Senate Poised To Tighten Broadcast Ownership Rules - Via American Civil Liberties Union:
Washington, DC – Today, the Senate Commerce Committee is expected to approve a bipartisan resolution, sponsored by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), which would restore a media ownership rule recently rescinded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The old rule generally restricted a company from owning both a newspaper and a television station in the same city, unless the FCC granted a waiver.
Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office said, “Senator Dorgan’s resolution aims to protect the airing of a multiplicity of voices, which fuels our democracy. Democracy is not served well by a media oligarchy where five or six corporations decide what Americans see in the news. We urge the Commerce Committee to also take up S. 2332, Senator Dorgan’s bill to reverse the media ownership rules to ensure the FCC does not go down this road again.” read more... »
FCC fines retailers for breaking DTV transition rules | The Industry Standard - Via The Industry Standard :
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has handed out more than US$6.6 million in fines to 11 retailers and television manufacturers, accusing the companies of violating its rules for the U.S. transition to all-digital broadcasts in early 2009.
Among the companies fined Thursday were Fry's Electronics, Best Buy, Circuit City and Target. The biggest fines went to Sears and subsidiary Kmart, nearly $1.1 million; Wal-Mart, $992,000; and TV manufacturer Syntax-Brillian, nearly $1.3 million.
The FCC accused the retailers of failing to place notices near analog-only TV sets warning customers that the sets did not have digital tuners. read more... »
FCC to look into firms' use of customer data - Via Privacy : Tech news from CNET :
Staff at the Federal Communications Commission are expected to recommend that it review rules on how phone and cable companies can use customer information as they try to take business from each other, an FCC official said Friday.
The FCC enforcement bureau will recommend that the commission reject a complaint by cable operators charging that Verizon Communications violated the agency's customer privacy rules by using customer information to prevent them from switching their phone service to cable, an agency official said on condition of anonymity.
Beyond that, the enforcement bureau is expected to recommend that the FCC address more broadly the issue of "customer retention activities" by both phone companies and cable operators to make sure the rules apply equally to both, the official said. read more... »
Thou Shalt Not View The Super Bowl on a 56" Screen - Via Slashdot:
theodp writes
"For 200 members of the Immanuel Bible Church and their friends, the annual Super Bowl party is over thanks to the NFL, which explained that airing NFL games at churches on large-screen TV sets violates the NFL copyright. Federal copyright law includes an exemption for sports bars, according to NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, but churches are out of luck. Churchgoers who aren't adverse to a little drinking-and-driving still have the opportunity to see the game together in public on a screen bigger than 55 inches."
(Read Original Article - Via Slashdot.)
FCC to cable: You must support analog TVs until 2012 - Published: September 12, 2007 - 12:39PM CT - Via arstechnica.
Cue the scary music. According to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, "If the cable companies had their way, you, your mother and father, or your next door neighbor could go to sleep one night after watching their favorite channel and wake up the next morning to a dark fuzzy screen."
Martin's talking about the digital TV transition that will happen in February 2009. While the federal government has worked out a plan to help buy digital-to-analog converter boxes for Americans who rely on over-the-air broadcasts and still have analog TV sets, the rules for cable operators were not finalized until yesterday. The FCC voted 5-0 to require that cable operators must continue to make all local broadcasts available to their users, even those with analog televisions. read more... »
The Year in First Amendment Rights: Media Consolidation and Free Speech - Via ACLU Blog - Free Speech:
Direct censorship of broadcast media has been fueled by a more indirect but increasing threat to the marketplace of ideas on the public airwaves: media consolidation.
Currently, a handful of large multinational corporations including Time Warner, Viacom and News Corp control most of the television and radio stations in the United States. In nearly half of the largest radio markets, the three largest corporations control 80 percent of the audience. read more... »
F.C.C. Eases Media Ownership Rule - Via New York Times : WASHINGTON — By the narrowest of margins, the Federal Communications Commission adopted proposals by its chairman to tighten the reins on the cable television industry while loosening 32-year-old restrictions that have prevented a company from owning both a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same city.
Last month the chairman, Kevin J. Martin, suffered a setback when he was unable to find two commissioners to support his proposal to more tightly regulate cable television.
But in a highly contentious meeting on Tuesday, Mr. Martin re-established control when he became the pivotal vote on two rules that could significantly reshape the nation’s media landscape by determining the size and scope of the largest news and cable companies. read more... »
Rabbit-Ear Users Don’t Know the End (of Analog TV) Is Near - Via NYT > Technology:
In less than 14 months, any traditional television set still connected to its antenna will receive nothing but static, as the broadcasting industry cuts over completely to its new digital frequencies.
A recent poll by the marketing arm of the cable industry shows that most people still have no clue this is going to happen. read more... »
The FCC and media consolidation - Via Salon News : Dec. 3, 2007 | Michael Copps doesn't want to be called a crusader. But as one of the two Democrats on the five-member Federal Communications Commission, he's not shy about sounding biblical. He says he's "blowing a loud trumpet" for a "call to battle" to stop the FCC from giving big media a generous Christmas present.
Copps is trying to defeat FCC chairman Kevin J. Martin's last-minute proposal to loosen media ownership rules, which will be voted on by Dec. 18. As it stands now, a company can't own both a daily newspaper and a broadcast outlet -- a radio or TV station -- in the same market without a waiver. In an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times on Nov. 13, Martin wrote that media companies in the 20 largest markets should be allowed to own both in the same market to bolster journalism. "If we don't act to improve the health of the ... industry," he wrote, "we will see newspapers wither and die ... and have fewer outlets for the expression of independent thinking and diversity of viewpoints." read more... »
DTV Answers : What you need to know about the February 17, 2009 switch to DTV. :
DTVAnswers.com is the official Web site of the National Association of Broadcasters' digital television (DTV) transition campaign. Launched in January 2007, the DTV campaign’s mission is to ensure that no consumer is left unprepared, due to lack of information, for the February 17, 2009 federally mandated transition from analog to digital broadcasting.