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A wave of cyberattacks over the past month is exposing a new kink in the armor of banks already laboring under the weight of a weak economy, low interest rates and tough new rules. Banks have long resisted admitting any online vulnerability. But as hackers get more sophisticated, lenders face growing pressure to share information with each other and with national intelligence agencies, and to communicate better with customers, security experts said.
Banks Pushed to Clear Fog of Cyberwar
The chiefs of Softbank and Sprint Nextel are focused on closing their $20 billion deal, but said they may pursue mergers with other wireless carriers if opportunities present themselves.
Softbank chief Masayoshi Son wouldn't rule out making a competing bid for MetroPCS Communications, which has agreed to combine with T-Mobile USA. "We shouldn't rule out any opportunity or alternative," said Son. Sprint Chief Executive Dan Hesse said a merger between Sprint and No. 4 carrier T-Mobile USA was possible in the long term, but that Sprint for now was focused on overhauling its network and closing the deal with Softbank. He argued that a merger between the No. 3 and No. 4 carriers could be good for consumers by creating a more formidable competitor to market leaders Verizon Wireless and AT&T.
Softbank CEO Won't Rule Out MetroPCS Bid WSJ (additional link)
Sprint Nextel, which this week agreed to sell a 70 per cent stake to Japan’s SoftBank for $20.1 billion, has indicated it will not use network equipment made by Huawei because of the US Congress’s security concerns about the Chinese company.
SoftBank’s proposed acquisition of the stake in Sprint, the third-largest US mobile operator, requires approval from regulators and from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US that vets foreign acquisitions of US companies. Asked about Huawei, the subject of a scathing report by the House Intelligence Committee last week, Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s chief executive, said: “In the US, I am aware of the sensitivity of the vendor issues which I would respect.” Dan Hesse, Sprint’s chief executive, said: “Sprint is a big supplier to the US government and that aside, I wouldn’t put in any equipment that would raise any security concerns.”
Sprint rules out using Huawei equipment
Television stations are getting rich by airing political ads from Super PACs and other outside groups that station officials know are misleading, Free Press charged.
The group asked the public to protest the broadcast industry's refusal to check facts in ads sponsored by independent political groups during the current election cycle. Under the law, broadcasters are legally obliged to run ads from political candidates themselves, even when those spots include blatant falsehoods. But the law says that broadcasters can reject deceptive ads from Super PACs and other groups not directly affiliated with candidates. “The problem is not a lot of stations are doing that,” said Timothy Karr, Free Press senior director of strategy. To combat the misinformation, Free Press is asking the public to weigh in, and Free Press has volunteered to deliver the messages to the Big 4 TV network affiliated stations in the top 50 markets, where most of the political ad dollars are being spent. “Our campaign hopes to convince stations to do the right thing by connecting them with many of the outraged viewers in their markets,” Karr said.
TV Stations Getting Rich From Misleading Super PAC Ads, Watchdog Group Says
CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves has an answer for cable and satellite operators who complain their profits are getting squeezed by continually rising content costs: eliminate low-rated channels from their lineup.
"The truth is that he who has the most eyeballs wins," Moonves said. "If that means eliminating some of the smaller channels, then so be it." CBS has for years been the top-rated television network in the US. Moonves credits the popularity of shows, which include hits like "The Big Bang Theory" and "NCIS," with helping CBS avoid the kinds of high-level fee disputes that have resulted in channel blackouts for some networks peers. Other previous ratings successes included the reality-series "Survivor." "No matter if you have five channels or 500 channels, you have to have CBS," Moonves said. "At the end of the day, we haven't gone dark on any of our partners." Moonves also said CBS was prepared to distribute its content directly to viewers, via apps or Web portals, in the event that a la carte pricing and cord-cutting eventually threaten the company's business model.
For CBS Chief, It's About Survivors
India’s government has confirmed plans to make mobile operators including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone pay a one-time “spectrum charge” that could amount to as much as $4.24 billion, dealing a further blow to the debt-strapped industry.
A ministerial group meeting in New Delhi confirmed moves to charge for so-called “excess spectrum” owned by operators in certain areas. Government estimates have previously suggested this charge could raise as much as Rs226bn ($4.24 billion). The move is the latest blow to an industry which was once viewed as an emblem of the economic dynamism of Asia’s third-largest economy, but has since become increasingly known for incompetent regulation, fierce price competition, stagnant revenues and ballooning debts. It also follows a second move, in which regulators recommended that some operators should be forced to rebid for their highest-quality spectrum, in a process known as spectrum “refarming”.
Mobile groups face India spectrum fee
Ken Clarke has told the Leveson inquiry that statutory backing for a new type of press regulator “would not be the freedom of expression Armageddon some commentators would have you believe”. The minister without portfolio, who wrote his submission in July when he was justice secretary, said he was expressing a personal opinion and had not discussed the matter with government colleagues. His words should not be taken as an endorsement of some form of legal basis enshrining a new regulator, he said, but added: “The issue of some kind of backstop, statutory or otherwise, is important because a very difficult question that goes to the heart of the effectiveness of a new body is how you ensure membership of all powerful media voices.”
Clarke open to new law to regulate press in UK
The House Commerce Committee issued its third quarter report on the committee's progress, and incentive auctions were high on the list of Communications Subcommittee achievements, as well as some Federal Communications Commission reforms that failed to pass the Senate and a focus on cybersecurity, though legislation on that issue has also failed to crack the partisan divide. The spectrum auctions were part of a must-pass tax bill, but the specific legislation to compensate broadcasters for giving up spectrum was the handiwork of Communications Subcommittee leadership as well as the Senate Commerce Committee.
House Commerce Committee Counts Incentive Auctions Among 3rd Quarter Accomplishments House of Representatives Commerce Committee (read the report)
With the deadline Oct 18, a number of sports programmers have submitted bids for the next cycle of Barclays Premier League media rights in the US.
After the Football Association Premier League Limited released its tender documents, US networks had until Oct. 18 to declare their financial interest in the property. Arguably the world’s top futbol circuit, the English league is the second-most-watched league in the US behind Liga Mexico, that nation’s premier soccer division. As of press time, there was no word out of England as to whether one of the bids had been accepted, or if the auction would advance into another round. The current U.S. contract expires with the close of the 2012-13 season. Incumbent Fox Sports Media Group said it submitted a bid to retain BPL rights, which it currently airs on Fox Soccer, premium service Fox Soccer Plus, Fox Deportes and occasionally on Fox Broadcasting. ESPN, which currently sublicenses a package of matches from Fox, is said to have entered a bid that cuts across its varied platforms, including ESPN Deportes. NBC Sports Group, which recently acquired the rights to Formula 1 racing and whose windows could conflict with BPL matches on Saturday and Sunday mornings, was thought to have made a play.
US Programmers Make Bids for Barclays Premier League Rights
A key Federal Communications Commission official in charge of helping to implement incentive auction legislation downplayed initial estimates about how much spectrum could come out of the process. During a speech at the Media Institute, Gary Epstein, a senior adviser and co-leader of the FCC's incentive auction task force, discussed the FCC's proposal to implement the incentive auction authority provided by Congress as part of payroll tax legislation passed in February.
The incentive auctions are aimed at enticing broadcasters to give up some of their spectrum or agree to share spectrum with another TV station. That spectrum would then be auctioned to wireless providers, who say they need more spectrum to meet the nation's growing demand for wireless technologies. When asked whether FCC officials were backing away from the agency’s 120 megahertz goal, Epstein said that he was "not in the business of estimating" how much spectrum the process would yield. "It's a market-based decision," he said. "Our real job is to make the reverse auction understandable and make it easier for folks to participate."
FCC Official Downplays Spectrum Estimates From Auctions FCC's Epstein: Incentive Auctions Have 'Tremendous Benefits' for Broadcasters (B&C)