"The nation should have a full-scale policy debate about the direction of the broadband Internet, especially about how to make sure that all Americans get access to broadband connections."
-- in New York Times op-ed "Spreading the Broadband Revolution" October 21, 2006
"Keeping the government and affected industries on target for the February 2009 transition date is a goal widely shared. The Bush Administration, however, appears to have unwittingly restored a fuzzy picture to the digital TV transition."
-- House Telecom Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA)
ALL ELIGIBLE FOR TV CONVERTER DISCOUNT
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Rachelle Younglai]
All U.S. households with televisions that use analog technology will be eligible for $40 discount coupons to buy digital converter boxes, the National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) said on Monday. That means less-affluent consumers who have only analog TVs and rely solely on free over-the-air television will line up for a coupon alongside households that subscribe to cable or satellite service, or already own digital televisions. U.S. television stations are required to switch to only digital broadcasts by February 17, 2009. An estimated 20 million households now rely solely on free over-the-air television. Analog televisions could go dark at that time if owners do not get a converter box, subscribe to satellite or digital cable, or replace their TV with a digital television. Some industry sources have estimated the price of a converter box could range between $50 to $60. The NTIA expects to have a system in place to process coupons starting on January 1, 2008. John Dingell, the chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, criticized the NTIA plan.
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN1235374420070312
* Feds unveil digital-TV subsidy details
http://news.com.com/Feds+unveil+digital+TV+subsidy+details/2100-1028_3-6...
* All in U.S. eligible for TV box coupons
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20070313/converter_box13.art.htm
* Commerce Department Issues Final Rule To Launch Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Coupon Program
"The transition from analog to digital television is a historic change and brings with it considerable benefits for the American consumer,†said Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez. “The coupon program is designed to help ease the transition to digital TV. Not only will the transition help expand consumer choices, but more importantly, the digital transition will enable more efficient use of the nation’s airwaves providing new advanced wireless services and increased public safety services for all Americans.â€
“With the Coupon Program and a successful analog-to-digital transition involving the public, industry and government, the switch from analog to digital television will be completed as planned," said Assistant Secretary for Communication and Information John Kneuer.
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/press/2007/DTVfinalrule_031207.htm
* Dingell Upset with NTIA's DTV Box Rules
House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) criticized key portions of the NTIA plan. He is upset because the Commerce Department's rules would disqualify cable- and satellite-TV homes from seeking financial assistance if the 15-month program spends more than $990 million. Only homes that rely exclusively on free, over-the-air-television could seek any of the remaining $510 million. "After the administration opposed Democratic efforts to secure sufficient funding in favor of more tax cuts, the administration now shows newfound concern that not all households will be covered," Chairman Dingell said in a prepared statement. "If the administration believes additional funds are needed to prevent consumers' television sets from going dark, then it should ask the Congress for such funding."
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6423691.html?display=Breaking+News
* Markey on Bush Plan for Digital TV Consumer Boxes
"The proposed plan... arbitrarily limits consumer eligibility for the program after the first $990 million is spent. This is likely to increase consumer confusion about who is eligible for coupons and when they are eligible. The Administration is evidently limiting the program in this way because of concern that sufficient funding to cover all consumers who need boxes may not be available. Last year, the Administration opposed efforts by Full Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) and myself that would have removed this concern by ensuring adequate funding for the program. The Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee intends to review this and other aspects of the Administration's plan in upcoming hearings to ensure that consumer welfare is adequately protected and that the digital TV transition remains on track."
http://markey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2675&I...
* Republican Fires Back at Democrat's DTV Rule Criticism
"Nobody is interested in spending an extra half-billion dollars of taxpayer's money to guarantee that every last television on some country squire's estate will work," said Larry Neal, a top Republican staffer on the House Commerce Committee.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6423672.html?display=Breaking...
* Commerce Department issues ill-fated rules to launch the digital-to-analog converter box coupon program
[Commentary] "What is eminently clear from that press conference is that the NTIA and Congress have lost their focus on the purpose of the converter box subsidy program, which was to speed the DTV transition, not serve as a pork barrel program for the DTV broadcast and manufacturing industries. My hunch is that this extremely ill-conceived program is more likely to slow than speed the DTV transition, as Congress is forced to acknowledge and deal with the boondoggle it has created by placing inconsistent and impossible demands on the NTIA."
http://quixote.blogs.com/telecompolicy/
WILLNER CALLS FOR TAX TO AID TV STATIONS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
On Monday, Insight Communications CEO Michael Willner said a federal tax designed to subsidize local TV stations should replace the current system that allows TV stations to help their finances by demanding cash for carriage from cable operators. Willner said his TV tax proposal would ensure a second revenue stream for broadcasters while relieving cable operators from having to pay for programming that is offered to the public free-of-charge. Willner indicated that the TV tax would fund a federal royalty pool, similar to the one used to compensate sports leagues and Hollywood studios. Insight is the ninth-largest U.S-based cable operator, with 1.3 million subscribers, mostly in the Midwest. National Association of Broadcasters executive vice president of communications Dennis Wharton called the proposal “laughable†and said the “NAB isn't interested in raising taxes on American citizens.†("Cash is nice," he added, "but there's always so much more to do with that free spectrum and cable bandwidth.")
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6423671.html?display=Breaking+News
IF IT'S SUNDAY, IT'S STILL CONSERVATIVE
[SOURCE: Media Matters for America]
Who are the guests on the Sunday morning public affairs shows where conventional wisdom is formed and the terms of debate are set? Media Matters for America followed up on an earlier study and classified each guest appearing on ABC's This Week, CBS' Face the Nation, NBC's Meet the Press, and Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday during 2005 and 2006 (over 2,000 appearances) and found: 1) Republicans and conservatives dramatically outnumbered Democrats and progressives on the Sunday shows in 2005 and 2006, by a margin of 44 percent to 27 percent (the remainder were neutral or nonpartisan figures). 2) Counting only elected officials and administration representatives, Republicans had a stark advantage over Democrats, 62 percent to 37 percent. 3) Fox News Sunday's journalist panels are the most lopsided, with a typical lineup consisting of two or even three conservatives, one neutral reporter, and one progressive. But even on ABC, NBC, and CBS, conservative journalists were nearly twice as likely as their progressive counterparts to appear on the Sunday shows. 4) While a majority of guest panels on the ABC, NBC, and CBS shows were balanced or neutral in their composition, there were nearly three times as many right-leaning panels as left-leaning ones. Fox News Sunday was even worse.
http://mediamatters.org/sundayshowreport/online_version/
* Hinchey Says Sunday Shows Still Unbalanced
Rep Maurice Hinchey (D-NY): "The American people are the owners of the public airwaves and the networks have an obligation and responsibility to use those airwaves to offer a balanced presentation of ideas and perspectives from Democrats and Republicans alike."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6423681.html?display=Breaking...
INTERNET USE HAS MORE THAN DOUBLED IN LAST 18 MONTHS, SURVEY FINDS
[SOURCE: Washington Post 3/13/1997, AUTHOR: Rajiv Chandrasekaran]
Ten years ago, Nielsen Media Research and CommerceNet found that almost 25% of people over the age of 16 in the US and Canada were using the Internet -- more than twice the number using the Net just 18 months before that. 17% were using the World Wide Web -- wow, do we even make a distinction between the Internet and the World Wide Web anymore? -- compared with 8 percent 18 months earlier. Internet usage had increased from 10 percent to 23 percent, the survey found. 50.6 million people in both countries were using the Internet, while about 37.4 million were using the Web. As of December 2006, Pew Internet & American Life Project finds that 70% of US adults are now Internet users.
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/11242115.html?dids=112...
(requires registration)
TECH FIRMS PUSH TO USE TV AIRWAVES FOR INTERNET
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Charles Babington]
A coalition of big technology companies wants to bring high-speed Internet access to consumers in a new way: over television airwaves. Key to the project is whether a device scheduled to be delivered to federal labs today lives up to its promise. The coalition, which includes Microsoft and Google, wants regulators to allow idle TV channels, known as white space, to be used to beam the Internet into homes and offices. But the Federal Communications Commission first must be convinced that such traffic would not bleed outside its designated channels and interfere with existing broadcasts. The six partners -- Microsoft, Google, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Philips -- say they can meet that challenge. Today, they plan to give FCC officials a prototype device, built by Microsoft, that will undergo months of testing. If the device passes muster, the coalition says, it could have versions in stores by early 2009.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/12/AR200703...
(requires registration)
See also --
* J.H. Snider on Microsoft's Wireless Prototype
http://www.newamerica.net/pressroom/2007/jh_snider_on_microsofts_wireles...
NOT SO FAST, BROADBAND PROVIDERS TELL BIG USERS
[SOURCE: Boston Globe, AUTHOR: Carolyn Y. Johnson cjohnson@globe.com]
For an increasing number of people, a high-speed Internet connection is a lifeline to everyday entertainment and communication. Television networks are posting shows online; retailers are lining up to offer music and movie downloads; thousands of Internet radio stations stream music; more people are using WiFi phones; and "over the top TV," in which channels stream over the Internet, is predicted to grow. That means that more customers may become familiar with Comcast's little-known acceptable-use policy, which allows the company to cut off service to customers who use the Internet too much. Comcast says that only .01 percent of its 11.5 million residential high-speed Internet customers fall into this category. Matt Davis, a research director at IDC Corp., said that because of the way cable high-speed Internet works, a person using a huge amount of bandwidth will slow service for hundreds of customers. Davis said that even if only a tiny fraction of customers are downloading enough to trigger the policy, that will probably change as more entertainment moves to the Internet. Today, he said, an average subscriber downloads about one gigabyte per month, but even if everyone on the network began downloading just one movie a month, it could have a dramatic effect on the network.
http://www.boston.com/business/personaltech/articles/2007/03/12/not_so_f...
INTERNET NAME SYSTEM IN GROWING DANGER: UN AGENCY
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Robert Evans]
The Internet's key site identity system is in mounting danger from new techniques that could cause havoc by turning it into a free-for-all market, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) warned on Monday. And the United Nations' agency said the latest trends in registering top-level domain names (TLDs) -- like www.reuters.com -- could undermine dispute procedures under which patent holders can pursue "cybersquatters." "Domain names used to be primarily specific identifiers of businesses and other Internet users, but many names nowadays are mere commodities for speculative gain," senior WIPO official Francis Gurry said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSL1235617720070312
FCC HITS STATIONS WITH PROPOSED KIDS TV FINES
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The FCC has proposed one of its largest collections of fines for TV stations violating children's television advertising limits and reporting requirements. On Monday, the FCC proposed fining six stations a total of $65,000, and admonishing a seventh station for violating public filing and commercial limit rules. The decisions were issued just two days before the FCC commissioners are scheduled to appear before the House Telecommunications Subcommittee for an oversight hearing. The biggest fine was for $17,500, levied against KGWB-TV Burlington, Iowa. The station violated the FCC's limits on commercials in kids TV shows by showing an image of a Quack Pack character in a Quack Pack show, and for failing to maintain adequate public records of its kids programming.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6423657.html?display=Breaking...
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