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Surge of On-Line Users Strain Internet Systems
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal 12/18/1996, AUTHOR: Jared Sandberg]
Busy signals and dead dial tones apparently were the season's greeting for thousands of on-line customers of various Internet services back in '96. The delays and dropped calls were the worst at America Online. That system was having trouble keeping up with a surge of new users and users staying online for longer. The phone companies were also having trouble providing enough lines for Internet access and regular phone calls. Some of the Baby Bells began asking the FCC to establish a fee for Internet service providers. PacTel was expanding to accommodate Internet users and warned that phone customers would end up paying for high Internet use over phone lines.
http://online.wsj.com/page/ppv_snippet-SB850869665831829000-search.html
Ten Years Ago... Surge of On-Line Users Strain Internet Systems
Regardless of the outcome of the television wars, nearly everyone agrees that more players in both the cable television market and in the telephone business is a good thing.
But even consumer advocates, who have been tough on the cable industry in the past, are being cautious.
Jeannine Kenney, senior policy analyst with Consumers Union, says "it's clear cable would like to keep them (competitors) out of the marketplace. It's equally clear consumers want competition."
But whether the FCC is the proper authority to solve this conundrum is an open question.
"We want them (competitors) in," she said, "but not at the cost of fundamental consumer protections."
http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=node/4299
FCC EXTENDS MEDIA OWNERSHIP COMMENT DEADLINE TO JAN 16
[SOURCE: Radio&Records, AUTHOR: Jeffrey Yorke]
Some people just got some time freed up to catch up on their holiday shopping... late Friday, in perhaps the first bag of gifts from Harry Hanukkah, the FCC's Media Bureau agreed to extend to January 16 the deadline for public comment on media ownership rules. Last Tuesday, Media General, a big proponent of loosing media ownership rules, asked the Commission to consider its request to extend the December 21 comment deadline to Jan. 16 or, better yet, eliminate the duplication of two comment periods and delay all comments until after all 10 of the FCC-commissioned ownership studies are completed and released. The FCC agreed with the first proposal, noting that "a brief extension of time is necessary for parties to complete their analyses and prepare a more comprehensive response" and a "more complete" record after the holiday rush. But the government denied the second part of the request, concluding that the public interest would not be served by so long a delay.
http://radioandrecords.com/radiomonitor/news/business/top_news/article_d...
* FCC Order
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-2514A1.doc
FCC Extends Media Ownership Comment Deadline To Jan. 16
FCC AIMS TO HELP TELECOS OFF TV SERVICE FASTER
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Jeremy Pelofsky]
The Federal Communications Commission this week hopes to do what Congress could not accomplish this year -- help AT&T and Verizon get into the television business faster. New subscription television providers like the telephone carriers must apply with thousands of cities and towns for permission to offer the service and they have complained that the process could take years. The FCC is slated to vote on Wednesday on a plan that would likely restrict local authorities to 90 days to review applications from providers who already use public rights-of-way and 180 days for new providers, as well as limit unrelated public works projects. Telephone carriers see offering television service as a way to better compete against cable companies, which are vying for more customers with new voice and high-speed Internet services. The FCC sees the move as a way to spur more competition.
http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID...
* NCTA Opposes Two-Tiered Franchise Relief
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6400336.html?display=Breaking...
* FCC Chairman Martin: Cities Block Cable Competition
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CABLE_COMPETITION?SITE=CARDB&SECT...
PHONE, CABLE COMPANIES TO BATTLE IN 2007
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Bruce Meyerson]
Vonage tanked after its IPO. It's not entirely clear anymore why eBay paid $2.6 billion for Skype. And the long-awaited rollout of advanced TV services based on Internet technologies has resembled the drip of a faucet. It wasn't a banner year for some of the biggest names in Internet Protocol, the technical standard that makes the Web hum. But the technology itself continued to blossom, with newer innovations picking away at every corner of the telecommunications business, from voice to video to wireless. No doubt the main event for 2007 will be the impending smack-down between the traditional phone and cable TV industries. The regional Bell companies, after losing millions of customers to rival phone services from cable providers in 2006, are just starting to ramp up their risky push into TV. As the giants of phone and cable do battle, however, both sides will find themselves flicking away at technological termites that threaten to hollow their victories by offering new ways to communicate and deliver content, always for less and sometimes for free.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/Y/YE_TELECOM?SITE=NYELM&SECTION=HOM...
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/Y/YE_TELECOM?SITE=NYELM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLA…
TV STATIONS ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Meredith McGehee, Campaign Legal Center]
[Commentary] When a group like the University of Wisconsin-NewsLab actually tries to systematically study what is on the air, they immediately churn up broadcasters' complaints about methodology to discredit what is obvious to the viewer: that, when it comes to substantive coverage of our nation's political discourse, local television stations are asleep at the wheel. Stations crow about the one or two long-format debates they offer, which are fine as far as they go but certainly have their own weaknesses, including the times they actually air and the audience they are geared to reach (i.e., people with enough time to sit down and watch for one or two hours). The truth is, TV stations don't do half of what they could -- or should -- given that they receive their licenses for free in exchange for serving the “public interest, convenience and necessity.â€
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6400562.html?display=Opinion
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6400562.html?display=Opinion
CENSORED PBS BUNNY RETURNS, BRIEFLY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Dennis Gaffney]
What happens to a children’s public television show after it has been attacked by the secretary of education, pilloried by conservatives, then abandoned by its underwriters? In the case of “Postcards From Buster,†it manages to return, belatedly but unbowed, for a second season. After a controversy over the content of one of its shows, the producers, musicians, editors and writers of “Buster†were let go from the show for almost a year; under normal circumstances the second season would have begun in fall 2005. That fall PBS decided to provide most of the money needed for a season of 10 shows. With PBS on board other underwriters, among them the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and the Annenberg Foundation, pitched in. WGBH also found about a half-dozen nontraditional donors, like the Gill Foundation and the Small Change Foundation, which support gay and lesbian causes. Perhaps surprisingly, this season continues to deal with hot-button issues. In an episode being shown today, Buster visits Fort Leonard Wood, an Army post in Missouri, to meet the family of a father who is stationed in Iraq. On Jan. 29 Buster will learn about the Mexican border, traveling with children to Tijuana from San Diego to meet their pen pals. And in the last show of the season, scheduled for Feb. 19, Buster revisits some children from the first season, whose homes in Louisiana were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/18/arts/television/18bust.html
(requires registration)
Censured PBS Bunny Returns, Briefly
SMITHSONIAN TV DEAL IRKS INVESTIGATORS
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: John Heilprin]
Two filmmakers were refused access to the Smithsonian Institution's collections for their projects but researchers generally have not been restricted so far by the Smithsonian's semi-exclusive deal with a cable network, congressional investigators say. The public has justifiable concerns nonetheless about the 30-year contract between the Smithsonian and Showtime Networks Inc., a cable network owned by CBS Corp., according to the Government Accountability Office. "It is too early to determine the long-term impact of the contract," Congress' investigative arm said in a report Friday. "Access to the Smithsonian's collections and staff for research purposes remains unchanged, but the direct impact on filmmakers will depend largely on how many request permission to use a substantial amount of Smithsonian content." The GAO also criticized the Smithsonian for not providing enough information to the public about the contract and for assuring filmmakers their access would not suffer based on analyses that rely on "incomplete data and oversimplified criteria."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SMITHSONIAN_SHOWTIME?SITE=MIDTN&S...
* Smithsonian Institution: Additional Information Should Be Developed and Provided to Filmmakers on the Impact of the Showtime Contract. (GAO-07-275)
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-275
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d07275high.pdf
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SMITHSONIAN_SHOWTIME?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=H…
CBS SAYS PROFANITY CRACKDOWN ILLEGAL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
CBS weighed in with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York late Friday on the broadcaster challenge to the FCC's March profanity rulings profanity. It tasked the court to find the FCC's move illegal while granting the plaintiffs "such other relief as may be deemed proper." "There is something profoundly disturbing about the FCC's approach to this case," said CBS. "It is grounded in the cynical notion that a government agency is not only free to punish speech protected by the First Amendment against just such infringement, but that it may do so without fear that its policies will be scrutinized by the federal courts. The FCC is assuredly wrong on both counts."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6400549.html?display=Breaking...
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6400549.html?display=Breaking%20News
DONOVAN GIVES "WHITE SPACES" WARNING TO SPORTS BROADCASTERS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Glen Dickson]
Broadcasters could face significant problems in using wireless microphones for live sports coverage if the government approves the use of new unlicensed wireless devices in the broadcast frequency band, warns Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV) president David Donovan. At issue are consumer devices, such as laptop computers with wireless cards, which would use free spectrum or “white spaces†within the broadcast band to enable broadband services. Using wireless technology to increase broadband penetration has been a priority for both the FCC and Congress, and the FCC issued a proceeding on the matter in 2004. The idea of allowing unlicensed devices was then addressed by Congress this year with the Wireless Innovation Act, which suggested using slivers of spectrum between Channels 21 and 51 to transmit data to such devices. MSTV, the spectrum watchdog for the broadcast industry, lobbied hard against that bill on the grounds that unlicensed devices would interfere with the reception of digital television (DTV) signals by consumer DTV sets. The bill ultimately didn't pass, despite the support of the Senate Commerce Committee. But Donovan says the issue isn't going away, and that its impact could reach beyond the digital television in a consumer’s living room and onto the sidelines of major sporting events, where networks routinely rely on wireless mics for audio coverage.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6400474.html?title=Article&sp...
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6400474.html?title=Article&spacedesc=…