House Reps. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, and Steve Pearce, R-N.M., introduced legislation in recent days to require the Department of Homeland Security to submit a report to Congress on the conditions of U.S. ports of entry. The bill, HR-3576 (here), is primarily designed to create an independent body, which would be called the Department of Homeland Security Border Oversight Commission, to monitor and evaluate immigration policies and practices. That part of the legislation directs the president and Congress to collaborate to appoint representatives from border regions, including CBP or Border Patrol agents, to make up the commission. The bill creates a new DHS ombudsman for border and immigration concerns, as well as a number of other administrative changes and training reform.
The White House’s Broadband Opportunity Council delivered its long-anticipated recommendations on broadband deployment Monday. The proposal sets up what the council calls “dozens of actions” anticipated by federal agencies over the next 18 months, streamlining processes and better organizing how information is presented and handled online.
The White House’s Broadband Opportunity Council delivered its long-anticipated recommendations on broadband deployment Monday. The proposal sets up what the council calls “dozens of actions” anticipated by federal agencies over the next 18 months, streamlining processes and better organizing how information is presented and handled online.
Disney is perhaps the only cable network that wouldn't suffer hugely as purely an over-the-top business, Citi said in a report Thursday. "In a pure OTT world, most firms would see their equity value fall." The rates of decline vary widely in Citi's analysis, from a 58 percent decline in Viacom's equity; to a 10-25 percent drop for Comcast, Fox, Scripps and Time Warner; to a less-than-10 percent drop for CBS. "Virtually every media firm will have difficulty generating as much revenue as they do today by shifting to a la carte," Citi said. However, Disney would see its equity up about 10 percent "even with $1.5 billion in incremental OTT costs," Citi said. The Citi analysis used a model plotting demand curves for various channels, with ESPN topping the list for Disney. Under that same model, Citi said, NBC, USA and SyFy are Comcast's most popular channels, while HBO and TNT have the highest modeled demand at Time Warner, Fox News is tops at 21st Century Fox, Nick and TV Land win out at Viacom, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet at Discovery, and HGTV and Food at Scripps. The Citi model then focused on finding the profit-maximizing retail price for each of those channels. And then with those estimates, Citi was able to compare current revenue with theoretical a la carte revenue; operating as online video distributors Disney would generate the most revenue at $12.2 billion, and do better than it does today, while most other content companies would be worse off financially -- though Discovery would be near parity, Citi said. "We expect most media companies to preserve the status quo and [perhaps] limit the content they sell" to subscription VOD providers, Citi said. Disney hasn't made that switch, likely because it would be then competing against a number of companies that also distribute ESPN, Disney Channel and ABC; it would not be able to raise affiliate fees at the same rate; and costs of selling direct to consumers would go up, such as marketing and billing expenses, Citi said. "But if Disney ever faced an existential crisis, investors can be fairly certain ... that each of these potential hurdles could be overcome."
Disney is perhaps the only cable network that wouldn't suffer hugely as purely an over-the-top business, Citi said in a report Thursday. "In a pure OTT world, most firms would see their equity value fall." The rates of decline vary widely in Citi's analysis, from a 58 percent decline in Viacom's equity; to a 10-25 percent drop for Comcast, Fox, Scripps and Time Warner; to a less-than-10 percent drop for CBS. "Virtually every media firm will have difficulty generating as much revenue as they do today by shifting to a la carte," Citi said. However, Disney would see its equity up about 10 percent "even with $1.5 billion in incremental OTT costs," Citi said. The Citi analysis used a model plotting demand curves for various channels, with ESPN topping the list for Disney. Under that same model, Citi said, NBC, USA and SyFy are Comcast's most popular channels, while HBO and TNT have the highest modeled demand at Time Warner, Fox News is tops at 21st Century Fox, Nick and TV Land win out at Viacom, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet at Discovery, and HGTV and Food at Scripps. The Citi model then focused on finding the profit-maximizing retail price for each of those channels. And then with those estimates, Citi was able to compare current revenue with theoretical a la carte revenue; operating as online video distributors Disney would generate the most revenue at $12.2 billion, and do better than it does today, while most other content companies would be worse off financially -- though Discovery would be near parity, Citi said. "We expect most media companies to preserve the status quo and [perhaps] limit the content they sell" to subscription VOD providers, Citi said. Disney hasn't made that switch, likely because it would be then competing against a number of companies that also distribute ESPN, Disney Channel and ABC; it would not be able to raise affiliate fees at the same rate; and costs of selling direct to consumers would go up, such as marketing and billing expenses, Citi said. "But if Disney ever faced an existential crisis, investors can be fairly certain ... that each of these potential hurdles could be overcome."
Disney is perhaps the only cable network that wouldn't suffer hugely as purely an over-the-top business, Citi said in a report Thursday. "In a pure OTT world, most firms would see their equity value fall." The rates of decline vary widely in Citi's analysis, from a 58 percent decline in Viacom's equity; to a 10-25 percent drop for Comcast, Fox, Scripps and Time Warner; to a less-than-10 percent drop for CBS. "Virtually every media firm will have difficulty generating as much revenue as they do today by shifting to a la carte," Citi said. However, Disney would see its equity up about 10 percent "even with $1.5 billion in incremental OTT costs," Citi said. The Citi analysis used a model plotting demand curves for various channels, with ESPN topping the list for Disney. Under that same model, Citi said, NBC, USA and SyFy are Comcast's most popular channels, while HBO and TNT have the highest modeled demand at Time Warner, Fox News is tops at 21st Century Fox, Nick and TV Land win out at Viacom, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet at Discovery, and HGTV and Food at Scripps. The Citi model then focused on finding the profit-maximizing retail price for each of those channels. And then with those estimates, Citi was able to compare current revenue with theoretical a la carte revenue; operating as online video distributors Disney would generate the most revenue at $12.2 billion, and do better than it does today, while most other content companies would be worse off financially -- though Discovery would be near parity, Citi said. "We expect most media companies to preserve the status quo and [perhaps] limit the content they sell" to subscription VOD providers, Citi said. Disney hasn't made that switch, likely because it would be then competing against a number of companies that also distribute ESPN, Disney Channel and ABC; it would not be able to raise affiliate fees at the same rate; and costs of selling direct to consumers would go up, such as marketing and billing expenses, Citi said. "But if Disney ever faced an existential crisis, investors can be fairly certain ... that each of these potential hurdles could be overcome."
A new State Department diplomatic initiative will be unveiled at the U.N. General Assembly in New York in two weeks, said Phil Verveer, senior counsel to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. Verveer said the initiative is “an effort to try to coordinate as much development activity as possible” to get another 1.5 billion people online over the next five years. He spoke Thursday at a Silicon Flatirons Center symposium webcast from Boulder, Colorado.
A new State Department diplomatic initiative will be unveiled at the U.N. General Assembly in New York in two weeks, said Phil Verveer, senior counsel to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. Verveer said the initiative is “an effort to try to coordinate as much development activity as possible” to get another 1.5 billion people online over the next five years. He spoke Thursday at a Silicon Flatirons Center symposium webcast from Boulder, Colorado.
The FCC proposed outage reporting rules for operators of undersea cables that connect the U.S. to the rest of the world and carry huge amounts of traffic. Commissioners voted 5-0 to adopt a notice, launching a rulemaking aimed at collecting timely and systematic information on outages disrupting any of the roughly 60 undersea cables, which they said channel trillions of dollars of economic activity and carry sensitive U.S. government and military communications. “Our responsibility starts with being informed,” said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler at Thursday’s meeting. "Today’s NPRM proposes that we require submarine cable licensees to report significant outages in appropriate detail through NORS [the Network Outage Reporting System]," he said in a written statement.
The FCC proposed outage reporting rules for operators of undersea cables that connect the U.S. to the rest of the world and carry huge amounts of traffic. Commissioners voted 5-0 to adopt a notice, launching a rulemaking aimed at collecting timely and systematic information on outages disrupting any of the roughly 60 undersea cables, which they said channel trillions of dollars of economic activity and carry sensitive U.S. government and military communications. “Our responsibility starts with being informed,” said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler at Thursday’s meeting. "Today’s NPRM proposes that we require submarine cable licensees to report significant outages in appropriate detail through NORS [the Network Outage Reporting System]," he said in a written statement.