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Postings on media issues from Benton.org (most recent at top) April 2006 (April 28) ECONOMIST DEBUNKS 'NET NEUTRALITY' ISSUE [SOURCE: KSBI-TV Oklahoma] John Rutledge of Rutledge Capital warns "Network neutrality is a contrived issue that would push American telecommunications back towards the stifling regulatory climate it's been trying to escape for 20 years." "Lobbyists for the big on-line service companies not only want Congress to set price controls in advance, but they are wrapping their self-interest in the flag of network neutrality and making the ridiculous claim that they want to protect affordable Internet service for everyone," said Rutledge. He said affordable consumer Internet service, especially consumer broadband, can be best assured by continued investment in networks that bring super high-speed fiber connections direct to homes and small businesses. This will encourage more competition among phone companies, cable companies and other high-speed network operators. Rutledge warned that inclusion of network neutrality regulations in current legislation could discourage passage and if adopted, would discourage both investment and competition. "Every time this nation moves to promote free-market competition, it seems some special interest has come along to subvert the intent and sink consumer interests in the muddy waters of regulatory interpretation and special interest legislation," Rutledge said. "The net neutrality campaign is a continuation of that syndrome." http://www.ksbitv.com/technology/2704051.html US BROADBAND BOOMS, BUT IMPACTS LAG [SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Stephen Lawson] The number of Internet users in the U.S. has jumped since last year, but the Internet's impact on some aspects of users' lives hasn't grown that much since 2001, according to results of a survey published Wednesday. The Pew Internet & American Life Project survey shows that 73 percent of respondents are Internet users, up from 66 percent in a January 2005 survey. The results indicate 147 million adults use the Internet, up from 133 million at the time of the last survey. Broadband penetration in U.S. homes has grown even more. The share of users who have broadband at home is 42 percent, up from just 29 percent in January 2005. About 84 million U.S. residents have broadband at home, compared with about 59 million in the earlier study. However, other results of the survey indicate users aren't getting as much out of the Internet as the growth in users might suggest. In the latest survey, 35 percent of respondents said the Internet has greatly improved their ability to do their jobs. But since March 2001, that share hasn't grown by even half: In a survey at that time, 24 percent of the Internet users gave that response. Also since March 2001, the percentage of Internet users that say it has greatly improved the way they pursue hobbies and interests has grown to only 33 percent from 20 percent. Health Web sites have had even less impact: Whereas 17 percent of users in 2001 said the Internet has greatly improved the way they get information about health care, 20 percent said so in the latest survey. Shopping has had a bigger impact, but fewer than one-third of users find the Internet a big boon in that area. In the latest survey, 32 percent of users said it has greatly improved their ability to shop, up from 16 percent in March 2001. The resources and services available on the Web have exploded since 2001, but at the same time it's become harder to make an impression on users, said Mary Madden, a research specialist at Pew, in Washington, D.C. In March 2001, 57 percent of adults in the U.S. were online. http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/04/27/77846_HNbroadband_1.html * See the Pew study "Internet Penetration and Impact" http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/182/report_display.asp THE BBC'S RISKY GAME OF SPACE INVADERS [SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff] [Commentary] The BBC is right to consider how to contact and capture the millions of younger people who never - or hardly ever - watch television. Failure to do so would be an abdication. But the initiative merits caution, given its place among other expansionist moves. From plans for its commercial arm to create BBC.com, an advertising-supported website outside the UK, to the intention to provide some free video-on-demand for programmes, the BBC's Internet ambitions are outpacing its remit as a public broadcaster. The most immediate concern is that new plans are moving forward under an old system, where responsibilities lie with government ministers and the BBC governors. Further ahead there are two broader issues. The first is that the more BBC online services draw on personalized content from its users, the harder it will be to show how different these sites are from those of commercial media companies. The second relates to funding. The more the BBC's material is available without the need to possess a television set, the more obviously unfair it will become for its funding to come so heavily from those who do still use TV. The BBC can never be on equal terms with commercial broadcasters. This would be true even if public funding stopped tomorrow, since its archive and brand have been built up with a guaranteed income stream. This has enabled the BBC to take risks commercial broadcasters could not, often to public benefit. Over-reaching digital and Internet ambitions put that at risk. http://news.ft.com/cms/s/e051b590-d652-11da-8b3a-0000779e2340.html (requires subscription) HOMELAND SECURITY WILL EMBED REPORTERS [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton] Reporters will be embedded with the government during natural disasters, according to a plan outlined by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff at the Radio-Television News Directors Association convention in Las Vegas.Chertoff said that it is not a battleground so "we're not going to be censoring information." But he also said that he doesn't want "interference with our physical operations," according to RTNDA. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6328620?display=Breaking+News CALIFORNIA PUC OKs BROADBAND-OVER-POWER-LINES TEST [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Leonard Anderson] The California Public Utilities Commission approved a plan on Thursday allowing providers of high-speed Internet services to test electricity lines to deliver online access throughout the state. CPUC commissioner Rachelle Chong, who drafted the plan, said broadband over power lines, or BPL, could become a new competitor to Internet services delivered via telephone, cable and satellites and help reduce prices for consumers. http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-04-27T212159Z_01_N27428854_RTRUKOC_0_US-UTILITIES-BROADBAND-CALIFORNIA.xml * STATE REGULATORS CLEAR WAY FOR CONSUMERS TO ONE DAY GET BROADBAND OVER POWER LINES http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/14450201.htm * PUC Approves Power Lines for Net Access http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-puc28apr28,1,6866639.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business (April 27) WORLD'S DIGITAL DIVIDE IS NARROWING: STUDY [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Lucas van Grinsven] The digital divide is narrowing as citizens in emerging markets get online via computers and mobile phones, with some regions now on a par with developed nations, a ranking of Web-savvy nations showed on Wednesday. "Encouraging is the apparent narrowing of the digital divide," said the annual study published by U.S. computer company International Business Machines Corp. and the intelligence unit of British magazine The Economist. "This is particularly evident in basic connectivity: emerging markets are providing the vast majority of the world's new phone and Internet connections," the study found. Within China and India, regions such as Shanghai and Bangalore have almost the same level of Internet and mobile phone connections as developed nations, said Peter Korsten, European director at IBM's Institute for Business Value. The difference between the world's Web-savviest nation Denmark and the least "e-ready" country Azerbaijan remains nevertheless huge, with respective scores of 9.0 and 2.9 out of a possible 10. India and China, including their less developed provinces, scored 4.25 and 4.02, ranking No. 53 and 57 respectively. http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-04-26T043912Z_01_L25730482_RTRUKOC_0_US-INTERNET-READINESS.xml&archived=False DISNEY TO TEST NEW INTERACTIVE ADS ON ABC.COM [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Gina Keating] Walt Disney Co. will try a new type of advertising when it begins showing prime-time ABC television shows on the Web, using a single, interactive ad during each break rather than the flurry of short spots that are the norm on network TV. Each online episode will kick off with a 10-second sponsorship message from a single advertiser and will feature one commercial from that sponsor per commercial break. Commercials from each advertiser will cycle through an episode every time it is viewed online, meaning that different commercials could appear each time the show was watched online. Only three of the five commercial breaks built into episodes for broadcast television will be used in the online model. Viewers will have to watch or click through ads to get to the next segment of the program. The commercials were designed to last at least 30 seconds, but some feature interactive games, coupon offers or product information that may engage viewers longer. There is the option of clicking out of the advertisements and returning to the program after 30 seconds. http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-04-26T173123Z_01_N26128524_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEDIA-DISNEY-WEBADS.xml SHOULD OWNERS OF WEB SITES BE ANONYMOUS? [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: William M. Bulkeley bill.bulkeley@wsj.com] Whois is regulated by the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, usually called Icann, a nongovernmental organization based in Marina del Rey, Calif., that handles many vital Internet issues. Under Icann's current regulations, anyone who gets a Web site is supposed to list a name, phone number and address in Whois of a contact person to resolve both technical problems with a site and administrative issues. Earlier this month, at the urging of privacy advocates and over the opposition of major corporations, the Icann committee responsible for Whois voted 18-9 to restrict its listings solely to someone who can resolve technical "configuration" problems. That means a Web-hosting company could be listed without any link to the person who controls what appears on the site. After the committee makes recommendations on other aspects of the Whois rules, the full Icann board is expected to approve the reduced disclosure requirement. The dispute partly reflects the growth of the Internet from a communications network used by scientists and academics into a global river of commerce. The requirement for a name, phone number and street address came years before identity theft became a mainstream concern. Advocates of reduced information say that the original purpose was to make sure someone was available to fix Web-site problems that were interfering with the broader network, and the changes are consistent with the original goals of the Internet of permitting free-wheeling communications. Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, an advocacy group based in Washington, said "for privacy, this is a very good result," because bloggers and other individuals who operate their own Web sites will no longer need to fear stalkers or threats of lawsuits. However, law-enforcement agencies around the world and companies such as Microsoft Corp., Sony Corp., Walt Disney Co. and Time-Warner Inc. are criticizing the plan because they say they need the information now in Whois to combat financial fraud and trademark violation. With only the identity of a technical person, they say investigators won't be able to find a site's owner without filing a lawsuit and getting a subpoena. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114609925357637113.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription) MS GAUWEILER GUARDS US PHONE NETWORK FROM 'IDOL' THREAT [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Dionne Searcey at dionne.searcey@wsj.com ] Phone-call volume in the world is greater than ever before, and so is the risk that phone service will be strained beyond limits. Last year 380 million calls traveled over AT&T's network in the average 24-hour day. This year, that number has increased to 440 million. The network is built to handle 15% more than what AT&T engineers have determined to be typical volume. Ruth Gauweiler spends her days patrolling the Internet, TV news networks and newspapers, trying to spot man-made current events that could upset AT&T's phone-traffic flow. In the 10 years she has had the job, she has cultivated relationships with radio and TV stations so they alert AT&T when planning call-in contests or talk shows that could cause a spike in phone traffic. When she spots a potential problem, Ms. Gauweiler alerts the workers who manage capacity at AT&T. They can open up new channels in the network, the nation's biggest, to make room for an influx of calls and can even haul in extra equipment to add phone capacity on the spot. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114610182322237181.html?mod=todays_us_page_one (requires subscription) TV STATIONS STILL CAN'T RESIST PRE-PACKAGED VIDEO NEWS [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal 4/26, AUTHOR: Joe Flint joe.flint@wsj.com] Local television stations are again coming under fire from media watchdogs and the Federal Communications Commission for using so-called video news releases during their newscasts without full disclosure. A video news release, or VNR, is basically a press release in video form. Just as news organizations are inundated every day with press releases from government agencies, consumer groups and corporations, television stations receive the equivalent in video form. While there is nothing inherently wrong with reporting a story based on a press release, many television stations are using the VNRs alone in lieu of original reporting. What's more alarming, these stations are airing these videos without revealing the origin of the footage to viewers. "Viewers are accustomed to watching news programs with an uncritical eye and only put their filter on when commercials start. VNRs take full advantage of this tendency and do a direct attack," says Matthew Felling, a director of Center for Media and Public Affairs, a Washington, D.C., media watchdog group. The makers of VNRs say they aren't trying to deceive viewers and don't have a problem with disclosing their involvement or their clients. Douglas Simon, president of D S Simon Productions Inc., a public-relations firm whose clients have included Sony Corp., Panasonic and March of Dimes, says "disclosure is great from a client's perspective as it becomes another plug." http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114591217366434458-e7v3MOPfZ3SvlTL80M28KySEzos_20070425.html SHOULD LOCAL TV EMBRACE CONSUMER-CREATED CONTENT? [SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Hoag Levins] Local TV stations are missing a revolutionary opportunity by not buying into the consumer-created video-content craze, media analyst Tom Wolzien told last week's Television Bureau of Advertising conference. In his address to the annual marketing gathering, Mr. Wolzien emphasized the potential power of online business models organized around the use of amateur-generated video. He also asked, "Can consumer-created content posted by amateurs actually remain consumer-created content posted by amateurs? Or, if people start to realize that somebody's making money off of this, will the amateurs suddenly become people formerly known as amateurs?" That fact and the availability of low-cost, high-quality video cameras play heavily in Mr. Wolzien's vision for local TV stations as major players in the consumer-created content field. "There is the potential here to create the greatest local video-collection system ever known by using people with their cheap cameras ... Then moving that content through the Web -- with the best material going on to broadcast stations and the broadcast networks," he said. "It's surprising to me that so far nobody has built a system where they go into the middle schools and high schools to give cameras and cut deals to get the content out," he said. "They go to church groups and other types of civic organizations to build an infrastructure for video collection on a formalized basis." "The local broadcast industry has that capability," he said. http://adage.com/article.php?article_id=108806 MEDIA FIRMS WORK TO STAY AHEAD OF ONLINE CONSUMERS [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Gina Keating] Big media companies must keep finding ways to reach on-the-go users and make money doing it to stay relevant in an online marketplace that values convenience and novelty, the leaders of three of the largest U.S. media and tech companies said on Wednesday. In a wide-ranging discussion on tech trends at the Milken Institute's 9th Annual Global Conference, Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert Iger, News Corp Inc. President and Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin and AOL Chairman and Chief Executive Jonathan Miller agreed; standing still while Peter Eckart find ways -- legal or not -- to obtain the content he wants is not an option. http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-04-27T102959Z_01_N26345923_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEDIA-ONLINE.xml MURDOCH GROUP ATTACKS BBC WEB RELAUNCH [SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Emiko Terazono and Aline van Duyn ] Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate on Wednesday accused the British Broadcasting Corporation, the state broadcaster, of using taxpayers' money to build a "digital empire" that would compete with commercial rivals. Rival broadcasters have long complained that the BBC uses public money to fund programmes supplied by commercial operators, abandoning a public service remit in a chase for viewers. http://news.ft.com/cms/s/e02eca58-d558-11da-93bc-0000779e2340.html (requires subscription) (April 26) BILL SEEKS MUSIC ROYALTIES FOR SATELLITE DOWNLOADS [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Brooks Boliek] A bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced legislation that would require satellite radio companies to compensate the music industry for downloads. The legislation, by Senators Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and majority leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., is aimed at compensating copyright holders as satellite radio services become distribution services. The "PERFORM Act" or the "Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music Act of 2006" would require satellite, cable and Internet broadcasters to pay fair market value for the performance of digital music. Additionally, the bill would require the use of readily available and cost-effective technological means to prevent music theft. http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-04-26T042237Z_01_N25232621_RTRUKOC_0_US-SATELLITE.xml&archived=False (April 25) 'NET NEUTRALITY' DEBATE HEATS UP AS LAWMAKERS RETURN TO DC [SOURCE: Technology Daily, AUTHOR: Drew Clark] Leading Democrats, a more united technology community and the nonprofit sector are pushing for substantially new "network neutrality" language in House telecommunications legislation. The triple whammy of renewed opposition to the current bill is likely to complicate the drive by House Commerce Committee Joe Barton (R-TX) to win approval. His legislation is highly favored by Bell telephone companies seeking to quickly enter the pay-television market on a nationwide basis. It is scheduled for a Wednesday committee vote. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has scheduled a Tuesday meeting with panel Democrats, said Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) and industry sources. The meeting could signal that House Democrats may oppose Barton's legislation, which is co-sponsored by Rep Bobby Rush (D-IL). http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-ITZV1145903683299.html * The Players in the Fight for Internet Freedom http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/4/24/0579/25253 * The new politics starts with network neutrality http://www.michaelfraase.com/index.php/hasten/the_new_politics_starts_with_network_neutrality/ NEW GROUP AIMS TO 'SAVE THE INTERNET' [SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Anne Broache] Days before a congressional committee is set to vote on an overhaul of the nation's telecommunications policy, a broad coalition of media, consumer and Internet groups has organized behind a dramatic tagline: "Save the Internet." Dozens of organizations ranging from the conservative-to-libertarian Gun Owners of America to the liberal group Moveon.org to the American Library Association, have just launched a Web site under the "Save the Internet" banner. During a Monday press conference call, supporters of the newly minted group at times adopted the tone of a pep rally. "The fight for Internet freedom is now being waged in earnest," said Tim Karr, campaign director for Free Press, a media reform organization that opposes large media companies and organized the coalition. "On one side you have the public...on the other side you have the nation's largest telephone and cable companies, who have aligned with some in Congress to strip the Internet of the First Amendment." At issue is a concept known as Net neutrality, also called network neutrality. It's a philosophy supported by Internet content providers such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon.com that would prohibit broadband providers from prioritizing certain types of Web traffic--such as streaming video or their own preferred content. http://news.com.com/New+group+aims+to+save+the+Internet/2100-1034_3-6064384.html * Save The Internet. Why? And For Whom? http://gigaom.com/2006/04/23/save-the-internet-why-and-for-whom/ WEBS GEARING UP FOR SUPREME SHOWDOWN WITH THE FCC [SOURCE: Variety, AUTHOR: Michael Learmonth] Ten days ago, all four broadcast networks, their 800 affiliated stations and the Hearst-Argyle station group walked in rare lockstep and filed a challenge arguing that three specific FCC indecency decisions are unconstitutional and inconsistent. The appeals involve a guest on CBS' "The Early Show" referred to someone as a "bulls****er, ABC's drama "NYPD Blue" and Fox's "Billboard Music Awards" in which Nicole Richie said, "have you ever tried to get cow s*** out of a Prada purse? It's not so f***ing simple." The challenge, expected to be heard by a court of appeal in the next few months, could end up reining in the agency that critics claim is exceeding its authority. It could also set the stage for a Supreme Court showdown -- the first consideration of the government's role in policing broadcast content since 1978. Given the entertainment industry's dearth of friends on Capitol Hill, it's no surprise broadcasters turned to the courts for relief. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117941849?categoryid=14&cs=1&nid=2596 * the End of "live" TV http://www.dtgeeks.com/index.php/blogs/community_comment/the_end_of_live_tv/ CHINA'S TOP WEB SITES PLEDGE STRONGER SELF-POLICING [SOURCE: Reuters] China's top Web portals, including Sina Corp. and Tom Online, have agreed to rid their sites of "unhealthy" content, amid a broader Beijing campaign to clean up the Internet. Other major players in the self-policing drive include Sohu.com Inc., NetEase.com Inc., Baidu.com Inc. and Yahoo Inc.'s China Web portal, according to the text of a pledge by 14 companies posted on Sina's Web site. The firms' pledge states that the Internet has become an important source of information and entertainment in China, now the world's second-biggest market with over 100 million surfers. "At the same time as the Web develops quickly, certain sites are transmitting unhealthy news ... and uncivilized voice services, including pornographic content that can be harmful to society," said the pledge, which was dated earlier this month in a posting on Sina's Web site. To combat such issues, the group of 14 -- under the name the Beijing Association of Online Media -- committed themselves to a number of steps involving self-policing of such content. http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-04-25T094226Z_01_SHA66300_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEDIA-CHINA-INTERNET.xml (April 24) COLUMNIST'S BLOG: HE HASN'T BEEN HIMSELF LATELY [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz] What exactly are the rules for print or television journalists blogging on company sites? Reporters are usually told not to take political stands or say anything they wouldn't say in print or on the air. But blogs by their nature are more personal, attitude-filled, sharp-edged or sarcastic -- often dashed off within minutes -- and that is the essence of their appeal. It can also be dangerous territory. The Los Angeles Times suspended Michael Hiltzik's blog on the paper's Web site last week after he admitted using one or more pseudonyms, in violation of the company's policy, to post derogatory comments on his and other people's blogs. The anonymous blasts by "Mikekoshi" were usually aimed at the same people he peppers on his Golden State blog, which is far more personal and inflammatory than his newspaper column on financial issues. Hiltzik also got into trouble in 1993, when the Times recalled him from the paper's Moscow bureau after he was caught hacking into colleagues' e-mail. He was exposed through an internal sting operation when he asked about phony messages that had been sent to other staffers in the bureau. Cathy Seipp says Hiltzik has apparently been taking potshots at her because she criticized him at the time of the 13-year-old incident. While Hiltzik is "a very smart reporter and writer," Seipp says, his behavior "suggests that this guy has a history of snooping around and is dishonest and doing things he shouldn't be doing. It's also self-destructive." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/23/AR2006042301199.html (requires registration) At Los Angeles Times, a Columnist Who Used a False Web Name Loses His Blog http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/24/business/media/24hiltzik.html BROADCASTERS FOCUS ON CHALLENGE FROM WEB [SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Gary Gentile] Local television broadcasters, seeing their networks potentially bypassing them in the rush to offer shows and other content online, will meet this week to figure out how to hang onto viewers and dollars. TV stations are already moving to provide their own video clips to Web sites hungry for content and insist they can use their strong relationships with local audiences to market network shows on their own sites in exchange for a share in the profits. It's not entirely clear yet they can cash in on the growing shift of advertising dollars and eyeballs to the Internet, but local broadcasters have no choice but to try. "The question is, do they partner with those new forms of content or those new providers? Or do they sit on their hands and become less and less relevant," said Jimmy Schaeffler, an analyst with The Carmel Group, a market research firm. Those challenges will be discussed at the annual gathering of the National Association of Broadcasters, which begins Sunday in Las Vegas. The show draws more than 100,000 TV and radio broadcasters from 130 countries as well as TV networks and technology companies that provide everything from cameras to traffic helicopters. http://www.whittierdailynews.com/business/ci_3739770 (April 21) WE NEED A NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVE [SOURCE: Government Technology, AUTHOR: John Eger, former White House Office of Telecommunications Policy] For us to compete, for us to survive, we must develop the infrastructure of the 21st century much faster than we have been, and incentivize whole communities to begin using these new infrastructures to begin transforming their communities to compete in this new global economy. We must assure our cities that they can and should plan on building their information highways, in partnership with existing providers, and help them by clearing away the regulatory hurdles and logistical doubts. We need to set the standards for interconnection, and encourage alliances and partnerships as needed. We must develop a new deregulatory framework to promote broadband deployment and continued innovation. We must in short, establish and sustain a National Infrastructure Initiative to get our country back on track. http://www.govtech.net/magazine/channel_story.php/99245 AMONG THE AUDIENCE [SOURCE: The Economist] Last November, the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 57% of American teenagers create content for the Internet -- from text to pictures, music and video. In this new-media culture, says Paul Saffo, a director at the Institute for the Future in California, people no longer passively “consume” media (and thus advertising, its main revenue source) but actively participate in them, which usually means creating content, in whatever form and on whatever scale. This has profound implications for traditional business models in the media industry, which are based on aggregating large passive audiences and holding them captive during advertising interruptions. In the new-media era, audiences will occasionally be large, but often small, and usually tiny. Instead of a few large capital-rich media giants competing with one another for these audiences, it will be small firms and individuals competing or, more often, collaborating. Some will be making money from the content they create; others will not and will not mind, because they have other motives. “People creating stuff to build their own reputations” are at one end of this spectrum, says Philip Evans at Boston Consulting Group, and one-man superbrands such as Steven Spielberg at the other. http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6794156 FROM VANILLA TO FULL METAL RACKET [SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Tom Lowry] [Commentary] Clear Channel Communications was once vilified for almost singlehandedly destroying broadcast radio with its cookie-cutter playlists and barrage of ads. So it may seem a trifle incongruous that the King of Vanilla is rolling out eclectic niche channels with names like Dank ("Hip Hop and Rock all rolled up into one big spliff"), Full Metal Racket ("It's dark, it's edgy, it beats, and it rocks"), and Mother Trucker ("a hearty serving of the best Southern Rock"). Easy listening it isn't, but that's how Clear Channel wants it these days. And get this: The San Antonio-based broadcaster is set to launch a whole new business helping other radio stations come up with cool programming. Could this be the same company that inspired a Web site called ClearChannelSucks.net? It's all part of the rollout of next-generation high-definition radio. HD as it's known, digitally squeezes more programming into one frequency, boosting sound quality and allowing existing stations to offer side channels tailored to genres or local markets. As part of the new initiative, to be announced on April 24, Clear Channel and other broadcasters will expand their current HD offerings to 50 cities, up from 28 now. Clear Channel hopes to differentiate itself from XM Satellite and Sirius Satellite Radio, which offer the same channels nationwide, by coming up with content tailored for local audiences. http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2006/tc20060420_287963.htm See also -- * Strong Majority of Americans Believes Radio Continues to be Important in American Life [SOURCE: American Media Services news release] Americans rate the importance and relevance of local commercial radio very highly, despite the entry of high-technology competition, a national survey commissioned by American Media Services shows. The survey found that 78 percent said radio is important in their everyday lives, and 91 percent said radio is important in American life in general. Nearly three-quarters (74 percent) said they listen to radio at least once a day. http://sev.prnewswire.com/radio/20060419/DCW02419042006-1.html THE FOX NEWS EFFECT: MEDIA BIAS AND VOTING [SOURCE: Stefano DellaVigna & Ethan Kaplan] Does media bias affect voting? The authors address this question by looking at the entry of Fox News in cable markets and its impact on voting. Between October 1996 and November 2000, the conservative Fox News Channel was introduced in the cable programming of 20 percent of US towns. Fox News availability in 2000 appears to be largely idiosyncratic. Using a data set of voting data for 9,256 towns, the authors investigate if Republicans gained vote share in towns where Fox News entered the cable market by the year 2000. They find a significant effect of the introduction of Fox News on the vote share in Presidential elections between 1996 and 2000. Republicans gain 0.4 to 0.7 percentage points in the towns which broadcast Fox News. They also find a significant effect of Fox News on Senate vote share and on voter turnout. The estimates imply that Fox News convinced 3 to 8 percent of its viewers to vote Republican. http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~sdellavi/wp/foxvote06-03-30.pdf (April 20) PHILIPS DEVICE COULD FORCE TV VIEWERS TO WATCH ADS [SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Candace Lombardi ] An invention from Royal Philips Electronics prevents TV viewers from switching the channel during commercials or fast-forwarding past commercials when watching DVR content. Viewers would be released from the freeze only after paying a fee to the broadcaster. The freeze would be implemented on a program-by-program basis, giving viewers a choice at the start of each one. According to a recently published patent, the apparatus could work inside a set-top box. It would use the standard Multimedia Home Platform to receive a first control signal and then respond by taking control of the TV. The MHP would also be capable of sending the payment information that would lift the freeze, as it does when authorizing pay-per-view content. If implemented, the invention would have a significant impact on television culture. http://news.com.com/Philips+device+could+force+TV+viewers+to+watch+ads/2100-1041_3-6062861.html?tag=nefd.top MORE SPOT BUCKS BOARD BRANDWAGON [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton] Two thirds of advertisers employ "branded entertainment" -- product placement -- with the vast majority of that (80%) in commercial TV programming. Advertisers are also moving more money out of traditional spot buys into integrated marketing. Those were among the findings of an Association of National Advertisers survey of 117 of its members. The study was released Wednesday at the Forum for Branded Entertainment… LIVE! in New York, which is jointly sponsored by ANA and the Association of Independent commercial producers. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6326263?display=Breaking+News MINORITIES DON'T LAG IN NET USAGE, SAYS USIIA [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton] Appearing to back up assertions by Illinois Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush, the U.S. Internet Industry Association (USIIA) is circulating a White Paper by its president suggesting the minority community is not lagging the rest of the nation in Internet usage. The "digital divide" theory has informed much of the debate over legislation to revise telecommunications policy to speed the universal roll-out to high-speed Internet service, with some legislators pushing for so-called anti-redlining provisions and build-out requirements. USIIA counters that "English-speaking minority groups [are] leading the nation in the adoption of modern communications technology." At a House Telecommunications Subcommittee hearing on a telecommunications reform bill earlier this month, Rep Rush, who co-sponsored the bill, suggested that his constituents, many of them African-American, didn't need to be taken care of through build-out provisions but instead needed the lower prices for cable service that the bill would produce by creating national video franchises and spurring competition to cable from telcos and others. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6326353?display=Breaking+News * See "Keeping cable TV diverse and affordable" for more from Rep rush http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_opinion_letters/2006/04/keeping_cable_t.html * See USIIA's White Paper "Proposed Legislation and Its Impact On Consumer's Use Of Broadband and IP Services" An examination of the needs and expectations for broadband content and applications by U.S. Seniors, Asian-Americans, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and others http://www.usiia.org/pubs/segmentation.doc WILL GOOGLE, MICROSOFT, YAHOO AND THE OTHERS REALLY FIGHT FOR NET NEUTRALITY? [SOURCE: Digital Destiny, AUTHOR: Jeff Chester] [Comentary] Word from sources in Congress say that the major companies arguing for network neutrality have failed so far to demonstrate they are seriously committed to seeing legislation passed. While the CEO’s from the Bell companies, we were told, glad-handed members of Congress, leading online companies have been largely MIA. Imagine if on its home pages Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft’s MSN urged users to take action and asked them to save the Internet. Congress would be overwhelmed with angry emails and letters. The Bell/cable industry “grass-tops” faux campaign would be seen as a very minor, paid-for, outcry. But we wonder whether Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! really want to see network neutrality legislation? They must have serious misgivings, since they have done such an incompetent and half-hearted lobbying effort so far. Certainly they are thinking about the downsides of legislation. For today’s call for network neutrality could (and should) lead to other legislative safeguards, such as protecting privacy online. Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo! fear that such privacy safeguards would threaten their interactive advertising/data collection digital golden gooses. http://www.democraticmedia.org/jcblog/?p=29 BROADCAST TV'S BID TO BE EVEN MORE RISQUE [SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff] [Commentary] Broadcast TV has had enough and won't take it anymore. It's lost too many viewers to cable shows like "The Sopranos" and appears eager to air more sex, violence, and obscenities. So last week, ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC sued the Federal Communications Commission over its curbs on indecency. The suit in essence challenges decades of FCC authority over risqué content. Broadcasters say parents have the bulk of responsibility to shield children. Many parents say no. Broadcast TV still dominates the market and government must help shield children, even from the secondhand influence of other children allowed to view offensive shows. And, they add, cable TV, even though it is a purchased service not using the government-owned airwaves, should also be FCC regulated. The FCC does need to work with the networks better, speeding up its process and offering more consistent and timely guidance, but without loosening standards. It could become less of a policing agency and more of a bridge-builder between the industry and various consumers of TV. Families with young children can do much to restrict access to coarse and explicit TV. But an FCC that's more sensitive to the industry's need for specific and quick guidance in a new media age can still be an aiding arm for many families. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0420/p08s02-comv.html (April 19) INK OR SKIM [SOURCE: Editor&Publisher, AUTHOR: David S. Hirschman] [Commentary] With the growth of Internet news sites and blogs, we're responsible for knowing (at least on a very cursory level) a larger and larger chunk of what is going on everywhere. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/shoptalk_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002345659 RUMSFELD SUGGESTS BIN LADEN, ZARQAWI MANIPULATING US PRESS [SOURCE: Editor&Publisher] When Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appeared on Rush Limbaugh's talk radio show on Monday, his remarks defending himself from calls for his resignation drew wide attention. Generally overlooked were a couple of questions and answers on the subject of press coverage in Iraq. For one thing, Rumsfeld said it was important to "recognize that the terrorists, Zarqawi and bin Laden and Zawahiri, those people have media committees. They are actively out there trying to manipulate the press in the United States. They are very good at it. They're much better at (laughing) managing those kinds of things than we are." Asked why fewer reporters were embedding in Iraq, Rumsfeld said he'd talked to one journalist, and "there was a kind of impression left that 'Well, if you got embedded then you were really part of the problem instead of part of the solution and you were almost going over to the other side,' argument. I think that's an inexcusable thought, and I don't know if that's the case." http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002345682 BENNETT: PULITZER WINNERS RISEN, LICHTBLAU, PRIEST 'WORTHY OF JAIL' [SOURCE: Editor&Publisher] On his national radio program today, William Bennett, the former Reagan and George H.W. Bush administration official and now a CNN commentator, said that three reporters who won Pulitzer Prizes yesterday were not "worthy of an award" but rather "worthy of jail." He identified them as Dana Priest of The Washington Post, who wrote about the CIA's "secret prisons" in Europe, and James Risen and Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times, who exposed the National Security Agency's domestic spy program. Bennett said that the reporters "took classified information, secret information, published it in their newspapers, against the wishes of the president, against the request of the president and others, that they not release it. They not only released it, they publicized it -- they put it on the front page, and it damaged us, it hurt us. How do we know it damaged us? Well, it revealed the existence of the surveillance program, so people are going to stop making calls. Since they are now aware of this, they're going to adjust their behavior . . .on the secret sites, the CIA sites, we embarrassed our allies...So it hurt us there. As a result are they punished, are they in shame, are they embarrassed, are they arrested? No, they win Pulitzer prizes - they win Pulitzer prizes. I don't think what they did was worthy of an award - I think what they did is worthy of jail, and I think this investigation needs to go forward. " http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002345921 See also -- * A 'Pulitzer Prize for Treason' http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/35123/ NEW PROGRESS FOR PROGRESSIVE MEDIA [SOURCE: AlterNet, AUTHOR: Don Hazen] [Commentary] Progressives are beginning to flex some media muscle, finding ways to counterbalance the right wing's powerful spin machine. But there's still much to be done. http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/35074/ See also -- Taking Media Progress Even Further [SOURCE: AlterNet, AUTHOR: Rich Gell] [Commentary] Unless progressives wake up and face hard truths about media -- and the money, strategy and tactics it will take -- we will continue to win battles and lose the war. Progressives have essentially given up on center stage -- broadcast and cable news -- and stayed in the comfortable terrain of alternative media, given up on leveraging our "buying power" and mostly come to believe that the non-profit road is the only road to editorial integrity. This allows corporations to have their cake and eat it too; as if progressives are still the back-to-the-country, anti-automation, communal-living hippies of the sixties and not the Starbucks-drinking, iPod carrying, SUV-driving people many of us really are. So we run off to the alternative media hills preparing to wait the ten years till web-video reaches parity with broadcast. We live in the rarified world of non-profit funding, and leave billions of ad dollars and venture capital money on the table. We run "media reform" conferences steeped in policy, but void of creativity and absent of people who could greenlight any media projects. http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/35089/ INTERNET PLAYS BIGGER ROLE IN LIFE DECISIONS: POLL [SOURCE: Reuters] Nearly half of U.S. users of the Internet went online for help with major life decisions such as finding a college for their child or looking for a new place to live, according to a survey released on Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Some 45 percent of Internet users, or an estimated 60 million Americans, said the Internet helped them make big decisions or face a major moment in their life during the previous two years, the survey found. That was up from 40 percent of Internet users who answered the same survey questions in 2002. http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-04-19T102133Z_01_N18379588_RTRUKOC_0_US-INTERNET-SURVEY.xml&archived=False The Internet’s Growing Role in Life’s Major Moments http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/181/report_display.asp (April 18) THE FUTURE OF JOURNALISM AS TOLD BY HILAIRE BELLOC IN 1918 [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Verlyn Klinkenborg] [Commentary] "The Free Press" is an extended essay examining the history of what Hilaire Belloc calls the "Official Press" in England and the emergence of a rival "Free Press" in the form of small, often short-lived journals. The Official Press, Belloc argues, is centralized and Capitalist, and its owners are "the true governing power in the political machinery of the State, superior to the officials in the State, nominating ministers and dismissing them, imposing policies, and, in general, usurping sovereignty -- all this secretly and without responsibility." The result "is that the mass of Englishmen have ceased to obtain, or even to expect, information upon the way they are governed." It is a delicate historical task to transplant Belloc's argument from his era to our own. Perhaps nothing else distances his essay so much as his assumption that major newspapers actually shaped the political power of the nation -- that politicians governed at the sufferance of newspaper owners. "The Free Press" is still worth reading, for it describes, with some important adjustments, the evolving relationship between political bloggers and the mainstream media. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/18/opinion/18tue4.html (requires registration) DON'T UNDERCUT INTERNET ACCESS [SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle 4/17, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff] [Commentary] The wide and unbounded Internet could soon be fenced in by cable and phone firms. Higher prices and less choice may lie ahead under a misguided bill moving forward in Congress. A House committee dumped a plan to enforce network neutrality, a clunky term for an important concept. The phrase stands for an original ideal of Internet -- equal access and no hidden charges to climb aboard. down at the consumer level, the impact could be different. Customers could face one set of services offered by a cable or phone company -- or a higher-priced list of alternatives from outsiders. If Yahoo was part of the standard-priced bundle, would you pay more for Google? It would be a two-tier world, not the even-up access that the Internet offers now. New upstarts would have a hard time cracking the lineup, while the familiar names stayed on top. The Internet isn't served by layers of government regulation. But it shouldn't become a captive of one industry. Net neutrality should be a guiding principle to guarantee open use. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/04/17/EDGNSGUA4F1.DTL THE CORPORATE TOLL ON THE INTERNET [SOURCE: Salon, AUTHOR: Farhad Manjoo] AT&T is back, it's big, and according to consumer advocates and some of the nation's largest technology companies, AT&T wants to take over the Internet. To understand why critics worry about the future of the Internet in the absence of what they call network neutrality, it helps to look at the underlying philosophy of the ubiquitous network. Engineers are fond of describing the Internet as a "dumb network," a designation that's meant to be a compliment. Unlike other large communications systems -- phone or cable networks -- the Internet was designed without a specific application in mind. The engineers who built the network didn't really know what it would be used for, so they kept it profoundly simple, making sure that the network performed very few functions of its own. Where other networks use a kind of "intelligence" to define what is and what isn't allowed on a system, the various machines that make up the Internet don't usually examine or act upon data; they just push it where it needs to go. Today's largest broadband firms, though, aren't accustomed to running dumb networks built on the end-to-end principle. At firms like AT&T and Verizon, both of which have roots in the monopolistic old AT&T, there's now an effort afoot to reengineer parts of the Internet by introducing more intelligence to manage and control data. Expensive as they may be, the new network schemes will allow for myriad moneymaking opportunities. The new technology will allow AT&T and company to reserve the fast lane for the highest bidders. And AT&T says such a plan is perfectly fair. http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2006/04/17/toll/index_np.html?source=salon.rss (requires attention to advertising) THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET [SOURCE: RedHerring 4/10] If pundits are right, in 10 years’ time the barriers between our bodies and the Internet will blur as will those between the real world and virtual reality. Today’s devices will disappear. Electronics will instead be embedded in our environment, woven into our clothing, and written directly to our retinas from eyeglasses and contact lenses, predicts inventor, entrepreneur, author, and futurist Ray Kurzweil. “Devices will no longer be spokes on the Internet -- they will be the nodes themselves,” he says. Everything from the family fridge to the office coffee pot -- as well as heating, cooling, and security systems -- will be managed through the Internet, possibly using souped-up mobile phones doubling as universal remote controls, says Google’s Vint Cerf. By 2016, he predicts the online population of 1 billion will treble, and a huge portion will be mobile. And by then, the Internet will become so pervasive that connecting to it will no longer be a conscious act. Bandwidth access of 100 megabits per second or more will become the norm. “It is probably a safe bet that everyone will be able to have a full-motion, high-definition real-time link to anyone,” says Bram Cohen, creator of the popular peer-to-peer program BitTorrent. Once that happens, “the concept of who is online and who is offline will melt away,” says Bradley Horowitz, Yahoo’s director of media and desktop search. http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=16391&hed=The+Future+of+the+Internet PUBLIC MEDIA PBS CONSIDERS PUTTING MORE SHOWS ONLINE [SOURCE: Reuters] The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is considering making its television shows available on the Internet or portable devices like MP3 players, says new CEO Paula Kerger. PBS is also weighing whether to partner with technology companies, in the same way that Walt Disney Co. has teamed up with Apple Computer Inc. to sell episodes of some of its ABC television network series on iTunes for downloading to iPods. "My goal in running PBS is that no matter what choice consumers in the digital age decide to do ... we recognize the need to make content available to any of those platforms, and right now we're moving in that direction," Kerger said at a luncheon sponsored by the Media Institute. She also pointed to PBS's archive of educational shows like "Nature," "Frontline" and other documentaries as a possible resource that could be accessed "anytime, anywhere." http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-04-17T212554Z_01_N17280309_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEDIA-PBS.xml PBS President Cautions On Ad Expansion With some noncom stations taking ads on their Web sites, Kerger said that the Internet might give stations "the ability to experiment a little more on the advertising side than we do with broadcast," but she said that her concern is that "if we go to far, we become commercial television. Part of the reason that public television exists is to do the things that are not sustainable in a corporate environment." http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6325496?display=Breaking+News MEDIA GROUPS BLAST BRUSSELS OVER DIRECTIVE [SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson] An alliance of old and new media companies including Cisco Systems, ITV, Vodafone and Yahoo will on Tuesday launch an attack on the European Commission’s proposals for regulating video on demand, mobile television and other emerging media formats. The group argues that proposed changes to the Television Without Frontiers directive would hold back innovation in new media, divert investment away from the European Union, and fail to protect consumers by undermining existing regulations. The initiative -- led by Intellect, the UK trade association for the information technology industry, and the Broadband Stakeholder Group, a UK government advisory group -- represents the most vocal industry attack yet on the directive and highlights the challenge of regulating the fast-changing media environment. The legislation, championed by commissioner Viviane Reding, proposes extending the regulation of “linear” scheduled television broadcasts to “non-linear” new media services such as on-demand and interactive video content. http://news.ft.com/cms/s/fe41a6e6-ce3c-11da-a032-0000779e2340.html (requires subscription) POPULIST NEWS SITES GIVE READERS WHAT THEY WANT [SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Verne Kopytoff] A new generation of Web sites relies on the masses to help decide which headlines are at the top of the page. The idea is to give visitors what they want to read with better precision. Increasingly, Web sites are asking visitors to vote on individual stories or measuring online buzz around a topic, and then organizing their pages accordingly. Dozens of Web sites, many founded within the past year, make up this so-called "social news" universe. They range from hobbyists to small businesses funded with millions of dollars venture capital. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/04/17/BUG78I9FMQ1.DTL&type=tech (April 17) WHY CAN'T I HAVE JUST THE CABLE CHANNELS I WANT?
[SOURCE: New York Times 4/16, AUTHOR: Richard Siklos]
[Commentary] The great paradox of the cable "a la
carte" debate is that it comes as the number of
media options is exploding and the way they are
being priced is all over the map. The
much-maligned bundle will most probably prevail
as the most popular business model for media,
although it, too, is likely going to need an
extreme makeover. Just look at the big picture:
At one end of the spectrum is the push to sell
more and more programming on a per-show or
per-viewing basis, via video-on-demand or some
kind of download service. Whether it is iTunes
from Apple Computer, the new video services from
Google and Yahoo, or the newest iterations of
nascent mobile telephone services through
Verizon, Sprint and others, it's clear that we
are approaching a future where there will be no
chance that a favorite show can be missed. All
this is happening not so much because content
makers sense gigantic riches in these new
ventures, but out of fear that if they don't make
their programming more freely available, younger
audiences will grow up accustomed to getting
their favorite shows free via illegal
file-sharing services and DVD's burned by their
pals. At the other end of the spectrum from
selling individual shows is the equally au
courant concept of überbundling -- selling
digital cable services combined with high-speed
Internet and telephone service, and maybe
throwing some wireless into the mix. Ask cable
industry executives, and most will argue that a
majority of people still prefer buying the
existing pre-ordained packages of cable. And the
addition of new services like high-speed access
gives viewers conveniences like a single bill and
shared customer service. Yet a recent poll found
that 54 percent of television viewers said they
would prefer to buy channels individually, while
only 43 percent said they'd rather pay a flat fee
for a fixed number of channels. TV NETWORKS AND STATIONS CHALLENGE FCC INDECENCY RULING
[SOURCE: Associated Press 4/14, AUTHOR: Gary Gentile]
ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox, along with their network
affiliate associations and the Hearst-Argyle
Television group of stations have filed court
challenges to a March 15 Federal Communications
Commission ruling that found several programs
"indecent" because of language. The move
represents a protest against the aggressive
enforcement of federal indecency rules that
broadcasters have complained are vague and
inconsistently applied. Millions of dollars in
fines have been levied based on those rules. The
networks and affiliate groups, representing more
than 800 individual stations, issued a rare joint
statement Friday calling the FCC ruling
"unconstitutional and inconsistent with two
decades of previous FCC decisions. "In filing
these court appeals we are seeking to overturn
the FCC decisions that the broadcast of fleeting,
isolated - and in some cases unintentional -
words rendered these programs indecent." The
networks and stations said the FCC "overstepped
its authority" and acted arbitrarily in not
giving the networks a clear standard for what content is objectionable. AS V-CHIP GOES DIGITAL, DO CONSUMERS CARE?
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Tom Krazit]
It's been 10 years since Congress required
television makers to include the V-Chip in their
TVs as a result of the Telecommunications Act of
1996. It's been six years since all televisions
13 inches or larger were required to include a
V-Chip. But a 2004 study conducted by the Kaiser
Family Foundation in 2004 found that only 15
percent of parents have ever used the V-Chip. The
Ad Council put the usage figures even lower -- at
8 percent. few expect that to change following a
March 15, 2006, deadline that required television
makers to include a second generation of the chip
in digital TVs. The new V-Chip isn't really a
chip. It's software that blocks programs that
stray outside a ratings boundary set by the
television user. The new technology is designed
to accommodate changes in the ratings standards
used by broadcasters to rate their content. The
analog V-Chip was designed for the technology
used to communicate the ratings when the
technical standard was drawn up in the late
1990s. To promote the new V-chip, the Ad Council
is preparing a renewed advertising campaign for
later this year. But if parents today are
blocking content from reaching their children,
most appear to be using the TV's power-off button rather than chip technology. FREE NET TV THREATENS TELECOMS AND CABLE [SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Marguerite Reardon ] On Monday, Disney-owned ABC announced plans to put "Lost," "Desperate Housewives," "Alias" and "Commander-in-Chief" on the Internet for free as part of a two-month trial beginning in May. The Net-accessible episodes, which will be available the day after the shows air, will be archived so viewers can watch any shows they miss. Viewers will access the shows on the ABC Web site where they'll be able fast-forward, pause and rewind entire episodes. Short commercials will be aired with the programs; viewers will not be able to fast-forward through them. Disney's move to offer shows for free on the Internet could be viewed as a direct threat to the business model of cable companies, which have been the gatekeepers of television programming in America for the last few decades. The news is equally grim for phone companies, especially Verizon Communications, which is aggressively moving into the TV business. Disney's plans "raise big questions for the phone companies' long-term strategy," said Joe Laszlo, an analyst with JupiterResearch. "To some extent, building a faster network is smart no matter how content delivery evolves. But if we reach a point in five to 10 years when video over the Internet becomes a bigger part of how we consume video, then the phone companies will have to find other ways to make their video services relevant." "Even though Disney is delivering content independently of the cable operator or the telephone company, it would be interesting to see if network providers respond by blocking content," he said. The issue referred to as Net neutrality centers on whether carriers should be able to charge different fees to content providers who access their network. For weeks, the topic has been hotly debated in the industry as lawmakers draft legislation that addresses the issue. "I think Disney's move could open up this debate even more," Laszlo said. "I wouldn't be surprised if we saw large media companies getting into the debate soon." http://news.com.com/Free+Net+TV+threatens+telecoms+and+cable/2100-1034_3-6060306.html?tag=nefd.lede * ABC Deal Stuns Affiliates http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6325082?display=Breaking+News * Podcasting shakes up local media http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0417/p02s02-ussc.html ONCE WARY INDUSTRY GIANTS EMBRACE INTERNET ADVERTISING [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Kevin J. Delaney kevin.delaney@wsj.com] After years of cautiously experimenting with Web marketing, powerhouse advertisers like General Mills and Kraft Foods are cranking up online spending and increasing the range of brands they promote on the Web. Providers of consumer packaged goods accounted for more than 11% of the $145 billion in U.S. ad spending in 2005, according to research firm TNS Media Intelligence. But they spent just 1.6% of their ad dollars online last year, on average, compared with an overall average of 5.8% of total ad spending for U.S. advertisers, says TNS. These advertisers have been the most challenging targets for Internet companies, says Wenda Harris Millard, chief sales officer at Yahoo. That company has overcome some of their resistance by wielding new tools to show that Web ads can increase consumer spending. General Mills, maker of Cheerios and Betty Crocker baking mixes, expects to nearly double online-ad spending in the current fiscal year. Kraft, home of Jell-O and Kool-Aid, plans to double its number of online-ad campaigns in 2006 and to increase the number of brands it advertises on the Internet by at least half. The shift underlines the Internet's threat to traditional media such as television and print magazines. It suggests that the boom in Internet advertising that has already fueled rapid revenue growth in recent years at Google, Yahoo and other companies could continue as still other groups of more traditional advertisers step up online spending. The packaged-goods companies say their customers are spending more time online and using the Web in new ways, such as watching TV shows and other video. U.S. consumers go to the Web for about 15% of the time they spend with all media, according to another research firm, Knowledge Networks. Some Internet executives believe Web spending will echo the patterns set in earlier years with broadcast and cable TV, which both saw sharp growth in advertising once they reached a critical level of consumer adoption. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114523618204327274.html?mod=todays_us_page_one (requires subscription) ELECOM COMPANIES PIN HOPES ON DEVELOPING MOBILE COMMERCE [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Roger Cheng roger.cheng@dowjones.com] According to Len Lauer, chief operating officer of Sprint Nextel Corp., there are only three forgotten things consumers will return home for: a cellphone, a wallet or purse and keys. The telecommunications industry wants to get that list down to just one. As such, engineers are busy cramming as many features and services into cellphones as they can. Among them is the capability to open doors or pay for lunch with a wave of the handset. In Japan, NTT DoCoMo offers a mobile-payments service that allows subscribers to make purchases at a convenience store or check into the airport by waving a cellphone. Some subscribers even have their apartments programmed where they can lock and unlock their doors with their handsets. The technology, called "near-field communication," has been up and running in Japan since 2004. In the U.S., however, adoption of mobile payments is still at an early stage. Mobile commerce is seen as a potential driver of revenue for the cellphone companies, who already are seeing an increase in their revenue from nonvoice services such as text messaging and music and ring-tone downloads. With mobile commerce, carriers could charge a fee for each transaction. The technology would run similar to the small "speed pass" gas cards. But one issue is security. Consumers worry that a stolen cellphone will be used by a thief to make purchases. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114522530420027096.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription) BRANDS TAKE BUZZ TO BANK THROUGH FREE TV PLACEMENT [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Gail Schiller] During the past four months, Apple iPods, Macs and other products have been featured 250 times on 38 different network primetime shows, including such hits as "CSI: NY" and "The O.C." That adds up to 26 minutes of free exposure for one of Hollywood's biggest brand stars, according to Nielsen's Place Views tracking service. With its cultural cachet and storied history of giving away tens of thousands of Apple computers to the Hollywood creative community, Apple has had perhaps the greatest success of any brand in embedding its products into film and TV without paying for the integrations, even amid Hollywood's rush to cash in on branded entertainment deals over the past several years. But the Silicon Valley star is by no means alone, especially among companies that have that much-sought-after "cool" factor or that sell big-ticket luxury items, such as Aston Martin and Lamborghini. And, because of practical issues that arise on the set, even brands that lack such totemic status still frequently manage to win free placements. http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyid=2006-04-13T115315Z_01_N13277518_RTRUKOC_0_US-BRANDS.xml (April 7) A DELSTEIN SEEKS PROBE OF VIDEO NEWS RELEASES
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Jeremy Pelofsky]
Federal Communications Commissioner Jonathan
Adelstein on Thursday called for an investigation
into new accusations that television news
broadcasts are not disclosing the source of video
news releases they use. Two consumer advocacy
groups released a study that found 77 television
stations over a 10-month period ending in March
failed to clearly tell viewers when they were
using video news releases and said that violated
FCC rules that require such disclosure. "We
should immediately open investigations into these
possible violations of our rules and prosecute
them to the full extent of the law," Commissioner
Adelstein said at a news conference sponsored by
the groups, Free Press and the Center for Media
Democracy. The FCC a year ago reminded television
broadcasters and cable operators to properly
identify the source of video news releases after
incidents in which prepackaged news from
government agencies was used by stations without
proper sponsorship identification. Congressional
investigators also concluded last year that
prepackaged news stories created by the Office of
National Drug Control Policy constituted covert propaganda. MEDIA TUNE IN TO ETHNIC AUDIENCES
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: David Lieberman]
One of the most intriguing new developments in
media is taking place in a part of the industry
that many executives used to dismiss as a
backwater. Call it the year of ethnic media, the
vast collection of mostly tiny broadcasters,
cable channels, newspapers and magazines that
target Hispanics, Asians and other audience
niches. Advertisers who once deemed ethnic
audiences too small, too poor or too old to take
seriously are looking at them anew as immigration
rates soar. With minority markets now accounting
for nearly a third of U.S. buying power, pitching
to these audiences “is no longer the nice thing
to do, or the social thing to do. It's about
business,” says Gwen Kelly, senior ad specialist
for American Family Insurance. Spanish-language
media are getting the most attention. The 2000
Census found that 12.5% of the U.S. population of
more than 280 million was Hispanic — a bigger
market than all of Canada — and projects the share to be nearly 18% by 2020.
CONGRESS TURNS A DEAF EAR TO NEED FOR NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] Just as lawmakers in Congress are
pushing a bill that could increase competition in
video and high-speed Internet services, they're
willing to allow phone and cable companies to
subvert that competition. A key House committee,
which approved the bill Wednesday, would allow
cable and phone companies to create special
Internet toll lanes that would give them a
virtual chokehold on the future of the Internet.
Web sites and Web services that pay would have
their content -- especially video content --
delivered faster to customers, while those who
don't could be stuck in a lane so slow as to make
them unusable. This would turn on its head one of
the key principles that made the Internet a
powerful engine of innovation and economic
growth. Without Net Neutrality principles, the
burgeoning but still nascent world of online
video may never get off the ground. Instead of
inventive start-ups sprouting everywhere to
deliver video content in innovative ways to more
people and more devices, the cable and phone
firms would be in a position to pick winners and
losers. And it's a safe bet that they won't give
anyone who threatens their own video business a
shot a being a winner. There's far too much at
stake to leave the Internet's future to the whims
of the handful of companies that control online
access. Congress must make Internet neutrality the law of the land. GOOGLE AIMS TO TRACK USERS WITH WI-FI
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Chris Nuttall and Kevin Allison]
Google, the leading Internet search company,
which depends on advertising for 99 per cent of
its revenues, was selected on Wednesday by San
Francisco as its preferred bidder to provide a
basic free Wi-Fi Internet service covering the
entire city. The company aims to be able to
track its users to within 100-200 feet of their
location through new wireless networks in order
to serve them with relevant advertising from
local businesses. Google says users linking up
with Wi-Fi transmitters placed around cities can
be located to within a couple of blocks. This
would open up a new level of advertising
opportunities for the company, allowing it to
serve tightly focused ads on its web pages from
small businesses in the immediate area. Analysts
have speculated that the San Francisco bid could
be a prelude to Google seeking to extend its
reach into localities nationwide.
PODCASTING ROILS NPR FUND RAISING
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Steve Friess]
Podcasting is expanding NPR's overall audience
and boosting some shows previously unavailable in
many markets. While most NPR programming has been
streamed online for several years, the portable,
time-shifted, on-demand nature of podcasting
affords a new level of convenience and access.
Yet, at the same time, it can turn ears away from
local stations -- possibly for good -- which
could be a problem for affiliates that rely
heavily upon member donations to pay the dues to
air some of the same programming listeners can
now get free as MP3s. "Unfortunately, in a
typical market only 8 percent of the audience
become members of their station, so if you erode
that even to 7 percent or 6 percent because
they're not getting the shows through the
terrestrial station, that's not a good business
model," says Paul Marszalek, a radio industry
expert who consults with dozens of public and
private radio stations. "There is not a single
person on the local affiliate level who has not
expressed some level of trepidation." CONSUMERS WANT MORE FROM PHONES: STUDY
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Chris Marlowe]
Not many people use their cell phone to buy movie
tickets, watch videos or play games, but a
significant number of Americans are interested in
doing just that. A national study by the Pew
Research Center's Pew Internet & American Life
Project, the Associated Press and AOL supplied
statistics to support these beliefs as it examined how people use their phones. (April 6) REMARKS OF COMMISSIONER MICHAEL COPPS FREEDOM TO CONNECT 2006
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
We view the Internet as a place of freedom and
openness. We view it as a place where innovation
can flourish, where it seems almost anyone with a
good idea, some technological savvy and a healthy
dose of persistence can develop a business with
global reach. With the genius of a dumb pipe
connecting to intelligence at the edges and the
common language of IP communications, the
possibilities are endless. And this is indeed
the way things ought to work. But if we are not
watchful, we will miss the signs that there are
threats to the openness that makes the Internet
so great. Some telltale clues are out
there. News reports-from Business Week to The
Wall Street Journal to The Financial Times to The
New York Times-have sounded warning bells,
suggesting a future where new broadband toll
bridges may restrict the use of services like
VoIP, or make it difficult to watch videos or
listen to music over the web. It's not
impossible to imagine these things taking
place. Because the more concentrated our
facilities providers grow, the more they have the
ability, and possibly even the incentive, to act
as Internet gatekeepers-unduly influencing the
flow or speed of Internet traffic, ultimately
perhaps even dictating who can use the Internet
and for what purposes. We can't let this
happen. If we do, there's no doubt in my mind we
will look back, shake our heads and wonder
whatever happened to that open, dynamic and
liberating Internet that we once knew. "What
promise it held," we'll say. And if that occurs,
history won't forgive us. Nor should it. So
let's roll up our sleeves and work together-all
of us-to make sure that the Internet continues to
foster freedom and innovation, and that the
original vision that inspired this liberating
technology lives for another day and another
generation. This is not just about better
communications or a better Internet, it's about a better America. NETWORK CENSORSHIP CAN'T SILENCE CHURCH'S CAMPAIGN
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Ron Buford, United Church of Christ]
[Commentary] Network censorship is alive and
well. The United Church of Christ, the same
organization that won a landmark case against a
Jackson (Miss) TV station that edited out civil
rights activities as too controversial to air, is
now itself a victim of censorship. This month, a
new television ad for UCC's "God Is Still
Speaking" campaign is airing across the country.
The ad, called "Ejector Seats," shows a variety
of people being literally ejected from a church
because they're "different": homeless, gay,
Middle Eastern or just ordinary people with noisy
kids. The campaign's message is simple. No matter
who you are or where you are on life's journey,
you're welcome in the UCC. Like modern Bible
parables, these commercials are short, catchy,
simple and memorable. And like the Bible
parables, they challenge the status quo. Perhaps
that's why they've been branded as "too
controversial" by the major television networks.
The message about rejection was itself rejected,
and ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX all refused to air the
ad. Network executives believe they're being fair
because they air programs with gay characters.
From "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy'" to "Will
& Grace," the networks portray gay people in one
dimension, like minstrels who exist simply to
entertain viewers. But showing lesbians and gay
men seeking relationships with God is deemed "too
controversial" for the public airwaves. We're
simply asking to pay for airtime, like any other
advertiser reaching people in the marketplace.
Just as Jackson's WLBT refused to sell
advertising time to an African-American minister
who was running for Congress in 1962, the
networks will not do business with a church that
proclaims everyone is welcome in 2006. THE WHITE HOUSE AND FCC CONNECTION: NEW GIVEAWAY TO BIG MEDIA
[SOURCE: Digital Destiny, AUTHOR: Jeff Chester]
[Commentary] The Bush Administration and the U.S.
newspaper, broadcasting and telecommunications
industry are now involved in subtle
conversations/negotiations about media ownership
policies that will likely have an impact on
journalism. The newspaper and broadcast lobby
wants the Administration’s help to over-turn
what’s left of the media ownership safeguards.
This week, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told a
meeting of the powerful newspaper publishers
lobby, that he — like his predecessor Michael
Powell — was ready to hand them their key political
objective: the scuttling of the
broadcast-newspaper cross-ownership rule. That
policy has helped ensure that one company in a
community couldn't simultaneously operate the two
most important sources of information: TV
channels and the daily paper. The rule has also
protected newspapers from being swept up into
ratings-driven/show-biz focused TV industry
empires. If the cross-ownership rule is axed,
expect even less serious print reporting and more
tabloid/infotainment TV-business models for
dailies. Mr. Martin clearly doesn't have the
facts with what’s causing the crisis in U.S.
journalism today. Media consolidation and
cost-cutting to please Wall Street has led to
this crisis. Additional consolidation will
further weaken the last vehicle currently capable
of sustained and meaningful serious journalism:
the daily newspaper. As we proceed into the 2006
election, it will be interesting to look at how
both the newspaper and broadcast TV news
operations treat the Bush agenda. Will it be --
as it was during the run up to the war in Iraq --
a subtle quid pro quo: you waive the rules and we'll waive the flag? SCARBOROUGH: NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY 'VIBRANT,
GROWING' WITH ADDITION OF ONLINE READERS
[SOURCE: Editor&Publisher]
A new Scarborough Research analysis of its
so-called "Integrated Newspaper Measurement"
shows that newspaper Web sites are adding
hundreds of thousands of online readers and
attracting an audience with a significantly
greater percentage of younger people than their
print readers. "Scarborough continues to find
that when online readers are considered, the
story of newspaper readership for many papers
transforms from one of slow and steady decline to
one of vibrancy and growth," the firm said in its
announcement of the study results Wednesday. (So
maybe we don't need to scrap media ownership rules to "save" the industry?) (April 4) WHY EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD HAVE BROADBAND ACCESS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Kevin Martin]
[Commentary] Today we are living through a
technological revolution. Broadband and the
ability to communicate at increasing speeds are
increasing our productivity, helping drive our
economy and affecting every aspect of daily life.
As chairman of the Federal Communications
Commission, my priority is speeding the
deployment of fibre infrastructure and broadband
services. Today, the FCC issues its most recent
broadband development report, and we are closing
in on President George W Bush’s goal of
providing broadband access to every US household.
With 42.9m subscribers, the US has more people
connected to broadband than any other country,
and the report notes that the number of broadband
subscribers continues to grow rapidly. Advanced
services lines increased by 60 per cent in 2005.
The report also indicates that about 91 per cent
of those with access to cable television services
have access to cable broadband and about 76 per
cent of those with landline telephones have
access to a residential DSL (digital subscriber
line) service. All this means that more than 85
per cent of the country has access to cable, DSL
or both. There is still more we can do to
encourage competition and speed broadband
deployment. We must ensure that government
regulations do not unreasonably stifle further
investment and market entry. The FCC has taken
several steps to create a policy environment that
encourages network providers to invest in further
broadband deployment. Last summer, the commission
deregulated DSL services. This decision allows
broadband platforms to invest in their networks
without having to provide their rivals with
access at unfair discounts. The commission is
working to facilitate broadband throughout
America. This country has a longstanding history
of equal opportunity, an underlying value that
once compelled us to work to connect everyone to
the telephone network. Now it must mean providing
the ability to connect with broadband. Since 2001
when I came to the commission, the number of
high-speed lines has increased more than sixfold.
We stand ready to tackle the remaining challenges
to our goal of universal, affordable broadband access for all Americans. CAMPAIGNS TURNING MORE TO ONLINE VIDEOS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Zachary A. Goldfarb]
Political campaigns have begun to understand what
corporate America already knows: Multiple sources
of information and entertainment are making it
more difficult for advertisers to reach their
target audiences through traditional TV spots.
Now, consultants say campaigns are turning to
online video -- which can have more emotional
impact than a TV ad -- as a form of targeted
media to reach particular groups. "The problem is
fragmentation. In 1982, a media planner could go
out and buy ABC, NBC and CBS, and reach 80
percent of the market," said Bill Caspare, a
veteran of political advertising who recently
started an online video company. These days, he
added, "they have to buy 57 stations and get 57
reporting mechanisms to get 80 percent. All of
the sudden, the Internet becomes much more
relevant." Audience research shows that the
proportion of people watching broadcast TV has
declined by about 30 percentage points in the
past 20 years. An increasing share of people who
do watch uses new technology such as digital
recorders to skip commercials. Campaigns started
to tap the Internet as early as 2000 for
fundraising, and the 2004 presidential campaigns
launched a number of online videos. This year,
political consultants expect their use to expand
substantially in Senate and House campaigns -- a
preview of an even greater breakout in 2008. PARSONS SAYS TIME WARNER NEEDS MOBILE ASSETS [SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Aline van Duyn and Joshua Chaffin] Dick Parsons, chairman and chief executive of Time Warner, the world’s biggest media company, has set his sights on establishing a strong presence in mobile phone services, either by purchasing wireless spectrum or via an acquisition. “The ultimate table has to be constructed with four legs, not three. The fourth leg will be wireless – how one solves the equation I don't know,” Mr Parsons said. http://news.ft.com/cms/s/177094c6-c26f-11da-ac03-0000779e2340.html (requires subscription) SURVEY SAYS: DON'T CRACK DOWN ON CONTENT
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
According to a study from TV network-funded TV
Watch, only 12% of respondents say that the
government should decide what's appropriate TV.
TV Watch points out that is less than the 20% in
another poll who believe in alien abductions.
When asked whether "people should be able to
choose for themselves what they watch in their
own homes," or whether "it's time for the FCC to
penalize the networks and increase government
control and enforcement" because "broadcast
television and radio have gone too far," 78% said
they should be the ones in control, with only the
above 12% supporting a government crackdown. Even
more -- 76% -- said they would be upset if
government regulation "limited the programming choices available to them." NEW NAA STUDY: NEWSPAPERS' ONLINE AUDIENCES GROWING RAPIDLY
[SOURCE: Associated Press]
The Newspaper Association of America plans to
release a study today that finds that newspapers'
online audiences are growing rapidly. One in
three Internet users -- 55 million -- visit a
newspaper Web site every month. Also, unique
visitors to newspaper Web sites jumped 21 percent
from January 2005 to December 2005, while the
number of page views soared by 43 percent over
the same period. The study coincides with the
NAA's annual convention in Chicago. MACEDONIA DREAMS OF ONE NATION, WIRELESS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nicholas Wood]
In Macedonia, a former Yugoslav republic, it is
estimated that as little as 4 percent of the
population has regular access to computers and
the Internet. But within a year, if the
government has its way, those figures could be
turned around with the creation of a wireless
Internet network that will be the world's
largest, covering the entire nation. Supporters
of the network believe that it will deliver more
than just a means of mass communication. They
hope it will provide new opportunities to
ordinary people, schools and businesses in remote
villages spread across this mountainous nation.
Government officials believe affordable access to
the Internet could help transform a moribund
economy, but that aim is proving difficult to
realize. The cost of going online remains
prohibitively expensive at about $1.30 an hour
for a dial-up connection, a substantial sum in
villages where workers earn an average of $150 a
month, mainly through agriculture. The cost of a
broadband connection is beyond most people's
dreams at $45 a month for the most basic service.
The source of the problem, service providers and
technology-based businesses say, is that access
to the Internet is dominated by the country's
telecommunications company, Makedonski
Telekomunikacii, known as Maktel. Maktel,
formerly a state-owned monopoly, is now partly
privatized and is 53 percent owned by Magyar
Telekom, the Hungarian subsidiary of Deutsche
Telekom. Maktel users say that while they depend
on the company, they resent its service, which
they say stifles competition in order to retain its substantial profits. Click here for earler Benton files. (c)
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