Postings on media issues from Benton.org (most recent at top)

January 2006

Jan 31: EXEC SURVEY PAINTS COMPUTER-HEAVY TV FUTURE [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton] IBM Business Consulting Services has issued a report, which warns that new technology is dividing the TV audience into two distinct groups. One will remain "largely passive in the living room," while the other will drive radical changes to the business model in their search for "anytime, anywhere content through multiple channels." The study predicts that, in that time, overall advertising will increase, in part because digital video recorders will increase content consumption. But the DVR will also decrease the demand for traditional spots, as will video-on-demand. According to the study, which culled its research from 65 hour-long interviews with media executives, "most surveyed executives, regardless of company, placed the least confidence in TV advertising compared to user-driven, on-demand revenue streams." http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6302328?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

AND NOW, A WORD FOR OUR DEMOGRAPHIC [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Ted Koppel] [Commentary] I cannot help but see that the industry in which I have spent my entire adult life is in decline and in distress. Once, 30 or 40 years ago, the target audience for network news was made up of everyone with a television, and the most common criticism lodged against us was that we were tempted to operate on a lowest-common-denominator basis. This, however, was in the days before deregulation, when the Federal Communications Commission was still perceived to have teeth, and its mandate that broadcasters operate in "the public interest, convenience and necessity" was enough to give each licensee pause. Network owners nurtured their news divisions, encouraged them to tackle serious issues, cultivated them as shields to be brandished before Congressional committees whenever questions were raised about the quality of entertainment programs and the vast sums earned by those programs. News divisions occasionally came under political pressures but rarely commercial ones. The expectation was that they would search out issues of importance, sift out the trivial and then tell the public what it needed to know. With the advent of cable, satellite and broadband technology, today's marketplace has become so overcrowded that network news divisions are increasingly vulnerable to the dictatorship of the demographic. Now, every division of every network is expected to make a profit. And so we have entered the age of boutique journalism. The goal for the traditional broadcast networks now is to identify those segments of the audience considered most desirable by the advertising community and then to cater to them. http://select.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/opinion/29koppel.html (requires subscription)

G**GLE IN CHINA... [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff] [Commentary] The WSJ notes the irony that Google is cooperating more readily with China's dictators than it is with the U.S. government (see below). China's leaders have made a bet that they can have economic growth, and the exposure to the outside world that it requires, while maintaining political control. In the long run, we continue to think that's a losing bet. Google may have its own business dilemma, but the modern dictator's dilemma is that the path to economic progress demands a loosening of centralized control on just about everything, including information. As for Google's executives, we also hope that, even as they make their business compromises with the Communists, they don't forget their larger obligations to promoting the freedom that has made them as rich as they are. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113857784955159489.html?mod=todays_us_opinion (requires subscription) * Google is risking its freedom in China http://news.ft.com/cms/s/d4d8afd6-90f0-11da-a628-0000779e2340.html (requires subscription)

... AND GOOGLE AT HOME [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff] [Commentary] Google is fighting a Justice Department subpoena covering a huge swath of data about the Web sites the company indexes and the search terms its users submit. So unlike in China Google is casting itself as a defender of privacy against a snooping government, though in truth this is also a business calculation. Google has acquired a reputation in some quarters, fairly or not, for a vaguely Orwellian desire to gather as much information as it can about its users. Its business model depends on users' confidence that such information will not be misused, so turning it over to the government would be a blow to its image. The Justice Department is requesting reams of proprietary data from private companies to resolve a question that a commission set up under COPA has already answered, and not in the Bush Administration's favor. Under those circumstances, it's no wonder that both Google and the ACLU have raised concerns about the subpoena. Fortunately for Google, it is making this challenge in America, which has the rule of law, as well as a free press that might even take Google's side against the government. For that we should all be thankful, regardless of the outcome of Google's challenge. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113857763631159487.html?mod=todays_us_opinion (requires subscription)

GOOGLE EYES HOW MOBILE DEVICES WILL USE CITY WI-FI [SOURCE: InfoWorld, AUTHOR: Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service] Google has met with mobile gear vendors including Motorola and Sony to explore how their devices might be able to take advantage of municipal Wi-Fi networks, an executive of the search company said Thursday. Google already operates a Wi-Fi network in Mountain View (CA). One device in Google's crosshairs is Sony's PSP game platform. "There's like five million of those in the U.S. now, they've all got Wi-Fi in them. We're trying to do what we can to make those devices able to log on to this network," Google's Christopher Sacca said. But hardware makers are also exploring ways to take advantage of VOIP, which could leave cellular operators and their per-minute billing out of the equation, he said. But one of Google's biggest challenges is the same one some broadband providers have been howling about lately, Sacca said. After providing a high-speed Internet connection to its customers, Google could find some of them using bandwidth-hungry applications, such as streaming video or file-sharing, that hog the network's capacity. In fact, that problem is more severe with a wireless broadband network like the one Google envisions than on a fiber, DSL (digital subscriber line) or cable network, which has much more bandwidth, Sacca said. But unlike some large carriers that are considering charging providers of Internet applications for high-priority treatment, Google would never do that, he said while crossing his fingers and hoping to die. http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/01/27/74875_HNgooglewificity_1.html?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/01/27/74875_HNgooglewificity_1.html

Jan 28: HAVE COURAGE TO TELL TRUTH, POPE TELLS WORLD MEDIA [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Philip Pullella] Pope Benedict, in the first formal message to the media of his pontificate, said on Tuesday the media cannot be self-serving or profit-driven but must be accountable for the common good and promote human values. "Authentic communication demands principled courage and resolve," the Pope said in the message for the Roman Catholic Church's annual World Day of Communications set for May 28. "It requires a determination of those working in the media not to wilt under the weight of so much information nor even to be content with partial or provisional truths," the Pope said. "Instead it necessitates both seeking and transmitting what is the ultimate foundation and meaning of human, personal and social existence," he said. "In this way the media can contribute constructively to the propagation of all that is good and true." http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/1/24/worldupdates/2006-01-24T192149Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_-233518-1&sec=Worldupdates

Jan 27: HIGH-TECH FIRMS FAIL TO JUSTIFY AID TO CHINESE OPPRESSION [SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Richard Cohen, Washington Post] [Commentary] The Internet may be new, but not the issue of whether an American corporation should do business with bad people. Many an American fortune was based on the slave trade or exploitation of the Indians or some such atrocity. According to allegations in a recent book, IBM did business with Nazi Germany and, more recently, a good number of U.S. corporations helped the old apartheid regime in South Africa with its security concerns. Still, the panting willingness of American firms to do business in China has produced a bumper crop of hypocritical justifications. The first one, as noted, is that silly stuff about adhering to local laws. The second is the contention -- the slim hope, actually -- that by helping China with its Internet or whatever, we wonderful Americans are also encouraging the growth of a middle class and a concomitant interest in the writings of Thomas Jefferson. In the meantime, the use of such terms as "human rights" or "Dalai Lama" in the title of a blog entry is not possible with the MSN blog tool. In China, a typo can cost you plenty. Clearly, if the Chinese market were tiny, America's high-tech companies might not be willing to snitch on their customers and help send them to jail. But the market is vast -- an astounding 1.3 billion people, 103 million of them already on the Internet. (The United States, with 203 million users, is about maxed out.) But just as public pressure was brought on American companies that helped South Africa subjugate its own people, so should pressure be brought on the current crop of moral dunces. Corporations are legal fictions, an abstraction that lacks a conscience. The people who run them, though, are flesh and blood -- like Terry S. Semel, Yahoo's CEO. This week he reported healthy gains. Alas, he did not report the loss of a single night's sleep. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/13709126.htm * Google's beautiful China paradox http://news.ft.com/cms/s/b89f3cd0-8dd6-11da-8fda-0000779e2340.html * Google's dilemma: privacy vs. police http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0126/p01s02-wogi.html * Bloggers condemn Google's Chinese service http://news.ft.com/cms/s/d47ae090-8dc6-11da-8fda-0000779e2340.html * Not too evil http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-google26jan26,0,3650784.story?coll=la-news-comment (requires registration)

GOOGLE: CHINA DECISION PAINFUL BUT RIGHT [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Ben Hirschler] Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin said his company's decision to self-censor its Chinese search system followed a change of heart over how best to foster the free flow of information. "I didn't think I would come to this conclusion -- but eventually I came to the conclusion that more information is better, even if it is not as full as we would like to see," Brin said. The voluntary concessions laid out on Tuesday by Google parallel some of the self-censorship already practiced there by global rivals such as Yahoo and Microsoft, as well as domestic sites. "There is no question. Google would tell you that going into China is about making money, not bringing democracy," John Palfrey, author of a study on Chinese Internet censorship and a law professor at Harvard Law School, on Google's action. http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-01-25T200614Z_01_N25226161_RTRUKOC_0_US-GOOGLE-BRIN-INTERVIEW.xml

AT ABC NEWS, CHANGE IS SLOW TO WIN VIEWERS [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Brooks Barnes brooks.barnes@wsj.com] More than its rivals, ABC has tried to shake up how television news is gathered and presented. Earlier this month, ABC News tried officially to step out of the old television news era and into the new, with the installation of Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff as co-anchors of "World News Tonight." Instead of sitting behind a desk reading headlines, the two would-be globe-trotting correspondents run the evening newscast from the field while filing daily dispatches for video iPods and the Web. But the bold approach hasn't paid ratings dividends yet. The competition in TV news is such that even flat ratings are considered a success: ABC notes that "World News Tonight" is improving in certain markets by double-digit margins, particularly on the West Coast. ABC has made an effort to cover more West Coast stories closely, and it now provides a live broadcast for the West Coast instead of re-airing the East Coast newscast, with news updates as needed. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113824520736556731.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription)

B-ROLL IS ON A ROLL [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton] The appetite for stock footage and video news releases (VNRs) from major news outlets continues to grow, according to The NewsMarket, which is an online platform for delivery of clips and VNRs. It had 128,000-plus requests for footage in 2005, up 95% from the year before, with the large majority of that stock footage. Those requests, from outlets including CNN, CNBC, BBC, Fox News and Bloomberg TV, were primarily for stock footage--B-roll and sound bites. Companies supplying the footage included AOL, Nissan, Volvo, International Monetary Fund, ITT, Pfizer, Medtronic, the U.S. State Department, U.K. Ministry of Defense and Schering Plough. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6301763?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

TV IS THE DRUG OF CHOICE FOR TOO MANY [SOURCE: Anchorage Daily News, AUTHOR: Chris Rose] [Comentary] My concern is that people are letting democracy slip though their fingers as they sit glued to the tube. It's really not too far of a stretch to liken people being "on" TV with people being "on" drugs. In fact, a study by Rutgers psychologist Robert Kubey concludes that millions of Americans are so hooked on television that they fit the criteria for "substance dependence" as defined by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Those symptoms include using TV as a sedative; indiscriminate viewing; feeling loss of control while viewing; feeling angry with oneself for watching too much; an inability to stop watching; and feeling miserable when kept from watching. We all better start living just a tiny bit more like we did before TV began to dominate us. http://www.adn.com/opinion/guest_columns/story/7389253p-7301512c.html

Jan 26: INTERNET: FREEDOM OR PRIVILEGE? [SOURCE: isen.blog, AUTHOR: David Isenberg] [Commentary] Is Internet access a freedom or a privilege? Just as Freedom of Speech means that, with very few limitations, nobody has the right to tell somebody else what to say, so should Internet freedom mean that gatekeepers should not control Internet applications or content. This is essential not just as a matter of freedom, but also as a matter of commerce, because the Internet's success is directly due to its content-blindness. If the United States fails to understand this, US Internet leadership will follow US leadership in agriculture, in steel, in autos, and in consumer electronics to other countries that do. http://isen.com/blog/2006/01/internet-freedom-or-privilege.html * See Also: The Struggle for Net Freedom http://www.freepress.net/deadend/

GULF COAST STATIONS PREP FOR NEXT BIG STORM [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Allison Romano] Executives from Gulf Coast media gathered Tuesday in Las Vegas, at the annual NATPE convention, to discuss lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina. When the next big hurricane hits, local broadcasters ravaged by Hurricane Katrina said they will lock up fuel, supplies and housing in an effort to avoid the scrambling and shortages that plagued them after the ferocious storm devastated the Gulf Coast last August. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6301678?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

AFTER SUBPOENAS, INTERNET SEARCHES GIVE SOME PAUSE [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Katie Hafner] A noticeable chilling effect? After reading reports about Department of Justice subpoenas of Internet search records, people are getting nervous about the terms they search on the World Wide Web. The government and the cooperating companies say the search queries cannot be traced to their source, and therefore no personal information about users is being given up. But the government's move is one of several recent episodes that have caused some people to think twice about the information they type into a search engine, or the opinions they express in an e-mail message. The government has been more aggressive recently in its efforts to obtain data on Internet activity, invoking the fight against terrorism and the prosecution of online crime. A surveillance program in which the National Security Agency intercepted certain international phone calls and e-mail in the United States without court-approved warrants prompted an outcry among civil libertarians. And under the antiterrorism USA Patriot Act, the Justice Department has demanded records on library patrons' Internet use. Those actions have put some Internet users on edge, as they confront the complications and contradictions of online life. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/25/national/25privacy.html?hp&ex=1138251600&en=62d17540c488a0d7&ei=5094&partner=homepage (requires registration)

MOST SPAM STILL COMING FROM THE US [SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: John Evers] Almost a quarter of the world's spam in the last three months of 2005 was sent from computers in the United States. The U.S. is closely followed by China, with 22.3 percent. South Korea rounds out the top three with 9.7 percent, according to Sophos, a UK antivirus company, which said the level of non-English language spam is rising. The company bases its numbers on a scan of all junk mail caught by its spam traps. While the U.S. still tops the chart, the latest figures mark the first time the country accounts for less than one quarter of all spam relayed, Sophos said. The decrease is a continuing trend. Last October, 26.3 percent of all spam sent from April through September last year was sent from the U.S., a significant drop from 41.5 percent a year earlier, Sophos said. The decline in U.S.-sourced spam is thanks in part to the crackdown against fraudulent e-mail, Sophos said. In particular, the company pointed to monetary damages that spammers have been ordered to pay as well as jail sentences, tighter legislation and improved coordination among Internet service providers. The numbers do suggest, however, that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' prediction two years ago that the spam problem would be solved by now has not come true. http://news.com.com/Most+spam+still+coming+from+the+U.S./2100-1029_3-6030758.html?tag=nefd.top

CHINA SHUTS DOWN INFLUENTIAL WEEKLY NEWSPAPER IN CRACKDOWN ON MEDIA [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Joseph Kahn] China's Propaganda Department on Tuesday ordered the closing of Bing Dian, an influential weekly newspaper that often tackled touchy political and social subjects, as the authorities stepped up efforts to curb the spread of information and views the Communist Party considers unfavorable. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/25/international/asia/25china.html?pagewanted=all (requires registration) * Leading Publication Shut Down In China http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/24/AR2006012401003.html (requires registration)

VERSION OF GOOGLE IN CHINA WON'T OFFER E-MAIL OR BLOGS [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Barboza] Information wants to be free -- except if it speaks Chinese, of course. Google is bringing a special version of its powerful search engine to China, leaving behind two of its most popular features in the United States. In an effort to cope with China's increasingly pervasive Internet controls, Google said Tuesday that it would introduce a search engine here this week that excludes e-mail messaging and the ability to create blogs. Google officials said the new search engine, Google.cn, was created partly as a way to avoid potential legal conflicts with the Chinese government, which has become much more sophisticated at policing and monitoring material appearing on the Internet. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/25/technology/25google.html?pagewanted=all (requires registration) * Google to Censor Results On New Chinese Search Site Google has agreed to censor its results in China, adhering to the country's free-speech restrictions in return for better access in the Internet's fastest growing major market. Because of government barriers set up to suppress information, Google users in China have been blocked from using the search engine or encountered lengthy delays in response time. The troubles have frustrated many Chinese users, hobbling Google's efforts to expand its market share. China already has more than 100 million Web surfers, and the audience is expected to swell substantially.To obtain the Chinese license, Google agreed to omit content that the country's government finds objectionable. Google will base its censorship decisions on guidance from Chinese government officials. Google officials characterized the concessions as an excruciating decision but said they consider it a worthwhile sacrifice. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/24/AR2006012401933.html (requires registration) * After refusing to turn records over to U.S. officials, Internet giant accepts self-censorship to set up in China http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/13706565.htm

BBC SAYS IRANIAN WEB SITE BLOCKED [SOURCE: Reuters] The BBC accused Tehran on Tuesday of blocking its Farsi-language Web site, which it describes as one of the most influential sources of news in Iran. BBCpersian.com normally receives 30 million page views a month, making it the British broadcaster's most popular foreign-language site. An Iranian culture ministry official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters in Tehran the Web Site had been "filtered since two days ago" but did not give a reason behind the move. http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-01-24T185823Z_01_L24510678_RTRUKOC_0_US-BRITAIN-IRAN-BBC.xml

Jan 24: THE COMING TUG OF WAR OVER THE INTERNET [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Christopher Stern, Medley Global Advisors] [Commentary] Do you prefer to search for information online with Google or Yahoo? What about bargain shopping -- do you go to Amazon or eBay? Many of us make these kinds of decisions several times a day, based on who knows what -- maybe you don't like bidding, or maybe Google's clean white search page suits you better than Yahoo's colorful clutter. But the nation's largest telephone companies have a new business plan, and if it comes to pass you may one day discover that Yahoo suddenly responds much faster to your inquiries, overriding your affinity for Google. Or that Amazon's Web site seems sluggish compared with eBay's. The changes may sound subtle, but make no mistake: The telecommunications companies' proposals have the potential, within just a few years, to alter the flow of commerce and information -- and your personal experience -- on the Internet. For the first time, the companies that own the equipment that delivers the Internet to your computer could, for a price, give one company priority on their networks over another. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/21/AR2006012100094.html?nav=rss_technology (requires registration) * Un-levelling the Internet playing field? http://www.bleedingedge.com.au/blog/archives/2006/01/unlevelling_the.html

KING CONTENT [SOURCE: The Economist] Media conglomerates have seen their newspapers and magazines lose readers and advertising to the Internet; their music businesses suffer piracy and falling sales; and someone else's video games captivate new generations of consumers. Now come fears about film and TV, the bedrock of their business. Hollywood took 7% less at the box office in 2005 than in 2004 and growth in sales of DVDs has slowed. Internet video threatens the satellite and cable systems of companies such as News Corporation and Time Warner. Dozens of advertisers are shifting budgets from television to such places as the Internet and billboards. Brand-owners hate it that people are using digital video recorders to avoid their pitches. And if media firms move on to the Internet themselves, they risk losing their films and television programmes to pirates. How's a multinational corporation supposed to rule the world under these conditions? Don't worry, there's hope for you, Media Giant. The Internet and digital devices will eventually break your companies' grip on distribution. But you'll gain something else: a digital world in which what you supply matters far more than how you supply it. In satellite radio, for example, Sirius has crept up on XM Satellite Radio thanks chiefly to its content, in the controversial form of Howard Stern. And this world holds another promise, too: an abundance of virtually costless ways to supply consumers with what they want to watch, whenever they want it-things established media are ideally placed to provide. The Internet is still in the digital equivalent of the silent-film era. It has been formidable for text, still images and music, but is only now, with broadband access, entering an age of high-quality video. As it does so, Time Warner, News Corporation, Disney and other media companies will be able to cash in on their film and television archives. Selling video direct to consumers, without distribution getting in the way, lets media firms, and viewers, mine their vaults for old episodes of “The Outer Limits”, Johnny Carson, or whatever: minority tastes, to be sure, but taken together, a vast new market. Moreover, old media will command audiences for many years yet. New media understand this. http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5411930

LIKE THIS? YOU'LL HATE THAT. (NOT ALL RECOMMENDATIONS ARE WELCOME.) [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Laurie Flynn] Web technology capable of compiling vast amounts of customer data now makes it possible for online stores to recommend items tailored to a specific shopper's interests. Companies are finding that getting those personalized recommendations right -- or even close -- can mean significantly higher sales. For consumers, a recommendation system can either represent a vaguely annoying invasion of privacy or a big help in bringing order to a sea of choices. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/23/technology/23recommend.html?pagewanted=all (requires registration)

ADVERTISING IS OBSOLETE. EVERYONE SAYS SO [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Julie Bosman] As advertising conferences go, the take-home message at the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association meeting was a little unusual: Don't advertise. But at the conference, more than 450 advertising and marketing professionals listened to speakers tell them how to reach customers using some alternatives to traditional advertising, like viral and buzz marketing, that are becoming increasingly popular within the industry. The conference was called "Word-of-Mouth Basic Training," and it was aimed at teaching attendees how to tap into the power of word of mouth, an ancient form of communication that many marketers have updated by using new technology like blogs, podcasting and online message boards. At times, the conference could have been mistaken for a religious convention. Among Friday's offerings were sessions titled "Turning Customers Into Evangelists," "Word of Mouth in Faith-Based Markets" and "How to Create Brand Converts." (Later that afternoon, two speakers explained how to "Bring Brands Back from the Dead.") Speakers with titles like "marketing medic" or "manager of influencer marketing" extolled the effectiveness of nontraditional tactics in an industry that has all but declared the 30-second TV commercial obsolete. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/23/business/media/23adco.html?pagewanted=all (requires registration)

SOOTHE THE BLOG AND REAP THE WHIRLWIND [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Carr] [Commentary] Feedback, as any rock guitarist can tell you, is not always a pleasant-sounding thing. Finding an appropriate way to feature and moderate comments from the reading public is challenging not just for the old-line media, but for many of the Web's most robust destinations. The trouble with a community built of one-way e-mail messages posing as two-way communication is that when people can say anything, they frequently do. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/23/business/media/23carr.html?pagewanted=all (requires registration)

MOVE OVER, HD-TV. NOW THERE'S HD RADIO, TOO. [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Eric Taub] Traditional broadcast radio, the last bastion of analog entertainment technology, sees a bright future for itself. Its strategy for success is to become more like one of its main competitors, satellite radio. More channels and music formats, and less-intrusive advertising are critical to its growth, industry executives say. The radio industry, like broadcast television before it, is switching to digital technology. Digital radio technology allows a broadcaster to offer up to three additional FM channels in the space formerly occupied by one. With digital technology, AM stations sound like FM, and FM stations approach CDs in sound quality. A retrofit to HD Radio, or high-definition radio, costs about $100,000 per station. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/23/technology/23radio.html?pagewanted=all (requires registration)

MISSED IT IN THE THEATER TODAY? SEE IT ON DVD TONIGHT [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Sharon Waxman] Hollywood will inch further toward making movies simultaneously available in theaters, on DVD and on home television screens at the Sundance Film Festival this week, as IFC Entertainment unveils a plan to release 24 films in theaters and on cable at the same time this year. The simultaneous release in several distribution modes, called "day and date" release in Hollywood, has been the subject of intense debate in the industry, as movie attendance in theaters has dropped for three years in a row while cellphones and iPods have become the improbable new hosts for filmed entertainment. In many ways, the independent film world is best suited for experimenting with these new distribution strategies, because of the large number of films that are not widely seen, and because the low budgets make them a less risky proposition. IFC's initiative will involve more films and almost certainly more viewers. Because the films will be made available on cable, far more subscribers will have access to the video-on-demand service than now receive the HDNet network. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/23/business/media/23independent.html?pagewanted=all (requires registration)

BUYERS PREDICT BROADCAST'S UPFRONT WON'T DROP MUCH [SOURCE: MediaWeek, AUTHOR: John Consoli] With news of on-demand and interactive media choices stealing the headlines almost daily, along with studies citing the imminent exodus of marketers to other options, it would seem the national TV sales chiefs should prepare themselves for a multibillion-dollar revenue dropoff this year. But for the foreseeable future, starting with this year's upfront marketplace, the networks and major agencies predict there will be no mega fallout of dollars. Media agency executives acknowledge they do not see the broadcast network upfront growing much beyond last year's approximate $9 billion, but they also don't expect it to drop much below that. And while advertiser spending on the Big Six nets may have peaked-meaning more money will be allocated to nontraditional media in the future -- the shift of spending on digital, interactive, on demand and other new forms of advertising will happen gradually over the years. http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001882720

COMPANIES STRUGGLE TO PASS ON KNOWLEDGE THAT WORKERS ACQUIRE [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Scott Thurm scott.thurm@wsj.com] We're all "knowledge workers" now. But few organizations have figured out how to share knowledge among employees, or to pass it on when employees leave or change assignments. Business gurus have offered dozens of potential solutions. Most involve technology, like asking employees to submit tidbits of expertise to a database that other employees can tap. But few of these efforts have produced big payoffs. Last year, when consulting firm Bain & Co. asked 960 executives about the effectiveness of 25 management tools, knowledge management ranked near the bottom. The reliance on technology obscures the crucial human issues in learning and teaching. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113797285013053145.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription)

Jan 20: MORE CHOICES HIT RADIO DIAL [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sarah McBride sarah.mcbride@wsj.com] The nation's big radio companies are about to roll out their answer to satellite radio -- a new technology called "multicasting" that allows them to cram two or three stations onto FM frequencies that today carry just one. For listeners, that means dozens of new channels are coming onto the air, starting this week. But there's a catch: They need to shell out several hundred dollars for new radio sets that pull in the digital signals, which regular radios don't pick up. This week, Clear Channel Communications Inc., CBS Corp.'s CBS Radio and other major radio broadcasters are starting to spell out what formats they will use for the new stations that will be created to take advantage of the emerging digital technology. Clear Channel today will begin multicasting 10 new stations in New York and San Francisco, with 15 more rolling out in the next few days, and will detail plans for a bigger push later. CBS Radio will also unveil new multicast stations in several markets. In all, more than 250 multicast digital stations will soon be available in 28 large markets, including New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, the HD Radio Alliance, a trade group of major radio companies, said yesterday. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113763826582650518.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal (requires subscription)

67 PERCENT "ENJOY WATCHING TV COMMERCIALS" [SOURCE: PRNewswire] Sixty-seven percent of consumers enjoy watching television commercials and 74 percent of consumers receive most of their new product information from television, according to the 2005 Schneider/Stagnito Communications Most Memorable New Product Launch Survey. While many say the 30-second spot is dead, consumers in this poll disagree. Eighty percent indicated TV ads were the leading factor that influenced their decision to purchase. http://media.prnewswire.com/en/jsp/main.jsp?resourceid=3121236

ACTIVISTS PLAN TO SUE VIACOM AND KELLOGG OVER ADS TO CHILDREN [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sarah Ellison sarah.ellison@wsj.com and Janet Adamy ] Moving their fight for healthier food into the legal realm, a group of consumer activists and parents have notified Kellogg and Viacom that they plan to file a lawsuit over food marketing aimed at children. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Center for a Commercial-Free Childhood and four Massachusetts parents yesterday sent letters to Sumner Redstone, Viacom's chairman and chief executive, and to James Jenness, CEO of Kellogg, notifying them of their intent to file suit in Massachusetts State Court in Boston under state consumer-protection legislation. The letter accuses the companies of directly harming kids' health by marketing food of "poor nutritional quality" using characters such as Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants. Massachusetts law requires that parties be notified 30 days before a suit is filed. The prospective plaintiffs in the suit aren't taking issue with the products themselves, but rather with the advertising of the products to children, which the letter calls inherently unfair and deceptive. The prospective plaintiffs are seeking $25 for each time a child under 8 sees an ad for a nutritionally poor food on Nickelodeon or in another Viacom medium. (Violation of the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act rewards damages of $25.) The suit also seeks damages for each time a child sees an ad for a nutritionally poor Kellogg product during children's programming on any media, or simply sees a Kellogg package with a Nickelodeon character on the box. CSPI says its primary goal isn't monetary damages, but rather an injunction against marketing and promotional tie-ins using Nickelodeon characters. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113763884339250539.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription) * A New Way to Fight Junk-Food Ads http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/18/AR2006011802382.html * Kellogg and Viacom to Face Suit Over Ads for Children http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/19/business/media/19kellogg.html?pagewanted=all * CSPI Suing Viacom, Kellogg For $2B http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6300496?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

US COURTS READY TO EXTEND JURISDICTION ONLINE [SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Richard Waters] A federal appeals court in San Francisco last week weighed in on a long-running case involving Yahoo in France. In the process, it sent a strong signal about the willingness of US judges to intervene in ways that may have an impact beyond American borders, say legal experts. At first glance, the ninth circuit court of appeals appeared to duck the issues raised by the Yahoo case. However, two elements of their opinion sent a clear message that the US courts may become bolder in exerting a right to influence life on the Internet. One concerned jurisdiction. Eight of the 11 appeals court judges ruled that the US courts had a right to hear Yahoo's case, an opinion that legal experts say could have an impact well beyond cases involving the Internet. The second notable element of the opinion was the apparent view of a substantial minority of the judges that the French courts had indeed contravened Yahoo's first amendment rights in the US, with five of the 11 expressing a dissenting opinion. That should give US Internet companies more confidence that they will be able to count on support from local courts in the future, said Tim Wu, an expert in international Internet law. http://news.ft.com/cms/s/666b0eb2-884a-11da-a25e-0000779e2340.html (requires registration)

IN THREAT TO INTERNET'S CLOUT, SOME ARE STARTING ALTERNATIVES [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Christopher Rhoads christopher.rhoads@wsj.com] "The Internet is no longer the kind of thing where only six guys in the world can build it," says Paul Vixie, 42 years old, a key architect of the U.S.-supported Internet. "Now, you can write a couple of checks and get one of your own." More than a decade after the Internet became available for commercial use, other countries and organizations are erecting rivals to it -- raising fears that global interconnectivity will be diminished. The reasons for the trend include unease with the U.S. government's influence over a global resource, antipathy toward the Bush administration and more and more computer users who don't use Roman letters (think China and Arab nations). http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113763907007950547.html?mod=todays_us_page_one (requires subscription)

A UNIVERSE OF GOOD INTENTIONS, A WORLD OF PRACTICAL HURDLES [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR:Leslie Walker] One great thing about the Internet is how anyone can try to make it better. A group of scientists, academics and nonprofit groups is making its attempt with a new Internet directory it calls the Digital Universe. The group's goal is to provide information vetted by experts on all major topics of human knowledge in a new format allowing people to browse it in a more visual way. Released in pilot form Monday, this new directory ( http://www.digitaluniverse.net ) aims to collect the best of the Web in one spot. It differs from other search engines and directories in two key ways -- by rejecting advertising and by putting its content under the editorial control of a self-organizing network of experts. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/18/AR2006011802251.html (requires registration)

TALK OF TAIPEI: FIRST CITYWIDE WI-FI ACCESS [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jason Dean jason.dean@wsj.com, Jesse Drucker & Chiu Piling] The Taiwanese capital of Taipei is building what is expected to soon become the world's first citywide wireless-computer network in a major metropolis. The network, initiated by the Taipei city government and built by a private company, already includes more than 3,300 wireless "access points" that cover half the city's 106 square miles. The devices use the wireless Internet technology known as Wi-Fi to let Taipei's 2.6 million residents surf the Internet or send emails from the privacy of their living rooms or the public comfort of their favorite park benches. Although the project has encountered some glitches and delays, city officials say that when it is completed around midyear, it will cover more than 90% of Taipei. Taiwan's efforts have put it ahead of big cities in the U.S., where dozens of local governments have announced plans to build citywide wireless networks to provide the public with low-cost Internet access. The trend is prompting Internet companies like Google Inc. and EarthLink Inc. to enter the fray, offering Internet services in direct competition with the high-speed access provided by existing telecom and cable carriers like Verizon Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp. The Wi-Fi networks also threaten to vie for customers with wireless broadband services offered by companies like Sprint Nextel Corp. and Cingular Wireless, owned by AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp. The first movers in the U.S. were mainly smaller towns -- places like Granbury, Texas, and Scottsburg, Ind. -- that had little or no access to high-speed service from telephone and cable companies. In the last year or so, however, Wi-Fi plans have been announced for some of the country's biggest cities. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113762531033150131.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription)

FEDS WANT GOOGLE SEARCH RECORDS [SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Howard Mintz] The Bush administration on Wednesday asked a federal judge to order Google Inc. to turn over a broad range of material from its closely guarded databases. The move is part of a government effort to revive an Internet child protection law struck down two years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court. The law was meant to punish online pornography sites that make their content accessible to minors. The government contends it needs the Google data to determine how often pornography shows up in online searches. Google opposes releasing the information on a variety of grounds, saying it would violate the privacy rights of its users and reveal company trade secrets. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/13657386.htm

CONSUMERS WANT CONGRESS TO PROTECT RIGHT TO ACCESS INFORMATION, SERVICE ON INTERNET [SOURCE: Free Press press release] Two-thirds of Internet users have serious concerns about practices by Internet network owners to block or impair their access to information and services, and the majority of those surveyed support congressional action to prevent this practice, according to a new poll released today by consumer and public interest groups. The nationally representative survey found that more than 75 percent of Internet users polled are seriously concerned about not being able to freely choose an Internet service provider or being required to pay twice for certain Internet services. Another 70 percent were concerned about providers blocking or impairing their access to Internet services or sites, such as Internet telephone service or online retailers like Amazon.com. Fifty-four percent want Congress to take action to ensure that Internet providers are prohibited from engaging in these practices. The results were released amid upcoming congressional consideration of legislation that would prohibit network owners from blocking or impairing consumer access to content and services on the Web -- known as "network neutrality." The groups said the Federal Communications Commission's adoption of network neutrality principles last year fell short because the FCC refused to include enforcement mechanisms. Fueling the concern are recent reports that dominant network owners Verizon and AT&T intend to charge Internet content and services providers, like Google and Yahoo, fees for high-speed service in addition to Internet access fees charged to consumers. The groups called on Congress to swiftly move forward on meaningful legislation to prohibit network discrimination. http://www.freepress.net/press/release.php?id=111 * FCC Commissioner Copps Praises ISP Access Study http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6300504?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers) * Internet freedom seen at risk http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?siteid=mktw&dist=moreover&guid={18490F6D-B4C0-46AA-B1CD-82C6C330BD62

Jan 19: ACTIVIST GROUP OFFICIALS DISCUSS 2006 TELECOM LANDSCAPE [SOURCE: Technology Daily, AUTHOR: Drew Clark] Media ownership, Internet neutrality and video franchising are likely to be the biggest issues in telecommunications and media reform for 2006, according to officials from the media policy reform group Free Press. Ben Scott, director of Free Press' Washington office, said the media ownership issue "will return in 2006, maybe in February, maybe in April, or maybe in the summer." Scott and the others said it is imperative for media activists to fight for "network neutrality," or the principle that cable and telecom companies not be permitted to dictate the content, software or devices that consumers use to access the Internet. Mr. Scott also said the group does not care whether video franchising is done locally, statewide or nationally, as long as there are "baseline protections" for consumers. Referring to Texas legislation last year creating a statewide franchise, he said, "There are a lot of localities that are better off under that statewide bill then they were before." http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-VHAJ1137530916371.html

IN LATEST DEAL, GOOGLE STEPS FURTHER INTO WORLD OF OLD MEDIA [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Kevin Delaney kevin.delaney@wsj.com] Google has brought in billions of dollars in revenue by brokering advertisements that appear on Web sites. Now it is taking its ad machine beyond the Internet in an ambitious quest to place ads in traditional media such as newspapers and radio. Google will pay $102 million in cash for dMarc Broadcasting. (The company will pay up to an additional more than $1.1 billion over three years if dMarc meets certain targets.) DMarc runs an online system for advertisers to buy radio airtime. It then automatically slots the advertisers' commercials into radio stations' computers for broadcast. The acquisition could open enormous new markets to the search company. But it could also test the limits of Google's automated ad-placement technology that brought it more than $3 billion in online ad revenue in 2004. Most people think of Google as a place to go to gather information. But in a business sense, Google operates as a huge clearinghouse for advertisers. At the heart of Google's advertising operation is an automated system that auctions off the right to place advertisements on its search-results pages when an Internet user types in certain key words. Most of its advertisers simply log into the system to place their ads and make their bids. They pay only when someone clicks on the ad. Google also brokers the sale of ads that appear on other Web sites -- sometimes tied into key words and sometimes not. The radio deal is the latest of a series of recent moves by Google in which it aims to bring its Internet advertising expertise to bear on old-media markets. Since last year, Google says it has been placing ads on behalf of advertisers in three magazines and the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper. And Chief Executive Eric Schmidt late last year acknowledged in an interview that the company is considering extending its ad system to TV advertising as well. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113750713079248534.html?mod=todays_us_page_one (requires subscription)

WARM AND FUZZY TV, BROUGHT TO YOU BY HAMAS [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Craig Smith] Hazim Sharawi, whose stage name is Uncle Hazim, is a quiet, doe-eyed young man who has an easy way with children and will soon preside over a children's television show here on which he'll cavort with men in larger-than-life, fake-fur animal suits on the Gaza Strip's newest television station, Al Aksa TV. But Captain Kangaroo this is not. The station, named for Islam's third holiest site, is owned by Hamas, the people who helped make suicide bombing a household term. "Our television show will have a message, but without getting into the tanks, the guns, the killing and the blood," said Mr. Sharawi, sitting in the broadcast studio where he will produce his show. "I will show them our rights through the history," he said, "show them, 'This is Nablus, this is Gaza, this is Al Aksa mosque, which is with the Israelis and should be in our hands.' " The new station is part of the militant Palestinian group's strategy to broaden its role in Palestinian politics and society, much as Hezbollah did in Lebanon. The station began broadcasting terrestrially on Jan. 7, and Hamas is working on a satellite version that would give it an even wider reach, like Hezbollah's Al Manar TV, which is watched throughout the Arab world. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/18/international/middleeast/18hamas.html (requires registration)

INTERNET USERS JUDGE WEB SITES IN LESS THAN A BLINK [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Kamakshi Tandon] Internet users can give Web sites a thumbs up or thumbs down in less than the blink of an eye, according to a study by Canadian researchers. http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-01-17T203950Z_01_N17291661_RTRUKOC_0_US-SCIENCE-CANADA-WEBSITES.xml

CHINA INTERNET USERS HIT 111 MILLION IN 2005 [SOURCE: Reuters] The number of Web users in China, the world's second largest Internet market, grew by 18 percent in 2005 to 111 million, the Economic Daily reported on Wednesday. Only 8.5 percent of the country's 1.3 billion people now had access to the Internet. http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-01-18T030843Z_01_SHA66703_RTRUKOC_0_US-CHINA-INTERNET.xml

Jan 18: BEIJING'S NEW ENFORCER: MICROSOFT [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff] [Commentary] Even as Internet use explodes in China, Beijing is cracking down on free expression, and Western technology firms are leaping to help. The companies block access to political Web sites, censor content, provide filtering equipment to the government and snitch on users. Companies argue that they must follow local laws, but they are also eager to ingratiate themselves with a government that controls access to the Chinese market. Such obvious disregard for users' privacy and ethical standards may make it easier to do business in China, but it also aids a repressive regime. Some in the American Congress are talking about holding hearings. Microsoft has responded to criticism by saying, "We think it's better to be there with our services than not be there." This is a false choice. China needs Internet companies as much as they need China. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/17/opinion/17tue2.html (requires registration)

PACE OF MEDIA DEALS LIKELY TO SURPASS 2005 [SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Nat Ives] Media mergers and acquisitions this year are likely to outpace 2005 levels, according to the latest annual survey from AdMedia Partners, the investment banking and advisory firm that focuses on the publishing, advertising and interactive businesses. About two-thirds of media and financial executives surveyed predicted that mergers and acquisitions activity would increase in 2006, AdMedia said. Respondents also predicted that much of the activity they foresee is likely to cross sectors. “Demand for digital content was clear in both the survey data and open-ended comments, and we expect to see more acquisitions of cross-media partners by traditional media companies,” said Mark Edmiston, managing director. “Down the road, tightening of lending criteria and potential increases in capital gains tax rates could make M&A less attractive, but in 2006 conditions remain favorable.” http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=47464

TV's EVOLUTION BRINGS NEW PROFIT SQUABBLES [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Meg James] Beginning this month, many Comcast Corp. cable subscribers who miss an episode of the CBS hit "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" can pay to see it later. Next month, they will be able to use the same video-on-demand service to watch previous installments of the network's reality game show "The Amazing Race." But when consumers fork over their 99 cents to see forensic investigators or globe-trotting contestants, who gets the money? And who controls the so-called VOD window? That's what CBS and Walt Disney Co.'s Touchstone Television have been squabbling over lately. Ever since November, when CBS and Comcast announced their video-on-demand partnership, Touchstone has been crying foul, say several executives on both sides of the deal. The reason: Touchstone, which co-owns "The Amazing Race" with CBS, wasn't consulted before the deal was struck. The Touchstone-CBS spat is hardly unique. As television executives scramble to exploit new technologies and make their shows available in as many formats as possible, they are facing scrutiny from many quarters -- retailers, advertisers, TV producers, actors and writers -- that fear their interests are being ignored. Because existing licensing agreements signed as little as two years ago do not address how to split revenues from video-on-demand or video iPod downloads, every new deal -- however small -- is being closely watched. Hollywood's guilds are particularly concerned. Labor leaders fear a repeat of the early 1980s, when movie executives convinced them that revenue from videocassette tapes would never amount to much. The guilds accepted a much smaller cut of the profits from home entertainment, then watched as VHS and, later, DVDs mushroomed into a multibillion-dollar-a-year business and the studios' biggest moneymaker. http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-tv17jan17,1,2126169.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business (requires registration)

TENSION GROWS BETWEEN LABELS AND DIGITAL RADIO [SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: John Borland] The entry of satellite and digital radio into the technological mainstream is increasing tension with the record industry, which wants new rules governing how consumers can make digital copies of songs from the airwaves. At issue are new devices that can record and save high-quality digital copies of tunes as they're being broadcast by these new networks. Recording executives are worried that consumers might increasingly opt to make such copies instead of purchasing the music on a commercial CD or from a download store like Apple Computer's iTunes. For now, the Recording Industry Association of America is in negotiations with satellite radio companies and is opening discussions with radio broadcasters over specific products. But over the long term, the music industry says, Congress should find a way to regulate these new digital radio networks so labels can get paid when consumers keep copies of songs, as is the case with iTunes. http://news.com.com/Tension+grows+between+labels+and+digital+radio/2100-1025_3-6027079.html?tag=nefd.top * NAB's Rehr Writes RIAA's Bainwol On Content Protection In HD Age http://www.radioink.com/HeadlineEntry.asp?hid=131997&pt=todaysnews * Text of NAB letter http://www.nab.org/images/xertimages/corpcomm/pressrel/011106_DKR_to_RIAA.pdf

TV BUILDS RADIO STAR [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Anne Becker] Emerging bands are turning to TV at a time when consolidation in radio and cutbacks in music-industry advertising have made it exceedingly difficult to break through. Furthermore, Internet and satellite radio mean listeners' attention is split among a wider array of obscure artists. As a result, say music execs, bands view TV differently than before. “Ten years ago, if a major network approached [a hip band] about being on a television show starring the guy who was in Ed and an aged Jason Priestley, they probably would've balked at it,” says Geoff Sherr, of Management Music Division. “If they want to have long, self-sustaining careers, they have to do things that, in the past, may have brought into question their credibility.” http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6299245?display=News&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers) * See also: "In my mind and in my car, we can't rewind we've gone to far" http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/empirerecords/videokilledtheradiostar.htm

A COLUMNIST BACKED BY MONSANTO [SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Eamon Javers] Scripps Howard News Service announced Jan. 13 that it's severing its business relationship with columnist Michael Fumento, who's also a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute. The move comes after inquiries from BusinessWeek Online about payments Fumento received from agribusiness giant Monsanto -- a frequent subject of praise in Fumento's opinion columns and a book. In a statement released on Jan. 13, Scripps Howard News Service Editor and General Manager Peter Copeland said Fumento "did not tell SHNS editors, and therefore we did not tell our readers, that in 1999 Hudson received a $60,000 grant from Monsanto." Copeland added: "Our policy is that he should have disclosed that information. We apologize to our readers." http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/jan2006/nf20060113_2851_db035.htm

BROADCASTERS CUT OUT OF CONVERGENCE [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Glen Dickson] What role will broadcast stations play in this new era of convergence, particularly in regard to mobile viewing? The mobile devices touted at the Consumer Electronics Show all have a common thread: They don't rely on broadcast spectrum. Most of the broadcast networks' new video services aimed at computers or handheld devices are delivered via the Internet, usually through a cable company or telco, or over cellphone networks. And most don't offer stations a cut of the revenue pie. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6299253?display=Technology&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

THE iPOD TOOK MY SEAT [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Stuart Silverstein] As college professors post lectures online, they're seeing a rise in absenteeism. A low-tech response to no-shows: more surprise quizzes. http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-noshow17jan17,0,7923354.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage (requires registration)

Jan 13: WHAT SHOULD THE GOVERNMENT ROLE BE IN ENSURING AN OPEN INTERNET? [SOURCE: The Jeff Pulver Blog] [Commentary] For the past few years, many of us have been prophesizing the emerging battle between Internet Application Providers and Internet Access Providers. There is no longer any doubt in my mind that we are witnessing the emergence of the new battle for control over the Internet and communications. I have some concerns that we might see the emergence of two Internets -- one an ever-evolving and progressing privately-controlled Internet, and the other an increasingly dilapidated publicly-accessible Internet with minimal quality and capacity. Will the emergence of a government supported Internet onramp ensure a quality public Internet or undermine the efforts of private enterprise? Will the public Internet be a dirt road (albeit free), while the privately-controlled Internet will be of top-quality but will not allow users access to the full-range of content and applications that the Internet could offer? How do we maintain the quality of a public road? Does it simply degenerate into a neglected back road traveled by only the disenfranchised members of the community? And does the establishment of the public road undermine private efforts to build the best, next-generation broadband networks? Would we relive the fiascoes experienced by the public projects of failed Communist states, in which they built publicly-owned facilities without any financial incentive and which ultimately led to their deterioration and an inability to meet the development and progress of an enlightened capitalist economy? It is times like this that I look around for my time machine, my crystal ball, my ability to see the alternate futures. I still sense that much good can come from publicly-supported broadband networks, particularly where industry has not stepped up to the plate. At a minimum, I think we could use some government support to build out private, but open networks. I would like to think that the open and public Internet access projects would serve as a check to ensure that the privately-owned Internet access builds will also remain open and discourage the Internet Access Providers from building walled-gardens with less user control and access to the broadest array of Internet applications and content. But I have heard arguments on both sides. I am however, happy to see that the issues are now front and center and we are finally embarking upon an open and public debate over the more subtle, nuanced issues involved. http://pulverblog.pulver.com/archives/003519.html * Jeff Pulver is the Chairman and Founder of pulver.com, and a pioneer of the Internet telephony/VoIP industry

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS REWRITING PAY SYSTEM FOR THEIR TALENT [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: John Horn] With moviegoing declining and production costs skyrocketing, studio executives are taking a harder look at the industry's most cherished and costliest perk: first-dollar gross profit. The practice of giving A-listers first dibs on a studio's box-office take has long allowed the industry's top actors, writers and producers to grab the bulk of a movie's total receipts well before a studio has earned back its investment. But what's been good for the likes of Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg has become increasingly problematic for studio executives. In a move that some leading talent agents say would have been unthinkable just a few years back, studios are now placing a hard cap -- usually about 25% -- on how much of a film's revenue will be split with the talent. A growing number of studio deal makers also are eliminating the old pay system on a broad spectrum of projects, suggesting instead that actors, directors and producers essentially become financial partners in a movie's making. The upshot of these new deals, which are called cash break-even, is simple: If the film is a hit, the directors, lead actors, writers and others will enjoy an even richer payday, but only after the studio has recouped its investment. If it's a bomb, the studio will be spared the ignoble task of cutting bonus checks on a money-losing dog. http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-gross13jan13,1,7739350.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business (requires registration)

COURT DISMISSES YAHOO FREE SPEECH SUIT [SOURCE: Associated Press] A federal appeals court on Thursday skirted answering whether Yahoo Inc. must pay a fine of about $15 million to a Paris court for displaying Nazi memorabilia for sale in violation of French law. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a federal lawsuit brought by Yahoo in California challenging the fine levied five years ago for running an auction site in which French users could buy and sell the memorabilia banned in France. Yahoo asked the U.S. court to rule that the judgment could not be collected in the United States because it violated the company's free speech rights. In a 99-page decision, the court left open the central question of whether U.S.-based Internet service providers are liable for damages in foreign courts for displaying content that is unlawful overseas but protected in the United States. The court said it was unlikely the French would ever enforce the judgment and doubted Yahoo's free speech rights under U.S. law were violated. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/12/AR2006011201229.html?nav=printbox (requires registration)

RIGGING THE NUMBERS [SOURCE: Center for American Progress, AUTHOR: Eric Alterman] [Commentary] A critique of “A Measure of Media Bias” by UCLA Professor Timothy J. Groseclose and Jeffrey D. Milyo of the University of Missouri-Columbia which purports to demonstrate that the mainstream media lean leftward. http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=1347483

CRITICS SAY ITUNES IS SNOOPING [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Dawn C. Chmielewski] The latest version of Apple Computer Inc.'s popular iTunes software scans a computer's digital music collection and recommends new songs to buy — a feature blasted by privacy advocates as electronic snooping. http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-privacy13jan13,1,2413642.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business (requires registration)

Jan 12: FUTURE OF INTERNET TV IS COMING INTO VIEW [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Leslie Walker] [Commentary] I want my IPTV! Internet protocol TV allows multiple layers of video, pictures and text to be mixed with video feeds in ways viewers can control with their remotes. It's the old interactive TV vision -- point your remote at an actress on screen and up comes her name, prior credits and perhaps a "buy me" button for her blue sequined dress. Major telecom players such as AT&T and Verizon are slowly rolling out IPTV services over high-speed broadband networks. Trials are underway around the country. Microsoft showed off some IPTV software in Las Vegas, and some start-up companies displayed systems for delivering Internet video streams to home computers, bypassing traditional networks owned by cable and satellite companies. At the same time, Hollywood studios announced new deals to distribute TV shows over the Internet in a mix of new pay-per-view and subscription offerings. And Google and Yahoo, the Web's top search providers, jumped in with new services they hope will give them central roles in helping people find all this Internet-delivered video. In fact, so many new IPTV services and technologies were displayed or announced at the Consumer Electronics Show that it was hard to make sense of them all. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/11/AR2006011102134.html (requires registration)

TV COMING TO IN-FLIGHT INTERNET SERVICE [SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Elizabeth M. Gillespie] Airline passengers will soon be able to watch live television on their laptops through Connexion by Boeing's in-flight Internet service. Beginning Jan. 23, passengers who buy blocks of Internet access on the nine foreign airlines that currently offer Connexion's service will also be able to watch programs broadcast on BBC World, CNBC, Eurosportnews, and either EuroNews or MSNBC. Airlines like JetBlue Airways and Frontier Airlines offer similar programming viewable on TV screens on the backs of passengers' seats. Under new pricing announced Wednesday, access to Connexion's high-speed Internet service will cost $26.95 for up to 24 hours beginning Jan. 31. Connexion currently charges $29.95 for six hours of Internet access or more. The TV service will not cost passengers any extra. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/13603015.htm

WHY MEDIA STARS ARE MOVING FROM FREE TO FEE MEDIA [SOURCE: CNN|Money, AUTHOR: Marc Gunther, Fortune] Howard Stern, Ted Koppel and Maureen Dowd have very little in common, but there is this -- whereas once they were available for free, people now will have to pay to hear what they have to say. Radio, broadcast television and newspapers, all of them declining businesses, are squeezing costs. So it's no wonder that some stars are going elsewhere -- or that, in the case of the Times, the newspaper is attempting to use its star writers to bring in new revenues. The moves allow the stars more creative freedom. But each of these moves has a significant cost: Stern, Koppel and the Times opinion-makers will reach smaller audiences than they once did. http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/11/news/companies/pluggedin_fortune/index.htm

FUTURIST: CABLE NEEDS 'AGILITY' [SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Matt Stump] Author and futurist Jim Carroll urged engineers at the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers’ Emerging Technologies conference to watch consumer behavior in order to determine the future direction of cable-technology implementation. Whether telcos or cable will win market share in the future, he said, is the wrong question. Rather: How well will cable adapt and deliver platforms and services consumer want? He urged cable companies not to make the mistake the music industry did and go to war with their own consumers over how they obtain content. http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6298674.html?display=Breaking+News (requires subscription)

REDSTONE PREDICTS MORE CORPORATE 'DIVORCES' [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Ben Grossman] Viacom and CBS Chairman Sumner Redstone, speaking Tuesday night at a Museum of Television & Radio event in Beverly Hills, encouraged competition between the two companies and his top lieutenants, CBS CEO Leslie Moonves and the new Viacom CEO Tom Freston. Whether in television, film or elsewhere, Redstone acknowledged there could be substantial crossover. And on the subject of companies splitting, Redstone said he expects to see more ahead. “As I've said before, the age of the conglomerate is over. I've also said, as some of my friends know, divorce is sometimes better than marriage. Not every company has the assets to divide as we did, so it will depend on the nature of the company. More divorces are coming.” Redstone also spoke about courting the Hispanic market, which he says they will do via current assets as opposed to acquisition. “We did bid on Telemundo, and we were outbid, fortunately, because they are losing money,” he said. “We have talked to Univision many times. But today we couldn't buy Univision for a number of reasons, both technical and otherwise. So our strategy is simple: Do it with our own networks.” http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6298754?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers) * Redstone Still Covets CNN http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6298786?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

BUY NEWSPAPERS [SOURCE: MarketWatch, AUTHOR: Thomas Kostigen] Newspapers, despite all the commentary and seeming evidence to the contrary, are good investments. They are the biggest purveyors and producers of content, and their profit margins are big. Newspapers have profit margins that average between 20% and 30%. A report by the Newspaper Association of America points out that those numbers are "a bit less than Microsoft and Dell but higher even than pharmaceuticals." This is important to remember as people get inundated by the fanfare that the Internet is the future of growth and the slayer of all things print. Online news outlets are mature enough to be called distinct and separate businesses. Newspapers are still relevant, indeed even resilient. Wrappers aside, newspapers may even be fueled by the rise of technology. As George Soros may exemplify in his rumored purchase of the Dreamworks movie library -- and as Yahoo and Google are announcing with their news and entertainment alliances -- content reigns king. Newspapers aren't yet valued on their archives, essentially libraries of their articles, or on the prospects of their earnings streams. These could be giant assets whose potential will be borne out by what we're seeing now as models at The New York Times and ESPN.com -- paid-for premium content. If Google believes it can garner income from people willing to pay for second-run television shows shown on their PCs or hand-held devices, is it so far-fetched to believe people will pay for articles, columns and special reports? http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid={0B759CFE-DBAA-4E8B-B762-814A3ACF798C

BIG MEDIA AND THE 'HOLY' GRAIL [SOURCE: CNN|Money, AUTHOR: Paul R. La Monica] [Commentary] Sure, sex and violence still sell in mainstream media. But increasingly, people want to see more than just scantily clad women and loud explosions. They want to find religion. http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/11/commentary/mediabiz/index.htm

MOST ONLINE BUYERS HAPPY, SURVEY SAY [SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Lorrie Grant] Online retail spending from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31 totaled $19.6 billion, a 25% surge from $15.7 billion the same period in 2004, according to ComScore Networks. It estimates that non-travel online sales now account for 6% of retail spending, excluding cars, gasoline and food. For the year, Internet spending rose 22% to $143.2 billion. And websites satisfied about three-quarters of online buyers. http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20060112/net_satisfaction12.art.htm

A NEW COLOR IN BRAZIL TV [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Henry Chu] Blacks make up nearly half the population, but they were a rarity on screen. Now there's a channel for them -- one critics decry as racist. By singling out blacks as its target audience and insisting on putting nonwhite faces before the camera as presenters and protagonists, TV da Gente contributes to racial division in Brazil, detractors contend. "If I put a 'TV for whites' on air, I'd have a thousand lawsuits on my back," read a typical posting on one of several blogs and cyber-forums debating the merits of TV da Gente, which airs on a UHF channel. "I'm white; I'm not racist in any way. But I will not watch a single program on this channel because it's practicing explicit racism." The channel's founder and principal backer, Jose de Paula Neto, is disturbed by such reactions. http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fg-blacktv12jan12,0,7073583.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage (requires registration)

JAPAN EYES MEDIA AND TELECOMS REFORMS [SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Michiyo Nakamoto] Japan needs to reform outdated business practices and revamp regulation in the telecoms and media industries if it is to regain its edge in these markets, according to Heizo Takenaka, Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications and architect of the privatization of Japan’s postal system. Mr Takenaka has now asked a special taskforce to develop recommendations on reforming business practices and regulation by the end of June. He believes outmoded business practices, vested interests and regulatory obstacles are preventing the full development of goods and services that take advantage of new technology and the Internet. In some areas of Japan people still have only a few terrestrial TV channels, even though available broadband technology would allow them to receive more. http://news.ft.com/cms/s/df877fb0-82c8-11da-ac1f-0000779e2340.html (requires subscription)

DOLLAR-PER-PIXEL AD SITE NETS STUDENT $1 MILLION [SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: James Fontanella] An inspired idea to host micro-advertisements on a single web-page turned a cash-strapped student into a millionaire in under six months. The site, which started out as blank space divided into 10x10 pixel squares, was picked up by bloggers and transformed into an Internet advertising phenomenon. On Wednesday Alex Tew, a 21-year-old entrepreneur, sold the final 1,000 pixels on his site for $38,100 on eBay auction -- a handsome increase on the starting price of $1,000 -- reaching his goal of earning a million dollars. Tew created milliondollarhomepage.com in August 2005 to cover his fees for a course in business management. Mr Tew’s initial investment was £50 to buy web space and a domain name. He divided the blank homepage into 10,000 squares of 100 pixels each. Each pixel was worth $1, minimum purchase: $100. The “million dollar homepage” expanded without an established brand name or target audience. The site went live on August 26, 2005, and three days later Mr Tew sold his first 400 pixels. Through word of mouth, chain e-mails and ever-growing media coverage, the website built a name for itself and gained popularity and interest from web surfers. Within a month Mr Tew had earned some £20,000 ($37,000) – “enough pixels to cover the entire cost of my forthcoming three years at university,” Mr Tew said. http://news.ft.com/cms/s/d4edefe0-82ae-11da-ac1f-0000779e2340.html (requires subscription)

SO WHAT... ABOUT COPYRIGHT The Empowering Creators Project, sponsored by Public Knowledge, has released the primer: “So What … About Copyright?”. The primer, in plain and accessible language, provides the creator with an overview of copyright law — from a historic understanding of copyright law as conceived by the Framers of the U.S. Constitution to current policy issues that may affect you, as an artist, and your work. “So What … About Copyright?” is a series of essays written with the artist in mind. This book presents the basics on copyright, trademark, fair use, and the public domain. Chapters for filmmakers, visual artists, and writers explain how creators can best understand, benefit from, and follow copyright and trademark laws. http://www.publicknowledge.org/resources/artists/so-what-about-copyright The primer is also available online.

Jan 11: INTERNET, INTERRUPTED [SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff] [Commentary] Telephone companies in the US that provide broadband Internet connections are starting to tread on dangerous ground. They are mooting charging companies that provide Internet services such as telephony and video-downloading fees to ensure a speedy and high-quality connection. The phone companies such as BellSouth and Verizon Communications say it is expensive to build networks, such as Verizon's new fibre-optic connection to homes and offices, and they need to recoup their investment. They also say that some services - notably online gaming and video - take up a lot of bandwidth and capacity. There are a couple of obvious flaws in the phone companies' case. One is that they are already being paid by customers to provide the network connection. The second flaw is the idea that network capacity is hugely limited. The speed of Internet connections, not only in the US but in other countries, has been rising and advances in technology will ensure that this continues. Phone companies have already been stopped by the Federal Communications Commission from crudely blocking services that do not suit them. The phone companies are now taking a second run, in a subtler manner, by proposing to provide a fast-lane for those who pay. That approach would be unfortunate even if there were free competition among broadband providers. At least consumers could then select a provider that offered open access. But, in practice, most people at best have a choice between a DSL and a cable Internet connection. The FCC, and other communications regulators, should ensure that utilities do not distort Internet services for their own ends. http://news.ft.com/cms/s/9073a884-8248-11da-aea0-0000779e2340.html (requires subscription) * Quest's Quest to Limit Users' Use of the Internet http://www.saschameinrath.com/node/279/print

FEW ARE BOOKING ADS ON 'THE BOOK OF DANIEL' [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Stuart Elliott] Many mainstream advertisers have long been skittish about television programs with plot lines deemed contentious or provocative. Still, the paucity of marketers buying commercial time during the debut of "The Book of Daniel" was particularly pronounced - despite lower prices for the spots, which reflected a week's worth of media attention devoted to complaints from the American Family Association about the contents of the program. The complaints led 5 of NBC's 232 affiliates to pre-empt the series last Friday; in one market, Little Rock, Ark., the local WB affiliate ran it instead. The series "touches on something that our society, and Madison Avenue, are not ready for," said Joe Mandese, editor of MediaPost, an online and print trade publication. "Religion is the ultimate taboo topic." NBC is hoping that the eyebrow-raising story lines of "The Book of Daniel" will appeal to younger, educated and affluent viewers who prefer their TV programs with an edge. It is part of efforts by NBC and the other big broadcast networks to make up for the viewers they have lost to cable networks that present more daring series. "Advertisers do have a history of taking a cautious approach to controversial shows," Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment, said in a telephone interview yesterday. "It's an age-old issue," Mr. Reilly said. "We want to run contemporary programming, and we want to create the best possible environment for advertisers. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/11/business/media/11adco.html (requires registration) * NBC's Book of Daniel Had Ad Shortfall http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001808690

ALL-NEWS CHANNELS ABROAD LOOK TO THEIR FUTURE IN ENGLISH [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Doreen Cavajal] All-news channels are launching around the world -- but in English. "Today news channels are part of the global battle in the world," said Ulysse Gosset who is helping to lead a project to create an all-news French channel this year. "It's as important as traditional diplomacy and economic strength. If we have a real desire to communicate around the world, we need to do it with the right medium, and that's English." Veteran television executives say the burst of all-news channels has been ignited by two critical forces: the falling cost of technology and television's power in the international marketplace. "Many communities want to have their voice in the global conversation," said Richard Sambrook, director of the BBC's World Service and global news division. Many all-news newcomers are drawing more inspiration from Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based bane of the Bush administration, which they say has created an influential global voice for Arabs that was missing until the channel appeared. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/11/arts/television/11engl.html (requires registration)

FUTURE OF TELEVISION IS SELF-SERVICE, P2P DISTRIBUTED MEDIA CONSUMPTION [SOURCE: MasterNewMedia Network News, AUTHOR: Robin Good] [Commentary] Today, 90% of people in the U.S. receive television signals into their homes via cable or satellite transmission. These media distribution services and, to a large extent, the content they distribute, are owned by a small and shrinking number of very large companies. However, as broadband access to the Internet becomes commonplace in the home and the cost of computing devices drops, there is potential for a new type of network to emerge that provides people with access to entertainment, information, and personal connections that could replace and improve upon some of the functions of television, while increasing connections to external communities. By utilizing design innovations that provide advantages over the entrenched providers and by keeping the desires of consumers in mind, this technology could become a compelling complement or alternative to the portfolios of services provided by traditional media distributors. Television as we know it is going to change dramatically in the coming months and years. What used to be the magnet creating a gathering point of people around the tube at specific times of the day, will radically change its communication and content delivery approach to assume many new ones. For those executives that come from the traditional broadcasting world I think one short motto I have used before sums up well what the future of television will be like: Prime Time Is Anytime and Anytime Is Prime Time. http://www.masternewmedia.org/television_media/television_future/future_television_as_self_service_distributed_media_20060105.htm

FREE TV WITH ADS TOPS PAID DOWNLOADS [SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Tom Steinert-Threlkeld] By more than a 3-1 margin, consumers would rather watch commercials than pay for TV shows and other programs they can download, according to the results of a survey to be released Wednesday by research firms Points North Group and Horowitz Associates. 62% of respondents would prefer to get a favorite TV show they might have missed with commercials, rather than paying $1.99 for the download. Only 17% said they would rather pay the $1.99. “It always surprises me when people say they are willing to see more advertising,” said Craig Leddy, a contributing analyst at Points North. But he added that consumers will be reluctant to pay for content they’re used to getting free-of-charge. http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6298430.html?display=Breaking+News (requires subscription)

Jan 10: THE LOBBYIST AND THE MEDIA [SOURCE: Miami Herald, AUTHOR: Edward Wasserman edward_wasserman@hotmail.com] [Commentary] Beneath the glare of high-stakes political corruption, the unfolding scandal of former lobbyist and current felon Jack Abramoff has a media angle too, which involves his low-light stable of secretly paid commentators. Media coverage, predictably, has focused almost exclusively on the writers who accepted Abramoff's money. But what about the newspapers that accepted their work? Do editors really believe that the $200 they pay for that sophisticated column defending the health-insurance industry actually covers the cost of the work the column required? Of course not. But it's, ''Don't ask, don't tell.'' They say nothing, because their work depends on this payola. But even with disclosure, the picture will be murky. If mainstream journalism and commentary become the work of professional wordsmiths who are perpetually on the hustle, the challenge to ethical journalism will be severe. The future of a practice that's dedicated, however imperfectly, to truth-seeking in the public interest and that tries to stay free of undisclosed personal entanglements and conflicts will be far from sure. http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/13581275.htm

THE FREEDOM TO BLOG [SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff] [Editorial] US companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo and Google have a responsibility to their shareholders to stand up for the profitable operation of their businesses in China. Trying to anticipate every concern of the propaganda ministry is no way to win long-term customers. Fighting for the right to conduct business fairly and reasonably is the mark of every Western company that has succeeded in China. US companies also have an obligation, as leaders in a global medium defined by open information, to protect basic rights of individuals to express themselves without censorship -- within reason. "Within reason" are the key words here. It is within reason for China to demand that U.S. companies comply with Chinese laws and regulations. What is not within reason is a Chinese demand for compliance with unwritten whims. http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-blogger10jan10,1,2104367.story?coll=la-news-comment (requires registration)

IRAQ'S 'PBS' ACCUSED OF SECTARIAN SLANT [SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Charles Levinson] Nearly 50 percent of Iraqis tune into Al Iraqiya, a state funded news channel. The country's leading network was founded in 2003 by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). Critics say that Iraq's version of America's Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has simply become a propaganda tool for the country's leading Shiite politicians. Al Iraqiya was meant to stand as a model for a burgeoning independent press, but seems to have instead become one more political spoil for its competing factions. An important battle has been brewing for much of the past year: the fight for control of Al Iraqiya - which according to a recent Ipsos Stat poll is Iraq's most watched network - and its umbrella company, the Iraqi Media Network (IMN). In addition to controlling Iraq's most-watched television station, IMN owns the country's leading daily newspaper, Al Sabbah, and a popular radio station. It was meant to be an independent media company protected from the country's political wrangling by a nine person board of governors. But many Iraqis say that hasn't happened. They view the IMN instead as one more sectarian battlefield in an increasingly divided country. Many, including the IMN's own board of governors, say top government officials have repeatedly interfered with its editorial decisions. Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, they say, effectively took control of the company after taking power last year. His office, they allege, worked to turn the IMN's various media outlets into mouthpieces for his policies and Dawa Party allies, hiring and firing editors, and directing editorial policy. (hey, if it works in America...) http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0110/p06s01-woiq.html

DIRECTV 'CLOSE TO WIRELESS STRATEGY' [SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Aline van Duyn] Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corp, said on Monday the group's DirecTV satellite television arm was close to deciding a strategy on how to enter the wireless high-speed Internet market, with a plan due within two months. Murdoch, whose company owns a controlling stake in DirecTV, said the satellite group could invest about $1 billion in a deal to provide Internet access, a two-way service which cannot be directly offered via satellite links. http://news.ft.com/cms/s/4b1f607c-813d-11da-8b55-0000779e2340.html (requires subscription)

CREATE AN E-ANNOYANCE, GO TO JAIL [SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Declan McCullagh] [Commentary] Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity. (Honest, as annoying as I am, I really am Kevin Taglang -- or so claim my parents.) The new law is part of the Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act. Criminal penalties include stiff fines and two years in prison. http://news.com.com/Create+an+e-annoyance%2C+go+to+jail/2010-1028_3-6022491.html?part=rss&tag=6022491&subj=news

iPODS AND HEARING LOSS [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jane Spencer jane.spencer@wsj.com] As use of portable MP3 music players soars, concerns are emerging that the gadgets may contribute to hearing damage. Some doctors say they are seeing younger and younger patients with signs of noise-induced hearing loss that wouldn't typically emerge before middle age. And they are worried that the constant use of MP3 players, which blare music directly into the ears, may be partly to blame. Similar concerns were raised when the first generation of portable music players, including Sony's Walkman, hit the market in the 1980s. But the latest portable stereos -- including Apple Computer's iPod -- can hold thousands of songs and have longer-lasting batteries than older players. As a result, people are listening to the devices for much longer periods of time. Because hearing damage is directly related to the duration of exposure -- not just the volume -- one concern is that the steady, long-term exposure to even moderately loud music could contribute to premature hearing loss. Roughly 38 million MP3 players were shipped to U.S. retailers in 2005 and an estimated 28% of the U.S. population owns a player. Apple controls about 70% of the MP3 player market. At peak levels iPods can hit volumes close to 115 decibels, research has found -- a level that falls somewhere between a chainsaw and jackhammer -- but all MP3 players pose an equal theoretical risk. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113685799723842312.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal (requires subscription)

Jan 10: PUBLIC RADIO LISTENERS WANT THEIR MONEY BACK [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Maria Aspan] When the public radio station in Detroit canceled some local music shows and replaced them with nationally syndicated talk and news programs, it probably expected some complaints from listeners. What it got was a lawsuit asking for their pledge money back. A group of listeners to WDET-FM in Detroit filed a class-action lawsuit against the station on Dec. 19, claiming fraud and breach of contract. The Detroit Free Press reported that seven plaintiffs filed for damages after contributing to the station's last on-air fund-raising pledge drive, which ended in October. Station managers announced the new schedule on Dec. 13. The listeners claim that they were tricked into contributing money for programs that the station already planned to cancel. "They took our money six weeks before they made the changes," said Dan Sordyl, a member of the committee for SaveDetroitRadio.com, a Web site started by disgruntled listeners after WDET's announcement. Mr. Sordyl says that he is trying to negotiate a compromise with WDET or Wayne State University, which owns the station. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/09/business/media/09radio.html?pagewanted=all (requires registration)

MARTIN STRESSES UNBLOCKED INTERNET [SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Tom Steinert-Threlkeld] Consumers should “have unfettered access to all [of] the Internet,” FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said Friday. “You can't have consumers being blocked” from individual services or parts of the Internet, Chairman Martin said in at the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show. His comments came as developers of new sites on the Web -- which increasingly make use of video and moving images, not just text and graphics -- expressed concern that their services might be regarded as competition to the multiple channels of service offered by cable and telephone companies on their TV networks. But Chairman Martin said he was “hesitant” about instigating a rule-making procedure at the FCC at this point, adding that he lacks evidence that content is being blocked. The Wall Street Journal Friday reported that large phone companies such as BellSouth hope to start charging Google Vonageand other Internet-content providers for high-quality delivery of music, movies and the like over their networks. The implication is that if they didn't pay up, their services might not be allowed to operate on those networks. When asked about the report, Chairman Martin said he did not know enough to comment usefully on it. He added that the FCC should look at setting a “baseline for access” to Internet content. In the meantime, he said, he will adopt a “wait-and-see” attitude on the issue. http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6297783.html?display=Breaking+News (requires subscription)

COMING SOON TO TV LAND: THE INTERNET, ACTUALLY [SOURCE: New York Times 1/7, AUTHOR: John Markoff] What would a world with television coming through the Internet be like? Instead of tuning into programs preset and determined by the broadcast network or cable or satellite TV provider, viewers would be able to search the Internet and choose from hundreds of thousands of programs sent to them from high-speed connections. At the International Consumer Electronics Show here this week, a future dominated by Internet Protocol TV, or IPTV, seemed possible, maybe even inevitable. Potentially, IPTV could replace the 100- or 500-channel world of the cable and satellite companies with millions of hybrid combinations that increasingly blend video, text from the Web, and even video-game-style interactivity. the advantage of IPTV is that it can potentially be deployed at lower cost than current cable television systems and can offer consumers features like the ability to record several programs simultaneously without having to add costly additional tuners. But critics charge that the telephone companies are intentionally crippling the Internet capabilities of their services to appear much like traditional closed cable offerings. "They're trying to construct their own separate world to keep their walled garden," said Robert Frankston, a personal computer industry pioneer and former Microsoft researcher. The growing tension has begun to show in the objections of existing D.S.L. and cable providers that are threatening to create surcharges for Internet content providers as well as the prospect of the deployment of a two-tiered Internet in which favored customers would in effect have special high-performance lanes reserved for their use. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/07/technology/07video.html?pagewanted=all (requires registration) * After long wait, line between PCs, TVs blurring http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-01-07T173605Z_01_WRI763311_RTRUKOC_0_US-ELECTRONICS-CONVERGENCE.xml&archived=False * Google to launch online video store http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-01-07T065140Z_01_KWA700640_RTRUKOC_0_US-ELECTRONICS-GOOGLE.xml * Yahoo expanding Web on TV, phones with Go service http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-01-07T020956Z_01_BAU647170_RTRUKOC_0_US-ELECTRONICS-YAHOO-GO.xml

CLEAR CHANNEL TIES VIDEOS TO ADS IN BIG WEB PUSH [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sarah McBride sarah.mcbride@wsj.com] Clear Channel's radio division is launching a service tomorrow that allows people to get free music videos streamed from the company's radio-station Web sites after watching a 15-second ad. The service draws on videos from Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group Corp., and others, and provides links for viewers to buy the music of the video they have just watched. The move signals Clear Channel Radio's continuing push into online content. In the past year, Clear Channel Radio Web sites have increased the number of unique visitors each month from five million to nine million. Clear Channel owns 1,200 radio stations. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113676610144541170.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription)

BUYING MUSIC FROM ANYWHERE AND SELLING IT FOR PLAY ON INTERNET [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Robert Levine] The Orchard is seeking to make money by purchasing music from small independent and foreign labels, and then distributing it to digital music services. In most music stores, CD's of, say, Chinese or Kenyan pop music would be consigned to the world-music bin as a good will gesture. But the economics of online stores is changing the financial calculations of the music business, making it profitable to sell a relatively small number of copies of a song, as long as a compact disc is not manufactured and distributed. So instead of trying to sell millions of copies of hundreds of albums, the standard music industry strategy, the Orchard hopes to sell hundreds of copies of thousands of albums. In that way, the company is anticipating that sales will follow a pattern known as "the long tail," in which a large number of only marginally popular items can eventually produce significant revenue. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/09/technology/09orchard.html?pagewanted=all (requires registration)

Jan 7: BUSH: ARABIC TV GIVES FALSE IMPRESSION OF US [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Sue Pleming] President George W. Bush complained on Thursday that Arabic television often gave a false impression of the United States, saying Americans needed to do a better job of communicating their ideals. "You can't figure out America when you're looking on some of these TV stations -- you just can't -- particularly given the message that they spread," he said. "Arabic TV does not do our country justice." "They ... sometimes put out propaganda that just isn't right, it isn't fair, and it doesn't give people the impression of what we're about." http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2006-01-06T101115Z_01_KWA601414_RTRUKOC_0_US-BUSH-LANGUAGES.xml&archived=False

PHONE COMPANIES SET OFF A BATTLE OVER INTERNET FEES [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Dionne Searcey dionne.searcey@wsj.com and Amy Schatz] The phone companies envision a system whereby Internet companies would agree to pay a fee for their content to receive priority treatment as it moves across increasingly crowded networks. Those that don't pay the fee would find their transactions with Internet users -- for games, movies and software downloads, for example -- moving across networks at the normal but comparatively slower pace. Consumers could benefit through faster access to content from companies that agree to pay the fees. The size and structure of the fee systems remain to be worked out, and the regulatory implications aren't clear. But already, the phone companies are meeting heavy resistance from companies that say making them pay for priority delivery of their content amounts to holding them ransom, thus hurting competition and, ultimately, the consumer. The looming battle between phone companies and Internet content providers has parallels with the fight between local and long-distance phone companies of the 1990s, when upstarts sought free access to the regional phone companies' networks. Until recently, phone companies were required to treat all data sent across their high-speed networks equally and without discrimination. But last year, a Supreme Court decision cemented the FCC's authority to decide the rules for broadband Internet lines. The agency promptly deregulated Internet services, dropping rules that prevented the type of pricing plans now being proposed. Critics of these ideas say that smaller Internet companies will be squeezed out of being able to offer their products at all. "They want to radically change the way they sell telecommunications service," said Mark Cooper, research director of the Washington-based Consumer Federation of America. "We're afraid that they're simply going to pick and choose who's going to win and lose." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113651664929039412.html?mod=todays_us_page_one (requires subscription)

MICROSOFT DEFENDS CENSORING A DISSIDENT'S BLOG IN CHINA [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Kathy Chen kathy.chen@wsj.com and Geoffrey A. Fowler] Microsoft's MSN Spaces, which lets users create their own Web sites or Web logs, has shut down a popular Chinese-language blog that has published content potentially offensive to Chinese authorities, amid China's ongoing efforts to control information on the Internet. The site had criticized the government's firing of top editors at a progressive Beijing newspaper late last month. Efforts to access the site from inside and outside China trigger a notice that "the space is temporarily unavailable." A statement from the company said: "MSN is committed to ensuring that products and services comply with global and local laws, norms, and industry practices in China. Most countries have laws and practices that require companies providing online services to make the Internet safe for local users. Occasionally, as in China, local laws and practices require consideration of unique elements." Microsoft declined to provide further details on why it took this action. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113646995897338592.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription) * Microsoft Shuts Blog's Site After Complaints by Beijing http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/06/technology/06blog.html?pagewanted=all * Chinese bloggers take political satire offline http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-01-06T111121Z_01_ROB637424_RTRUKOC_0_US-ARTS-CHINA-BLOGGER.xml

Jan 5: GOVERNMENT WEB SITES FOLLOW VISITORS' MOVEMENTS [SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Declan McCullagh and Anne Broache] Dozens of federal agencies are tracking visits to U.S. government Web sites in violation of long-standing rules designed to protect online privacy. From the Air Force to the Treasury Department, government agencies are using either "Web bugs" or permanent cookies to monitor their visitors' behavior, even though federal law restricts the practice. The practice of tracking Web visitors came under fire last week when the National Security Agency was found to use permanent cookies to monitor visitors, a practice it halted after inquiries from the Associated Press. The White House also was criticized last week for employing WebTrends' tracking mechanism that used a tiny GIF image. http://news.com.com/Government+Web+sites+follow+visitors+movements/2100-1028_3-6018702.html?tag=nefd.lede

GATES SEES 2006 AS THE YEAR FOR 'THE DIGITAL LIFESTYLE' [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Mike Musgrove and Arshad Mohammed] Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates outlined his vision for the future of consumer technology in a major speech Wednesday night at the International Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas as he unveiled an array of new products aimed at the growing appetite for digital entertainment. During his speech, Gates painted a picture of a digital world in which many devices, including cell phones, computers and televisions, seamlessly complement one another. He demonstrated a computerized wall easel for the home that can show television images, keep track of family members and interact with an office computer. He also showed a phone that can make calls over standard phone lines and calls using voice over Internet protocol technology. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/04/AR2006010401941.html (requires registration) * Tech Show Has Eye on High-Def TVs, IPod http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-ces5jan05,1,4415355.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business (requires registration)

IS PBS.ORG READY TO EARN ITS KEEP? [SOURCE: Current, AUTHOR: Louis Barbash] Despite successes in its first 10 years, PBS's award-winning website has seen its budget and staff shrink, prompting new network plans to bring back online advertising and begin charging for video downloading. Does this violate public TV's "noncommercial nature" and "universal service?" http://www.current.org/web/web0520pbsdotorg.shtml * Podcasts: For free or not for free? http://www.current.org/web/web0523podcasts.shtml * It's time to become more than a radio station http://www.current.org/radio/radio0517serviceexpansion.shtml

WASHINGTON POST TO LAUNCH RADIO STATION [SOURCE: Associated Press] Washington Post Co. said Wednesday it is launching a new radio news station that will begin broadcasting in the nation's capital in March, saying the move could boost interest in its flagship newspaper. The radio station is a joint project with Bonneville International Corp., a Salt Lake City-based media firm that owns radio stations around the United States. Washington Post Radio will draw on content from the Post, with the paper's editors, reporters and columnists providing more context on their reporting. The station will also broadcast news and commentary from journalists and others outside the Post. http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060104/washington_post_radio.html * Z-104 Silenced; Post Radio To Debut in Station Shuffle http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/04/AR2006010400849.html (requires registration)

IS IT TIME TO CUT YOUR LANDLINE FOR GOOD? [SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Tom Regan] [Commentary] According to a Harris Interactive Technology Research poll taken last spring, 9 percent of Americans have already switched from landlines to cellphones, another 5 percent were considering it within the next year, and a whopping 47 percent of Americans had given the idea some thought. Last summer the FCC released a report showing that the number of cellphones in the United States had surpassed the number of landlines - 181.1 million cellphones versus 177.9 million landlines. But landlines don't have batteries that run out and never need to be recharged in the middle of a call (unless you're using a cordless phone). The way most landline agreements work, it's pretty hard to "go over your minutes" and get billed extra. Some users find their cellphones have poor reception. And emergency responders may not know where you are when you call 911 on a cell phone. Respondents in the Harris Interactive Poll also cited two other reasons for not switching to mobile phones only: the need for Internet access (high speed DSL service or dial-up) and lack of plans with good pricing. The reality is that for now, most people see cellphones as a realistic choice as the "second phone" in the house, or for a small business. Even people who only use cellphones for voice conversations might get a basic landline for Internet access or as a fax line. But even if you want a landline, there is an increasingly common way to get that line -- Voice over Internet (VoIP). http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0104/p17s01-coop.html

UK CITIES TO GET BLANKET WI-FI COVERAGE [SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Andy McCue] The United Kingdom has unveiled plans for citywide Wi-Fi networks that will give residents in nine cities high-speed wireless Internet access from laptops, PDAs and mobile phones. The first phase of the project, due to be completed by March 2006, will see citywide Wi-Fi hot spots rolled out in Birmingham, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham and Oxford, along with the London boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea, Camden and Islington. The networks are being built by European wireless provider The Cloud. They will be open to any Internet service provider that wants to offer services. Blanket wireless coverage will be provided in the cities through Wi-Fi equipment fitted on lampposts and street signs. People who want to use the wireless network will pay one of the ISPs for access, and revenues will be split between The Cloud, the local council and the ISPs. http://news.com.com/U.K.+cities+to+get+blanket+Wi-Fi+coverage/2100-7351_3-6016122.html?tag=nefd.top

THE MEDIA INDUSTRY IN AN INTERNET AGE [SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff] [Commentary] Music companies, television and radio networks, newspapers and magazines are all facing upheaval as the Internet changes how people receive information and entertainment. The producers of content - everything from news to soap operas - are losing their grip on distribution. The Internet has become a vast network for the free distribution of all kinds of content. You no longer to need buy a newspaper to read news or switch on the radio to hear a radio broadcast. The lone voice of the town cryer has given way to the babble of broadband networks. This creates a host of challenges for those that have made a business from selling content through tightly controlled distribution networks. Not only must they find a way to adapt what they do to a more open world, but new competitors are springing up, from small companies to individuals with their weblogs and podcasts. The first lesson is that it is useless to resist. There is a second lesson in the music industry: that upheaval does not simply mean destruction. The fact that distribution is becoming more open does not eliminate the value of good content. Whether they pay by watching advertisements or subscribing, people will still seek out interesting and original news and entertainment. Some of it will come to them in new forms, from blogs and other "user-generated content", but plenty will be researched, scripted and edited in the traditional way. There will be more competition and uncertainty in the new world but some things will be the same. http://news.ft.com/cms/s/991e65a0-7cc6-11da-936a-0000779e2340.html (requires subscription)

MOVIES MAY HIT DVD, CABLE SIMULTANEOUSLY [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sarah McBride sarah.mcbride@wsj.com, Peter Grant and Merissa Marr ] Cable companies and major studios are discussing strategies to release movies through video-on-demand cable services the same day they come out on DVD. Although the talks have been in progress for several months without an agreement, people familiar with the matter say some studios could do a trial run of the strategy early this year. Such a move would mark a major shift in the way Hollywood distributes movies -- and demonstrate how eager studios are to boost sales and cater to tech-savvy consumers. Historically, movie studios have staggered distribution points -- called "windows" in the industry -- to maximize revenue. A movie is generally released first to theaters, then several months later on DVD. Weeks or months after that, the movie is released through video-on-demand and on other platforms, with pay-per-view and regular television release coming last. Now, declining box-office figures and slower growth in DVD sales, along with the emergence of new technology, have prompted talk of collapsing or eliminating the traditional windows. The idea raises many complex questions, from pricing to piracy prevention. And studios need to weigh whether releasing movies earlier to video-on-demand would cut into DVD sales. But on balance, studios and cable operators hope that they will make more money if they give consumers quicker access to movies they want, in the form they want them. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113634253382637201.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription)

ELECTRONICS SHOW MOVES BEYOND GADGETS [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Mike Musgrove] Although it has been traditionally about the latest gadget, the International Consumer Electronics Show, which opens this week in Las Vegas, is adapting to a world in which technology is about more than just the device. What's equally important is the data -- whether it's streaming music or digital photos -- and the means through which we get that data, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and digital broadcasts. In some ways, it's a new show -- grabbing, for the first time, the undivided attention of those who have nothing to do with the gadgets but play influential roles in the future of the industry. CES doesn't reveal what's next for consumers as much as it gives techies a chance to showcase what they hope will be the next ground-breaking, life-changing technology. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/01/AR2006010100880.html (requires registration)

STUDY SHOWS LOCAL OWNERSHIP MAKES DIFFERENCE IN TV NEWS [SOURCE: Muskogee (OK) Daily Phoenix, AUTHOR: Cathy Spaulding] Corporate or local control of a city's television station can make a difference in what viewers see, a team of Northeastern State University professors said. In a paper, "Chain versus Local Ownership: Toward an investment Model of News Quality," communication professors David K. Scott and Mike Chanslor examined the quality of television news offered by three Tulsa stations. The paper argues that because local news could be expensive to produce, some news organizations could use generic video feeds or stories produced by the station's parent chain that Scott and Chanslor contend have "little to no local news value." "The results of this research offer support to critics who voice concern over the effects of increased concentration of ownership," Chanslor said. "In this case, the effects of large corporate ownership on local news detrimentally impact the FCC's public policy goal of localism, news that is part of the vital function of the press." http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051226/NEWS01/51226002/1002

DIGITAL DIVIDE WIDENS EVEN MORE [SOURCE: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, AUTHOR: Rev. Mark McCleary, National Black Church Initiative's Minister Alliance] [Commentary] If the Bell telephone monopolies get their way, only a very few will ever experience the true promise of the 21st century's digital age. The giant telephone monopolies -- AT&T, Verizon, BellSouth and Qwest -- have launched an unprecedented push to effectively eliminate the only non-discrimination provision in federal law that prohibits redlining by any telecom company providing "video services." They ask legislators to bless a dubious business plan to bring their new TV services only to wealthy neighborhoods. The Bells argue they don't have the resources to comply with the non-discrimination provisions, which would require a far more ambitious build-out of fiber networks than they seem prepared to undertake. They claim local governments are too pesky, that negotiating local franchise agreements with them is unreasonably bureaucratic. The Bells earned five times the revenues as did the cable companies. Further, the telephone networks were built with decades of government subsidies. Their sheepish claim they should be held to a lower standard than the cable industry, which never had such government handouts, doesn't meet the laugh test. Further, Congress changed the laws in 1996 to invite Bell entry into the cable industry. Since then, the Bells have obtained local franchise agreements in California, Virginia, Florida, Utah and Texas -- a fact that debunks their complaint about local bureaucracy. When it comes to entry into the cable industry, the only one standing in the way of the telephone companies are the telephone companies themselves. America ranks 16th among industrialized nations in broadband deployment and our digital divide threatens to become a digital gulf. Rather than moving us to the "future ... faster," as its advertising campaign promises, the Bell cartel seems intent on moving us backward to a 19th-century reality where communications services are available only to the aristocratic class. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/253125_digitaldivide23.html

BROKEBACK MEDIA [SOURCE: AlterNet, AUTHOR: Danny Schechter, MediaChannel.org] [Commentary] The State of the Media 2005 report published earlier in the year read: "The traditional press model -- the journalism of verification -- is one in which journalists are concerned first with trying to substantiate facts. It has ceded ground for years on talk shows and cable to a new journalism of assertion, where information is offered with little time and little attempt to independently verify its veracity." What can be done about this? The same Pew Research Center study suggested: "To adapt, journalism may have to move in the direction of making its work more transparent and more expert, and of widening the scope of its searchlight. Journalists aspire in the new landscape to be the one source that can best help citizens discover what to believe and what to disbelieve -- a shift from the role of gatekeeper to that of authenticator or referee. To do that, however, it appears news organizations may have to make some significant changes. They may have to document their reporting process more openly so that audiences can decide for themselves whether to trust it. Doing so would help inoculate their work from the rapid citizen review that increasingly will occur online and elsewhere." http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/30331/

ANOTHER COMMUNICATION IS POSSIBLE [SOURCE: Center for International Media Action, AUTHOR: Hilmi Toros] "Another Communication is Possible" -- one that treats information as a right rather than merchandise, breaks up media concentration and hob-knobbing between owners and government. But can they be realized in a world in which information moving with astonishing speed is "packaged" by media moguls almost anywhere? With a handful of media groups controlling what people in many lands will read, hear or see, the world is suffering from "information insecurity," says Ignacio Ramonet, President of Media Global Watch. According to Andrew Calabrese of the University of Colorado, deregulation in the United States, leading to bigger concentration of media ownership, also ushered a quid pro quo relationship between media tycoons and the government. Media bosses discourage dissent from the US policy in Iraq for fear offending a government that, in turn, helps big media owners get even bigger. "There is nothing genetically inferior with Americans," he quips, "except the quality of oxygen they breathe in information clouds their minds." As to how best to fight news domination by the few, Giulietto Chiesa, now a European Parliament Deputy and also a veteran writer for the Italian daily La Stampa, sees opportunities. One is forming an alliance with prominent personalities in the entertainment world and literature, and recruiting them for the fight against information concentration and manipulation. http://www.mediaactioncenter.org/?q=node/575

Jan 4: THE NEW DEAL [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Ben Grossman] Last year, the TV industry discovered a variety of new ways to deliver their shows - on iPods, on video phones, even online. This year, they vow to figure out how to make money off of them. Programmers thrive when new distribution pipes open, but some TV executives cutting the deals say they are making it up as they go along. While it is still unclear whether consumers will pay to watch TV on a small screen, executives are already struggling to construct the proper template to make big profits if they do. With each new announcement, many say privately they fear being left behind. When Apple and ABC set the market by announcing their $1.99-per-download deal last October, it set off a flurry of number crunching, as broadcast networks and studios tried to come up with the right set of rules to make money. Now dealmakers are desperately trying to value everything from cellphone clips of 24 to old episodes of Adam 12. Some of these executives still quietly maintain that last year's announcements amount to little more than hype. TV executives say that, in the coming year, several business trends will emerge as guides for these new deals: 1) There's not much revenue yet from selling TV content to small screen (cell phone, portable media players) consumers. 2) The ability for consumers to buy on-demand, download and own both new and classic television shows could signal a challenge ahead for the red-hot TV-on-DVD market. 3) More hits will be available as copyright issues are settled. 4) As technology evolves ever more rapidly, one of the biggest challenges for TV programmers will be getting different divisions of the company on the same page. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6295747?display=Feature&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

WATCHING THE WEB ON TV [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Peter Grant peter.grant@wsj.com and Don Clark] As the Consumer Electronics Show begins in Las Vegas this week, the buzz is about Internet-delivered video services. The past year has seen an explosion of video content on the Internet as major entertainment companies have begun making thousands of hours of sports, music videos, movies, news and other programs available on the Web. While cable and satellite TV services offer hundreds of channels and up to thousands of video-on-demand choices, the amount of content available on the Web is virtually limitless. For consumers, this could mean instant access to hard-to-find content, such as films in foreign languages and old TV shows, as well as on-demand episodes of prime-time fare that networks like NBC have started to make available. Starz is set to announce today an Internet-based movie subscription service that will offer users unlimited access to more than 1,000 movies and other programs for $9.99 a month. While cable companies now make billions by selling high-speed Internet connections, TV on the Web could threaten their traditional role as middlemen between viewers and programmers. They haven't rushed to offer set-top boxes, for example, that combine their conventional menu of scheduled programming with access to the broader Internet. Leading the Internet TV charge, rather, are computer-industry players like Microsoft, Cisco and Intel, which have long been trying to muscle into the living room. To be sure, it will be a long time before viewers can sit on their couches and easily watch any piece of Internet video on their TVs. Some service providers plan to follow the lead of cable and satellite operators, cutting deals with content owners to offer only a selection of Web-based programs rather than opening up the TV to the Internet. "What you are going to see in the near future is just another walled garden," predicts Saul Berman, a global partner in IBM's media-and-entertainment consulting business. "It's not true Internet TV." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113626174309436225.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription) * DISNEY APPLIES ESPN MODEL TO BROADBAND STRATEGY [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Gina Keating] For years ESPN has thrived as one of the most lucrative franchises on cable TV, commanding high license fees for the loyal viewers who expect to see the sports network in their basic subscription packages. In addition to its splashy deal to provide existing TV shows for Apple's online iTunes store, Disney has been quietly striking deals with Internet service providers to deliver new programing as part of a basic broadband package. http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2005-12-31T032346Z_01_FOR103089_RTRUKOC_0_US-DISNEY.xml * Provider of TV Movie Channels Looks to Expand to PC's and Video Players http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/03/business/media/03starz.html (requires registration) * Portable video expected to take center stage http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20060103/1b_video03.art.htm

VIEWERS SHOULD BE ABLE TO PICK CHANNELS THEY PAY FOR [SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff] [Commentary] Last month, newspaper business pages reported what they've been reporting almost every December: Cable television prices are set to go up again this year at a rate that outpaces inflation. Add the fact that consumers are forced to sign up for large blocks of channels, many of which they'll never watch, and you can see why cable TV subscribers may be feeling grumpy. It's not surprising then that the idea of forcing cable companies. Telephone companies and Internet services are poised to start competing with cable TV's quasi-monopoly with new options such as a la carte menus, video on demand and pay-per-download offers. But unless networks are willing to break up their blocks of channels, the newcomers may be unable to experiment with new models. That would be a shame. After all, the new video technologies were supposed to be all about delivering compelling new choices to TV viewers. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/13535465.htm

AS 30-SECOND SPOT FADES, WHAT ADVERTISERS WILL DO NEXT [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Brian Steinberg at brian.steinberg@wsj.com and Suzanne Vranica] It finally sank in on Madison Avenue in 2005 that the 30-second commercial is fading as a means of hawking products and services. Audiences are splintering off in dozens of directions, watching TV shows on iPods, watching movies on videogame players and listening to radio on the Internet. All these activities cut out the usual forms of sponsorship and take place when and where consumers -- not media executives -- choose. The upshot is that any advertiser with an urgent message needs to start planning now to reach consumers in new and unexpected ways. Some already have. Here are some of the strategies more advertisers will be trying in the coming year: 1) advertising everywhere, 2) mobile devices such as cellphones and video iPods are fast emerging as new ad vehicles, 3) advertisers seeking to market new TV shows, movies and songs are exploring other media, 4) marketers have become obsessed with finding ordinary people to endorse, criticize or simply spread the word about new movies and new products on blogs or other consumer-created media, and 5) going well beyond buying a single TV spot or ad page in a magazine, advertisers want ideas that bind their messages inextricably with the media outlets they choose. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113624334456335918.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription) * When Product Placement Goes Too Far [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Joe Mandese] Product placement sometimes goes too far and violates the unspoken trust the media, advertisers and agencies have with consumers. But at least one advertising executive believes branded entertainment will ultimately transform the way Madison Avenue does business. While the debate over branded entertainment is swirling within television circles, it's heating up in other media, too. It's particularly controversial in the print medium, where rigid editorial content policies appear to be easing up as marketers and agencies pressure publishers to mix branded mentions into their stories. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6295746?display=Advertising&referral=SUPP (free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers) CHINA RATCHETS UP CONTROL ON EXPRESSION [SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Robert Marquand] Beijing is policing speech and expression more closely. In the past year, the Communist party initiated the broadest ideological education campaign in a decade. In part, that campaign discourages liberality and freedom of expression. The official news service Xinhua this week, in fact, selected this party campaign as its No. 1 story of 2005, calling it "a massive political and ideological education drive among more than 68 million CPC members to maintain their moral and socialist ethical superiority, a new, great project to promote Party construction." As a result, in the past year "public intellectuals" that spoke out on social welfare or the environment have been curbed from doing so in state media. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0103/p06s01-woap.html

MEN WANT FACTS, WOMEN SEEK RELATIONS ON WEB [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Eric Auchard] A study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project finds that Internet users share many common interests, but men are heavier consumers of news, stocks, sports and pornography while more women look for health and religious guidance. Men log on more frequently and spend more time online. More men also have access to quick broadband connections than do women. Women are heavier users of e-mail, often going beyond the matter-of-fact responses of male correspondents to use e-mail to share stories, solve issues and reach out to a wider network of friends and family. http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2005-12-29T133052Z_01_SPI914926_RTRUKOC_0_US-INTERNET-GENDER.xml&archived=False * How Women and Men Use the Internet http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/171/report_display.asp

THE FAILURES OF POST-9/11 MEDIA [SOURCE: AlterNet, AUTHOR: Laura Barcella] A new book asks America's top journalists for insights on why post-9/11, pre-Iraq War news coverage was so shoddy. http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/29833/

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Communications-Related Headlines are compiled, summarized and edited by Rachel Anderson (rachel@benton.org), Andy Carvin (andy@benton.org) and Charles Meisch (charlie@benton.org) of the Benton Foundation -- we welcome your feedback. Based in Washington DC, the Benton Foundation's mission is to articulate a public interest vision for the digital age and demonstrate the value of communications for solving social problems. Other projects at Benton include:
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