Subject: [Benton's Communications-related Headlines] Aug 22, 2007 ("We're 24!")

From: Kevin Taglang <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 07:16:58 -0500

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY AUGUST 22, 2007
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BROADBAND/INTERNET
	US Jumps to 24th in Worldwide Broadband Penetration

BROADCASTING/CABLE/SATELLITE
	Is Herbert Hoover managing the DTV transition?
	NAB Proposes Vague DTV Education Plan
	Noncommercial TV Not So Different
	Iowa, N.H., S.C. Markets Win Big in Primary Race
	Station's Cable Debut Delayed in 2 Counties
	Farmer Group Backs XM-Sirius Merger
	DVRs Nested In One-in-Five Homes

JOURNALISM
	Tribune shareholders OK $8.2-bil. buyout
	Newsrooms becoming whiter
	Journal's Pains Reflect Media's Malaise

ADVERTISING
	Translating a Ruling Into New Limits for Issue Ads
	TV Drug Ads Set for Image Study

TELECOM
	Customers can sue AT&T, after all
	Vonage sues to nullify patents
	Verizon wants off the hook for state controls on its network
	Missouri Case Could Ring Up Cellphone Taxes
	Sylvia Siegel, Activist on Utility Rates

QUICKLY -- The Warrantless Debate Over 
Wiretapping; Google 'probably' to bid for 700MHz 
spectrum; Tots getting Internet identity at birth

BROADBAND/INTERNET

US JUMPS TO 24TH IN WORLDWIDE BROADBAND PENETRATION
[SOURCE: Website Optimization]
"We're 24! We're 24!" Yes, the Bush 
Administration has much to be proud of with the 
release of new broadband penetration numbers... 
Reversing a previous trend, the US moved up from 
25th to 24th in broadband penetration worldwide 
in the first quarter of 2007. At current growth 
rates however, Hong Kong should pass South Korea 
in the summer of 2007 to become the leading 
nation in broadband penetration. Meanwhile, 
broadband penetration among active Internet users 
grew to 83.43% in US homes in June, up 0.2 
percentage points from 83.23% in June 2007. This 
increase of 0.2 points is below the average 
increase in broadband of 0.8 points per month 
over the last six months. US broadband 
penetration uptake appears to be slowing down over the past few months.
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/0708/

BROADCASTING/CABLE/SATELLITE

IS HERBERT HOOVER MANAGING THE DTV TRANSITION?
[SOURCE: Lasar's Letter on the FCC, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
[Commentary] The Bush administration's 
"deregulatory phase" approach to what one 
National Association of Broadcasters official has 
called "our Y2K" -- the impending shutdown of all 
analog TV signals after February 17, 2009 -- 
doesn't fly with some members of the FCC's 
Consumer Advisory Committee. That move, if it 
took place today, would turn an estimated 21 
million "rabbit ears only" TV sets into useless 
pieces of furniture (about 17 percent of TV 
households), many of them belonging to people who 
do not own digital TV receivers, do not buy 
digital cable or satellite service, live on fixed 
incomes, have hearing or visual disabilities, are 
quite elderly, live in remote rural areas, or 
deal with more than one of these conditions. 
Moreover Catherine Seidel, Chief of the FCC's 
Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau 
disclosed that 32 million Americans subscribe to 
analog, rather than digital cable. These 
consumers could lose their signal as well, 
"unless the Commission acts," Seidel said. To 
alert the public to this impending challenge, the 
government has budgeted a paltry five million 
dollars to the National Telecommunications 
Information Administration (NTIA), whose job will 
be to offer two 40 dollar coupons to every 
American, each good towards a converter set top 
box that will turn any old rabbit ears machine 
into a digital ready receiver. In contrast, 
Britain has penciled in about 400 million for 
this educational task. But not to worry. The 
U.S., in the grand tradition of Herbert Hoover 
style industry voluntarism, plans to rely on the 
private sector to get the word out.
http://www.lasarletter.net/drupal/node/449

NAB PROPOSES VAGUE DTV EDUCATION PLAN
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
In a letter Tuesday to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, 
Jack Sander, Chairman of the National Association 
of Broadcasters's Joint Board, described the 
steps the lobbying group is taking to heighten 
consumer awareness about the DTV transition. 
According to NAB, 60% of Americans  180 million 
people  are “completely unaware” of the move to 
all-digital broadcasting. Among other things, 
Sander’s letter said one “fully produced” 
60-second and four to six 30-second PSA spots 
would sent to local TV stations by the end of the 
year. But Sander did not describe whether NAB 
members stations had committed to run the PSAs in 
front of large prime time audiences in lieu of 
lucrative advertisements. Sander’s letter also 
didn't describe the content of the PSAs, 
including whether or not they would inform 
broadcast-only homes that they could turn to 
their local cable company for local TV signals. 
Broadcasters have been reluctant to discuss their timetable for PSAs.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6470799.html
* NAB Issues DTV-Education Tool Kit to Congress
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6470795.html?rssid=193
* NAB letter
http://www.nab.org/xert/corpcomm/pressrel/releases/082107_Sander_FCC_DTV.pdf

NONCOMMERCIAL TV NOT SO DIFFERENT
[SOURCE: tvnewsday]
John Lawson is president of the Association of 
Public Television Stations, a Washington trade 
group that represents 361 noncommercial TV 
stations. He says his members are coping with 
many of the same issues for-profit TV stations 
are -- must carry, the DTV transition and more. 
They also share commercial broadcasters' 
enthusiasm for the medium. “We do have the 
opportunity to bring back over the air,” he says. 
“It’s perceived as a dinosaur right now, but it 
doesn't have to be. DTV is a once-in-a-lifetime 
opportunity for the broadcasting industry to reinvent itself."
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2007/08/21/daily.1/

IOWA, NH, SC MARKETS WIN BIG IN PRIMARY RACE
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
Despite the mad rush of states pushing up their 
primary dates, so far the bulk of the advertising 
money is being dumped into the old reliables: 
Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Total 
spending, $7.9 million through Aug. 6, is well 
ahead of four years ago. Of course, last time 
around, only the Democrats were conducting a 
heated primary; they had spent $2.8 million going 
into August. Now, large fields of candidates are 
duking it out in both parties. Spending in Iowa 
this year is $3.1 million, New Hampshire is $1.9 
million and South Carolina is $200,000. National 
cable has drawn $1.8 million (compared with 
$7,000 four years ago), mainly from the Romney campaign.
http://adage.com/article?article_id=119952

STATION'S CABLE DEBUT DELAYED IN 2 COUNTIES
[SOURCE: Washington Post 8/21, AUTHOR: John Wagner]
With great fanfare, Maryland Public Television 
yesterday launched the state's first public 
all-Spanish-language channel, featuring an array 
of educational and entertainment programming. But 
it could be a while before most Comcast 
subscribers in Montgomery and Prince George's 
counties are able to tune in. As the digital 
station made its debut in the Baltimore region, 
officials from Comcast, the Washington area's 
dominant cable provider, hadn't committed to a 
starting date in the two Maryland jurisdictions 
with by far the largest Hispanic populations.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/20/AR2007082001700.html
(requires registration)
* Public TV Airs a New Spanish Voice
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/21/AR2007082102018.html

FARMER GROUP BACKS XM-SIRIUS MERGER
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
In a letter to the Federal Communications 
Commission, the Federation of Southern 
Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund said rural 
communities are "underserved" by terrestrial 
radio and argued that the merger of satellite 
radio operators XM and Sirius will provide "lower 
prices and increased programming choice" to its 
20,000 member families in 12 states.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6470731.html?rssid=193
* Federation of Southern Cooperatives Land Assistance Fund
http://www.federationsoutherncoop.com/

DVRs NESTED IN ONE-TO-FIVE HOMES
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Linda Moss]
Leichtman Research Group estimates that more than 
one in every five U.S. households now have a 
digital video recorder, up from about one in 
every 13 households just two years ago. 53% of 
DVR owners say that they have an HDTV set. While 
84% of DVR owners rate the ability to skip 
commercials as very important, just 8% of DVR 
owners say it is the greatest benefit of having a 
DVR. The research and consulting group estimates 
that 95% of all TV viewing is still of live TV, despite the uptick in DVRs.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6470434.html?rssid=196

JOURNALISM

TRIBUNE SHAREHOLDERS OK $8.2 BILLION BUYOUT
[SOURCE: Crain’s Chicago Business, AUTHOR: Gregory Meyer]
As expected, Tribune's shareholders on 
overwhelmingly approved taking the company 
private later this year. At the meeting in 
Tribune Tower CEO Dennis FitzSimons announced 
that 97% of shares voted were in favor of the 
move. In a statement from Tribune Co., Mr. Zell 
said, "I believe Tribune Co. is reasserting 
itself as a national leader in news generation 
and distribution. Despite the recent upheaval in 
the credit markets, my view of the company as an investment has not changed."
http://chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=26080
* Rosenthal: Vote a sure thing; future not as certain
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-tue_phil_0821aug21,0,3835597.column?track=rss
* Tribune Shareholders Back Zell’s Takeover
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/22/business/media/22tribune.html?ref=todayspaper
* Tribune Co. Buyout Advances
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/21/AR2007082100662.html
* Tribune shareholders overwhelmingly approve billionaire's buyout deal
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20070822/tribune22.art.htm
* Tribune sale clears hurdle
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-tribune22aug22,1,1823817.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business
* Tribune-Deal Worries Remain Despite Approval
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118770757441704048.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
(requires subscription)

NEWSROOMS BECOMING WHITER
[SOURCE: The Newspaper Guild-CWA 8/17]
According to the American Society of Newspaper 
Editors' annual survey, the percentage of 
minority journalists working in daily newsrooms 
slipped this year for only the second time since 
1978, to 13.62%. ASNE’s goal has been to increase 
minority representation until it mirrors society 
at large -- which is now 33% non-white. Other 
indicators in the ASNE survey also are slipping 
into reverse. Minorities account for only 10.9% 
of all newsroom supervisors, reverting to a level 
reached two years ago. Meanwhile, the number of 
newspapers with no minorities at all on their 
newsroom staffs increased to 392, from 377 last year.
http://www.newsguild.org/gr/index.php?ID=4332

JOURNAL'S PAINS REFLECT MEDIA'S MALAISE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz]
American Journalism Review, the influential but 
financially troubled media journal, could face a 
shutdown by year's end. Tom Kunkel, the review's 
president, said it is "more likely" that the 
magazine will be able to continue publishing next 
year, but that he must close a deficit of roughly 
$200,000 -- about one-quarter of its annual 
budget. The bimonthly, launched in 1977 as 
Washington Journalism Review, has been cutting 
costs as the economic downturn in print 
journalism has eroded its advertising base. 
Longtime editor Rem Rieder essentially became the 
only editorial employee after the managing 
editor, Rachel Smolkin, left and was not 
replaced. Even the design and artwork of the 
magazine are contracted out. There was a time 
when AJR, along with Columbia Journalism Review, 
operated by Columbia University, provided much of 
the critical examination of an industry not known 
for self-reflection. But the rise of Web sites 
and blogs dedicated to critiquing, and in some 
cases bashing, the media has increasingly 
overshadowed magazines that publish six times a 
year, although their carefully reported 
examinations of media mistakes and trends remain important.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/21/AR2007082101898.html
(requires registration)

ADVERTISING

TRANSLATING A RULING INTO NEW LAWS FOR ISSUE ADS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Matthew Mosk]
In June, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and a 
bare majority of his colleagues blew up a key 
provision of the campaign finance overhaul that 
Congress passed in 2002. Now the Federal Election 
Commission has begun to piece together the 
fragments that remain to answer this question: 
What can issue-oriented political ads that are 
paid for with corporate or union cash say before 
they become a clear appeal to vote for or against 
a presidential or congressional candidate? FEC 
Chairman Robert D. Lenhard said the commission 
feels compelled to resolve that question before 
mid-December, when a barrage of ads is likely to 
start filling up airtime. One thing is expected, 
campaign finance analysts said: Organizations 
will continue to push the limits of any new 
regulations, and more court battles will follow.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/21/AR2007082101675.html
(requires registration)

TV DRUG ADS SET FOR IMAGE STUDY
[SOURCE: Associated Press]
Federal regulators plan to study whether 
relaxing, upbeat images featured in TV drug ads 
distract consumers from warnings about the drugs' 
risks. The announcement, posted on the Food and 
Drug Administration Web site, comes a week after 
a study published in the New England Journal of 
Medicine suggested the agency's drug-ad 
enforcement has steadily declined. The FDA says 
it plans to study how 2,000 people react to 
television drug ads to determine whether they 
have an overwhelmingly positive impression of 
products despite audio warnings about potential side effects.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118774315856404781.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal
(requires subscription)

TELECOM

CUSTOMERS CAN SUE AT&T, AFTER ALL
[SOURCE: The Register, AUTHOR: Cade Metz]
A federal court in San Francisco has decided that 
AT&T's wireless contract is "unconscionable." On 
Friday, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth 
Circuit came out against AT&T's "arbitration 
clause," which forbids wireless customers from 
bringing class-action suits against the company. 
Arbitration clauses are quite common in the US, 
as companies do their darndest to bury expensive 
consumer suits before they even get started, and 
the new ruling could go a long way towards curbing the practice.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/20/court_slames_att_wireless_contract_clause/

VONAGE SUES TO NULLIFY PATENTS
[SOURCE: Bloomberg 8/21]
Internet phone company Vonage sued a U.S. unit of 
Canadian telecommunications equipment maker 
Nortel Networks, seeking to invalidate three 
patents for managing telephone data. Nortel is 
attempting to sue Vonage in Texas for infringing 
the patents. Vonage contends that those patents are not valid.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-vonage21aug21,1,4323034.story?coll=la-headlines-business

VERIZON WANTS OFF THE HOOK FOR STATE CONTROLS OF ITS NETWORK
[SOURCE: The Virginian-Pilot, AUTHOR: Carolyn Shapiro]
Federal regulators are considering whether 
Hampton Roads consumers have enough competitive 
choices in telephone services. This region is one 
of six on the East Coast where Verizon 
Communications Inc. hopes to release itself from 
certain regulations. It has filed a "forbearance" 
petition with the Federal Communications 
Commission, claiming that some regulations are no 
longer necessary in markets with healthy 
competition. The telecommunications giant is 
hoping to shake off the rules governing the 
wholesale rates that the company charges 
competitors for access to its network. Competing 
companies that lack their own connections to 
homes and businesses depend on Verizon's network 
to deliver service and must pay for use of that network.
http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=130712&ran=218932

MISSOURI CASE COULD RING UP CELLPHONE TAXES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sara Silver [email-masked]]
In recent years, state and local governments have 
been looking to monthly cellphone bills as a new 
source of tax revenue to make up for the growing 
number of consumers giving up their traditional 
telephones for wireless services. Now, a legal 
battle in Missouri could accelerate that trend, 
emboldening some state and local governments to 
increase cellphone taxes -- and cellphone bills 
-- even more. After a six-year legal struggle, a 
state court in St. Louis County this week may 
finally rule on whether a group of municipal 
telephone license taxes -- worth an estimated 
$500 million statewide -- apply to services offered by wireless carriers.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118774015705004665.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
(requires subscription)

SYLVIA SIEGEL, ACTIVIST ON UTILITY RATES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Cay Johnston]
Sylvia Siegel, who brought a customer’s 
perspective to the regulation of California 
utilities and spent 1.6 years fighting against 
rates and rules that she maintained were unfair 
to consumers, died Saturday in Mill Valley, 
Calif. She was 89. Stephen Brobeck, executive 
director of the Consumer Federation of America, 
said that “in the ’70s and ’80s Sylvia was the 
most visible and outspoken utility advocate in 
the country, and to this day the organization she 
created has been the most effective advocate” in 
the nation for consumers in utility cases. In 
1973, at her kitchen table, Mrs. Siegel, a mother 
of two children, started what is now known as the 
Utility Reform Network to represent consumers 
before the California Public Utility Commission. 
She said she believed that the commission, which 
meets in San Francisco, was more concerned with 
the welfare of California’s electric, gas, 
telephone and water utilities and its in-state 
airlines, trucking and bus companies, than with the interests of the customers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/22/business/22siegel.html?ref=todayspaper
(requires registration)

QUICKLY

THE WARRANTLESS DEBATE OVER WIRETAPPING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Philip Bobbitt]
[Commentary] Once linear, analog, point-to-point 
communication has been replaced by the 
disaggregated packets of the Internet, two people 
talking to each other in Europe could find their 
conversations going through American switches. It 
also became difficult to determine the true 
origin of any communication that was routed 
through the United States. If a terrorism suspect 
in Pakistan is having conversations with someone 
on a computer with a New York Internet protocol 
address via a chat room run by an Internet 
service provider in London, where exactly is the 
intelligence being collected? If the answer is 
the United States simply because the servers are 
here, of what possible relevance could that be to 
the protection of the rights of Americans?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/22/opinion/22bobbitt.html?ref=todayspaper
(requires registration)

GOOGLE 'PROBABLY' TO BID FOR 700 MHZ SPECTRUM
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Declan McCullagh]
Google is "probably" going to submit a $4.6 
billion bid for a prime chunk of wireless 
spectrum, its chief executive said Tuesday 
evening. Eric Schmidt told a dinner audience at 
the Progress and Freedom Foundation's Aspen 
Summit that "it's highly likely that when we get 
to that point we will see the regulatory 
framework that is conducive to the bid (we wanted) to make."
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9764120-7.html

TOTS GETTING INTERNET IDENTITY AT BIRTH
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Anick Jesdanun]
A small but growing number of parents are getting 
domain names for their young kids, long before 
they can do more than peck aimlessly at a 
keyboard. The trend hints at the potential 
importance of domain names in establishing one's 
future digital identity. Think of how much a 
typical teen's online life now revolves around 
Facebook or News Corp.'s MySpace. Imagine if one 
day the domain could take you directly to those 
social-networking profiles, blogs, photo albums and more.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070821/ap_on_hi_te/business_of_life
--------------------------------------------------------------
Happy Birthday, Andrea!
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Communications-related Headlines is a free online 
news summary service provided by the Benton 
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important industry developments, policy issues, 
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summaries are factually accurate, their often 
informal tone does not always represent the tone 
of the original articles. Headlines are compiled 
by Kevin Taglang [email-masked] -- we welcome your comments.
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Kevin Taglang
Editor, Communications-related Headlines
Benton Foundation
Communications in the Public Interest
1625 K Street, NW 11th Floor
Washington, DC 20006
headlines AT benton DOT org 

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