Cincinnati Bell elevates President-Chief Operating Officer Leigh Fox to president-CEO, effective May 31, when Ted Torbeck retires, remaining on the board ... Entravision Chief Operating Officer Jeffery Liberman adds title of president ... Disney Media Distribution President Ben Pyne departs in the fall, and separately, Disney hires Naomi Bulochnikov-Paul, ex-Crackle, as vice president-communications, Freeform ... Latham & Watkins hires Jack Sheridan, ex-Wilson Sonsini, as corporate partner, Emerging Companies Practice, where he advises tech companies ... Google moves Lee Dunn to head-White House outreach.
If AT&T's buy of Time Warner goes through, the two largest multichannel video programming distributors -- covering more than half of TV households -- would be vertically integrated, putting the survival of independent channels further in jeopardy, Daphna Ziman of Cinémoi North America told aides to Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Mike O'Rielly, according to ex parte filings posted Friday in docket 16-41 (see here and here). The indie programmer said "the arms race for marketplace leverage" among broadcasters, big programmers and MVPDs has resulted in consolidation, creating "an untenable environment for emerging independent channels." Indies will need to be carried on one of the two vertically integrated MVPDs to survive, and thus will have to agree to worse contract terms than would be required by MVPDs that aren't vertically integrated, Ziman said. She also said most favored nation language is commonplace, meaning concessions made to those major MVPDs "will become standard language in all independent programmer contracts without offering commensurate value," and the FCC should proceed on its NPRM prohibiting unconditional MFNs.
Latham & Watkins hires Jack Sheridan, ex-Wilson Sonsini, as corporate partner, Emerging Companies Practice, where he advises tech companies ... Google moves Lee Dunn to head-White House outreach ... Mapbox names Roy Ng, ex-Twilio, president-chief operating officer ... Denise Parker, ex-K2, named Sitecore executive vice president-operations, and Monte Wilson, ex-Adobe's Digital Media, appointed senior vice president-Americas ... Time Warner moves up Wes Chaar to senior vice president-analytics, data and decision sciences, Turner ... Paysafe hires Tim Thurman, ex-Australian Securities Exchange, as chief digital officer, effective March 27.
The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council’s IoT Working Group scheduled its opening meeting Thursday noon-1 p.m. EST, NPSTC emailed. “This Working Group led by Chair, Barry Fraser, will examine the current state of IoT, identify public safety specific issues, and may create position reports for the NPSTC Governing Board or develop education and outreach documents,” NPSTC said. The meeting can be accessed by calling 510-227-1018, conference ID: 869-9040#. Also Thursday, NPSTC’s Emergency Medical Services Working Group will meet to approve the final draft of its rural considerations report. The meeting starts at 11 a.m. EST, NPSTC said. Call 510-227-1018, conference ID: 446-1830#.
The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council’s IoT Working Group scheduled its opening meeting Thursday noon-1 p.m. EST, NPSTC emailed. “This Working Group led by Chair, Barry Fraser, will examine the current state of IoT, identify public safety specific issues, and may create position reports for the NPSTC Governing Board or develop education and outreach documents,” NPSTC said. The meeting can be accessed by calling 510-227-1018, conference ID: 869-9040#. Also Thursday, NPSTC’s Emergency Medical Services Working Group will meet to approve the final draft of its rural considerations report. The meeting starts at 11 a.m. EST, NPSTC said. Call 510-227-1018, conference ID: 446-1830#.
Retiring from Willkie Farr is Jim Casserly, senior counsel and longtime cable lawyer ... National Association of Television Programming Executives elevates JP Bommel to president-CEO ... Manatt Phelps Media, Technology and Advertising practice now includes Ned Sherman; the co-founder of Digital Media Wire becomes chairman of that firm, which continues working with Mannatt Phelps, which names him counsel and director of the practice's professional services division Manatt Digital ... Univision's Fusion Media Group hires from First Look Media Works' Lynn Oberlander as general counsel, Gizmodo Media Group, effective March 20.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment on the privacy and security plan for the National Emergency Address Database submitted by NEAD and the major wireless carriers. “The NEAD, which is being developed for the purpose of identifying the dispatchable location of wireless 911 callers when the caller is indoors, is a database that will use media access control (MAC) address information of fixed indoor access points to locate nearby wireless devices,” the bureau said in a Tuesday public notice. NEAD LLC is a nonprofit entity under CTIA that will oversee development of and manage the NEAD platform and be the NEAD administrator, the bureau said. The plan says information in the NEAD on wireless access points “will generally come from three sources” -- carrier records of wireless access points; records from large “enterprise systems,” for example hotels, restaurants and retail stores; and “eventually, individual consumers, who will be able voluntarily to input information about their wireless access points not otherwise provided to the NEAD along with information necessary for verification,” the bureau said. “The Plan describes the consumer privacy protections that will be incorporated into the operation of the NEAD platform. It also describes ‘comprehensive controls’ to support the security and resiliency of the NEAD platform.” Comments are due March 20, replies March 30, said the notice in docket 07-114.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment on the privacy and security plan for the National Emergency Address Database submitted by NEAD and the major wireless carriers. “The NEAD, which is being developed for the purpose of identifying the dispatchable location of wireless 911 callers when the caller is indoors, is a database that will use media access control (MAC) address information of fixed indoor access points to locate nearby wireless devices,” the bureau said in a Tuesday public notice. NEAD LLC is a nonprofit entity under CTIA that will oversee development of and manage the NEAD platform and be the NEAD administrator, the bureau said. The plan says information in the NEAD on wireless access points “will generally come from three sources” -- carrier records of wireless access points; records from large “enterprise systems,” for example hotels, restaurants and retail stores; and “eventually, individual consumers, who will be able voluntarily to input information about their wireless access points not otherwise provided to the NEAD along with information necessary for verification,” the bureau said. “The Plan describes the consumer privacy protections that will be incorporated into the operation of the NEAD platform. It also describes ‘comprehensive controls’ to support the security and resiliency of the NEAD platform.” Comments are due March 20, replies March 30, said the notice in docket 07-114.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, noted there are some significant issues that remain before the Senate would agree to the border adjustment tax being discussed in the House, during a Feb. 28 interview with CNBC (here). Hatch said that the House GOP's border-adjustable tax plan is worth considering but that definitive details have yet to emerge. "The House seems to want it, or at least some people in the House want it, and I have some real reservations about it, but I'm open to good ideas from wherever they come," Hatch said. Tax reform has a long way to go and it will be difficult to pass it through both bodies, he said. Bloomberg reported (here) on Feb. 28 that House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has won White House chief strategist Steve Bannon's support on border adjustability. Americans for Affordable Products, an anti-border adjustability coalition, wrote a letter (here) to House and Senate leaders stating that the proposal would raise "effective tax rates for many companies to well over 100%," and hand down the costs of raised taxes to U.S. consumers. The coalition includes the American Apparel and Footwear Association, the National Retail Federation and the Travel Goods Association, among many others. The White House and Ryan's office didn't immediately comment.
Senate Democrats are gearing up to unveil a draft of the Next Generation 911 Act of 2017 and are eyeing ways to include 911 as part of the year’s bigger infrastructure effort, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said Tuesday during an NG-911 tech showcase in Rayburn hosted by the NG-911 Institute. Klobuchar, a co-chair of the NG-911 Caucus, is working on legislation long promised by Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla. He first mentioned working on a NG-911 transition bill in September and told us he had hoped to introduce it by January (see 1612290031).