Benton's Communications-related Headlines For Monday February 5, 2007
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DIGITAL TELEVISION TRANSITION
Americans Unaware Of Digital TV Switch
Court Case Threatens Digital-TV Transition
Viewers Must Chip In For DTV Converters
Religious Group Continues Fight for Digital Must-Carry Rules
CBS: Multicasting Hurts HD Picture Quality
CONTENT
Television's Power Shift: Cable Pays for 'Free' Shows
Turner To Pay for Costs of Disastrous Marketing Campaign
Dearth of Drama Despite Demand
YouTube to Viacom: We Will Pull Your Clips
Kerry Wants Martin To Investigate Sports Exclusivity
TiVo sees if you skip those ads
INTERNET/TELECOM
Lightspeed's Slow Start
Five Questions for Jeff Chester
QUICKLY -- Conflict in Plane Sight; Teen exposure to online pornography common
DIGITAL TELEVISION TRANSITION
AMERICANS UNAWARE OF DIGITAL TV SWITCH
[SOURCE: TVPredictions.com, AUTHOR: Phillip Swann]
On February 17, 2009, all TV stations must switch their analog
signals to digital. At that time, viewers will be unable to watch
television unless they buy a Digital TV; subscribe to a cable or
satellite service; or get a converter box that will allow their old
analog sets to display the digital signals. But millions of Americans
are unaware of the transition according to a survey by the
Association of Public Television Stations. The APTS asked people who
now receive their TV signals over the air if they know that the
nation will switch from analog to digital TV signals on February 17,
2009. Sixty-one percent said they had no idea the transition was
taking place while 10 percent said they had limited awareness and
another 25 percent said they were somewhat aware or very aware. The
APTS says an estimated 21 million homes now get their signals over
the air. The group says it will urge Congress to increase funding to
educate Americans about the switch.
http://www.tvpredictions.com/aptv020307.htm
* APTS Survey Demonstrates Need for DTV Consumer Outreach
http://www.apts.org/news/DTVSURVEY.cfm
http://www.apts.org/
COURT CASE THREATENS DIGITAL-TV TRANSITION
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer-advocacy group in Washington
D.C., is trying to get the courts to strike down the Deficit
Reduction Act of 2005 signed by President Bush Feb. 8, 2006. The DRA
-- passed without a single Democratic vote in the House -- included
provisions governing the analog-TV cutoff. Public Citizen's argument
isn't that the mechanics of the digital-TV transition were
unconstitutional. Instead, it claimed that the analog cutoff is
unconstitutional because it was included in a law that was enacted
unconstitutionally in violation of Article 1, Section 7, Clause 2 of
the U.S. Constitution -- language that requires the House and Senate
to pass identical bills, also called the bicameral-passage
requirement. "The DRA was presented to the president in violation of
that requirement: The Senate passed one version of a bill, the House
another, and then the Senate's version was presented to the
president, who signed it. Under the Constitution, that bill has not
become a law," Public Citizen said in an October 2006 court brief. On
Feb. 9 when a three judge-panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
D.C. Circuit will hear arguments on whether the inconsistency should
invalidate the law that called for the demise of analog-TV service.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6413076.html?display=Breaking+News
VIEWERS MUST CHIP IN FOR DTV CONVERTERS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
National Telecommunications and Information Association Director John
Kneuer, appearing on C-SPAN's The Communicators," said government
subsidies will not cover the full costs for digital-to-analog set-top
boxes. Viewers of analog-only sets will be required to buy the boxes
if they want to watch TV on those sets after Feb. 17, 2009, which
will be only 28 days after our next President is sworn in. Assistant
Secretary Kneuer said he was limited in what he could say about the
rules the NTIA is developing for the set-top box subsidy program, but
when asked whether there would be a means test, he suggested there
may not be. "You build a record and you look at that record," he
said. "In this case we have a fairly broad consensus in the record
that while trying to be fiscally responsible and not wanting to fund
luxury consumer electronics equipment there is a broad sense that
there is very broad cross-section of Americans that are going to be
impacted by this and that to the extent possible, they should be
eligible." Asked about comments in the trade press that the
transition was analogous to Y2K and whether or not there was a plan
B, Asst Sec Kneuer said he wasn't going to second-guess Congress
adding that NTIA is putting in place a way to track and record the
transition "as it takes place" so it can identify problems. He said
NTIA will have an opportunity if it identifies transient problems to
take corrective action by taking that information to Congress. Kneuer
said he would seek corrective changes from Congress if need be, but
hasn't had the need to so thus far.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6413194.html?display=Breaking...
* Digital TV Chief: Converter Boxes Will Not Be Free
http://www.tvpredictions.com/dtv020307.htm
* For more info on the transition see "Getting to February 2009:
Implementing the Digital TV Transition"
http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=node/1257
RELIGIOUS GROUP CONTINUES FIGHT FOR DIGITAL MUST-CARRY RULES
[SOURCE: Lasar's Letter on the FCC, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
The head of a Christian broadcasting association has filed fresh
comments with the Federal Communications Commission calling for the
agency to make cable services carry all multicast TV signals
broadcast in the area. "The single most important issue facing all
independently owned stations is multicast must-carry/anti-stripping,"
Bob D'Andrea, President of the Christian Television Network (CTN),
wrote to the FCC. "Without multicast must-carry/anti-stripping in
digital television, smaller stations will struggle and local viewers
may eventually lose access to valuable community oriented programs."
Much of D'Andrea's January 16th filing comes from comments he made at
the FCC's recent hearing on media ownership issues in Nashville,
Tennessee. CTN's president argues that 1) "Anti-stripping" rules --
prohibitions against cable companies cherry picking which signals to
carry -- are embedded in the 1992 Cable Television Consumer
Protection and Competition Act of 1992. "The anti-stripping concept
is merely an extension of existing law," D'Andrea writes. 2) Must
carry will create a more level playing field for smaller
broadcasters. D'Andrea describes the digital TV future as one
dominated by "a few ultra large cable companies" that will "carry all
the programming and will dictate to customers what they will watch"
unless the FCC acts on this issue. 3) The programming offered by the
Religious Voices in Broadcasting (RVB) network represents a positive
alternative to the "violent, profane, indecent and pornography
programming" that has "inundated cable-only channels." D'Andrea's
filing extolls RVB shows targeted to youth, such as Pulse TV, geared
towards Christian music videos, and Underground, a program that
showcases urban Christian hip-hop artists. 4) The FCC unfairly
requires broadcasters to go digital without requiring cable companies
to carry all their new signals. D'Andrea estimates the re-engineering
cost to Nashville's WHTN, a Christian oriented TV outlet, at 2
million dollars. "Our stations are struggling with the burden of
developing digital programming plans in an uncertain regulatory
environment," D'Andrea writes, "while simultaneously financing the
costs of an unfunded, federally mandated digital build out..."
http://www.lasarletter.net/drupal/node/320
CBS: MULTICASTING HURTS HD PICTURE QUALITY
[SOURCE: TVPredictions.com, AUTHOR: Phillip Swann]
A top CBS executive says the network's HDTV picture quality is
diminished when a local station decides to add a subchannel to its
digital feed. Known as multicasting, many local stations today are
broadcasting multiple feeds instead of just one high-def channel via
their digital spectrum. The extra feeds, which often include local
weather channels, splits the digital transmission into parts, thereby
possibly diluting the high-def picture quality. The local stations
hope the extra channels will generate more advertising. But Ken
Aagaard, CBS Sports' senior vice president of operations and
production services, tells the Syracuse Post-Standard that his
network's engineers believe any digital subchannel takes away from
the HD quality. The issue of HD picture quality is a growing concern
in the industry, particularly among high-def owners who often feel
cheated by what they see on screen. On Internet message boards, HD
enthusiasts often accuse local stations and the cable and satellite
operators of purposely squeezing the high-def signal to make room for
other channels and services.
http://www.tvpredictions.com/cbs020207.htm
CONTENT
TELEVISION'S POWER SHIFT: CABLE PAYS FOR 'FREE' SHOWS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Peter Grant peter.grant( at )wsj.com
and Brooks Barnes]
All over the country, a shift in the balance of power between cable
operators and broadcasters has station owners -- including giants
such as CBS Corp. -- lining up to demand new cash payments. If forced
to pay, cable operators may have to raise prices or see their profits
erode. The struggling broadcast networks such as CBS, on the other
hand, would benefit from a major new revenue stream: cable payments
to the local stations that networks own. Cable companies have been
picking up broadcast stations' signals without paying cash almost
since the birth of cable TV more than 50 years ago. But broadcast
stations are beginning to flex their muscles now. Cable operators
face growing competition from satellite operators and new TV ventures
by phone companies -- both of which pay to retransmit broadcast
signals. Meanwhile, local broadcast stations are seeking new income
to make up for falling ad revenue, as TV viewership of local
programming falls and digital video recorders such as TiVo let
viewers skip ads. Congress also has been tilting the playing field,
gradually allowing broadcast companies to accumulate more stations
and thus bargaining power. The Federal Communications Commission,
which has locked horns with the cable industry on numerous issues
under Chairman Kevin Martin, issued a recent ruling supporting
broadcasters' position, increasing the pressure on cable operators to
back down. Based on the changing dynamics, media research firm Kagan
Research predicted last year that station owners will be able to
collect almost $400 million in retransmission fees from cable by 2010
-- and $1 billion altogether including fees from phone and satellite
operators, up from $230 million last year. The fees some broadcast
stations have been asking could drive cable bills up by around $2 a
month. Some broadcasters already are talking about at least doubling
that over the next few years, and retransmission fights have been
breaking out all over the country.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117064226242297903.html?mod=todays_us_pa...
(requires subscription)
See also --
* MEDIACOM CUTS SINCLAIR DEAL
[SOURCE: Multichannel News]
After months of bickering and lobbying local and federal regulators,
Mediacom Communications cut a retransmission-consent deal with
Sinclair Broadcast Group late Friday. The agreement restores the
local broadcast signals of several Sinclair stations in 12 states,
which the broadcaster had pulled from Mediacom after the eighth
largest U.S. cable operator balked at paying cash in exchange for
retransmission consent. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6413225.html?display=Breaking+News
TURNER TO PAY COSTS FOR DISASTROUS MARKETING CAMPAIGN
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The office of Boston Mayor Thomas Menino confirms that Turner
Broadcasting has agreed to pay for the costs associated with its
guerilla marketing campaign gone awry.
A figure of $1 million has been reported, but the Mayor's office
could not confirm that at press time, and Turner said it could not
confirm the payment either. Two of the guerilla marketers face
charges, and the Department of Homeland Security has registered its
displeasure. Turner, a Time Warner Company, has apologized, saying it
recognized the seriousness of the incident. Senator John Kerry (D-MA)
Thursday sent a letter to the chairmen of the Federal Trade
Commission and FCC asking them to make sure the city gets reimbursed,
though it is unclear what power they would have to do so.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6412903?display=Breaking+News
* Kerry Asked Feds To Insure Turner Payments
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6413090?display=Breaking+News
* What Was Turner Thinking?
Turner lost face, but may have won in the end. Even though executives
insist they didn't intend to spark an uproar with the guerilla
campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force, the series featuring
anthropomorphic fast food items, the company nonetheless gained tens
of millions of dollars in free publicity for Cartoon Network and its
late-night Adult Swim block, which is available in more than 91
million U.S. cable and satellite homes. Its marginal cost? A $1
million payment to Boston for its troubles, it looked like at week's end.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6413209.html?display=Top+Stories
DEARTH OF DRAMA DESPITE DEMAND
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: R. Thomas Umstead]
Industry observers believe that the proliferation of African-American
actors and actresses in mainstream drama serials has made the void of
African-American-targeted originals less obvious to viewers. Still,
some programmers believe that there's a demand for quality and
culturally relevant original dramas among African-Americans and
mainstream viewers. networks have been leery of offering dramas
revolving around African-Americans because of fears that such shows
won't draw the mass audience necessary to lure advertisers, which in
turn help fund high production costs for one-hour dramas that range
from $1 million to $3 million per episode. Indeed, TV's track record
with such shows isn't stellar. While viewers over the years have
shown a willingness to watch African-American life and culture
through sitcoms like Good Times and The Jeffersons in the 1970's, The
Cosby Show in the 1980s, Martin in the 1990s and most recently
Girlfriends and Everybody Hates Chris, the reverse has been true for
dramas. Over the past 20 years dramatic series like Fox
Broadcasting's 413 Hope Street, CBS' family-oriented Under One Roof
starring James Earl Jones and the hospital skein Angels -- all of
which received critical acclaim -- failed to last a full season
before being cancelled due to poor ratings.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6413019.html
* Networks Pick Comedy over Drama
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6413123.html?display=Feature
YOUTUBE TO VIACOM: WE WILL PULL YOUR CLIPS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Anne Becker]
Viacom today said it demanded that YouTube pull more than 100,000
clips of its programming off the popular video sharing site. Viacom
said that after months of discussions, YouTube is unwilling to "come
to a fair market agreement" for the content. YouTube acknowledged it
had received the take-down request from Viacom and said it would
comply with the request. The clips, which come from all of Viacom's
family of cable channels, represent some 1.2 billion video streams on
YouTube, Viacom said. The company is alleging that YouTube, and its
parent company Google, have failed to follow through on promises to
provide filtering tools that would notify Viacom of its clips running.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6412934.html?display=Breaking...
* Viacom to YouTube: Pull 100K Clips
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6412990.html?display=Breaking+News
* Changing the Channel
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Don Tapscott]
[Commentary] After months of fruitless negotiations, Viacom has
ordered Google Inc.'s YouTube to remove all of its content from the
popular video Web site. Noting the company's content accounted for
more than 1.2 billion YouTube video streams, Viacom defended its
decision by saying the enormous YouTube exposure didn't actually
contribute anything to Viacom's bottom line. But by pulling its
content, Viacom is infuriating the millions of fans of its various
programs. Angering customers is typically not a good thing to do.
Viacom is a traditional broadcaster that wants to be paid for its
content. For its part, YouTube says talk of profit-sharing is
premature. Google and other smart companies know that just as people
from every walk of life can self-organize to upload content on the
Web, they can also collaborate to invent new products, create
software or help find a cure for cancer. Throughout the economy,
astute corporations are beginning to harness this mass collaboration
to conceive, design, develop and distribute products in new ways. The
notion that a corporation has to attract, develop and retain the best
and brightest inside its corporate boundaries is becoming
inappropriate in many industries. With costs of collaboration falling
dramatically, companies increasingly source ideas, innovations and
uniquely qualified minds from a vast global pool of talent. As much
as Viacom may resent YouTube's sudden towering presence in the
television industry, the popular Web site has reinvented the
television ballpark, and Viacom should pick up a mitt and stay in the game.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117063820794997826.html?mod=todays_us_op...
(requires subscription)
KERRY WANTS MARTIN TO INVESTIGATE SPORTS EXCLUSIVITY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Sen John Kerry (D-MA) has asked FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to
investigate DirecTV's "pending agreement" with Major League Baseball
on an "Extra Innings" package of out-of-market baseball games. "As
you know, Extra Innings is currently available to 75 million
subscribers through cable as well as DirectTV and the Dish Network,"
Kerry wrote to Martin. "However, if this exclusive deal is approved,
only 15 million DirectTV subscribers will be able to purchase Extra
Innings, leaving 50 million Americans without access to out-of-market
games that they currently enjoy and a viable alternative to view
them." Sen Kerry is concerned about the precedent for other sports.
"I am concerned that this deal, and others that may follow, will
separate fans from their favorite teams and reduce competition in the
sports market," he said. "I therefore request that you investigate
this exclusive deal and report to Congress on its implications for
consumers and recommend any changes to law or regulation that will
ameliorate its negative effects."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6413042?display=Breaking+News
TIVO SEES IF YOU SKIP THOSE ADS
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: David Lazarus]
[Commentary] TiVo revealed the other day that it's offering TV
networks and ad agencies a chance to receive second-by- second data
about which programs the company's 4.5 million subscribers are
watching and, more importantly, which commercials people are
skipping. This raises a pair of troubling questions: Is TiVo, which
revolutionized TV viewing with its digital video recording
technology, now watching what people watch? And is it selling that
sensitive info to advertisers and others? The answers, apparently,
are no and no. "I promise with my hand on a Bible that your data is
not being archived and sold," said Todd Juenger, TiVo's vice
president and general manager of audience research and measurement.
"We don't know what any particular person is watching," he said. "We
only know what a random, anonymous sampling of our user base is
watching." Still, privacy advocates say TiVo's new data service --
dubbed StopWatch -- reflects the growing ease with which companies
could, if they so choose, collect and exploit vast amounts of
information about consumers' everyday habits.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/0...
INTERNET/TELECOM
LIGHTSPEED'S SLOW START
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek]
With completion of the deal to purchase BellSouth, AT&T is on top of
the telecom world. The company has virtually remade the old "Ma Bell"
through the acquisition of 13 companies over the last decade --
spending $285 billion to do it. Now AT&T is gearing up for the next
big telecom battle -- for the supremacy of the Internet. AT&T's
weapon of choice is Project Lightspeed, a new Internet network that
sends bits of data through copper and fiber-optic cables buried in
the ground. The high-speed network and its Internet-protocol
television (IPTV) technology are crucial to AT&T's plan to bundle
phone service, Net connections, and TV. In theory, the system will
let AT&T steal customers from rival phone giant Verizon
Communications and cable companies such as Comcast and Time Warner.
AT&T says it will pump $4.6 billion into building enough fiber-optic
cable and supporting technology to reach 19 million homes by the end
of 2008. But despite AT&T's stellar performance of late, the company
faces serious questions about whether Project Lightspeed can deliver
on its promise. Technology glitches hobbled the rollout last year.
And though the TV service is up and running in fewer than a dozen
markets with prices that undercut cable bills, a growing chorus of
rivals, analysts, and engineers are skeptical that the network will
offer enough bandwidth a few years from now to handle phone service,
high-speed Internet, and multiple streams of high-definition TV.
Cable operators have taken full advantage of AT&T's slow start,
gleefully swiping phone customers with their own triple-play
offerings. Having invested more than $110 billion in network upgrades
over the last decade to provide Internet and digital video, cable
companies only have to tweak their networks to offer phone service.
As of the third quarter, the five largest U.S. cable operators have
signed up about 6 million new Net-based phone customers. By contrast,
AT&T and Verizon have swiped a combined 222,000 TV customers.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_07/b4021067.htm?chan=tec...
FIVE QUESTIONS FOR JEFF CHESTER
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Kent Gibbons]
A Q&A with Jeff Chester, Executive Director of the Center for Digital
Democracy and author of Digital Destiny. "The biggest fear [about the
future of the Internet] is that it's being transformed into a
perpetual, virtual Madison Avenue machine. That we will be bombarded
with precision ads that will make us better consumers and not
citizens." The solution: "There needs to be national legislation so
that people can control all their information." See more at the URL below.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6413144.html?display=Opinion
QUICKLY
CONFLICT IN PLANE SIGHT
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] Many journalists face less-exciting ethical crises than
the one that confronted Maria Bartiromo. But at the bottom line, the
problem is the same: Can reporters accept gifts or special kindnesses
from sources and still cover them objectively? And even if they can,
doesn't such largess leave the appearance of conflict, which can be
just as damaging?
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6413191.html?display=Opinion
TEEN EXPOSURE TO ONLINE PORNOGRAPHY COMMON
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Michael Conlon]
About four in every 10 U.S. youngsters age 10 to 17 report they've
seen pornography while on the Internet, two-thirds of them saying it
was uninvited. Many of the encounters with online pornography, both
sought-out and accidental, were related to use of file-sharing
programs to download images, a report from the University of New
Hampshire in Durham says.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID...
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Communications-related Headlines is a free online news summary
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While the summaries are factually accurate, their often informal tone
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