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There is a persistent digital divide

Pew Internet & American Life Project's most recent survey from December 2006 showed the stark differences in Internet usage among various groups in the U.S. More than 80% of people aged 18 to 49 use the Internet, while only 33% of those older than 65 do. And in racial groups, 72% of whites and 69% of English-speaking Hispanics use the Net, while 58% of African-Americans do. Plus, 59% of those with a high school education use the Internet, while 91% of college-educated folks do.

February 28, 2007
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

"Based upon the initial proposal from NTIA, the [Bush] administration appears to view this program as little more than an unwelcome homework assignment."
-- Chairman John Dingell (D-MI)

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6420008.html?display=Breaking%20News

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February 28, 2007
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

HOUSE DEMS EYE TELECOM REVIEW
[SOURCE: Technology Daily, AUTHOR: David Hatch]
The Democrats' innovation agenda, released in November by now-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), will be woven into upcoming telecom legislation. The agenda calls for universal, affordable broadband access within five years. The Bush administration has pledged to achieve that goal by 2007, but critics say it is not on track. House Democrats are planning a thorough re-examination of telecommunications and media policies that will feature multiple oversight hearings and fresh legislation. Fostering high-speed Internet deployment, ensuring an open and accessible Internet, and overhauling the federal universal service program that subsidizes telecom connections in rural and impoverished areas are among the key issues to be addressed. The competitiveness of the video, telephone and radio marketplaces also will be explored, along with protecting the privacy of phone records and promoting efficient use of spectrum. House Democrats plan to scrutinize several FCC policies, include the agency's review of media-ownership limits and its authority to investigate allegations that the National Security Agency conducted surveillance of phone records without warrants. Also to be examined is a recent FCC decision relaxing local video-franchising guidelines. The telecom subcommittee also plans oversight hearings on the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is playing a central role in the transition to digital television, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which the White House has targeted for budget cuts.
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-MJSN1172609975538.html

DINGELL POUNDS NTIA, FCC ON DTV TRANSITION
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) took shots at the Bush administration’s oversight of the digital-TV transition Tuesday, especially the converter-box program designed to keep old analog-TV sets running when only digital signals are available from local TV stations after early 2009. To the dismay of Chairman Dingell and other House Democrats, the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration is proposing to exclude cable- and satellite-TV homes from the program. It also indicated that it might support limiting coupon eligibility to low-income broadcast-only homes. “Their initial notice showed rather shocking ignorance of the congressional debate and little attention to the attitude of the American people,” Chairman Dingell said in a speech to 500 members of the National Association of Broadcasters. Rep Dingell also questioned whether the Federal Communications Commission under Chairman Kevin Martin was up to the task. "I have some additional and serious concerns with the FCC's desire and ability to handle the overall transition,” he said. Chairman Dingell is concerned that a poorly managed transition would anger millions of consumers, who would make their displeasure felt at the polls. He is debating whether a bill crafting a new transition scheme is needed.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6420008.html?display=Breaking+News
* Dingell Questions FCC Ability To Oversee DTV Transition
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6419961.html?display=Breaking...
* Read his remarks: http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_110/110st9.shtml

MARKEY PLANS SIRIUS/XM, CONVERTER BOX HEARINGS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
House Telecom Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey told broadcasters he will hold a hearing on the proposed Sirius XM merger -- and other radio issues -- on March 7. He noted that broadcast TV faced new challenges from broadband competition but said he was still a fan of over-the-air TV and would work to keep broadcasters at the center of the digital revolution. Commenting on the Univision $24 million fine, he said that most broadcasters were fulfilling their obligations when it came to educational kids TV programming but that the FCC must enforce the law against violators. Rep Markey was the driving force behind the 1990 Children's Television Act, which mandated the three-hour minimum programming for educational kids TV, which Univision allegedly violated. Chairman Markey said he expected to deal with the DTV public-interest obligations issue this year.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6419779?display=Breaking+News
* Read text of speech
http://markey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2638&I...
* Markey plans push in telecom
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/02/27/markey_plans_pu...
* Will Chairman Markey allow "competition" of views on future of the Internet policy?
[SOURCE: Scott Cleland, Precusor]
[Commentary] Will Chairman Markey allow free and open "competition" of views on what is best for "the future of the Internet" during Thursday's House Telecom Subcommittee hearing?
http://www.precursorblog.com/node/307

BROADCASTERS GET RETRANS SUPPORT FROM MARKEY, DINGELL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
At a National Association of Broadcasters State Leadership Conference Tuesday, Colin Crowell, veteran House Commerce Committee staffer to Telecommunications Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA), said broadcasters have the right to withhold their signal if they cannot come to terms with cable systems over carriage. Crowell said that he would be surprised if the issue of retransmission consent was not raised in a "future of video" oversight hearing the subcommittee planned to hold sometime in the spring. On the issue of multicast must-carry, Crowell suggested that a broadcaster commitment to DTV public interest obligations would allow Chairman Markey to support multicast must-carry. In another speech to the conference, broadcaster and Telecommunications Subcommittee member Greg Walden (R-OR) warned that activist Democrats might extract so much in the way of DTV obligations that multicast channels would look more like a cable public access channel than a commercially viable enterprise.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6420007.html?display=Breaking...

* Dems Won't Wait for Bills To Grill Industry
More on the developing telecom agenda for the new Congress: media ownership; the future of radio, TV, wireless and broadband; the digital TV transition -- including the NTIA's converter-box program and the need for a consumer education campaign.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6419873?display=Breaking+News

* Walden: Supreme Court Could Nix FCC's Indecency Authority
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Rep Greg Walden (R-OR), member of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee, told broadcasters Tuesday that he wouldn't be surprised if the Supreme Court ultimately throws out the FCC's authority to regulate indecency. Rep Walden, himself a broadcaster -- though he is selling his five radio stations -- supported raising the FCC's indecency fines tenfold and giving the commission more indecency authority but says the FCC's "patchwork" of confusing rulings has opened the door for the courts. He cautioned broadcasters to educate Congress about drug and alcohol advertising issues -- and violent programming on TV. He also put in a plug for loosening media ownership rules.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6419863?display=Breaking+News

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February 28, 2007
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

HOUSE GETS FIRST CRACK AT XM-SIRIUS PROPOSAL
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Charles Babington]
Congress and federal regulators need to get with the times. That's the message that Mel Karmazin, chief executive of Sirius Satellite Radio, plans to deliver today at the first public hearing on a proposal to merge the nation's two satellite radio companies, Sirius and XM Satellite Radio Holdings. Karmazin, who will face skeptical members of the House Judiciary Committee's newly formed antitrust task force, says satellite radio is in stiff competition not only with free, over-the-air radio but also with such newer products as MP3 players, Internet radio and music-downloading cellphones. "What I need to do is lay out the realities of the marketplace as we see it," Karmazin said. He can expect resistance. "What I'm concerned about now is whether we're creating a monopolistic situation," Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-MI), who will chair the task force hearing, said in an interview yesterday. "I don't think it will stimulate competition, and it could very well take away from the competition taking place now in the industry." The Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission, not Congress, will decide whether to allow XM and Sirius to merge. But today's hearing seems certain to introduce the chief arguments for and against the plan, whose outcome may not be decided for nearly a year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/27/AR200702...
(requires registration)
* Sirius Radio Chief Urges Merger
The chief executive of Sirius Satellite Radio, Mel Karmazin, is taking the campaign to sell his company’s proposed merger with XM Satellite Radio to Congress.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/28/business/media/28satellite.html
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SIRIUS BUSINESS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: David Henderson]
[Commentary] In expressing its strong reservations about the proposed merger between Sirius and XM, the Federal Communications Commission seems to think that there are only two competitors and that a merger would reduce the number to one. But that's true only if the relevant market is the satellite broadcasting market. In fact, the market is much larger, including at a minimum all existing radio stations. If you doubt that, ask yourself how you would decide whether or not to subscribe to Sirius or XM. Surely a big part of your decision is the quality and range of programming you can get on "free" radio. That alone is strong enough evidence for allowing the merger. But there is even stronger evidence, and it has to do with how XM's and Sirius's "free-radio" competitors view the merger. If some competitors in an industry resent others and even end up going out of business, competition is alive and well. It's when the competitors get too cozy that we need to worry. It follows that if existing competitors oppose a merger, the merger is likely to be good for consumers. This is the bottom line: If the FCC cares about consumers and not about making things cozy for traditional broadcasters, it should allow the XM-Sirius merger.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117263534282621709.html?mod=todays_us_op...
(requires subscription)

SAVING RADIO IN THE SATELLITE ERA
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Eric Klinenberg, New York University]
[Commentary] Today in Congress, the executives from XM and Sirius who propose merging into a $13 billion satellite monopoly will argue that consolidation offers the best hope for reviving radio. Traditional broadcasters also favor consolidation. In October, the National Association of Broadcasters asked the Federal Communications Commission to relax ownership limits in local markets, so companies could control yet more stations per town. But does anyone believe that consolidation has been good for radio? During the past five years, I've traveled the country asking people to describe what has happened to their local stations, and not one has told me that radio is better than it was a decade ago. Listeners complained that their favorite local D.J.’s, talk show hosts and reporters have disappeared, replaced by syndicated shows, automated programs, predictable song cycles and endless commercials. It’s time for Congress and the FCC to consider policy ideas intended to serve the public interest, like requiring broadcast radio stations to air original programming on their new digital stations, or allowing satellite companies to run local news, talk and music. Mega-mergers are unlikely to provide any real benefits to citizens and consumers. Why resort to even more consolidation when we already know it doesn't work?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/28/opinion/28klinenberg.html
(requires registration)

WHAT'S STALLING SATELLITE
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Andrew Hampp]
getting approval from the Federal Communications Commission is just one of the hurdles satellite radio faces. Even as one company, satellite still needs to compete in an audio market that includes HD formats, MP3 players and podcasts. Here are five challenges that still need to be dealt with: 1) satellite radio's share of the overall audio market is small; 2) the service's reach outside of major markets is small; 3) selling consumers on the idea that the merger is justified; 4) gaining loyalty is hard when battling digital radio and MP3 players; and 5) lack of advertiser support.
http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=115193

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February 28, 2007
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

EXPANDING OUR HORIZONS, EXPANDING OUR NETWORKS
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration]
John M.R. Kneuer, Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information, spoke at the 10th SIA Leadership Dinner in between of the rubber chicken and spongy cheesecake. He discussed the interactions between the U.S. Government and the commercial satellite industry and recognized satellite’s unique role for our economic, homeland, and national security. "The new National Space Policy," he said "recognizes our reliance on commercial capabilities and our commitment to spur entrepreneurism." That policy, adopted in August 2006: The United States is committed to encouraging and facilitating a growing and entrepreneurial U.S. commercial space sector. Toward that end, the United States Government will use U.S. commercial space capabilities to the maximum practical extent, consistent with national security.
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/speeches/2007/JKneuer_SIA_022107.htm

Expanding Our Horizons, Expanding Our Networks

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February 28, 2007
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

GOD'S WORD, PLUS STATIC, ON CALVARY SATELLITE NETWORK
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Christopher Goffard]
When Chuck Smith, founder of the worldwide Calvary Chapel movement, decided to invest big in radio, the Orange County evangelist joined forces with a pastor he trusted. Mike Kestler was one of his proteges, a folksy preacher with a ponytail who had ridden the Calvary phenomenon to a pulpit in Twin Falls, Idaho. Smith had presided at Kestler's wedding. He'd helped Kestler keep his job after a churchgoer complained that Kestler had begged her to run away with him. Now, the pastors would be business partners. Kestler knew how to run a radio station. Smith had money and a famous name. They shared a vision of FM radio as a megaphone for God's word. Bolstered by $13 million from Smith's Costa Mesa church, Calvary Satellite Network grew into a spectacular recruiting tool for the evangelical movement. In listening areas across the nation, Calvary Chapels proliferated. But relations between the two pastors deteriorated. In 2003, Smith cut off funding for the radio network, precipitating a crisis that continues to roil Calvary's leadership. It sparked a war for control of the network on terrain Smith had preached against for years: the earthly courts. The two sides have hurled accusations of lust and greed, betrayal and embezzlement. As part of the battle, Smith funded a lawsuit against Kestler by a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader who said he had fired her from her radio job for rebuffing his sexual advances. Now, after a year of hugely expensive legal sparring, the 79-year-old Smith is so eager to settle the case that he is willing to do so at a staggering loss.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-calvary28feb28,1,34...
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God's word, plus static, on Calvary Satellite Network

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