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FEDERAL-STATE UNIVERSAL SERVICE JOINT BOARD STAFF RELEASES MONITORING REPORT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
The staff of the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service has released its most recent Monitoring Report on Universal Service. This report reflects information on the telephone industry filed with the Federal Communications Commission through May 2006. This report, with a few exceptions, reflects data filed with the FCC by the telephone industry for the year 2005 and prior years. The report released Friday addresses the various universal service support mechanisms, which amounted to about $6.5 billion in 2005. In 2005, disbursements among the four categories of universal service mechanisms were: 58.7% for high-cost support; 28.6% for schools and libraries support; 12.4% for low-income support; and 0.4% for rural health care support. The report presents data in eleven categories including: 1) Industry Revenues and Contributions, 2) support for Low-income, High-Cost, Schools and Libraries & Rural Health care, 3) Subscribership levels, 4) rates and 5) Quality of Service. Wireline Competition Bureau contact: Alexander Belinfante at (202) 418-0944; TTY (202) 418-0484.
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-269242A1.doc
* Full report: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-269251A1.pdf
New Universal Service Report
INDECENCY COMPLAINTS: THE ROLLER COASTER STATISTICS CONTINUE
[SOURCE: Lasar's Letter on the FCC, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
Consumer indecency complaints continued their jagged, unpredictable pattern for the third quarter of 2006, FCC statistics indicate. The latest stats, issued on December 29th, indicate that the agency received 26,843 "indecency/obscenity" complaints in July, down to 3,108 in August, shooting up to 163,553 in September. In contrast, "general criticism" complaints remained steady at between 206 to almost 250 filings for the same three months. These figures conform to a "roller coaster" pattern for indecency complaints that goes back several years. 11,326 consumers filed indecency or obscenity complaints with the FCC in April of this year, the FCC reports, followed by 40,000 in May. But in June only 741 consumers lodged such complaints.
http://www.lasarletter.net/drupal/node/274
Indecency Complaints: the Roller Coaster Statistics Continue
A PRIVATIZED NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY NETWORK?
[SOURCE: Lasar's Letter on the FCC, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
It will operate almost 250 video and broadband channels, and be allowed to access hundreds more under certain conditions. It will allow thousands public safety agencies to exchange data about weather emergencies and potential terrorist attacks. It will enable police agencies to exchange mug shots, fingerprints, and share real-time video monitoring of emergency or potentially criminal situations. And it will be run by a commercial entity that charges on a fee-for-service basis, even permitted to market spectrum to other companies "through leases or in the form of public/private partnerships." On December 20th the Federal Communications Commission issued a Ninth Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on how to use the 700 MHz band for public safety purposes. "We believe that the time may have come for a significant departure from the typical public safety allocation model the Commission has used in the past," the Notice argues. In fact, what the NPRM proposes could be described as radical—a highly centralized, privately run emergency communications system that the document claims will function as a non-profit, yet could be allowed to lease out spectrum using a model similar to that recently proposed by the Microsoft Corporation in a series of FCC filings. Here it is, the future of public safety communications as envisioned by Kevin Martin's FCC.
http://www.lasarletter.net/drupal/node/272
A privatized national public safety network?
FCC : CALLING ALL SPECTRUM SHARERS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable 12/22, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The FCC has asked tech types to submit the low-power devices the FCC wants to allow to operate in the so-called white spaces between TV channels in the broadcast band. The Commission has not yet decided whether to license them or allow them to operate unlicensed. The latter scenario particularly troubles broadcasters, who argue that unlicensed devices could interfere, literally, with the transition to digital TV. Without licensing, the FCC would be hard pressed to get all those genies back in the bottle, broadcasters argue. Parties who want to submit prototypes are asked to make arrangements with the Commission by Jan. 29.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6402425.html?display=Breaking...
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6402425.html?display=Breaking%20News
ARM CHALLENGES TV STATION LICENSE RENEWALS IN PORTLAND
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable 12/26, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Oregon Alliance to Reform Media, or ARM, has filed a petition at the FCC to deny its renewal of all the commercial TV station licenses in Portland (OR), saying its coverage of elections does not meet the FCC's standard of public-interest service, which is to meet the needs of the community. The group uses as supporting material a study from the Campaign Media Legal Center that found that, in the four weeks prior to the election in 2004, less than 1% of newscasts were devoted to coverage of state elections, about 9% to ballot issues and less than 1% to local elections. The group claims the study covered "substantially all of the regularly scheduled locally produced news available in Portland." The group argues that the FCC must at least designate the license challenge for hearing--something it rarely does--saying that its petition raises "substantial and material questions of fact" that make that designation mandatory.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6402730?title=Article&spacede...
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6402730?title=Article&spacedesc=news
FCC'S MARTIN POSTS MEDIA OWNERSHIP STUDIES
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin moved Friday to deflect congressional charges that the FCC repressed unfavorable media ownership studies by posting online a new FCC study along with studies the Commission did back to 1982. The FCC's Media Bureau suggested in a statement Friday that some of the older studies could be "internal documents" and might be withheld. It said that responding to the Chairman's request it was releasing the reports in an exercise of discretion "in light of the unique circumstances present in this instance - principally, the FCC's current consideration of the media ownership rules and the very strong level of public interest in this proceeding."
http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=11284
(requires free registration)
* FCC Media Bureau Posts Staff Reports and Studies
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-269271A1.doc
http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=11284
NEWS CORP, LIBERTY OUTLINE $11 BILLION ASSET SWAP
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable 12/22, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
News Corp. and Liberty Media have released the details of their planned asset swap. Under terms of the deal, Liberty will give up its $11 billion (16.3%) stake in News Corp. in exchange for that company's ownership stake (38.4%) of satellite TV company DirecTV. That puts cable pioneer and Liberty chief John Malone in the business of trying to grab eyeballs away from the wired world. It also keeps News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch from looking over his shoulder to make sure Malone wasn't trying to take over his company. Liberty also gets three regional sports networks ((FSN Northwest, FSN Pittsburgh and FSN Rocky Mountain)) and $550 million in cash. Shareholders still have to vote to approve the deal, but if they do, and it passes various regulatory reviews, it is expected to close by the second half of 2007.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6402330.html?display=Breaking...
See also:
* Space Cowboy
After acquiring DirecTV from News Corp., Malone's Liberty Media has new distribution muscle.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6403293.html?display=Feature
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6402330.html?display=Breaking%20News
FORECAST 2007
[SOURCE: MediaWeek, AUTHOR: various]
Here's some looks at what 2007 will be like for various media. Broadcast TV: expect more shows to debut online instead of on air; as the networks increasingly use broadband to create buzz for their new shows, the importance of on-air lead-in and lead-out scheduling will diminish. Cable TV: While last year saw a number of cable networks breaking ratings records with their original programming efforts, cable continues to lag far behind the broadcast nets in terms of its share of prime-time ad dollars; minute-by minute Nielsen ratings may change the way advertisers buy time on cable channels. Interactive Media: Barring a calamity, most expect the Web to experience another period of robust—if slightly less hyper—growth in 2007, as total spending will likely exceed $20 billion; the biggest questions—and the hardest ones to answer—involve the sea changes that occur annually in this segment where unpredictability rules. Technology: The coming year will be dominated by the release of new operating systems from Microsoft and Apple, but the fun doesn't end there.
* Broadcast TV (John Consoli)
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=10035...
* Cable TV (Anthony Crupi)
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=10035...
* Interactive Media (Mike Shields)
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=10035...
* Putting more on the line online
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times]
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-predict2jan02,1,98344...
(requires registration)
* Magazines (Lucia Moses )
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=10035...
* Media Agencies/Research
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=10035...
* Technology (Olga Kharif, BusinessWeek)
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2006/tc20061228_363228...
* The Year Ahead in tech (SF Chronicle)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/01/BUG46NA91I1.DTL
MEDIA GROUPS ARE GRAPPLING WITH DRIFT OF REVENUE TO THE WEB
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Aline van Duyn]
How many more readers and advertisers will online rivals lure away and what can print publishers do to keep them? Newspaper circulation has been in decline since the 1970s following the widespread introduction of news coverage on television. But the falls have accelerated in recent years as more people turn to the Internet for instant news, often provided for free. In addition, the shift in classified advertising to the Internet as sites such as Craigslist make this service available, also often free, has gathered pace, hitting newspaper revenues. Advertising shifts appear to have hastened last year, leading many forecasters to cut their 2007 expectations. Merrill Lynch, for example, expects a 2.6 per cent gain in overall US advertising spending this year but anticipates that newspaper advertising revenues will be down 1.5 per cent. Analysts at Lehman Brothers are even more pessimistic: newspaper revenues are forecast to fall 4 per cent this year, due in part to a migration of property advertising to the web.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/207365a2-99b1-11db-8b6d-0000779e2340.html
(requires subscription)
AILING MUSIC BIZ SET TO RELAX DIGITAL RESTRICTIONS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Antony Bruno]
The anti-digital rights management (DRM) bandwagon is getting more crowded by the day. Even some major-label executives are pushing for the right to sell digital downloads as unprotected MP3s. In 2007, the majors will get the message, and the DRM wall will begin to crumble. Why? Because they'll no longer be able to point to a growing digital marketplace as justification that DRM works. Revenue from digital downloads and mobile content is expected to be flat or, in some cases, decline next year. If the digital market does in fact stall, alternatives to DRM will look much more attractive. Revenue from digital music has yet to offset losses from still-declining CD sales, and digital track sales remain a cause for concern. Month-over-month download figures were largely flat through 2006, even in the face of year-over-year gains. If the expected post-holiday spike in download numbers that has occurred in the past two years is weak, look for the glass on the panic button to break.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID...
YOUNG TURN TO WEB SITES WITHOUT RULES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brad Stone]
Popular Web sites like YouTube and MySpace have hired the equivalent of school hallway monitors to police what visitors to their sites can see and do by cracking down on piracy and depictions of nudity and violence. So where do the young thrill-seekers go? Increasingly, to new Web sites like Stickam.com, which is building a business by going where others fear to tread: into the realm of unfiltered live broadcasts from Web cameras. The site combines elements of more popular sites, but with a twist. In addition to designing their own pages and uploading video clips, its users broadcast live video of themselves and conduct face-to-face video chats with other users, often from their bedrooms and all without monitoring by any of Stickam’s 35 employees. Other social networks have decided against allowing conversations over live video because of the potential for abuse and opposition from child-safety advocates. “The only thing you get from the combination of Web cams and young people are problems,†said Parry Aftab, executive director of the child protection organization WiredSafety.org. “Web cams are a magnet for sexual predators.†The larger Internet companies have come under increasing pressure to make their sites safer for children and friendlier to copyright holders, so start-ups like Stickam are pursuing their own slices of the market, often at the price of taste, ethics and perhaps even child safety.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/technology/02net.html
(requires registration)
Young Turn to Web Sites Without Rules
WI-FI IS HITTING THE ROAD IN CARS FROM AVIS, BUT TECHNICAL AND LEGAL BUMPS LIE AHEAD
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Christopher Elliott]
Try connecting to a high-speed wireless network from a car, and you are pretty much limited to one method: rigging your laptop computer with a special modem and subscribing to a costly, and sometimes temperamental, wireless service. But Autonet Mobile, a start-up wireless technology company based in San Francisco, is expected to announce this week that it has reached an agreement with Avis Rent A Car System to provide a rolling Wi-Fi hotspot to Avis customers by March. For $10.95 a day, Avis will issue motorists a notebook-size portable device that plugs into a car’s power supply and delivers a high-speed Internet connection. For the moment, the service is intended for business travelers. But Autonet sees its service appealing to families traveling with their children, although its unit is expected to cost $399, about twice as much as current cellular card technology, plus $49 a month for service. A mobile Wi-Fi hotspot that lets laptops and personal digital assistants link to the Internet without the benefit of wires represents an important step toward what technology experts call the “connected car.†Users of these new Wi-Fi hotspots still must contend with technological limitations, like bandwidth restrictions and, for vehicles with too few auxiliary power outlets for all passengers who want to be online at the same time, battery consumption. Questions about the legality of operating a vehicle with a Wi-Fi hotspot onboard are also likely to be raised, according to analysts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/technology/02avis.html?ref=business
(requires registration)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/technology/02avis.html?ref=business