Adoption of over-the-top video is helping to buoy telecommunications data revenue, leaving pay-TV providers to scramble to compete, said research reports Monday. Worldwide spending on telecom and pay-TV services reached $1.66 trillion last year, up 1.4 percent year over year, IDC reported, after forecast growth of 1.6 percent. Over the five-year forecast period ending in 2022, IDC projects a 1.1 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR).
A Congressional Review Act resolution aimed at reversing the FCC order to rescind 2015 net neutrality rules (Senate Joint Resolution-52) appears likely to happen next week, days after expected Wednesday filing of a petition to discharge the measure from Senate Commerce Committee jurisdiction (see 1804260030 and 1804300033), lawmakers and lobbyists told us. Republican lawmakers said they are wary of the possibility the resolution could pass in the Senate by a narrow margin if Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., isn't able to return this month because of brain cancer treatment. Senate Democrats downplayed such a scenario, emphasizing they are optimistic the CRA measure could still garner additional GOP supporters. Fifty senators publicly support the resolution, including all 49 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
Answering congressional critics, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai defended Title II net neutrality repeal under the Communications Act. He denied the "internet freedom" order will destroy the internet or harm the free exchange of ideas, and said Americans will still be able to access their preferred websites and services, with regulators protecting a "free and open" internet. "By returning to the light-touch Title I framework, we are helping consumers and promoting competition," Pai wrote in letters posted Friday in docket 18-5 dated April 19 and 20 that responded to 38 lawmakers who raised objections before a Dec. 14 vote. "Broadband providers will have stronger incentives to build networks, especially in unserved areas, and to upgrade networks to gigabit speeds and 5G." The order "also promotes more robust transparency among ISPs than existed three years ago" and re-establishes FTC "authority to ensure consumers and competition are protected," he wrote. Pai's exchanges were with Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and 32 House colleagues (here), Sens. Angus King, I-Maine and Susan Collins, R-Maine (here), Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo. (here), Rep. Adam Smith, D-Washington (here), and Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass. (here).
Streaming music revenue, driven by 176 million paid subscribers, jumped 41 percent in 2017 to $6.6 billion, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry reported Tuesday. Streaming generated 38 percent of recorded music revenue, offsetting a 5.4 percent decline in physical revenue and 21 percent decline in download revenue, IFPI said. Globally, revenue from vinyl sales grew 22 percent, to 3.7 percent of the total recorded music market last year. Overall global recorded music revenue increased by 8 percent to $17.3 billion, it said, for the third consecutive year of growth after 15 years of revenue declines, it said. Total digital income last year accounted for more than half of all revenue, 54 percent, for the first time, said IFPI. Despite the recent uplift, revenue for 2017 was 68 percent of the market’s peak in 1999, it said. Copyright infringement remains a “widespread and evolving problem,” with stream ripping becoming the latest issue facing the music community, said the trade group. The value gap remains “the most significant roadblock on the path to sustainable growth, where certain online user upload services exploit music without returning fair revenue to those that are creating and investing in it,” it said.
Word of mouth and media “still rule” among U.S. consumers eager to learn about the latest tech products before they buy, a Matters Communications survey found. The company canvassed 1,000 consumers last month and found 71 percent learn about new tech products through friends and family. Among the available media channels that consumers prefer to use to find out about new tech products, TV is tops at 38 percent, followed by tech news sites like CNET (36 percent), social media (26 percent) and mainstream lifestyle magazines and sites like GQ and BuzzFeed (14 percent). Once consumers become aware of a product, “online reviews steer most purchasing decisions,” the survey found. Eighty-eight percent said product reviews are the most important factor in deciding to purchase, while 56 percent said they read reviews on their mobile devices while in-store to buy a product.
Discovery promotions: Allison Page to president-HGTV and Food Network and Courtney White to executive vice president-HGTV and Food Network ... Wireless ISP Association hires Claude Aiken, ex-aide to FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, as president-CEO ... Changes at Consumer Federation of America: Stephen Brobeck to retire in June after 38 years as executive director; Jack Gillis promoted to replace him ... GPS technology firm Swift Navigation adds Samir Kapoor, ex-Fitbit, to lead its Engineering and Product teams ... KEYPR said Andrew House, ex-Sony Interactive Entertainment, joined its Advisory Board.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau's final report on the January false missile alert in Hawaii blames “a combination of human error and inadequate safeguards” for the alerting error, a similar conclusion to that reached by the bureau in a preliminary report the same month (see 1801300053). “Neither the false alert nor the 38-minute delay to correct the false alert would have occurred” if Hawaii had implemented “reasonable safeguards and protocols” to minimize the risk of false alerts and ensure the availability of measures to correct false alerts, the final report said Tuesday. It condemns the use of the phrase “this is not a drill” in a practice alert, as occurred in Hawaii. Test messages should be clearly identified as tests, the report said. “The script and content for actual emergency alerts versus test alerts should be clearly distinguishable,” the document said. Recommendations include that public safety alerting entities conduct tests in “controlled and closed environments,” require validation by more than one “credentialed person” for tests of “high-impact alerts,” create procedures to correct false alerts and establish redundant lines of communication. The bureau will follow up with additional outreach, it said, including a webinar and upcoming roundtable. “Fixing this should be a top priority -- from working to promote best practices to establishing a mechanism for false alert reporting,” said Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. “We have our work cut out for us.”
Georgia senators voted 38-14 Tuesday to pass a small-cells bill. HB-887 started the session as a municipal broadband bill for rural areas but passed the Senate as a bill to streamline deployment of wireless broadband in local rights of way (ROWs) by pre-empting local governments. It goes back to the House for concurrence. Like the Senate version, SB-426, it allows “for a proliferation of new poles being installed by each wireless telecommunications provider, does not require collocation on existing utility poles and limits local control to either deny applications for new poles or to negotiate with providers on the placement of new poles,” the Georgia Municipal Association said in a Wednesday update to members. Localities supported some amendments passed Tuesday, including to increase the annual ROW fee to $125 from $25, protect historic districts and exempt 52 cities that are electric providers, it said. But senators rejected an amendment that would have given localities more control over new pole placement and collocations based on location and aesthetics, so “GMA concerns over a virtual picket fence of poles in the public rights-of-way remain unaddressed,” the municipal association said. The Tennessee House passed a small-cells bill Monday (see 1803270032).
Uniti Group's planned buy and leaseback of U.S. TelePacific (TPx) fiber assets gained antitrust approval under an FTC early termination notice made public Tuesday. "Uniti will acquire and leaseback to TPx, on a triple-net basis, 38,000 fiber strand miles located across California, Nevada, Texas, and Massachusetts," Uniti said in its March 1 earnings release. "Uniti will acquire and have exclusive use of 7,000 fiber strand miles located in Texas, which are adjacent to Uniti Fiber’s southern network footprint." TPx said the deal includes about 650 route miles of its metropolitan fiber assets in the four states. The parties recently filed an application and supplement in FCC docket 18-61 seeking approval to transfer related licenses.
Rollout of the nationwide public safety network on Band 14 began last week, and the core network is expected to be ready by month’s end, FirstNet officials said at a Thursday board meeting livestreamed from Little Rock. About 350 agencies in 40 states have adopted FirstNet, comprising more than 30,000 connections, said Director-Consultation Dave Buchanan.