers new privileges and opportunities. Most of these users aren't representative of the broader population -- they're mostly young, wealthy, educated urbanites -- which is all the more reason to assign them a name. In many ways, netizens might be considered the Chinese equivalent of the American Millennial. The big difference? Where many young Westerners are working to erase the boundaries between the online and the off-, the security of China's netizens requires that those delineated borders stay in place, at least for now.
benton.org/node/137023 | Atlantic, The
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LIFESTYLES
SOCIAL TECH
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Claire Cain Miller]
Google and other technology companies know they are the uninvited guests at social gatherings everywhere, and they want to ingratiate themselves with the hosts by figuring out new, less intrusive ways to join the party — as varied as voice search, Internet-connected glasses and other wearable computers, or dining room tables outfitted with screens. Googling the answer to a question has become accepted social behavior, but “it’s still somewhat awkward when you see that at a dinner party,” said Amit Singhal, senior vice president in charge of search at Google. “The key to the future is how can you make such conversations socially even more normal?”
benton.org/node/137070 | New York Times
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