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Vivendi wants to turn itself from a telecom-heavy conglomerate into a media company focused on music, television and games. That seems like a smart move.
Vivendi isn't short of media-investment opportunities. One option is to buy the 39% of U.S.-listed games publisher Activision Blizzard it doesn't already own, swapping annual dividends worth $200 million for $1.6 billion in operating cash flow. That could allow Vivendi to raise dividends by €1 billion to €2.4 billion, says Credit Suisse. Another option is to buy other games publishers to merge with Activision. But Vivendi needs to sell its telecom assets before it can start spending. The snag is that natural bidders for GVT such as Telecom Italia and Telefónica are also under pressure to deleverage, leaving Vivendi reliant on financial sponsors and satellite operator DirecTV. And a sale of the Maroc Telecom stake is potentially complicated by government influence in Morocco.
Vivendi's Telecom Hang-Ups
The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council informed the Federal Communications Commission that it will conduct a focused, independent study on the effects of cross-ownership rules on minority ownership and newsgathering, in order to enhance the record in the FCC’s proceeding. The study is expected to take several weeks and will be filed with the FCC, after which MMTC suggests that the agency solicit public input, to be followed by a FCC vote. In this heavily-litigated area where a strong record is particularly important, I believe this is a sensible approach to moving forward and resolving the issues raised in this proceeding. The study addresses an issue of importance, will augment the record, and will assist the FCC in resolving the issues before it on the full record. In addition, a broad coalition of stakeholders has asked the FCC to clarify that foreign investment above 25 percent in broadcast stations could be in the public interest in particular cases. Today, the FCC’s Media Bureau is issuing a Public Notice seeking comment on this issue.
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell said, “Although I firmly believe that the record regarding the Commission’s newspaper/broadcast and radio/television cross-ownership policies more than sufficiently justifies the immediate elimination of these outdated rules, I respect adhering to a prudent process that allows for the submission of the proposed Minority Media and Telecommunications Council study, along with expedient but adequate public comment.”
“I applaud the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council," said FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, "for embarking on a study that could shed greater light on any potential harms that may result from increased media consolidation. The Commission is in need of data that will enable it to make timely, smart, and forward-looking decisions while taking into account America’s changing media landscape. I look forward to the results of the study, and am very pleased that such an examination is taking place.”
Press Policy Director Matt Wood said, “We are glad the FCC is backing down from its rush to relax its media ownership rules. It’s about time the FCC admitted that it does not have the evidence to take this step. However, we have serious reservations about the proposed study's ability to meet the clear demands of the federal appeals court. The enthusiasm for these studies expressed by the broadcast lobby and its close allies gives us further pause. We are skeptical, to say the least, of a study to be conducted by an analyst that has previously endorsed the FCC’s weakening of its longstanding rules. We wouldn’t presume to judge any study before it is completed, but the work of researchers with long-standing ties to the broadcast industry is no substitute for independent, peer-reviewed research. Based on our understanding of this qualitative study's methodology, however, we have serious concerns about its ability to provide useful information. And even with considerable improvements to those methods, the study's designers would have to acknowledge that it cannot provide definitive information that would satisfy the Third Circuit's directives.”
FCC’s Genachowski Backs Delay in Media Ownership Decision Statement (Commissioner McDowell) Free Press Welcomes Delay in FCC Media Ownership Vote (Free Press) FCC delays vote on media ownership rules (The Hill) Genachowski Backs Delay in Ownership Vote (B&C) FCC Chief Backs Ownership Delay Request (TVNewsCheck) Statement (Commissioner Clyburn)
Maybe music executives can finally stop singing the blues. Music piracy is on the decline, analysts say, while an industry group said digital music sales in 2012 drove global music industry revenues up for the first time since 1999.
It’s not a very big gain for the music industry — just 0.3 percent to $16.5 billion — but even that small uptick may be a sign that digital music has finally put the industry on the path to recovery. Digital music and services, the report said, grew 9 percent in the past year. That comprises digital downloads, as well as newer subscription services such as Spotify and ad-supported services including Pandora. “No doubt, this is welcome news,” said Recording Industry Association of America spokesman Jonathan Lamy, who said over half of the industry’s revenues come from digital services now. “We are starting to turn the corner, and that’s great news for the business and fans.”
Music piracy on the decline as digital music sales grow
The U.S. Defense Department said it will begin opening its communications networks by next February to mobile phones and tablet computers from Apple and Google.
The move may pose a threat to BlackBerry’s dominance at the Pentagon, which has more than 450,000 of the company’s devices. BlackBerry has lost market share to competitors and seeks to make a comeback with its new BlackBerry 10 phone. The device will go on sale in the U.S. next month. The Pentagon said it wants employees to have the flexibility to use commercial products on its systems, including its classified network for the first time. It plans to create a military mobile applications store and hire a contractor to build a system that may eventually handle as many as 8 million devices.
Pentagon Will Open Networks to Apple, Google Devices in 2014 Pentagon unveils plan to tap potential of mobile devices (Reuters)
The Federal Communications Commission released a white paper that compiles information on the status of licensed and unlicensed spectrum resources in the United States and selected countries around the globe.
The Mobile Broadband Spectrum Challenge: International Comparisons
In this Public Notice, the Federal Communications Commission seeks to further develop the record on a number of issues relating to implementation of Connect America Phase II support. Specifically, the FCC seeks comment on how it will determine which census blocks are served by an unsubsidized competitor, how price cap carriers will demonstrate they are meeting the FCC’s requirements for reasonable comparability, and what other providers will need to demonstrate to be deemed unsubsidized competitors. Comments are due March 28, 2013; Reply Comments are due April 12, 2013. [WC Docket No. 10-90]
FCC Seeks Further Comment On Issues Regarding Service Obligations For Connect America Phase II and Determining Who is On Unsubsidized Competitor
The American Cable Association says the Federal Communications Commission needs to apply interconnection mandates to IP networks, just as it does to traditional switched phone services.
AT&T has asked the FCC to deregulate phone traffic as networks transition to all-IP service. ACA falls on the other end of the continuum from Comcast, the nation's largest cable operator, which backs removing the regulations, and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, which argues for marketplace negotiations for exchange of traffic, but with the FCC insuring those are fair deals.
ACA: IP Nets Need Interconnection Mandates, Too
President Barack Obama was inaugurated a scant few weeks ago but it’s never too early to think about the next election cycle.
Tech teams for the 2016 campaign will need to hone in on location-based applications and finely tuned personalization, said Michael Slaby, former CIO for Obama for America. According to Slaby, the team’s the initial 2008 effort was all about putting social networking on par with other messaging and communication. “We didn’t just stick it in the corner with a blog, it was a meaningful way to think about solving organizational problems,” Slaby told attendees of a Salesforce.com event in New York City. “In 2008 we were just trying to stay alive – [there was] an election every two weeks for months and months” he said. That didn’t leave a ton of time for strategizing or even staffing up. “We didn’t really hire engineers,” Slaby said during a panel discussion led by former U.S. CIO Vivek Kundra, who is now Salesforce.com’s executive vice president for emerging markets.
Obama CIO: Location, location, location (and personalization) will be key to next campaign
Smartphone users in developed countries are the less likely to interact with mobile ads than those in emerging economies. In some cases, that may be because they see fewer ads than users in mature markets, creating a novelty factor.
Emerging Countries More Receptive To Mobile Ads
Even though the practices of many companies such as Facebook are legal, there is something disconcerting about them. Privacy should have a deeper purpose than the one ascribed to it by those who treat it as a currency to be traded for innovation, which in many circumstances seems to actually mean corporate interests. To protect our privacy, we need a better understanding of its purpose and why it is valuable.
That's where Georgetown University law professor Julie E. Cohen comes in. In a forthcoming article for the Harvard Law Review, she lays out a strong argument that addresses the titular concern "What Privacy Is For." Her approach is fresh. At bottom, Cohen's argument criticizes the dominant position held by theorists and legislators who treat privacy as just an instrument used to advance some other principle or value, such as liberty, inaccessibility, or control. Framed this way, privacy is relegated to one of many defenses we have from things like another person's prying eyes, or Facebook's recent attempts to ramp up its use of facial-recognition software and collect further data about us without our explicit consent. As long as the principle in question can be protected through some other method, or if privacy gets in the way of a different desirable goal like innovation, it is no longer useful and can be disregarded. Cohen doesn't think we should treat privacy as a dispensable instrument. To the contrary, she argues privacy is irreducible to a "fixed condition or attribute (such as seclusion or control) whose boundaries can be crisply delineated by the application of deductive logic. Privacy is shorthand for breathing room to engage in the process of ... self-development."
Why Does Privacy Matter? One Scholar's Answer