What gives a pay-TV network leverage to increase the rates it charges distributors? Two things, according to Turner Broadcasting System’s Chairman Philip Kent: “You have to be valuable to a lot of people enough times in the year where it really matters. And you have to be valuable to a certain hard-core fan base every single day,” he told investors at a Nomura investor conference. “If you have both it’s terrific.” That aim has driven the company’s investment in programming lately at networks such as CNN, TBS, TNT and Cartoon Network.
GENEVA -- Trade officials are beginning to float ideas on how to classify and describe additional goods for tariff-free treatment under the WTO Information Technology Agreement (ITA), officials said following the start of informal talks. The World Trade Organization ITA Committee meeting in May (CD May 16 p6) agreed to begin meeting bilaterally and in small groups to start discussions on expansion, John Neuffer, a vice president at the Information Technology Industry Council, told us May 23. “So the train is moving forward.”
Liberty Media took another step in its quest for de facto control of Sirius XM by filing a reconsideration petition with the FCC and a report of beneficial ownership with the SEC (http://xrl.us/bm9ycb). Liberty identified how it intends to gain a greater stake in the company and that it may seek de jure control of Sirius. The FCC dismissed its applications for a transfer of control, claiming that Liberty didn’t establish an intent to take control (CD May 7 p12).
Philip Verveer is optimistic U.N. proposals to regulate the Internet can be defeated. The State Department coordinator for international communications and information policy spoke at a House Communications Subcommittee hearing Thursday. Subcommittee members reaffirmed their opposition to any U.N. proposals that could, as Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said, “break the Internet."
Facebook competing with Comcast? The FTC foresees such a scenario, and is taking a closer look at the competition and privacy issues that may arise as disparate platform providers increasingly enter each other’s businesses, commissioners Maureen Ohlhausen and Julie Brill said in a taped interview on The Communicators set to be shown this weekend on C-SPAN. They were attending last week’s Cable Show in Boston, and raised the possible inquiries into convergence independently of each other in separate interviews. Ohlhausen conceded she hasn’t personally read privacy policies and disclosures from at least one major Internet company, while Brill hinted the FTC may take interest in the spectrum deal between Verizon Wireless and four cable companies.
Public Knowledge and the California Public Utilities Commission squared off in reply comments to a March 1 FCC public notice on intentional interruptions of wireless service by government agencies seeking to protect public safety, disagreeing sharply on whether the FCC has authority to impose national rules. The FCC issued the notice after the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) shut down wireless service at one of its stations for three hours last August to prevent a possible protest (CD May 2 p8).
Three European Parliament panels vetting the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement urged the lead committee to refuse consent to the controversial pact, they said Thursday. Opposition from the Civil Liberties (LIBE) and Industry (ITRE) committees was expected, but the Legal Affairs (JURI) Committee’s stance surprised one digital rights activist. But the close votes, and the European Commission’s determination to press on, mean the treaty is likely still in play, European Digital Rights Advocacy Coordinator Joe McNamee said.
In 2016, more traffic will traverse global networks than in all prior years combined, and government and industry will have to work together to ensure efficient use of the spectrum to support all the new traffic, panelists said at the unveiling of the Cisco Visual Networking Index forecast Wednesday. Cisco estimates that the Internet will quadruple in size over the next four years, with annual global Internet Protocol traffic forecast at 1.3 zettabytes. That’s 1.3 trillion gigabytes, and it’s likely a conservative estimate, said Doug Webster, Cisco senior director-service provider marketing.
Disclosures and other significant information must be made clear and conspicuous to customers making purchase decisions on mobile and online platforms, technology experts and state and federal government officials said Wednesday at the FTC. Tailoring disclosures and consent messages for mobile use was part of the discussion at the commission’s workshop on updating its 12-year-old “Dot Com Disclosures,” the online ad disclosure guidance.
The Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee was asked by the NTIA Wednesday to refocus on a key issue for the wireless industry, anxious to get more spectrum in play for wireless broadband -- how to facilitate sharing between commercial and federal users in the 1695-1710 MHz and 1755-1850 MHz bands. The CSMAC will divide into five working groups looking at sharing the spectrum, per a document released Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bm9qwr).