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DISNEY DOESN'T SEEK OWNERSHIP RULE REVISE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Disney isn't asking the FCC to loosen any of its ownership rules, saying it already has more than enough stations and is looking to using other platforms for content delivery. With its 10 owned stations covering not quite 24% of the nation, it is well below the national ownership cap of 39% -- although that cap is not on the table in the rule rewrite having already been legislated by Congress. What is definitely in play is owning more multiple stations in markets and owning a station and newspaper in the same market. "Given the increase in, and attractiveness of, new media outlets," Disney wrote in a brief filing in the FCC's media ownership rule review, "in Disney's view, the Commission may soon find itself considering ways to incent, rather than restrict, ownership of over-the-air broadcast stations."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6384242.html
http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=node/3815
More summaries of comments filed in the FCC's media ownership proceeding available at http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=node/3815
http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=node/3815
NAHJ BOARD DISTURBED BY NBC'S PLANS FOR TELEMUNDO
[SOURCE: National Association of Hispanic Journalists press release]
Late last week, NAHJ wrote to executives at NBC regarding the network's plans for Telemundo. Much has been reported about the restructuring and layoffs at NBC. The plans for Telemundo have received very little media attention. To us, the most disturbing action NBC will take is to eliminate local newscasts at six Telemundo stations and replace them with a "hubbed" newscast out of Fort Worth, Texas. The half-hour newscast will include reports from the cities where the news departments are being eliminated. It's also estimated that 68 Telemundo employees are being cut in Puerto Rico, where Telemundo was founded. This could only have a negative effect on the network's ability to cover the Spanish-speaking population of the island. The cities where the local newscasts are being axed ranked among the top 10 Hispanic markets: Houston (4), Dallas (6), San Antonio (7), San Jose (8) and Phoenix (9), according to 2006-07 Nielsen Media Research. NBC is not doing away with local newscasts at any of its English-language stations -- only with its Telemundo properties. This leads us to question the company's commitment to the Latino community. To the point: if regionalized newscasts are good for journalism and not just a way to save money while giving the appearance of meeting the network's public interest obligations, why are regional newscasts only being planned for the Spanish-speaking audience? Doesn't the English-language audience deserve this level of service?
http://www.nahj.org/nahjnews/articles/2006/october/telemundo.shtml
* Letter to NBC: http://www.nahj.org/nahjnews/articles/2006/october/nbcuniversalletter.pdf
NAHJ Board Disturbed by NBC's Plans for Telemundo
TWO REPORTS BOLSTER ARGUMENT THAT MEDIA CONSOLIDATION HURTS THE PUBLIC
[SOURCE: Common Cause]
Common Cause released two reports refuting claims that consolidated media serves the public. The first, A Tale of Five Cities, describes the real-world harm that can result when one company owns the local newspaper and its dominant television and/or radio stations. The examples cited in the report show that cross-ownership can harm a community either by shutting out diverse voices or limiting access to unbiased news. The second, Citizens Speak: The Real World Impacts of Media Consolidation, is a distillation of the comments of individuals who spoke at town hall hearings on media consolidation in 2003. The hearings were held to discuss the importance of localism in media and gave people a forum for expressing, often in vivid terms, how media concentration had destroyed local radio, replacing it with bland and homogenized radio formats, robbed of any local color or talent, and had left them bereft of news about their own communities and responsive to their need for information in a democracy. Both reports were filed Monday with the Federal Communications Commission, as the Commission once again considers changing its ownership rules to increase media concentration.
http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=192086#studies
http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=192086#studies
IT'S OUR NETWORK CALLS FOR TOUGHER CONDITIONS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The It's Our Net Coalition, made up of a number of big computer companies, filed comments Tuesday with the FCC saying that the Commission should revise the AT&T-BellSouth merger proposal to make sure that the conditions guarantee "evenhanded treatment of all Internet-based applications, content and services traffic traversing its broadband facilities, regardless of its source, destination or ownership."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6384263?display=Breaking+News
* AT&T Open To More Limits On Merger With BellSouth
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-UUEK1161698417823.html
* Groups call for net neutrality rules in AT&T merger
http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/10/24/HNnetneutralityatt_1.html
* AT&T/BellSouth Merger Does Nothing for Consumers
http://www.hearusnow.org/index.php?id=812
See also --
* Internet Freedom Must Be Condition of AT&T-BellSouth Merger, Creative Voices Tells FCC
http://www.creativevoices.us/php-bin/news/showArticle.php?id=171
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6384263?display=Breaking%20News
'NET NEUTRALITY' WOULD BE DEMOCRATS' PET
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: John Dunbar]
A Democratic takeover on Capitol Hill would be good news to those who say the government should prohibit telecommunications giants from playing favorites with Internet content. The idea, known as "network neutrality," is about preventing those who control traffic on the Internet from allowing well-heeled Web sites to in effect buy their way to the front of the line in a world where data flow can be as congested as Los Angeles traffic. Proponents say it should be a bipartisan issue. But lobbyists for the big companies that control most of the Internet in the United States are worried that the Democrats might pick up the seats they need to take over one or both chambers of Congress. Regardless of the election's outcome, network neutrality legislation would still have to be signed by President Bush - something that both sides acknowledge is unlikely to happen.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/INTERNET_EQUALITY?SITE=FLINV&SECT...
ADS TEST PAYOLA CASE SETTLEMENT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jeff Leeds]
Hardly more than a year has passed since the nation’s biggest record labels started agreeing to a series of measures that were intended to end the industry’s long history of employing bribes and other shady practices to influence which songs are heard on the radio. But it has become increasingly clear that the industry is still grappling with how to change its culture. In the last two weeks, songs from two record labels -- both distributed through Vivendi’s Universal Music Group -- got a lift on the charts after a radio chain was paid to play the tunes as part of commercials late at night in an advertising program that New York state officials say is used to trick radio programmers. The ad purchases come five months after Universal settled accusations that it bribed radio programmers with gifts in exchange for airplay and engaged in other deceptive practices. The accord, in which Universal agreed to pay $12 million to New York charities, was the biggest so far in a sweeping investigation of the music industry that has been led by Eliot Spitzer, the New York attorney general. In the settlement -- which extends to any label or other entity whose practices are “directed or controlled†by Universal -- executives are prohibited from, among other things, buying advertisements for the purpose of misleading the independent services that compile airplay data for Billboard and other publications. If Universal purchases a commercial containing more than 60 seconds of song -- potentially enough for a tracking service to count it as regular airplay -- the company must provide written notice of the ad.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/25/business/media/25music.html
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Ads Test Payola Case Settlement
ELECTION TRACKER PREDICTS $2.6B IN SPENDING
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
According to the Center for Responsive Politics projections, candidates, parties, and advocacy groups will have spent $2.6 billion by the end of 2006 to try to get their respective candidates elected in 472 federal contests or building up the war chests of Senate incumbents who get to sit this one out. That's the most expensive midterm ever.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6384422.html?display=Breaking...
* U.S. Congress campaign cost expected to set record
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID...
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6384422.html?display=Breaking%20News
SOME CABLERS BALK AT NIELSEN AD RATINGS
[SOURCE: Associated Press]
Nielsen Media Research is getting set to deliver its first-ever ratings of commercials, and some companies representing cable networks are balking at accepting them. The Turner cable networks, which represent TBS, TNT, CNN and Court TV and are owned by Time Warner Inc., said Tuesday they are opting out of participating in the new ratings system. NBC Universal, owned by General Electric Co., is also rejecting the plan for its networks, including CNBC, Bravo, Sci Fi, MSNBC and USA. Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN also said it was "taking a wait and see approach" and not accepting the new measurements. Nielsen had been planning to release the data for the first time on Nov. 18, but has pushed that target date back to Dec. 11.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TV_NIELSEN_COMMERCIALS?SITE=AZPHG...
* MTVN, Discovery Join Boycott of New Nielsen Ratings
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6384448.html?display=Breaking...
* Nets Nix Nielsen’s Ad Ratings
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6384439.html?display=Breaking+News
* Nielsen plan gets poor cable reception
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-nielsen25oct25,1,2614...
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TV_NIELSEN_COMMERCIALS?SITE=AZPHG&SECTION…
THE PICKUP AD THAT'S CARRYING LOTS OF BAGGAGE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Paul Farhi]
Rosa Parks became an enduring symbol of the American civil rights movement after she refused to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Ala., 51 years ago. Today, Parks has posthumously become a pitchwoman for a line of pickup trucks. Another civil rights icon, Martin Luther King Jr., also has been pressed into service by General Motors in a new TV commercial. The spot also includes images of President Richard Nixon, Muhammad Ali, the late race car driver Dale Earnhardt, some dancing hippies and a memorial to the victims of the 9/11 attacks. The commercial for Chevrolet's Silverado truck has gotten plenty of airplay -- and a few expressions of surprise, shock and puzzlement -- since it went into heavy rotation during pro football games and the baseball playoffs over the past three weeks. The ad mixes vintage photographs and news footage from the past half-century, accompanied by a rousing John Mellencamp song called "Our Country." Some of the images are uplifting, such as a photo of Parks sitting on a bus and a brief clip of King preaching. Others evoke painful memories, such as Nixon's wave from the presidential helicopter upon his resignation in 1974, U.S. troops in Vietnam, damage from Hurricane Katrina and the twin light beacons at the World Trade Center site that memorialized those killed in the attacks. Chevrolet says the spot, called "Our Country. Our Truck," was created to highlight "key moments" in recent American history and is intended as a patriotic statement. By including positive and negative historic episodes, the ad is attempting to evoke the notion that "we've had some bruises and scars, yeah, but we've gotten up and gotten on with it," says Chevy spokeswoman Melisa Tezanos.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/24/AR200610...
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The Pickup Ad That's Carrying Lots of Baggage