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The American Cable Association (ACA) has told the Federal Communications Commission that if it does not give its smaller and mid-sized cable operator members some relief from data collection requirements for the FCC's review of the special access market, it is in danger of violating the law. "The cost of gathering, collating, and formatting the information will be excessive for small cable operators," said ACA president Matt Polka. "Because the request imposes such large burdens on small cable operators, ACA submits they are not compliant with the Paperwork Reduction Act's directive to minimize the paperwork burden, especially for smaller entities, and needs to be extensively revised before the mandatory data request should be issued."

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the appointment of Michael Steffen as Director of Digital Learning to lead the FCC’s work within the agency and across government, public, and private partners to modernize broadband infrastructure in U.S. schools and libraries and expand access to the opportunities of digital technologies for America’s teachers, students, and parents. The FCC is the largest funder of Internet connectivity in K-12 schools in the United States.

Steffen first joined the Commission in 2009, and has most recently served as the Chairman’s legal advisor on wireline, international, and Internet policy issues. In that role, he has overseen implementation of the Commission’s landmark overhaul of its rural universal service programs and creation of the Connect America Fund, the largest-ever broadband infrastructure program for rural America. He has also overseen all Commission activities related to universal service funding for schools and libraries, coordinated on education technology and connectivity issues across government, and served as the Commission’s liaison to private sector and non-profit initiatives, including the LEAD Commission. Steffen also led the launch of the Commission’s most sophisticated and in-depth data collection ever for enterprise and community anchor broadband services; release of two Measuring Broadband America reports on consumer broadband speed and quality; creation of the Technology Transitions Task Force to comprehensively review Commission policies in light of ongoing network and market transitions; streamlining and modernization of reporting and regulatory burdens across the International Bureau; and other priority initiatives. Prior to joining the Chairman’s office, Steffen served as a Special Counsel in the Office of General Counsel, where he advised on universal service issues, major transactions, and other priority projects. Steffen previously served as Executive Director of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, working on global access to medicines and student empowerment on global health issues, and at the Center for Democracy and Technology, focusing on copyright, Internet governance, and consumer privacy. Mr. Steffen graduated from Yale Law School and clerked for Judge David S. Tatel on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Don’t look now cable operators, but multicultural viewers are increasingly using over-the-top services to access their favorite television shows and movies. Nearly 85% of African-American, Hispanic and Asian-American viewers have access to services such as Netflix, Hulu and Roku, and 46% of all urban viewers use such services on a weekly basis, according to new data from Horowitz Associates’ Focus Latino 2013 report. Hispanics are on the front end of that trend, with more than half (56%) using OTT services on a weekly basis, according to Horowitz. Further, among 18-24 year old Hispanics, OTT penetration is a whopping 96%, with viewers in the demo using such services an eye-popping 86% on a weekly basis.

Proportionate to other online activities, new research shows that the time U.S. consumers spend on social media sites is actually declining.

The United States -- which has been the most dominant national market for social media consumption over the last three years -- dropped from 30% of all time spent online to 27%, according to new data from Experian Marketing Services. By contrast, time spent shopping online grew year-on-year, Experian found. In fact, U.S .consumers spent 9% of their Web time shopping in 2012. After analyzing US browsing data for mobile devices, email accounted for the largest time spent on average. Consumption of news content also increased among US consumers who devoted 4% of their online time to news. Overall, e-mail made up 23% of time spent on mobile devices during the first quarter of the year, while social networking accounted for 15% of consumers’ mobile time.