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U.S. Households With Internet Access Doubled to 14.7 Million in Past Year
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal 10/21/1996, AUTHOR: Jared Sandberg]
As of 9/96, 9 million adults are on the Internet daily, 20 million weekly. Find/SVP did the survey and one executive there estimated that 38.7 million people over 18 have been on the Internet at least once. US Homes with Internet access increased more than two times to 14.7 million.
http://online.wsj.com/page/ppv_snippet-SB845854580732064500-search.html
* In May 2006, the Pew Internet & American Life Project reported that 73% of American adults (about 147 million people) are Internet users, up from 66% (about 133 million adults) in its January 2005 survey. And the share of Americans who have broadband connections at home has now reached 42% (about 84 million), up from 29% (about 59 million) in January 2005.
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/182/report_display.asp
"The evidence is overwhelmingly clear that further relaxation or elimination of media ownership limits by the FCC is not in the public interest," says study author Dr. Mark Cooper, Director of Research, Consumer Federation of America, another MDC member. "This research, taken together with the FCC's own research that it suppressed, proves that media concentration in local markets, consolidation into national chains, and conglomeration across media types all harm localism and diversity in local news markets. Local TV stations and local daily newspapers continue to be the dominant sources of local news and the most influential by far. The Internet is not a significant source of local news. In fact, the few who go online for local news frequently surf to the web sites of the local TV station or the local daily newspaper. The misguided rules the FCC proposed are simply out of touch with these facts."
http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=node/3778
FCC GETS FLURRY OF MEDIA OWNERSHIP STUDIES
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Media & Democracy Coalition announced Thursday a study of 36 media markets in 12 US states showing that all were concentrated and that virtually all the smaller markets were highly concentrated according to viewership numbers. As the Federal Communications Commission considers allowing crossownership of newspapers and TV stations in the same markets, the study shows that the 50% viewer share of dominant market players in L.A. could escalate to 80%, which would be "disastrous for democracy." When asked whether the Internet should be factored into the concentration equation, Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America argued that it is not a primary source of local news, and that the local ownership rules are about a diversity of local sources of news and information. Cooper said that maybe someday the Internet will be such an alternative, but that for now it is a good source of national and international news, but it doesn't help you figure out who to vote for for city council. And even its local component is often a trip to the Web site of the local TV station and newspaper. On top of this study, Cooper announced he will also file a study on the economics of consolidation and on allowing more multiple station ownership in markets.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6383270.html?display=Breaking...
* Media Consolidation Reports from Selected States
http://www.hearusnow.org/mediaownership/10/
* New Research Shows FCC Media Ownership Rule Changes Will Harm Local Communities -- and Democracy -- Across Nation
"A healthy democracy requires that local media outlets compete with each other, not consolidate, to ensure the public has access to diverse and independent sources of news and opinion. The FCC's proposed rules are bad for consumers and bad for democracy."
http://www.freepress.net/press/release.php?id=178
* Media Ownership Research Talking Points
http://www.hearusnow.org/mediaownership/6/
* NAB response: "We're hopeful that public policymakers recognize the seismic changes in the media landscape in the three decades since many of the media ownership rules were adopted. Broadcasters are not seeking elimination of all ownership rules. However, measured relaxation of regulations will preserve localism and ensure that free, high quality programming enjoyed daily by millions of Americans does not migrate to pay platforms."
http://www.nab.org/AM/TemplateRedirect.cfm?template=/CM/ContentDisplay.c...
* Consumer Coalition: Media Ownership Already Too Concentrated
http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=10923
* Cross-Ownership Opponents' Study: Local Media Markets Already Too Concentrated
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/business/article_dis...
* Consumer Coalition: Media Ownership Already Too Concentrated
http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=10923
* Advocacy Groups Blast Media Consolidation
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2006/10/19/daily.12/
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6383270.html?display=Breaking%20News
CRIME IS ON TV, BUT TV IS OFTEN THE BIGGER CRIME
[SOURCE: MediaChannel, AUTHOR: Danny Schechter]
[Commentary] You just know this happens. A group of media mavens in suits sit around a big table to come up with new ways to get us to pay for stuff we already get for free. The airwaves, as we know, belong to all of us, but thanks to regulations shaped by big industries, they were allocated (ie. handed out) FOR FREE to big commercial enterprises who then used their clout to monopolize the marketplace and dominate the spectrum. Cable was conceived as a Community Antenna system (CATV) to help viewers get better reception. Franchises were handed out to the highest bidder in city after city to bidders who made healthy political contributions. Suddenly we were bombarded with tons of choices but without many distinctive new voices. It became largely a market-driven recycling operation aimed at key demographics. Public TV watched as its nature programs and historical docs were cloned and spun off by specialized commercial outlets. Home shopping became a vogue and recycled news a commodity. There was soon more on the air but less to watch. Now there are 500 channels with very little worth watching. Now, the cable giants want to erode and end what few public interest obligations they have. Today, there is a new fight underway to keep the Internet free. We have to find a way to fight for better media—to push for reform and build unified campaigns for more responsible journalism.
http://www.mediachannel.org/articles/2006/10/18/Crime_Is_On.html
Crime Is On TV, But TV is Often The Bigger Crime
CBS RADIO SETTLES WITH NY OVER PAYOLA
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
CBS Radio has paid $2 million to settle with the State of New York over charges of payola and has agreed not to use independent promoters to gain radio station airplay for its music. But it has not admitted to any wrongdoing and said it was settling because that outcome was better for its company and investors than a drawn-out court fight. According to state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, in addition to the money, CBS has agreed to "undertake company-wide reforms, including the immediate cessation of receiving payments and other inducements from record labels in exchange for airplay; discontinue using independent promoters as a pass-through for securing airplay; hire a compliance officer to monitor promotion practices; and implement an internal system to detect any future abuses." The settlement was actually the smallest of four that have been struck between the state and record companies over payments in cash and merchandise--vacation packages, gift cards, etc.--for getting songs spun on the radio.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6383282.html?display=Breaking...
* Commissioner Adelstein Commends New York Attorney General Payola Settlement With CBS Radio
"I commend Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for once again achieving a breakthrough with this settlement. CBS Radio is leading the radio broadcasting industry by agreeing to improve its practices. This should provide new fuel to drive the FCC payola investigation to completion. Since payola saps the vitality out of radio, this is a win not only for listeners everywhere, but also for the radio industry itself."
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-267990A1.doc
* CBS Radio Tightens Policies in Settlement Over Payola
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/business/media/20payola.html
* CBS Radio to Pay $2 Million To Settle Payola Probe
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116129250171298118.html?mod=todays_us_ma...
* CBS Radio Agrees to Pay $2 Million to Settle Payola Probe
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-cbs20oct20,1,1431723....
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6383282.html?display=Breaking%20News
NBC SAYS VIEWERS WON'T NOTICE CUTS IN NEWS STAFF
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jacques Steinberg]
NBC executives predicted that budget cuts announced yesterday across the breadth of its newsgathering operation would barely ripple with viewers, though their effect off camera is expected to be substantial. Virtually every corner of the news division will be affected in some way, including the “Today†show and “NBC Nightly News With Brian Williamsâ€; the cable channel MSNBC; the news desks of the 10 NBC-owned stations, which include WTVJ in Miami and WNBC in New York; and its Spanish-language network, Telemundo. As an example of how the company’s strategy might change, Steve Capus, the president of NBC News, compared how it would have typically approached a school shooting, as opposed to how it might in the near future. In the past, “Nightly News,†“Today†and “Dateline,†all programs on NBC, might have sent individual correspondents and camera crews to the scene, along with representatives of MSNBC, MSNBC.com, NBC News Channel (which provides wire-service-style video feeds to affiliates) and several NBC stations themselves. “I'm not saying that now every story will get just one person who is going to meet the needs of every entity,†said Capus. “That’s not the point. But maybe, instead of 30 people, we can send 25. I believe we can do that, and viewers will have no idea that behind the scenes, those are the conversations going on.†To accommodate the consolidation of its newsgathering, Capus said he was planning to build a central newsroom on the third and fourth floors of the network’s headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan. Currently, its news operations are scattered throughout that building, as well as in two New Jersey suburbs. Bill Kovach, the chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists, a membership organization seeking to ensure a place for high-quality journalism in the Internet age, said that announcements like NBC’s yesterday portend “a disturbing trend, one that anyone who worries about democratic society has to be concerned about. If a major news organization like NBC is going to reduce the number, and it sounds like a significant number, of the people who go out and gather information to go into the daily stream of news, it’s going to thin our knowledge of the world somewhat."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/business/media/20nbc.html
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* NBC Universal plans cost cuts, layoffs
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20061020/1b_nbc_cov20.art.htm
* TV Takes a Page Out of Newspaper Hardships
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fi-news20oct20,1,17...
NBC Says Viewers Won't Notice Cuts in News Staff
NBC TRIES A NEW TACK FOR 8PM
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Bill Carter]
As part of an extensive cost-cutting program it announced yesterday, NBC intends to drastically alter its prime-time programming, starting in the fall of 2007, filling the 8 p.m. hour each weeknight with lower-cost, unscripted programs and saving its more expensive comedies and dramas for the 9-to-11 p.m. block. One major impetus for the move, said Jeff Zucker, the chief executive of the NBC Universal Television Group, is the upheaval TV networks face because of ever-increasing incursions from digital media like Internet sites. But some of NBC’s competitors argued that NBC was simply reacting to its own consistent failure to find scripted programs that worked at 8 p.m. The network has struggled to find hit shows for that first hour of prime time; that weakness contributed significantly to NBC’s free fall from first place to last in the ratings three seasons ago.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/business/media/20drama.html
(requires registration)
* NBC's Cuts Will Alter the Look of Prime Time
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fi-nbc20oct20,1,309582...
* TV and Ad Industries Warily Weigh In On NBC's Plans to Revamp Prime Time
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116130651678198467.html?mod=todays_us_ma...
* NBC Taking Big Step Back From TV
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/19/AR200610...
* NBC's Reilly Backs Off 'Reality at 8' Mandate
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117952294.html?categoryid=14&cs=1
NBC Tries a New Tack for 8 P.M
ADS GET NASTY IN FIGHT FOR CONGRESS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: John Whitesides]
Candidates in the fight for Congress quickly learn the cardinal rule -- if you can't say something nice about your opponent, buy some air time. On television screens, over the radio and through the mail, a blizzard of negative attack ads call U.S. congressional candidates cheating, extremist hypocrites -- or worse. The overall tone of campaign ads as the November 7 vote approaches is harsher than in the past few elections, analysts said. Contributing to the shift are the high stakes -- Democrats need to gain 15 House seats and six Senate seats to win control of Congress -- a polarized political environment and the subject matter.
http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID...
MGM DEAL A BOLD MISCALCULATION FOR SONY
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Claudia Eller]
When Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer went on the block in 2004, Sony's Howard Stringer so lusted after the studio's coveted library that he told his boss he would resign if he didn't win a last-minute bidding war with Time Warner. Stringer, who at the time headed Sony's U.S. arm, figured the library's 4,000 film titles would give Sony more clout with DVD retailers and fuel the growth of its high-definition Blu-ray technology. Stringer's resignation wasn't required: He engineered a clever deal to buy the storied studio for $4.9 billion with a consortium of investors that shouldered most of the financial risk. But the deal that Stringer hoped would help cement his legacy has instead marred it. In late May, amid rising tensions among the partners, MGM's board voted unanimously to dismiss Sony Pictures Entertainment as its domestic DVD distributor after it failed to meet performance goals. It was a humiliating blow for Stringer, who lost control of the very prize he was after. Sony now finds itself on the sidelines. The deal hasn't been a total wash. Sony remains a 20% investor in MGM and is sure to recoup its initial $250-million investment. MGM's commitment to Blu-ray remains intact, giving Sony an edge in a format war with Toshiba Corp.'s competing HD-DVD technology. And Sony Pictures gets to share in the proceeds of the James Bond sequel opening next month and a future installment of the popular spy series, which could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue. But being jilted as MGM's DVD distributor in favor of News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox movie studio cost Sony at least $50 million a year in future fees, not to mention public embarrassment in Hollywood and on Wall Street.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-mgm20oct20,1,7788724....
(requires registration)
MGM Deal a Bold Miscalculation for Sony
KEY ED-TECH SURVEY TO OPEN NOV 1
[SOURCE: eSchool News, AUTHOR: Corey Murray]
From Nov. 1 to Nov. 30, the national nonprofit organization NetDay will be collecting responses to its annual survey on educational technology attitudes and opinions from students, parents, and teachers. Besides releasing the national results in aggregate form, NetDay also will give local school administrators the data collected from their own communities. In the past, districts have used the information collected through the survey to help lobby local policy makers for technology investments in their schools and to make decisions about how best to integrate technology into the classroom.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=6653
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=6653