BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2012
Today: Innovation Economics: The Race for Global Advantage and Riding the Mobile Wave: The Future of Mobile Computing http://benton.org/calendar/2012-10-05/
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
FCC on track for 2015 spectrum goal
Sprint Said to Eye MetroPCS Bid to Rival T-Mobile Offer
With merger, Deutsche Telekom finally has viable plan for US market - analysis
A Bird’s Eye View of a Combined T-Mobile/MetroPCS - analysis [links to web]
T-Mobile USA Deal Shows $13 Billion Value Drop Since AT&T [links to web]
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
FCC database misses huge chunk of ads - research
The Twitter spin room: What happens when politics goes real time - analysis
Twitter: Romney's 'Big Bird' reference explodes online
Rep Markey Comes to Defense of Big Bird [links to web]
PBS CEO: Romney's Big Bird Moment 'Unbelievable' [links to web]
Jim Henson Co.'s Schube: Romney 'Looks Stupid' [links to web]
APTS, Rep. Blumenthal Take Up for Big Bird [links to web]
Presidential Debate Drew More Than 70 Million Viewers [links to web]
Plouffe: Press wanted ‘the Romney comeback story’ [links to web]
Political Ad Tracker: Campaigns Spending More On the Ground Than Online - op-ed [links to web]
Steal That Idea: 5 Smart Ways Presidential Candidates Mine Big Data [links to web]
The Ad Wars: From every source, a different number - analysis [links to web]
Social media fails the ‘47 percent’ video taper
PRIVACY
Privacy Advocates and Advertisers at Odds Over Web Tracking
Gotcha! Group uncovers privacy lies in websites' fine print [links to web]
CONTENT
Google Settles Copyright Case With Publishers
States Modify Payouts and Credits in E-Book Pricing Settlement [links to web]
Social media fails the ‘47 percent’ video taper
Citi Won't Sleep on Customer Tweets [links to web]
TELEVISION
FCC NRPM Includes Potential Revision of Buying Group Definition [links to web]
PTC Seeks Formal Complaint About 'American Dad' [links to web]
JOURNALISM
Americans turn to established media for breaking news, mobile [links to web]
CYBERSECURITY
Republicans: Report shows DHS not up to cybersecurity challenge [links to web]
House Intelligence chairman reveals new wave of cyberattacks, calls for legislative push [links to web]
LABOR/OWNERSHIP
When Job-Creation Engines Stop at Just One
Google Says Motorola Cuts Will Cost More Than Expected [links to web]
HEALTH
House GOP Leaders Express Concern that Nearly $10 Billion in Health IT Spending May Have Been Wasted - press release [links to web]
ADVERTISING
Why the Ad Tech Guys Are Going Nuts About Facebook Exchange, and Why That Matters [links to web]
Women and the Changing Face of the Advertising Industry [links to web]
Your Facebook Fans are Hiding Your Posts at an Alarming Rate [links to web]
COMPANY NEWS
Facebook Tops 1 Billion Active Users
The real power of Facebook lies in controlling connected identity
POLICYMAKERS
Former FCC wireless chief joins broadcaster lobbying group [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
In Brazil, Google is in the middle of a battle over free speech
Media watchdog accuses Iran of intimidating journalists
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
FCC ON TRACK FOR SPECTRUM GOAL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced that his agency is on track to meet its goal of freeing up 300 MHz of spectrum for mobile broadband by 2015. He said that to hit its target, the FCC is pursuing auctions, spectrum re-designation, moving government users and spectrum sharing. Although he said he supports "innovative" proposals to share spectrum bands with multiple users, he said clearing remains a "core" policy goal. He pushed back against criticism from the Republican commissioners that the FCC should focus less on unlicensed spectrum. "As innovation opportunities and demand for unlicensed uses continue to grow, and Wi-Fi networks get more and more congested – have you tried using Wi-Fi in a busy airport recently? – we need to ensure unlicensed spectrum opportunities keep pace," Genachowski said.
benton.org/node/136373 | Hill, The | read the speech | Broadcasting&Cable
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SPRINT AND METROPCS?
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Aaron Kirchfeld, Serena Saitto, Scott Moritz]
Sprint Nextel, the third- largest U.S. mobile-phone carrier, is in the early stages of evaluating a counter offer for MetroPCS Communications to top Deutsche Telekom’s bid to combine it with T-Mobile USA, said three people familiar with the matter. Sprint is crunching the numbers and holding talks with its advisers to weigh the feasibility of a higher offer, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. The Overland Park, Kansas-based company could decide as early as next week whether to pursue an offer, two of the people said.
benton.org/node/136343 | Bloomberg | GigaOm
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DT HAS VIABLE US PLAN
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Cyrus Farivar]
With the new announced merger with MetroPCS, analysts say that Deutsche Telekom has given itself a much better path to higher profits in the United States one way or the other. The specifics of the deal are that MetroPCS will declare a 1-for-2 reverse split, thereby cutting the existing level of stock in half. MetroPCS—the first company in America to launch LTE—will also pay $1.5 billion to its shareholders and acquire all of T-Mobile’s stock. However, Deutsche Telekom will still retain 74 percent ownership in the new company. In other words, the deal has injected the new company (which will still be called T-Mobile) with viability, but provides Telekom with a chance to make a nice profit should the company want to sell its large stake. "A complete exit is probably an overstatement, but this gives [Deutsche Telekom] a relatively simple mechanism for dialing back their exposure in the US market," said Craig Moffett, an analyst with Bernstein Research. "They’ve made no secret of the fact that they’ve been willing to sell it, they’ve talked about IPOing it. You have to take this at face value that this is not an exit from the US market. It is an incremental investment in a stronger US asset, albeit one that has a built-in exit door."
benton.org/node/136312 | Ars Technica
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
FCC AD DATABASE
[SOURCE: Sunlight Foundation, AUTHOR: Jake Harper]
In key battleground states, huge numbers of presidential ads are airing on television stations that are not required to post to the Federal Communications Commission's online political ad database, new data released by the Wesleyan Media Project shows. In four of the nine states considered key in this year's general election -- Colorado, Florida, Virginia, Ohio, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Virginia and Wisconsin -- less than half of presidential ads would be disclosed on the FCC database, a Sunlight analysis reveals.
Based on ads that ran from Sept. 9 through Sept. 30:
Iowa saw 17,000 presidential ads; none of its eight television markets are covered by the FCC order.
In Wisconsin, 70 percent of the ads recorded aired outside of the top 50 markets. Only the four Milwaukee network affiliates are required to post to the FCC online database. Spending in the state has increased dramatically over the last month.
Fifty-five percent of ads in Colorado would not be disclosed to the FCC.
Of New Hampshire's 7,000 ads, slightly more than half have been run in uncovered markets.
benton.org/node/136364 | Sunlight Foundation
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TWITTER SPIN ROOM
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Mathew Ingram]
The debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney was the most tweeted-about event in U.S. political history — but is the kind of real-time commentary and instant analysis that Twitter provides a good thing or a bad thing for the political process or society as a whole? Some would argue the political process is something of a circus anyway, and that carefully stage-managed events like the debates are already a sideshow with little political value — and therefore the additional theatrical element added by real-time commentary isn’t going to have much effect. An optimist would say there is something very real to be gained by having people watch such debates for any reason — even if it’s just to follow along with the wisecracks on Twitter — because then at least there is a chance they might accidentally become more informed about political issues. The rise of Twitter as a political force has definitely accelerated the metabolism of a campaign by orders of magnitude, to the point where political analysts now talk about a news cycle that is measured in minutes or hours instead of days or weeks.
benton.org/node/136335 | GigaOm
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TWEETING BIG BIRD
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Alicia Cohn]
Mitt Romney's Big Bird shout-out, about halfway through the first presidential debate, was one of the debate's most popular moments so far, according to viewers on Twitter. "Big Bird" and "PBS" each earned 17,000 tweets per minute, Twitter reports. The debate was driving the majority of Twitter traffic. Romney's campaign owns the top trending topic on the microblogging service, but half of the other top ten topics on Twitter were also about the debate. One popular hashtag in heavy rotation during the debate is #zinger, referring to a report in The New York Times last week that Romney's team "has concluded that debates are about creating moments and has equipped him with a series of zingers that he has memorized and has been practicing on aides since August." Many Twitter users were looking to identify which parts of Romney's debate response were the "zingers" he had pre-planned.
benton.org/node/136318 | Hill, The
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SOCIAL MEDIA AND 47 PERCENT TAPE
[SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Hazel Sheffield]
When Mother Jones premiered the now-infamous 47 percent video on September 17, it received two million views in 24 hours and rapidly changed the discourse surrounding the campaign. The next morning, some outlets were already asking, “Is Mitt Romney over?” But why did the source of the video go to a news outlet like Mother Jones, instead of distributing it independently? The last decade, after all, has seen a rise in citizen and crowd-sourced journalism. The source tried; a Buzzfeed chronology shows repeated attempts to distribute the material starting two weeks after the May 17 fundraiser. But the story didn’t go viral until David Corn, Washington bureau chief at Mother Jones, convinced the source to give him the whole tape, portions of which were used in Corn’s Sept. 17 story. That four-month process would suggest that civilians can act as civic watchdogs, chronicling events of huge news value, but that journalists are still needed to verify and contextualize the findings before they break as news.
benton.org/node/136307 | Columbia Journalism Review
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PRIVACY
NO PROGRESS AT W3C
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Kevin O’Brien]
An effort to develop an easy way for consumers around the world to avoid being tracked and targeted by Internet advertisers appeared to hit an impasse, as privacy advocates and industry representatives accused each other of scuttling the process. The closed-door meeting organized by W3C, the global standards group that promotes good governance of the Internet, failed to produce a consensus on how to allow consumers to simply and effectively declare their “do not track” preferences on Web sites. The talks foundered on main issues like the extent and types of data that advertisers could continue to collect even after consumers indicated they no longer wanted to be followed. The conference is not expected to produce a final resolution, and other meetings could be scheduled before the end of January, when the group is set to disband. But the stakes for Internet users are high and boil down to who determines the limits and protections of online privacy on the Internet: the businesses running the Web, which is largely the current status quo, or the consumers who use it. For the moment, privacy advocates say the status quo is winning out.
benton.org/node/136381 | New York Times
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CONTENT
GOOGLE AND PUBLISHERS SETTLE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jeffrey Trachtenberg]
The Association of American Publishers has settled a long-running copyright infringement case with Google though the issue of whether Google had the right to digitally reproduce books in copyright is still being hashed out in court. The settlement allows U.S. publishers to remove digitized titles from the Google Library Project if they want. The settlement also "acknowledges the rights and interests of copyright-holders." Court approval isn't necessary. The Authors Guild is still pursuing the legal case.
benton.org/node/136314 | Wall Street Journal | Washington Post | ars technica | paidContent
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LABOR/OWNERSHIP
JOB-CREATION ENGINES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Catherine Rampell]
For more than a decade, start-ups have been getting leaner and meaner. In 1999, the typical new business had 7.7 employees; its counterpart in 2011 had 4.7, according to an analysis of Labor Department data by E. J. Reedy at the Kauffman Foundation, a research organization focused on entrepreneurship. The lean model bodes well for companies like Leap2 that hope to become power players with much less manpower. With a work force of contractors, Leap2 could “dial it up and dial it down” as business demanded without having to spend money unless it was necessary, improving the company’s chances of survival. But the implications for the American work force are worrisome, and may help explain why economic output is growing much faster than employers are adding jobs.
benton.org/node/136383 | New York Times
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COMPANY NEWS
FACEBOOK TOPS 1 BILLION
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nick Bilton]
A million users isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? A billion users. Facebook announced that it had topped one billion active users, meaning users who visited the site within a month. Although a few companies can claim to have had more than a billion customers, Facebook is the first social network to hit that number. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive and founder, made the announcement in a blog post on the company’s Web site. “If you’re reading this: thank you for giving me and my little team the honor of serving you,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life.”
People have used the “Like” button more than 1.1 trillion times since it was added in February 2009. There have been more than 140 billion friend connections. And since the fall of 2005, nearly 220 billion photos have been uploaded to the site. Facebook also said it has 600 million mobile users.
benton.org/node/136316 | New York Times | Facebook | Bloomberg | Fast Company | Washington Post | LATimes | GigaOm
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REAL POWER OF FACEBOOK
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Om Malik]
In 2008, when Facebook introduced Facebook Connect, a way for folks to use their Facebook credentials to other websites and services, it was pretty obvious what Mark Zuckerberg’s long term goal was: controlling the identity infrastructure of the web. Once you do that, then you get access to all sorts of data and you are always relevant. The mobile app revolution has only accelerated the adoption as more and more apps are using Facebook’s connected identity. Just like search is a core infrastructure service of the web, so is Facebook’s connected identity technology. And because they have more data, they’re going to be more valuable and will help new kinds of transactions – whether they are purely social or purely economical. That was essentially what I thought it would be back in 2008. Now let’s see if the future works out according to plan.
benton.org/node/136338 | GigaOm
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
BRAZIL, GOOGLE AND FREE SPEECH
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Craig Timberg, Paula Moura]
Here’s a quiz: Google received more than 1,900 requests from governments worldwide to remove content from its various services last year. Which country led the planet in this dubious category, with 418 such demands? China? Iran? Syria? No. It was democratic, pluralistic, economically vibrant Brazil. Many Brazilians were mortified last week when a judge detained Google’s top official in the nation over a YouTube video that had stirred ire in a mayoral campaign. But it was no aberration. The struggle over free speech is playing out most vividly today in countries that are America’s friends rather than its enemies, in nations where the right of expression is embraced in concept but often rankles in practice, say analysts. That is particularly true among a group of countries – think India, Thailand and Turkey, as well as Brazil – where fragile democratic institutions are struggling to manage the disruptions caused by increasingly pervasive technology.
benton.org/node/136306 | Washington Post
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IRAN AND JOURNALISM
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Ralph Boulton]
A leading media watchdog has accused Iran of trying to cow journalists into silence and self-censorship, adding to international pressure on Tehran over its treatment of activists and the press.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Tehran was also trying to restrict Internet access. "The situation for independent journalists is Iran is worsening by the day," CPJ Deputy Director Rob Mahoney said. "High-profile persecutions and imprisonments are an attempt by the authorities to intimidate the media into silence and self-censorship. The international community must speak out against such actions."
The United Nations human rights office called for the immediate release of prominent activists and journalists arrested or intimidated in what it called an apparent clampdown on critical voices ahead of next year's presidential election.
benton.org/node/136304 | Reuters
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