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NO BIG DEMAND FOR SMALL SCREENS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Matea Gold]
Entertainment purveyors may be scrambling to package their content into mobisodes, video downloads and podcasts, but a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll found that teens and young adults -- the generation most likely to be the early adopters of this new technology -- have yet to fully embrace it. About half of young adults and 4 in 10 teenagers said they were uninterested in watching television shows or movies on computers, cellphones or hand-held devices such as video iPods, the poll found. While more than 2 out of 5 teens and young adults indicated they were open to viewing this kind of content online, only 14% of teenagers said they wanted to watch television on a cellphone, and 17% said they would view programs on an iPod. The findings suggest that networks are rushing to package content for these new platforms before even tech-savvy young consumers are hankering for the "third screen" experience. The survey, which asked a wide range of questions about entertainment consumption, highlighted the pervasive influence of television particularly on tween girls, a majority of whom reported that TV shows affected their dress, speech, music preferences or social activities. In addition, it found that a surprisingly high number of teenagers and young adults gleaned news from traditional media sources such as local television and network newscasts -- for many through a sort of information osmosis as they absorbed news from programs their parents were watching. Perhaps most intriguing, however, was the indication of a widespread indifference toward small-screen viewing among teenagers and young adults. While many in the industry expect the demand for such content to rise dramatically in the coming years, the poll offered clues to a consumer reluctance that first must be overcome.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-et-polltv10aug10,1,781...
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No Big Demand for Small Screen
3 GROUPS CREATE FUND FOR PUBLIC RADIO
[SOURCE: Associated Press 8/9]
Public radio stations could soon have new benefactors who can invest directly in the stations through the creation of a fund for public radio. Three groups -- the Ford Foundation, the Calvert Social Investment Foundation and Public Radio Capital -- said Wednesday that they plan to give individual and institutional investors a way to invest directly in public radio stations, with a target of raising $ 15 million over the next six to 12 months. The Public Radio Fund already has $ 4.5 million committed in loaned funds from the Bethesda, Md.-based Calvert Foundation, which collected the money from individual investors nationwide, and $ 1.5 million from the Ford Foundation. The creation of the fund is, in part, a response to growing concerns about overconcentration of media ownership in the radio industry. "The Public Radio Fund is a rare opportunity for socially aware investors of all kinds to band together behind grassroots, alternative independent media," Timothy Freundlich, Calvert's director of strategic management, said in a statement. "This is a major new initiative that brings together the leaders in the world of public radio financing, socially responsible investing and foundations."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/09/AR200608...
3 Groups Create Fund for Public Radio
PHONE PORK
[SOURCE: Forbes, AUTHOR: Tim Doyle]
[Commentary] The telecom reform bill now pending in the U.S. Senate could include a cap on the $7 billion-a-year boondoggle the nation's rural telephone carriers collect. For companies like one Hawaiian telecom that sweeps in $13,345 per line per year, the big battle in the reform measure is not over network neutrality, which is pitting AT&T against Microsoft, Google and Yahoo!, but a high-stakes amendment that could cap the Universal Service Fund (USF) that has provided the carriers years of financial windfalls. The rising cost of the program has drawn criticism from House Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Rep Barton has branded the fund's growth "unacceptable, unsustainable and unnecessary." He has even called for an end to the program. Still, the telecom reform bill he guided through the House in June contained no changes at all to the USF. Sen McCain, for his part, is calling for a cap on the fund. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) pushed the Senate telecommunications reform bill through his committee without a cap, saying his staff needs to study how other changes in the legislation will affect the USF. Those changes include audits of how USF money is spent and a new fund-raising scheme that would spread the USF cost more widely, possibly requiring broadband and local-telephone customers to contribute. Consumers hoping for some curbs on the program--and some relief from the USF tax--may be disappointed. One indication: Even though Stevens says he favors restraint, the bill he pushed through his committee creates yet another USF program--this one to bring broadband Internet to rural homes at a cost of up to $500 million a year.
http://www.forbes.com/2006/08/08/beltway-rural-telecoms-cz_td_0809beltwa...
Phone Pork
REGULATIONS FOR NET STILL NOT WARRANTED DESPITE LATEST OUTCRY
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: David L. Cohen, Comcast]
[Commentary] As telecom legislation wades through the Senate, a small but vocal and well-financed band of Internet giants -- led by Google and Microsoft -- has been pushing for sweeping new Internet regulations that they call "network neutrality." They say that without such regulations, broadband providers will start blocking Internet-based content and that the Internet, as we know it, will end. Indeed, this hyperventilating about the need to regulate broadband services is nothing new. Various self-anointed critics -- and some tech companies that stand to gain much financially -- warned of a similar impending apocalypse during the interactive television, advanced instant messaging, and "forced-access" debates of the last seven years, and argued in each instance on behalf of sweeping new regulations. In tomorrow's world, a broadband provider might want to help bring health care into under-served rural areas with, for instance, real-time consultative video for complicated medical procedures. But network neutrality proponents would outlaw that advance unless the same network capacity be given to them, for free, to prop up their own commercial endeavors. The antitrust laws already police abuses in these industries, including any potential abuse by broadband providers. Indeed, an increasingly competitive marketplace, together with existing laws, provide more than enough protection against attempts to Balkanize the Internet. We need the freedom to experiment with business models that let us deliver what consumers want. We can get there if Congress focuses on liberating tomorrow's networks rather than regulating today's networks.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/15240713.htm
Regulations for Net still Not Warranted Despite latest Outcry
THE ECONOMICS OF PRODUCTION-LINE RESTRICTIONS WITH AN APPLICATION TO THE NETWORK NEUTRALITY DEBATE
[SOURCE: eScholarship Depository, AUTHOR: Benjamin E. Hermalin and Michael L. Katz]
The University of Berkeley professors examine the welfare effects of product-line restrictions, such as those called for by some proponents of network neutrality regulation. They find that restricting a monopoly supplier to a single product has the following effects: a) consumers who would otherwise have consumed a low-quality variant are excluded from the market; b) consumers "in the middle" of the market consume a higher and more efficient quality; and c) consumers at the top of the market consume a lower and less efficient quality. Total surplus may rise or fall. The authors also examine a duopoly model and find that imposition of a single-product restriction always reduces welfare. Absent the restriction, the two firms engage in head-to-head competition across full product lines. In some circumstances, the restriction induces the two firms to offer identical products. The resulting loss of variety reduces welfare. In other circumstances, the restriction induces the firms to offer non-overlapping, or vertically differentiated, products. Here, the resulting loss of competition harms both consumers and economic efficiency. Lastly, they find that, to the extent that the regulation is intended to eliminate low-quality products, it may fail. Even though any one firm can offer only a single product, various firms can collectively offer a menu of products.
http://repositories.cdlib.org/iber/cpc/CPC06-059/
Economics and the Network Neutrality Debate
T-MOBILE USA DOMINATES FIRST ROUND OF AWS AUCTION
[SOURCE: RCRNews.com, AUTHOR: Kelly Hill]
T-Mobile USA Inc. led the first round of bidding in the Federal Communications Commission's auction of advanced wireless services spectrum, placing bids for spectrum that would substantially expand its national footprint. The carrier bid for 20 megahertz of spectrum in each of six regions across the country, as well as additional spectrum in markets such as San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas-Ft. Worth and many other markets. T-Mobile USA placed seven of the top 10 highest bids and bid highest for the Great Lakes, Northeast and Western regional licenses. The nation's fourth-largest carrier also made more than half of the 40 highest bids so far. A pair of closely-watched players made just two bids each in the first round: Sprint Nextel Corp. and its four cable company partners made the 10th largest bid for 10 MHz of spectrum in the Northeast region and also bid for a 10 MHz block in the Western region. Meanwhile, a satellite company consortium -- which made the largest upfront payment before the start of the auction -- bid for 10 MHz of spectrum in the country's central region, and another 10 MHz in the Mississippi Valley region. Winning those licenses would give the consortium spectrum in the vast majority of the country's midsection. Overall. bidders placed 731 bids in the first round, worth a total of about $769 million. Of the available licenses, 653 received no bids. The auction is expected to last several months.
http://www.rcrnews.com/news.cms?newsId=27050
* Round One Ends in FCC Wireless Auction
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6360918?display=Breaking+News
* Satellite Pair Leads Bids in FCC Auction
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/10/business/media/10spectrum.html
* Satellite, cable battle wireless in US FCC auction
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID...
http://www.rcrnews.com/news.cms?newsId=27050
MCDOWELL SEES FCC ACTION ON VIDEO
[SOURCE: Technology Daily 8/8, AUTHOR: Heather Greenfield]
More on Tuesday's press meeting with FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell. If Congress fails to clear a telecommunications bill this year, the FCC can play a role under existing law to bring more video competition to the market, Commissioner McDowell said. "I don't want to underestimate [Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska]," McDowell said of the bill's author. But he added that there are some things the FCC can do to "clear unnecessary regulatory underbrush." "We can help speed the deployment of video penetration ... and broadband penetration," Commissioner McDowell said. But he does not believe existing law gives the FCC the authority to impose a mandate that cable operators carry all digital broadcast signals. McDowell voted against a mandate in June. "If Congress changes it, we'll enforce that mandate," he said. "My basic philosophy is to trust free markets and free people to make their own decisions," Commissioner McDowell said. "But should there be market failure, the government should act." He said he would prefer that any new regulations be "sunsetted" to force deregulation once market failures are cured. McDowell said consumers want access to the content of their choice where and when they desire. He believes consumer demand will be "an incredibly powerful check and balance" when it comes to issues like per-channel cable pricing or tiered pricing for high-speed Internet content.
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-DKUL1155132529041.html
McDowell Sees FCC Action On Video
INTERNET, ACTIVISTS HELP TOPPLE PROMINENT DEMOCRAT
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Patricia Wilson]
Fueled by opposition to the Iraq war and anger at President Bush, liberal grass-roots and Internet activists on Wednesday claimed their most significant political victory -- the defeat of Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman. The three-term senator from Connecticut was repudiated on Tuesday by voters from his own party who chose Ned Lamont -- a relative unknown with a fierce anti-war message -- to represent Democrats in the November election. "The winner is people-powered politics," declared the Daily Kos Web site, a sentiment that echoed throughout the liberal blogosphere. Lamont, a millionaire businessman who has never held state or federal office, had almost zero name recognition and very little political experience when he entered the race. But his vociferous opposition to the Iraq war and Bush's pursuit of it drew the attention of activists, bloggers and groups like MoveOn.org, which unleashed an army of volunteers who went house-to-house in Connecticut for months and made 80,000 phone calls in the days before the primary vote. "What you're witnessing is the democratization of democracy and don't expect it to be pretty," said Carol Darr, director of George Washington University's Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&story...
* Lieberman defeat a win for 'Netroots' politics?
http://news.com.com/Lieberman+defeat+a+win+for+Netroots+politics/2100-10...
JUDGE DELAYS REVIEW OF AT&T SPYING LAWSUIT
[SOURCE: Reuters]
U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker temporarily halted on Tuesday further review of a lawsuit charging AT&T illegally allowed the U.S. government to monitor phone and e-mail communications. He said he would stay the case pending an appeal of his earlier decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. He said he was also awaiting another court decision that could bundle similar lawsuits across the nation before his or another court. Judge Walker also said if the case proceeded he was considering asking former CIA director James Woolsey to serve as an expert assisting the court review issues in the case.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID...
FCC LACKS MULTICAST MUSCLE, SAYS MCDOWELL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
New FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell put something of an exclamation point on his regulatory independence in a briefing with reporters Tuesday, including making it clear he does not think the FCC has the authority to mandate multicast must-carry without clearer direction from Congress. Commissioner McDowell said he saw two principal issues on the FCC agenda, "threading the needle" of the third circuit remand of media ownership rules, and revamping the universal service fund, which underwrites telecommunications deployment to rural and underserved areas via contributions from industry. Commissioner McDowell, who was sworn in June 1, said he was open to separating the omnibus FCC ownership review into smaller bites rather than "one big kidney stone to pass." He also said he wanted to take a wait-and-see approach to the issue of cable a la carte, saying consumer demand may force a private sector solution. As to multicast must-carry, which like a la carte has been pushed by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, an engaging and at-ease McDowell said he did not believe Congress had given the FCC authority to mandate it, saying if Congress wanted to give it that express authority it could. McDowell called "network neutrality" a Rorschach term (those ink blotches psychologist ask patients to interpret), that depends on where you stand. Where he stands, he said, is in support of the FCC's four neutrality principles and concerned with balancing the need for network management with the threat of abuse. He said it would be tough for the government to apply a prophylactic for a problem that does not yet exist, suggesting that the FCC did not want to be the French goalie, referring to a World Cup soccer shootout in which that goalie, as with most goalies in such shootouts, kept guessing left when the ball went right, or vice versa. Commissioner McDowell said that if a franchise reform bill does not pass, the FCC has the authority to step in and take action itself.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6360473?display=Breaking+News
* McDowell Sees FCC Role in Cable Franchising
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6360712.html?display=Breaking+News
* TW/Bell South Merger Could Face 2-2 FCC
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: ]
New Republican FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, formerly with independent telecom association Comptel, could be recused from the AT&T/Bell South merger review, but it hasn't happened yet. If McDowell can't cast a vote, that will leave the FCC with a 2-2 commission, as it had during the marathon 404-day review of the Comcast/Time Warner/Adelphia deal. McDowell told reporters Monday there was a one-year period during which he had to steer clear of proceedings in which Comptel filed, and that if/once it did weigh in, he would have to step away. Comptel filed a formal petition to deny the merger June 5, according to the group, only four days after he was sworn in.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6360751?display=Breaking+News
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6360473?display=Breaking%20News