Benton RSS Feed

STALEMATE KEEPS AT&T-BELLSOUTH MERGER OFF OF FCC'S AGENDA
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Alan Sipress]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin said yesterday he did not know how soon it would consider AT&T's proposed $86 billion acquisition of BellSouth after the deal was left off the agenda for Wednesday's meeting because of a continuing stalemate between the commission's Republican and Democratic members. Chairman Martin, an advocate of the merger, told reporters he was "anxious" to set a date for the vote, which would create the country's largest provider of telephone, wireless and broadband services. AT&T and BellSouth have waited more than seven months for the commission to act despite Martin's efforts earlier this year to win quick approval of the transaction without conditions. The proposed acquisition has dramatically increased in value since it was presented to the FCC because of rising stock prices. If approved, the merger would reunite much of the AT&T telecommunications empire broken apart by the federal government 22 years ago because of concerns over competition.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/14/AR200612...
(requires registration)

MERGER HOLD UP
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] The merger of AT&T and BellSouth has the support of Big Labor, was approved by the Justice Department without conditions in October, and would help consumers by bringing more competition to telecom amid enormous technological change and business ferment. But the merger has been held up for months at the Federal Communications Commission, thanks to the political maneuvering of Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein. They want the combined company to accede to "Net neutrality" commitments that go well beyond the FCC's own policy paper on the matter. The Republican majority of the Commission cannot approve the merger because one commissioner, Robert McDowell, agreed during his confirmation not to vote on any matter to which his former employer, the telecom industry group Comptel, is a party. Now, even though the FCC General Counsel has approved a McDowell vote, the WSJ says he "could incur the trumped-up "ethics" wrath of the new Democratic committee chairmen who are allied with the FCC Democrats." In short, the Democrats on the FCC and in Congress are engaged in a kind of bad cop-worse cop routine with Mr. McDowell: Either he must stay recused on the merger so they can extort more concessions from the new AT&T, or he can vote for the merger and risk spending the rest of his days answering subpoenas. Never mind that if Mr. McDowell does stay recused, the two companies might very well let the merger die rather than submit to regulation that would hamper their ability to recoup their investment in laying broadband pipe. The real conflict of interest, the WSJ concludes, is the Democrats' willingness to carry water for Google and MoveOn.org in the Net neutrality debate.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116615333373851152.html?mod=todays_us_op...
(requires subscription)

AMERICANS WILL DEVOTE HALF THEIR LIVES TO FORMS OF MEDIA NEXT YEAR
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Janet Kornblum]
Americans love their media -- so much that next year they'll spend nearly half their lives watching TV, going online, listening to the radio (or music) and reading. That's what the U.S. Census Bureau is predicting in its "Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2007," out today. The annual report uses data from several sources, including private industry and non-profits. It has statistics on everything from elections to transportation to finances. In 2000, Americans each spent an average of 3,333 hours consuming media -- and most of that time (1,467 hours) was spent in front of the TV, according to Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a media-oriented money management company that supplied much of the media data used in the report. Next year, Americans will spend 3,518 hours with their beloved media, including 1,555 in front of the TV, says Veronis Suhler Stevenson. That means the average American will spend roughly 146 days, or five months, consuming media.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20061215/a_censusstats15.art.htm

* Americans increasingly prefer electronic connections
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/15/CENSUS.TMP

* Study of Americans' Media Use Finds Web Finally Passing Newspapers
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_con...

US TELECOM'S MCCORMICK: THREE STEPS TO A WONDERFUL LIFE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
USTelecom President Walter McCormick outlined to a Practicing Law Institute crowd in Washington what was being billed as the path to "a wonderful life." That life, said McCormick, was highlighted by "a panoply of new services that are innovative and attractively priced," awaiting widespread video-franchise reform to make that dream a reality. McCormick's is the same path recently outlined and advocated by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin in a speech several weeks ago. Chairman Martin said that the FCC should take three major steps to insure that local franchising authorities are not impeding the rollout of broadband and video price and service competition to cable: 1) Put a 90-day shot clock on local franchising authorities to rule on franchise requests; 2) clamp down on unreasonable and unrelated franchise conditions; and 3) limit build-outs for new service.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6400225.html?display=Breaking...

POLITICAL, TELCO DOLLARS DRIVE LOCAL TV REVS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Local broadcast TV revenues were up 10.4% in the third quarter over the same quarter last year, helped by political dollars and telecommunications spending from companies seeking franchise reform from Washington as well as new customers for their service. By contrast, network TV revenues were down .6% and syndicated revenues down 1.4%, for a total 3.8% increase in broadcast TV revenues over third quarter 2005. Political dollars helped drive much of that increase -- up by 182.1% to $207.3 million out of a total $442.5 million revenue increase of all local broadcast TV.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6399947.html?title=Article&sp...