Benton RSS Feed
DOES MEDIA'S MIX LACK FLAVORS?
[SOURCE: St Petersburg Times, AUTHOR: Eric Deggans]
It didn't take long for Monday's public hearing on media ownership issues by the Federal Communications Commission to boil down to a single question: Does media "convergence" - pooling the news-gathering resources of commonly owned news outlets, particularly as practiced by Tampa Tribune, WFLA-Ch. 8 and TBO.com owner Media General - serve the public good or subvert it? The crowd was a lively mix of media professionals, activists, politicians and observers, some of whom had waited for hours to address the commission. And those who spoke out against relaxing rules against further consolidation drew the largest applause.
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/05/01/Business/Does_media_s_mix_lack.shtml
* Media Consolidation Hearing Provides a Lesson in How Not to Cover the News
Media General's news operation in Tampa is regularly cited by proponents of media consolidation to illustrate the possible benefits of allowing a single big media company to dominate a local market. But watching the company's web coverage of the FCC's media ownership hearing demonstrates how media owners can work to suppress views they don't like.
http://www.consumersunion.org/blogs/hun/2007/04/media_consolidation_hear...
-- See for yourself -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjLALt2YMAU
BIG MEDIA: GOOD, BAD OR BOTH?
[SOURCE: Poynter Institute, AUTHOR: Pat Walters]
At times, the debate surrounding media ownership can appear singularly uncomplicated. Consolidation is evil, one person argues. Consolidation is good, says another. But if any one thing became clear at the FCC's media ownership hearing in Tampa, it is this: Like most public-policy issues, the question of media ownership is more complex than that. In all, more than 100 people spoke to the commissioners. But while opinions, viewpoints and stories were easy to come by, practical suggestions were scarce. When she spoke in the second panel, Poynter president Karen Brown Dunlap offered one. As she emphasized the importance of local public affairs reporting, Dunlap suggested the FCC require what she called a "community report" before relicensing any station. "It would be a return to a more rigorous assessment," she said. "It could involve a small task force of citizens, a cross-section of a community, led by a leader from outside that community, maybe a journalism professor." The task force would present its findings to the station leaders, the community and, ultimately, the FCC. "Clearly any one form of media ownership doesn't determine the quality of stewardship," Dunlap said. "Many communities suffer under local owners who bleed their stations for profits and to promote personal interests. There are large corporations, including chain owners who serve local communities with outstanding service."
http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=122318&sid=56
http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=node/5693
TRIBUNE EXPECTED TO SEEK FCC WAIVERS
[SOURCE: Reuters]
Tribune Co. is expected to ask federal regulators to waive restrictions that could prevent it from owning television stations and newspapers in the same city as part of an $8.2-billion deal to go private. Under current FCC rules, a company cannot own a daily newspaper and a television or radio station in the same market although many media companies do under agency waivers. Tribune has such arrangements in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Hartford, Conn.; Los Angeles, and New York. It has also been allowed to own the Chicago Tribune as well as the WGN television and radio network because it owned the properties before the media ownership rules became law. Tribune will ask for a waiver of the rules until the FCC completes its review of media ownership rules. "We're going to lose grandfathering (rights) when Zell gets control of company, but we remain confident that at the end of the day, cross-ownership relief in the largest markets literally has to be granted," said a Tribune spokesperson.
http://chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=24802
http://chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=24802
NBC UNIVERSAL LOOKS AHEAD TO FEED OFF RMAIL
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Andrew Wallenstein]
NBC Universal has made a minor acquisition that will play a part in a major shift for its business down the road. Last week, the media giant quietly scooped up Rmail, a two-year-old firm that specializes in converting RSS feeds to e-mail. Sources peg the cost of the acquisition, which NBC Universal declined to announce, at a mere $150,000. The service has only 50,000 users. Rmail essentially functions as an RSS intermediary, aggregating feeds so that they are easily transferable if the subscriber changes e-mail addresses. While that might seem a relatively niche functionality to interest a mass-media company, Kliavkoff notes that Rmail provides insights into harnessing data on consumer behavior.
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN0147588720070501
NBC Universal looks to feed off Rmail
CABLEVISION NEARS DEAL WITH DOLANS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Ross Sorkin]
Cablevision Systems is nearing a deal to sell itself to its founding family, the Dolans, for more than $10.5 billion in cash. With the addition of debt, the total price would be nearly $23 billion. A deal would resolve a tortured stalemate between the Dolans and the board over the future of the company. During the last three years, the Dolans have sought and failed three times to buy out the public shareholders of Cablevision, which has 3.1 million cable subscribers in the New York metropolitan region. The company also owns Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers. The board of Cablevision met Tuesday evening to discuss the deal, the people involved in the discussions said. There remain several critical issues, they warned, which may postpone or even derail a deal altogether. The Dolans have appeared close to clinching deals with the board before, only to suffer setbacks at the 11th hour. While the Dolans are the controlling shareholder, Cablevision’s special committee of independent directors has not been afraid to stand up to them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/02/business/media/02deal.html
(requires registration)
* To Go Private for at Least $10.5 Billion
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117805944955288792.html?mod=todays_us_pa...
Cablevision Nears Deal With Dolans
BOARD BEGINS UNIVERSAL SERVICE REFORM PROCEEDING
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
The Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service recommended that the Federal Communications Commission take immediate action to rein in explosive growth in high-cost universal service support disbursements. The Joint Board is also seeking comment on proposals for long-term, comprehensive reform of the high-cost program. The Joint Board recommended that the Commission immediately impose an interim, emergency cap on the amount of high-cost support that competitive eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) may receive for each state, based on the average level of competitive ETC support distributed in that state in 2006. In a separate Public Notice, the Joint Board is seeking comment on the following issues and proposals for comprehensive reform: 1) The use of reverse auctions to determine high-cost universal service support; 2) The use of geographic information systems technology and network cost modeling to better calculate and target support at more granular levels; 3) Disaggregation of support below the study area or wire center level; 4) The methodology for calculating support for competitive ETCs; AND 5) Whether universal service funding should be used to promote broadband deployment directly. The Joint Board plans to make recommendations for comprehensive high-cost universal service reform within six months. It recommends that the Commission act on these further recommendations within one year from the date of the Joint Board's further recommended decision.
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-272806A1.doc
* Jt Brd Decision: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07J-1A1.doc
* Public Notice: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07J-2A1.doc
* Chairman Martin: "Today's recommendation is not an end in itself, but rather signals the need for comprehensive reform."
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07J-1A2.doc
* Commissioner Copps: "While I commend my colleagues for their good intentions - to curb the growth of the universal service fund - I have serious concerns that such a cap will be misinterpreted as a solution, even though it does not address - or pretend to address - the fundamental, comprehensive reforms needed to carry a viable and improved system of universal service forward in the twenty-first century. The clear and compelling challenge to the Joint Board and the FCC is to bring basic and advanced telecommunications to all our citizens and to ensure that our universal service system, which has accomplished so much, can continue to sustain itself."
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07J-1A8.doc
* Commissioner Tate: "Every member of this Joint Board supports the principles of universal service: to promote the availability of quality services at just, reasonable, and affordable rates; to increase access to advanced telecommunications services throughout the Nation; and to advance the availability of such services to all consumers. Our recommendation today is a step towards more fully implementing those principles."
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07J-1A3.doc
Board Begins Universal Service Reform Proceeding
LAWMAKERS MAY REFOCUS RURAL INTERNET FINANCING
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Dan Morgan and Gilbert Gaul]
Members of a House committee charged yesterday that a five-year, $1.2 billion program to expand broadband Internet services to rural communities has missed many unserved areas while channeling hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidized loans to companies in places where service already exists. "If you don't fix this, I guarantee you this committee will," House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin C. Peterson (D-Minn.) told James M. Andrew, administrator of the Rural Utilities Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "I don't know why it should be this hard." Rep Peterson said he was "not happy" with the information in a recent Washington Post article about the USDA's overall rural development program. The program provides grants, loans and loan guarantees to expand housing, small business, water and sewer, electricity and telecommunications services in rural areas. The Post reported that since 2001 more than half the money has gone to metropolitan regions or communities within easy commutes of a mid-size city. An Internet provider in Houston got $23 million in loans to wire affluent subdivisions, including one that boasts million-dollar houses and an equestrian center. Congress created the rural broadband program in 2002. To date, according to Andrew, 69 loans for $1.2 billion have been approved to finance infrastructure in 40 states. Only 40 percent of the communities benefiting were unserved at the time of the loan, Andrew said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/01/AR200705...
(requires registration)
Lawmakers May Refocus Rural Internet Financing
BIG APPLE WEIGHS IN ON NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: Information Week , AUTHOR: KC Jones]
New York City will vote on a resolution urging Congress to pass network neutrality legislation.
City Council member Gale Brewer, a Manhattan Democrat, held a hearing Monday on the resolution, which she introduced. Those testifying in support of the net neutrality resolution include Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, who submitted written comments; Timothy Karr, campaign director for Free Press; Timothy Wu, the Columbia University Law School professor who coined the phrase "net neutrality"; and Henning Schulzrinne, chairman of Columbia's computer science department. "I am already concerned about New Yorkers having access to the Internet without them having to pay ridiculous fees," Brewer said in a prepared statement. "The Internet is too expensive for many of our city's residents. We must urge Congress to take the necessary step and legislate protections against companies limiting the services available to Internet users."
http://www.informationweek.com/internet/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=1992...
http://www.informationweek.com/internet/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199202678&ci…
VONAGE REQUESTS RETRIAL IN VERIZON PATENT DISPUTE
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Anne Broache]
A pivotal U.S. Supreme Court ruling designed to make it easier to challenge obvious patents prompted Vonage on Tuesday to ask for a new trial in an ongoing dispute with Verizon. One day after the high court released a unanimous opinion widely viewed as one of the most sweeping changes to patent law in years, the struggling Internet phone company asked the U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit to put its pending appeals process on hold and send the case back to the lower court for a new trial. Vonage interim CEO Jeffrey Citron voiced confidence that the decision would have "positive implications" for his company's patent battle with the nation's second-largest phone company.
http://news.com.com/Vonage+requests+retrial+in+Verizon+patent+dispute/21...
* Vonage hopes recent Supreme Court decision can save it
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9714600-7.html
Vonage requests retrial in Verizon patent dispute
A CAPITOL IDEA FOR PUTTING STATIONS ON THE WEB
[SOURCE: tvnewsday, AUTHOR: Harry A. Jessell]
Capitol Broadcasting owner Jim Goodmon is a true HDTV pioneer. His WRAL Raleigh, N.C., began experimenting with HD in 1996 and it aired its first local HD newscast seven years ago -- long before many other stations had begun HD broadcasts of any kind. Now that the rest of the industry is finally catching up with him on local HD, he is on to his next cutting-edge project -- making sure that his TV stations (he also owns four others in North Carolina) and every other TV station is streamed in its entirety on the Internet. To avoid the various regulatory and copyright obstacles, Goodmon believes the way to do it is to operate the stations' Web sites like a cable system. He envisions Web sites where subscribers can go to watch every station within their market just as they do on cable. The trick is to limit reception of the Web-delivered broadcast signals to their over-the-air market, he says.
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2007/05/01/daily.4/
A Capitol Idea for Putting TV Stations on the Web
FLORIDA STATEWIDE-FRANCHISE BILL HEADS TO GOVERNOR
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Linda Haugsted]
By a 117-2 vote, the Florida state Assembly concurred with the state's Senate, now sending a franchise-reform bill to Gov. Charlie Crist (R). If signed by the governor, the bill, approved Monday, will allow incumbent cable providers to submit applications to the Department of State on the same date, July 1, that newcomers become eligible for state regulation. The state office will have 30 days to grant the franchises, or else the application is automatically granted.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6438318.html
Fla. Statewide-Franchise Bill Heads to Gov