Benton's Communications-related Headlines For Monday September 18, 2006
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OWNERSHIP
Tribune Faces Pressure To Sell Los Angeles Paper
Citizens to Buy Land-Line Firm
Telecom Italia sends Signal with Deal
The Last of the Titans
Satellite TV's 3-Headed Rival: Cable Plus Internet Plus Phone
NEWS FROM THE FCC
Do Local Owners Deliver More Localism?
CONTENT
Net Neutrality and Free Speech
The Lesson of '9/11'
Minow Revisits Wasteland
A night with the newscasts
OWNERSHIP
TRIBUNE FACES PRESSURE TO SELL LOS ANGELES PAPER
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sarah Ellison sarah.ellison( at )wsj.com]
Tribune Company, already under pressure from its largest shareholder,
the Chandler family, is facing a growing challenge on another front:
a push by some rich and powerful citizens in Los Angeles for a sale
of the Los Angeles Times to local interests. The clamor over the
nation's fourth-largest newspaper comes ahead of a Tribune board
meeting Thursday, at which Chief Executive Officer Dennis FitzSimons
is expected to deliver on a directive from the board to present a
plan for the future of Tribune. Mr. FitzSimons and other executives
have been preparing the plan even as they negotiate with the
Chandlers, who formerly owned the Los Angeles Times, over the value
of two complex partnerships that set off a bitter public battle
between the family and Tribune management in June. The loose
collection of those interested in a sale of the newspaper includes
possible billionaire buyers, Times management and civic leaders. The
parties say it is unorchestrated. But all say they are concerned that
further cuts could harm a prestigious newspaper, and that if Tribune
persists, then local ownership may be a possible savior.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115854892438866031.html?mod=todays_us_pa...
(requires subscription)
CITIZENS TO BUY LAND-LINE FIRM
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Dennis K. Berman dennis.berman( at )wsj.com]
Citizens, of Stamford, Conn., will pay $41.72 a share for
Commonwealth Telephone Enterprises, of Dallas, Pa., with $31.31 of it
in cash and the rest in shares tied to a ratio of Citizens' current
stock price. The deal values the company's shares outstanding at
about $908 million. The final purchase price would include an
additional $313 million in debt that will be converted to equity as
part of the transaction. Giant phone companies such as Verizon
Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. are increasingly focusing on
wireless, leaving the typical land-line business to a group of
smaller operators. These companies, in turn, are grabbing markets
that the giants are either exiting from or for which they have little
concern. Over the long term, it is conceivable to see the formation
of a few massive horizontally integrated local phone carriers, which
would stretch across the nation and would comprise the bulk of the
copper-based local phone lines. It may take years for that to happen,
but deals such as this one are part of that evolution. In the
meantime, these rural carriers have focused on delivering investors
consistent dividends amid a decline in use of local land lines.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115854930926766036.html?mod=todays_us_pa...
(requires subscription)
TELECOM ITALIA SENDS SIGNAL WITH DEAL
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Adrian Michaels in Milan and Tony Barber]
Telecom Italia has announced the acquisition from AOL of a broadband
business in Germany, a signal that the new management will continue
on the path set by Marco Tronchetti Provera, who resigned as chairman
on Friday night. Mr Tronchetti quit amid a breakdown in relations
between TI, Italy's dominant telecommunications company, and the
centre-left Italian government of Romano Prodi. The prime minister
had expressed shock at the abrupt U-turn announced by the company
last week to split into three, a move that could lead to the sale of
important assets such as its mobile arm and network infrastructure.
However, TI stressed that under Guido Rossi, the new chairman, the
board had pledged to follow the restructuring plan. Mr Tronchetti
wanted the company to focus more on the growth potential of broadband
and media services.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/6e922902-466f-11db-ac52-0000779e2340.html
(requires subscription)
THE LAST OF THE TITANS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Thomas S. Mulligan]
A look at Viacom Inc. Chairman Sumner M. Redstone and News Corp.
Chairman Rupert Murdoch. They are part of a line of autocratic media
titans stretching to CNN founder Ted Turner, William S. Paley of CBS,
Henry Luce of Time Inc., newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst and
such lions of early Hollywood as Louis B. Mayer and Adolph Zukor.
Their power derives not just from their dominant stakes in the
companies they've built but also from their inclination to use it.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-mogul18sep18,1,124670...
(requires registration)
SATELLITE TV's 3-HEADED RIVAL: CABLE PLUS INTERNET PLUS PHONE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Saul Hansell]
Rupert Murdoch, who controls the News Corporation, has been
discussing trading his shares in DirectTV to John C. Malone's
company, Liberty Media, in return for Liberty's stock in Mr.
Murdoch's company. The idea that Mr. Murdoch would be willing to
surrender his stake in DirecTV, the largest American satellite
broadcaster, also says a lot about the competitive pressures on the
satellite business. "Rupert is nothing if not a pragmatist," said
Craig E. Moffett, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company.
"Satellite has a tough road ahead and he has, for all intents and
purposes, bet the company on an alternative vision, with Internet
acquisitions like MySpace." During the last decade, DirecTV and its
main domestic rival, EchoStar Communications, grabbed 27 million
subscribers, a bit more than a quarter of the pay television market
in the United States. While their growth is slowing, they are still
doing well financially. In the second quarter, DirecTV earned $459
million, up 182 percent from a year earlier. Its revenue grew 12
percent, to $3.5 billion. For many customers, however, there are
better ways to get connected. Lowly wires, snaked across utility
poles and buried under sidewalks, now can give people more viewing
choices than satellites. And they can carry data into homes and back
out, providing the Internet and voice services that cannot come from the sky.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/18/business/media/18marketplace.html
(requires registration)
NEWS FROM THE FCC
DO LOCAL OWNERS DELIVER MORE LOCALISM?
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
The previously suppressed report is now available on the FCC's website.
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-267448A1.pdf
* FCC Chairman Martin's letter to sen Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
I know nothing, I knew nothing and I'm searching for someone who
know's something.
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-267447A1.pdf
* Powell Says He Knew Nothing of Study
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
In a statement delivered through Sgt. Hans Georg Schultz, former FCC
Chairman Michael Powell said Friday that he had "never seen" a
localism study, "did not know about it before yesterday [Sept. 14],"
and "never ordered anything destroyed."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6372763.html
CONTENT
NET NEUTRALITY AND FREE SPEECH
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Randolph J. May, Progress &
Freedom Foundation]
[Commentary] May argues that Network Neutrality should be opposed on
First Amendment grounds. Broadband providers possess free-speech
rights just like other media. Last year, in its Brand X decision, the
Supreme Court upheld the FCC's determination that ISPs are not common
carriers required to carry all content indifferently. Under
traditional First Amendment jurisprudence, it is as much a
free-speech infringement to compel an entity to convey messages it
does not wish to convey as it is to prevent it from conveying
messages it wishes to convey. Net-neutrality mandates would prevent
an ISP from restricting access, say, to content that it thinks is
indecent or homophobic. Similarly, a service provider would be
compelled to allow subscribers to post any messages they choose. Such
compelled-access mandates are akin to the right-of-reply statute the
Supreme Court in 1974 held violated a newspaper's First Amendment
rights. May concludes: "When you think about it, laws imposing
"neutrality" are eerily reminiscent of the defunct Fairness Doctrine
that required broadcasters to present a balanced view of
controversial issues. Although the Supreme Court upheld the
constitutionality of the Fairness Doctrine in the 1969 Red Lion
decision, it did so on the basis that the spectrum used by
broadcasters is a scarce public resource. Many doubt the Court would
reach the same conclusion today, in light of the abundance of media
outlets we enjoy."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6372794.html?display=Opinion
THE LESSON OF '9/11'
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Editorial]
[Commentary] The criticism of ABC's controversial two-part movie The
Path to 9/11, which began airing on the night of the fifth
anniversary of the terror act, deserves the attention of TV
filmmakers, executives and viewers. ABC Entertainment President Steve
McPherson said, "When you take on the responsibility of telling the
story behind such an important event, it is absolutely critical that
you get it right." If it is "absolutely critical" to get it right,
then a docudrama was not the way to do it, particularly when the film
is depicting real people who are still alive and whose reputations
can collapse when their actions are dramatically altered.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6372795.html?display=Opinion
MINOW REVISITS WASTELAND
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable]
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin recently toasted former FCC Chairman Newton
Minow's "courage in publicly daring the industry to achieve a higher
vision" -- a stance that Martin has sought to emulate by boosting
enforcement of indecency regulations and pushing for new
content-control initiatives. The two were united in more than spirit
earlier this month when Martin presented Minow with a lifetime
service award from TV-content ratings group Common Sense
Media. Before handing over the award, Martin noted that "it was in
reflecting on his 'Vast Wasteland' speech several years ago that I
first set forth what I thought the industry should do to give parents
more tools to control the media." Furthermore, it turns out that
Minow's daughter Martha was Martin's first law professor at Harvard.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6372713.html?display=Breaking...
A NIGHT WITH THE NEWSCATS
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Peter Johnson]
Critiquing the daily national newscasts of broadcast TV networks.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20060918/mediamix18.art.htm
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